Sunday - Palo Alto Apple Store

THANK YOU

I bought my first Mac a few years after I graduated from my art school in Paris, when Photoshop and Illustrator - and at the time QuarkXPress - bloomed, with the amazing possibility to work on beautifully designed fonts which looked slick at any size, color charts that were accurate, vector files with endless possibilities of transformation. The Mac was THE computer for graphic designers. And it looked beautiful! I immediately loved the interface and the way everything was thought to create professional contemporary design. At the time there was simply no equivalent whatsoever.

Monterey Bay Aquarium and Tide Pools

Montalvo Arts Center: Sculpture on the Grounds Opening Reception

Watching The Cardboard Box Theatre- The Gnomes

Last Friday, an evening at Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga: Sculpture on the Grounds Opening Celebration. Sculptures on the lawn and in the park, music, theatre, and an indoor exhibition at the Project Space Gallery: "Records and Marks". An interesting journey through refreshing artworks and performances. I love going to that place.

Yoko Ono "Wish Tree"

"Make a wish
Write it down on a piece of paper
Fold it and tie it around a branch of a wish tree
Ask your friend to do the same
Keep wishing
Until the branches are covered with wishes"
Yoko Ono
2010

"Control Tower" by Cameron Hockenson

Listening to music on the front lawn

"Ground Control," by Cameron Hockenson

"Cy Pres" by Julia Jacobson.

Adriane Colburn "Just Below", 2005

Project Space Gallery
Exhibition: Records and Marks
Friday, July 29, 2011 - Sunday, October 16, 2011

The show is all about maps, beautiful! I could not take more photos, someone told me it was not allowed after I took those two of Colburn's amazing work.

detail

Montalvo Arts Center
15400 Montalvo Road
Saratoga, CA 95070

Half Moon Bay

On the Half Moon Bay California Coastal Trail

Back to Half Moon Bay - walking on the beach

Looking for important things

Walking to Pillar Point, Princeton.

Redwoods, Rattlesnake, United Nations, Banana Slugs, Lost Trail and Kooky Monsters

Castle Rock State Park
Visits of friends or family is the occasion to go to places we sometimes already went to. And it is always a pleasure to see those places with a different light, at a different time, and to see things we did not see before.

Well, except when it is a good size copperhead rattlesnake coiled right there on the side of the trail. Our first encounter in the San Francisco Bay area. It did not look very happy as one of us almost stepped on it and then our group was separated in two. The trail was narrow and bushy. Although we were very close at first, the photo I took is very blurry.

The funny part is that I looked on my phone to see what was the best way to pass it (the distance we needed between us and him). here I was in the middle of the forest - but connected - checking Google. It turned out the distance was not big enough and we found a way to go around the trail.

Otherwise it was a beautiful hike!



Muir Woods National Monument
In Muir Woods, one of us noticed a sign explaining that in 1945, when the United Nation were born, the international delegation came to Muir Woods and gathered in the "Temple of Peace", one of Muir Woods beautiful Redwood groves.



Lost Trail / Ocean View / Fern Creek Loop. 2.6 miles.

We hiked on the Lost Trail, a beautiful loop back to the park headquarters. Stunning difference between the busy trail next to the visitor center and the quietness of this part of the forest. It was damp, due to the fog at the top, the condensation made it feels like it was raining.





The Golden Gate Bridge
This time I saw the underneath of the bridge. We parked North of the bridge, on the left of it. To get to the sidewalk to walk the bridge, we walked a paved path underneath the bridge and then took the stairs up. The passage is very noisy and impressive, the whole bridge vibrates and resonates.
We walked half the length of the bridge and back. We saw lots of dolphins.







Psycho Donuts in San Jose
Kooky Monster, Suicide Squeeze, Cadillac margarita, Rocky Road, Spare Tire, Blue Velvet, Head Banger and more. Served by a sexy nurse!




Someone in our group noticed this road sign just before
arriving at the headquarters of the park- I've never read it/saw it before.

Big Basin Redwoods State Park
A 6.2 miles loop: Skyline to the Sea / Meteor Trail up to Middle Ridge Road / Dool Trail. We saw salamanders, racer snakes, lizards, banana slugs, millipedes, one inch ants, butterflies and lots of birds.
A few mosquitoes too.


Salamander


Banana slug, along Rodgers Creek (Meteor Trail).


Newt


On the Redwood Trail, Chimney Tree: this tree burned from bottom to top due to successive fires, but is still alive and growing.

Walking the Golden Gate Bridge

When we left Sunnyvale the sky was bright; when we arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge, like very often in San Francisco in the summer, it was foggy and cold and it felt like it was another season. We put on warm clothes on and walked the bridge (only half of it and back, a 1.7m loop).
I realized that the bridge is really high above the water, the boats look like toys.
When one walks on the bridge, one can see the water far below between the concrete slabs. The slabs are very thin: only 2 or 3 inches. The strange thing was that it was really windy up there and still, the fog would not go away. I was struck by the number of the warning signs, specially those concerning jumping off the bridge.

























From Fort Point (Marine Drive)

After the walk, we drove to Fort Point, below the parking lot. Then we went back up and drove across the bridge to Vista Point Overlook, where there is a view of the bridge from the North.


From Vista Point Overlook, North of the bridge