Today's Monday. Today's Monday...
Apr. 17th, 2012 06:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustFor the benefit of those of us who are trying to keep track: on Wednesday we picked up our hired car, and took it down to Gilroy to try it out; on Thursday we spent the day in San Francisco; on Friday we visited the Computer History Museum in Mountain View; Saturday, of course, was The Wedding; and yesterday we drove north over the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County. There will be posts about all of these things sooner or later. But today's Monday, today's Monday, Monday's washing day...
So we took our laundry and our website problem to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
desperance, who not only gave us the run of his washing machine and klwilliams's computer, but plied us with coffee. This is surely the best laundry in Silicon Valley, but I have promised not to tell TripAdvisor about it.
Oncedurham_rambler had solved his computer problem, we left desperance to struggle with his, and ran away to Half Moon Bay, where we met athenais for lunch at the Brewing Company. I had been disappointed not to meet her at the wedding, so it was great to have a second chance, and we talked like old friends (which in a sense we are, though this was the first time we've actually met). There was just time for a stroll by the sea, and to watch some fishermen doing clever things with nets, and the police doing police-type things with a taxi, and then we went our separate ways.
Which in our case was back along Skyline Boulevard, a scenic drive along the ridge of the Santa Cruz mountains. Much of it is through forest, which looks completely wild but is actually quite thickly settled (you see a turning off the road, and think there must be a house tucked away down there - then you see eight or ten mailboxes all in a row, and think again).
I suppose El Corte de Madera Creek isn't really wild, either: it's carefully managed and protected, and the trails are broad, well-marked paths. We walked just over a mile, with enough ups and downs to make us feel we'd made an effort. It's just like walking through pinewoods at home, except that the trees are ever so much bigger, not round the trunk but in height. Old trees in Europe - old oaks and yews - come with stories of how many people it takes to join hands around their girth, but these redwoods are just dizzyingly tall. Even Methusaleh, across the road from the reserve, which is allegedly 1800 years old, is not broad in relation to his height.
Out of the woods, the road suddenly opens to panoramic views of Silicon Valley. Then there's a steep and winding descent, and quite abruptly we were back on the freeway and home. We dined at the middle eastern café over the road from our hotel, and brought our dessert back to our room to enjoy with added internet.
So we took our laundry and our website problem to
desperance, who not only gave us the run of his washing machine and klwilliams's computer, but plied us with coffee. This is surely the best laundry in Silicon Valley, but I have promised not to tell TripAdvisor about it. Once
durham_rambler had solved his computer problem, we left desperance to struggle with his, and ran away to Half Moon Bay, where we met athenais for lunch at the Brewing Company. I had been disappointed not to meet her at the wedding, so it was great to have a second chance, and we talked like old friends (which in a sense we are, though this was the first time we've actually met). There was just time for a stroll by the sea, and to watch some fishermen doing clever things with nets, and the police doing police-type things with a taxi, and then we went our separate ways. Which in our case was back along Skyline Boulevard, a scenic drive along the ridge of the Santa Cruz mountains. Much of it is through forest, which looks completely wild but is actually quite thickly settled (you see a turning off the road, and think there must be a house tucked away down there - then you see eight or ten mailboxes all in a row, and think again). I suppose El Corte de Madera Creek isn't really wild, either: it's carefully managed and protected, and the trails are broad, well-marked paths. We walked just over a mile, with enough ups and downs to make us feel we'd made an effort. It's just like walking through pinewoods at home, except that the trees are ever so much bigger, not round the trunk but in height. Old trees in Europe - old oaks and yews - come with stories of how many people it takes to join hands around their girth, but these redwoods are just dizzyingly tall. Even Methusaleh, across the road from the reserve, which is allegedly 1800 years old, is not broad in relation to his height.
Out of the woods, the road suddenly opens to panoramic views of Silicon Valley. Then there's a steep and winding descent, and quite abruptly we were back on the freeway and home. We dined at the middle eastern café over the road from our hotel, and brought our dessert back to our room to enjoy with added internet.
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-17 06:23 am (UTC)Good picture of the trees. It wasn't until the third look that I even noticed Roger doing duty as a scale-marker. That is a tall tree.
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Date: 2012-04-17 03:48 pm (UTC)Yes, I'd been taling other pictures of Roger and trees, but none where he got so far away from me; he asked me to take this one. You (well, I) don't realise how tall they are while you're among them.
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Date: 2012-04-17 02:10 pm (UTC)Lunch was fun! I hope some of my photos turn out, though I'm not convinced I got one of the fellow throwing his net--today I'll download them and see.
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Date: 2012-04-17 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 03:54 am (UTC)