Ode to California

California – I keep going back there.  Not that it’s the most beautiful state or has the greatest history or the greatest people or the greatest anything other than maybe the greatest diversity of everything.  I’ve traveled all over it in winter, summer and spring, seen it in its many colors, met the people along the way.  It’s a place where everything changes as you go down the road.  You leave a city and are in a desert or on a mountain or on the shore. It’s got it all in one big melting pot of people who vary from region to region. California could be three or four states, each individual. It’s bounded by the Sierras on the east and the Pacific on the west with bountiful valleys and mountain ranges in between.

After driving over 1,800 miles around the state in the last few weeks, here are some of my favorite spring images that speak better than I can write.

In the Spring, the hills that are golden in the summer have a fresh green…

El Mirage still holds that never catchable lake in the distance…

Death Valley is still desolate…

…but there are flowers where only baked rocks exist in the heat of summer.

The Sierras suddenly come into view, rising out of the ground in a never ending ridge north.

And skiers rush to mountains that received 22 inches of snow the night before – in April and May… There’s the perfection of Lake Tahoe…

the beauty of the Sierras with the spring thaw filling the creeks and rivers… …and flowers that bring color to the hills.The buildings of the little mining towns give a sense of the excitement of the history of the area from San Francisco to Sacramento to Nevada.  You can visualize the wagon trains, the Pony Express riders, the stagecoaches, and the first railroads that brought people from the east.  You can see the places Mark Twain made famous and picture the characters who lived this life.

And then you reach the coast and its giant Coastal Redwoods.  My visit to Muir Woods was a complement to my visits to Yosemite and the Sequoias in past visits.And then it’s the California coast, from the bay area… …to the beaches…from Pacifica to kite surfing and sailboarding meccas… to sunsets…to Big Sur in all its beauty…

The wildlife is abundant, seals, otters, whales, and the ever delightful elephant seals……and animals we were promised but never saw…
Southern California beaches had birds and dunes to climb… Here’s to the best restaurant name ever – in Lompoc.  Too bad it closed.And back to Los Angeles, city of dreams, freeways, and endless fascination.Cheers to California with all its natural wonders, it bounty of natural resources, and the people who make it even more interesting.  Spring with the California poppies blooming everywhere is truly a delight.