Nancy drove today, and from the back seat of the car I took pictures as we whizzed along from San Francisco to San Diego.
THIS IS THE CALIFORNIA I REMEMBER... not the redwoods, Big Sur, Yosemite... This is what I remember about summer... with blazing sun raising the temperatures to over 100F every day for weeks at a time... and the beautiful tawny hills stretching out to eternity.

The images today are all from San Francisco...including the chicken. About the chicken: Down by the Hyde Street Trolley Turn-around it was scatching around in the grass by a cluster of homeless people. As I watched... marveling at its bravery and wondering if it might wind up today in somebody's soup... one of the fellows came over and picked it up. Instead of trying to get away the chicken turned it's head around with what I took to be an affectionate look and snuggled against the guy's chest. They obviously knew each other. I watched while the man dug around in a paper bag, dragged out some corn and scattered it on the ground before setting the chicken down to eat. It was obviously his pet. I'm not worrying tonight about the welfare of that chicken.

After lunch we took the boat out to Alcatraz Island, which has become the world's largest National Urban Park. Several of the pictures today, including the red fire truck, are from there. I went out to the prison in 1961 a couple of years before it closed, but that's a story for another day.

California's Capitol Dome
Andrew Karperos has discovered the joys of the didgeridoo, a wind instrument first played by indigenous Australians at least 1500 years ago... Andrew also plays the guitar and drums. How could this picture of him not be my photo du jour.The Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park is perhaps as famous and as much loved as most of the gardens in Japan. I have good memories of the place from times when I visited it as a young man.

REPLENISHING THE EARTH... My parents did their part. Sixty-two of us gathered at my Sister Alice's home in Granite Bay for a reunion. There are more who couldn't be here for the reunion.

Nancy, Marcelene, Margaret, Thomas and DavidREAL FARMERS IN THE FAMILY... Margaret's brother Thomas and his wife Marcelene raise cattle. When we moved to Singapore forty-one years ago, David left his red wagon in their barn. It's still there.