Since our last post we've been to California on a delightful road trip. We drove south from Seattle to Joshua Tree National Park in California's Mojave Desert. Then we turned around and putted north seeing the sights and visiting friends.

Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens)

Of the many spectacular sights in California the Coast Redwoods are one of the grandest. These are in Big Basin State Park west of Silicon Valley.

News & Notes

• The motivation for the road trip was to attend the wedding of friends Cameron Burr and Rell Kalvaitis. The ceremony was in Joshua Tree CA near the park. They simply walked into the desert with Cameron's dad, Ken, as the officiant, and there with a Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) and dozens of close friends as witnesses, they were wed. A few minutes later, the sun set and the Milky Way - awesome in the clear desert night - crowned the celebration.

  

  Rell and Cam Entering Marriage (with an assist from Ken)

  It was a lovely and unconventional setting for two unconventional and lovely people. We were honored to be part of the party.

• The road trip gave us a chance to reconnect with friends, including
  Gillian, Jordi, McKenzie and Bishop in Shell Beach,
  Hue and Ton, and Kim in Gilroy,
  Lynne and Carl in Redwood City, and party guests Sung-Eun and Erik, and Melanie and Mark,
  Shirley, Alan, Hannah and Ruth in Berkeley, and
  Nancy in Portland
  It was fun to see everyone and get caught up! We will use this wonderful photo of Ton and Hue to represent all of the many smiles we received from our friends!

  

  Ton and Hue

• It wasn't all gab and partying! We worked in visits to Joshua Tree park, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the de Young Fine Arts Museum.
  
  Joshua Tree, the park, has many of the prickly trees, of course, but it also has rock formations made of piles of boulders. How could boulders pile up naturally? They don't. Amazingly, they erode into position. It's very odd.

  

  Joshua Tree and Rock Pile

  The Monterey Bay Aquarium must be one of the best marine exhibits in the world. On every visit, the Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) win our hearts with their grace and beauty.

  

  Moon Jelly

  San Francisco's de Young Fine Art Museum in Golden Gate Park was hosting a show on Modernism, which included a well-curated display of Barnett Newman's Fourteen Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachtani. This was an extremely thought-provoking work, and we benefitted from having ample time to work on understanding it.

  

  Newman's Twelfth Station of the Cross

• On return to Seattle we took in the The Beauty of Noh at Seattle's A Contemporary Theater (ACT). The event was produced by J's student Michi Murayama, and included a classic Noh play followed by a new American operetta interpreting the same content. The performance was both fun and fascinating. The ladies schmoozed with the star of the performance, Muninori Takeda.

  

  Michi, J, Muninori

• The week after our return we hosted Hue and Ton when they were in Vancouver.

• After the road trip, and a round of laundry, we headed east. L had a conference to attend in Spokane, and then we continued on to visit Jim and Julie and Libby MT. This is always a fun visit. We also saw Tom and Alvira, and Dolly and Doug. We took a day trip to Glacier National Park, where the snows were coming. (The park closed due to snow four days later.) Although the aspen had lost their leaves, the birch and larch trees were adding the intense color essential to a spectacular visit. Logan Pass is at the far right.

  

  The Tunnel on the Going To The Sun Highway

  
  

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