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USA: California: Peninsula, San Andreas fault (+new fog p2)

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:14 pm
by Mikan
Take 2... Northern California. This time, Momoko and I focus on the natural scenery.
Gloria (Silver Crescent's new name, surely an outgrowth of too much painted doll furniture) and I have been having photographic adventures since Saturday, but I think it's good to start (over again) with natural scenery.

The Peninsula is between Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Along it runs a scenic highway, 280 (parallel to the overcrowded, jam-packed urban highway 101). On 280 are scenic overlooks; this one looks out over the San Andreas lake, which is directly above the San Andreas fault line. I nearly ran over some deer trying to get to the overlook - and no, I didn't stop for photos with them :B (I had more than my fill of deer in Japan).

Gloria with 280 and the setting sun in the background.
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A glimpse of the lake... just a glimpse. It's hard to see.
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Fog rolling in from the ocean, over the hills that rise at the edge of the San Andreas Fault line. Notice those hills are green? That's because the fog and occasional rain keeps them green. You will see that the REST of this area is not green.
There are many "microclimates" in this area. If you drive around the Peninsula, you will find some cool and foggy areas, and some desert-y areas. These mountains mark the boundary between cool fog zone and desert zone, as well as a massive sleeping earthquake fault line :V

Oh, and notice the grayness of the sky... that is smoke.
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A prickly flower lining the path... the wind is blowing quite hard. The thorns on these suckers are painful :P
To a Momoko I think those thorns would be fatal :V
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The wind is gusting and the sunset light is bright....
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Parking lot... "Why do I suddenly feel so small and insignificant?" says Gloria.
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Yes, "Don't Trash California"... indeed.
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Gloria: "That was fun - what's next?"
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Gloria: "My hair is a mess from the wind, but ready to roll!"
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Road home (280 still)... look how dead the grass is (yes the yellow/brown is grass, not dirt). This is why most of California is having wildfires (yes, the sky is hazy with smoke)... most of California is dead and dry in the summer.
These are the golden hills ... or more like, dead, brown hills.
Oddly enough, it's the color of Gloria's hair....
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Hey, look, it's the Stanford University radio telescope! Wonder if it can see anything through the smoke haze?
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Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:19 pm
by bluesime
Yay! I was so scared to see your topic disappear. It's great to see it again with better view of the location. Thank you so much Mikan. I love this set of photos and Gloria.

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:30 pm
by Mikan
bluesime wrote:Yay! I was so scared to see your topic disappear. It's great to see it again with better view of the location. Thank you so much Mikan. I love this set of photos and Gloria.
Yeah I could tell the first version of the topic kinda had all the lift of a lead balloon :V lol

Glad you like the new photos! Got me to get off the beaten path a bit, anyway.

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:41 pm
by nataluna
hey the other park was nice, too. but i guess this is more... Californian.
i like to know about all this as i have never seen our west coast states. i have been briefly in Texas, but that's not the same.

also my husband wants to move to the west coast eventually (this scares me).

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:57 pm
by Mikan
nataluna wrote: also my husband wants to move to the west coast eventually (this scares me).
Well, there's all sorts of West Coast, from LA to the Bay Area and up to rainy Seattle... depends on what you're looking for, I guess! :)

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:32 am
by soliloquies
Great tour around the area - it's fascinating to learn about new places.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:18 am
by bo_anders
Very nice to get some normal life pictures and views of California without murder and police hunts or other violence which is the most common in all films.

I reall like your two last pictures of a tired Gloria :)

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:45 am
by teddybear4me2
Very nice California road scene. The highway 280 is so widely open; the highways around our area, I270, I495 and I95, are jam packed with cars everyday. :<

Ps. I have never seen such pretty yellow flowers with pointy thorns on them. Ouch!!

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:46 am
by nataluna
Mikan wrote:
nataluna wrote: also my husband wants to move to the west coast eventually (this scares me).
Well, there's all sorts of West Coast, from LA to the Bay Area and up to rainy Seattle... depends on what you're looking for, I guess! :)
well, he's looking more at Seattle. it's the change that scares me. although we'd both like to be closer to Asian cultures, and it sure seems like the whole west coast has that more than SC has.

oh well, i have to work in SC for 14 more years in the same tech college system to get my pension, and the only way we are moving before then is if he gets some amazing job. and if he gets some amazing job, i guess i don't care where we move to... :wink:

aaack! sorry for hijacking your thread. but i did ask about westcoast culture...

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:57 am
by yoof san
Wow Mikan! I never saw these sights when I went to California (It IS a big state :B ), but I would love to see them some day. The first pictures look so serene, and then you mention the smoke. The seventh photo is almost like a political commentary. I love it. I'm thinking of making one of those. After all, this is not really promotion of countries, but just to help us get to know other cultures better right? :wink:

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:08 am
by nataluna
i want to add to yoof-san's question...

the way i saw this "assignment", it is not about nationalism or regionalism, but about awareness of the other members' "corner of the forest", isn't it? i mean, we could go the tourism promotion route or we could go the everyday life route and tell the good and the bad about where we live... right?

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 4:18 pm
by Mikan
I think you can discuss whatever you want ... just, you know, be reasonable :)

Also this section of the forum is public :wink:

I'll be the first to admit that politics in the US and Japan are both very silly.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:08 pm
by Chuplayer
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It's times like these that I wish more high resolution pictures were posted here. That's desktop quality material right there. It's beautiful! Well, less for the smoke and more for the grass and hills, but still beautiful!

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:43 pm
by melissa
Wow, really pretty scenery. I've never been west it's so different.
Gloria looks like she has had enough in the last few pics and needs a hot bath and some warm pj's. :)

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:23 pm
by dolldivatude
Great pics Mikan. I love all the scenery. Silver Crescent is such a pretty doll.

You guys take such great shots of your dolls. I felt so awkward the other day when I went to a mall near my neighborhood. My pics didn't come out well at all.