| Tom and Maureen spent the month of
September in California, and for much of the time stayed with us in
Santa Cruz. These two photos were taken from about the same spot, in
Capitola, just down the coast. They were fortunate to be accompanied by
Daniel on several of their trips in the area. He is exploring
photography, and Maureen and Tom were willing models.
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| Daniel also accompanied them
once or twice to San Francisco. Below is a rather nice shot from Coit
Tower of the City of Light, US version, at night.
On the right, a dramatic photo at dusk on the Marin headlands looking
down on the Golden Gate Bridge. Note that the guitar is still close at
hand!
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The Monterey Bay Aquarium finds Daniel again
taking photos. Opposite, he took this one of jellyfish made beautiful by
the blue backlight.
Below, here he is with Maureen and, we feel compelled to note, a
cigarette! We shouldn't say anything: both parents in this family smoked
for over 20 years before seeing the light.
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Ian drove Tom and Maureen on brief trips
away to Yosemite and Santa Barbara, to give them a taste of the land in
California. Maureen had never seen any of the wonderful sights that
grace the State, and it had been a while for Tom.
The night spent near Yosemite National Park, they camped some ten
miles away from Hetch-Hetchy, the dam and reservoir that block the
Toulomne River to provide much of San Francisco's water and electricity.
The photo on the left shows Tom and Maureen on the dam itself in
front of Hetch Hetchy Dome, a close cousin of Half Dome above the
Yosemite Valley floor. The boat behind was a park ranger: boating and
bathing are forbidden in the lake because it will all be drinking water.
The photo above shows the view looking down from the dam to
the Toulomne river as it continues on its way. The plume of spray is the
water exiting from the generating tunnel after turning the turbines.
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| On a bench in the churchyard at the Santa
Barbara Mission. There were ups and downs throughout their stay.
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Here's an up!
Jumping together into a waterhole on the south fork of the Toulomne
River. Think snow melt: cold!!! Tom jumped in again and again, and
looked like it felt great.
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| They also flew down to San Diego
for a few days, to visit San Diego Zoo (Maureen is an animal lover, and
the San Diego Zoo is special for everyone, but especially for animal
lovers) . . . .
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. . . and to visit Tom's cousins.
Antony, holding Dylan (four months) below, picked them up and dropped
them off at the airport. He and
Courtney now have two children, Dylan and Ava (almost 4, next to Laura),
and are loving it! Laura, Antony's sister, came out with them for the
dinner.
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| Back to Santa Cruz for a few days before
returning to Paris.
Below with Marie-Hélène at the Ideal Café, for
Alban's birthday brunch.
On the right, as ever playing guitar, this time on the rocks at
Natural Bridges State Beach. Daniel took this one too. Note the evening
fog forming above the lab at the top of the picture.
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