Gnomadic

Continuing on a southwesterly trajectory through the “Valley of the Sun”, we enter Phoenix and proceed to the Desert Botanical Gardens. This is a museum which showcases desert plants from all over the world, including a large variety from the local Sonoran Desert.

I was quite surprised to see just how tall some of these cactus plants can get!

Next we journeyed on to a section of downtown Phoenix to visit the Arizona Science Center, sports stadiums (baseball & basketball), and the new convention center.

I bumped into some interesting characters near the convention center. The first two seemed friendly enough, but the last one gave me the creeps!

Finally, we proceeded to South Mountain Park, which is a large mountain park owned by the city of Phoenix. It contains several wonderful hiking trails, and provides excellent views of the valley.

After resting up (and having a drink or two) I bid farewell to my new friend and journeyed on alone once more. Where will I end up this time?

Greetings from Arizona! We had a splendid relaxing drive back from Washington, though we didn’t take many pictures along the return trip.

My traveling companion lives just outside of Phoenix, so he thought he would show me around town a bit, starting with the winter home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright in Scottsdale.

It was designed to fit into the landscape, like most of his buildings. The design was inspired by the local landscape and intended as a “camp”.

When this camp was first built, the nearest “neighbor” was on the north side of Camelback Mountain.

We had time for a brief stop in Seattle for some sightseeing. We visited the Science Fiction Museum and the Experience Music Project, and took a brief ride on the monorail.

Happy Independence Day! I hope everyone in the U.S. is being careful with their nighttime festivities.

We decided to spend the day visiting the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

It’s been almost 20 years since the blast devastated the surrounding area, and the area has shown great progress in recovering.

Goodness! More birds of prey! I think I’ll sneak away while they’re occupied chasing each other around.

Greetings from Oregon! We had a little extra time, so we traveled north to observe some of the scenic portions of the northwest. First stop – Crater Lake.

This is a freshwater lake which is fed entirely from rain and snow, and sits inside the crater of a dormant volcano.

Because it is so high in elevation, and receives so much snow every year, there are some years when the snow never fully melts.

I next found myself in the city of San Rafael, just north of San Francisco Bay. Apparently my traveling companion has an interest in the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, and one of his more distinctive designs was the Marin County Civic Center.

Constructed over the period from 1957 to 1970, it was one of the last buildings designed by the architect.

We didn’t spend as much time in San Francisco as I’d hoped to, though we certainly could not leave without visiting the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge.

The views from the bridge were quite amazing, though it was extremely windy. There were a few times where I almost blew away!

Next we journeyed up to San Francisco for a walk around the waterfront. The docks were very crowded and touristy, but still provided some interesting views.

We thought about taking a ride on the cable cars, but the line was extremely long.

So instead, we opted for a short cruise around the harbor. It was great to get off the crowded docks and feel the wind in our faces!

What trip through California could possibly be complete without visiting Apple HQ?

I tried to sneak in through the side door, but even small gnomes like me can’t make it past their security. Oh, well. I’ll just have to wait like everyone else to find out what’s coming next.

After spending the night in a wonderful little bed & breakfast, we journeyed back to view more of the park. First on today’s agenda: Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.

Hetch Hetchy was described in the past to be as equally stunning as Yosemite Valley. I’d love to have seen what it looked like before the dam was constructed.

After visiting the reservoir, we continued on up to Glacier Point, which provides a stunning view of Yosemite Valley from above.

Here you can see some of the major waterfalls in Yosemite Valley:

Yosemite Falls (Upper and Lower)

Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls

Finally, we drove back to Tunnel View to see the entrance to Yosemite Valley, flanked by El Capitan and the Bridalveil Falls. Here we were extraordinarily fortunate to catch a rainbow over the valley entrance!