Back from California

I'm due for an update.

The trip to California was warm, relaxing, and had very few drops of rain. Carnegie and I were there for about a week and packed in a lot of activity into that short time.

We stayed in Berkeley for two nights, a city just northeast of San Francisco and visited my sister-in-law, Elizabeth Villada-Mena de Schwab, who works at a French restaurant in Berkeley called Chez Panisse. We also ate Mexican food with Elizabeth and her friend Laura, walked some of the town with them, and saw the documentary "Born into Brothels" with Elizabeth.

San Francisco was quite the happening place. I got to take Carnegie to two sites I'd visited in the past--the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, formerly a prison for some very serious criminals. It was a bit spooky but not as much as the first time, and this time we heard from a ranger who told us about how the prisoners and guards spent their time outdoors. We had seafood at Fisherman's Wharf and took the streetcar for a few blocks, which is a great experience that is made greater my nice weather.

I would say the drive to Los Angeles was slightly longer than I'd estimated. I figured we would get a good distance south of the city of Monterey, but it turns out there are practically no motels for the next hundred or so miles. So when we finally did come to a lodging place at San Simeon, we crashed there. It just happened to be the town near Hearst Castle, the beautiful estate of legendary journalist and filmaker William Randolph Hearst, the character portrayed in the movie "Citizen Kane." Hearst practically owned the whole mountain on which the castle stands during the later years of his life. The castle was equipped with swimming pools, tennis courts, a church of some sort and fountains with sculptures around them.

I will be back later with more on California, particularly the Los Angeles area. I'm back at the library at Emerson on my first school night back from vacation.