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Now the continuing part of my relaxed days on the California Central Coast.  The area between Santa Maria and Cumbria.

I decided to take a look at Hearst Castle in Cumbria.  I had not seen that in 2 decades and it was time to take some digital photos as I lost my old negatives.  Have a look at the photos below of the beautiful Spanish-architecture inspired towers, the nice mosaic patio floor, the Neptune pool in repair (unfortunately), the various statutes (replicas of classic ones), wall mosaics, and, of course, the in-door pool.  This pool is absolutely gorgeous.  Lots of little hidden decorations as well.  I inserted here the mermaid playing the flute.

Now, very nearby are the seals and elephant seals.  Always great to watch in action.  Also, it was time for sunset after Hearst Castle visit (easy to spend an entire day).  Lots to photographs.

Have a look at the nice sunset I encountered (quite a few times this week).

Enjoy the photos and also go visit the gorgeous area.

Johan.

Hi everyone,

Since I am now pretty much back on track it is time to add some more recent trip details.  As always, in March I chill on the California Central Coast.  I missed that last year due to a job change but this year it was a MUST.  So here we go.

As always, I have to immediately look at the Sea Otters in Morro Bay.  Also, enjoying the beautiful Morro Rock and the wetlands there.

Morro Rock view and also the beautiful rocky coastline:

Next, there is the beautiful sand dunes that are reaching the coastline.  Very unique.  I always love the views and the fresh ocean breeze there.  Have a look at some of the views, including Oso Flaco Lake in the middle of the dunes:

Enjoy.

Part of my backtracking must include a visit to Washington DC and Alexandria, VA, last October during the CleanTech 2017 Conference.  The conference was excellent and busy but we had time to get out and about to take some photos in the Alexandria area as well as an evening in DC on the Washington lawn.

I had never seen the US Patent Office.  It turned out that the conference was just around the block.  They have a lot of my patents and patent applications in their files ;).

Here are some views of the impressive building and campus.

And then the Vietnam and the Korean War Memorials. The Vietnam memorial first.

with a good overview panorama view:

The Korean Memorial is also very impressive:

with a good panorama view:

Of course, we saw the Lincoln memorial and walked around to the Washington and WW2 memorials:

I hope you enjoy these photos.  I have many more but these provide you with a few views.  The weather was drizzly but that made the lights and reflections special. Also, the sounds of the city are different.

This post covers some of the views of the nice hotel I stayed in during the ACI (American Cleaning Institute) Conference that took place in Orlando Florida.  I needed to be there for my work and I found the it to be very photogenic.

Here are some views of the building:

and the wonderful pool area.  I love the design.

I know this is very brief.  Since these are views of a hotel area, there is not that much more to say.

Next some backtracking of a visit to Washington DC last October during the CleanTech 2017 Conference.

This last post of my stay in Humboldt County over the X-mas holidays is about some of the wonderful sunsets of the various beaches and coastline.  I can do this full-time.  So relaxing the sound of the ocean and the fresh clean air. A true treat.

Here are some views that I selected.  I have many more but these give you an idea of the views:

and 2 panorama views:

I hope you enjoyed these photos.  The next post will be a single one with some photos of the hotel I stayed in during the ACI (American Cleaning Institute) Conference that took place in Orlando Florida.

When I am in Humboldt County I always love to visit the coastline of Trinidad which is 20 minutes North of Eureka.  It is the Rocky Pacific Coast like that of Oregon.  The scenery is amazing and when walking also a bit inlands you find lagoons, swamps, moss covered forests and then eventually Redwoods up the mountains.

Here are some photos of the Coast:

And here are some views of the what the land next to the coast looks like.  This is an area a bit North of Trinidad where we hiked Fern Canyon.  Very cool.

To give you a feel for how it looks on the coast when you look inlands, here is a panorama view:

Now, there is more to see when you get into the Redwoods.  Here are some views in one of the parks South of Eureka.

More to come.

Puye Cliffs is a very nice hidden gem and is very close to Los Alamos which is very close to Santa Fe.  These are Native American built into cliffs and also on top of the cliffs.

I had seen this before but was not able to on top of the cliffs to view the bigger town.  Great fun and especially with a terrific tour guide.

Images for you:

The way it is situated (the village is on top of the cliff):

It is a wonderful place to spend the morning.  The views of the Rio Grande Valley from op top of the cliffs are amazing.  I saw it when a rain storm came in and that was very cool as well.

Enjoy.

Another nice reason to visit the Santa Fe area in the Fall is because the cottonwood are in Fall colors.  This means that everywhere you have creeks and rivers (like the Rio Grande !!) you have the cottonwood trees alongside them and then they then are completely yellow.  Now, that color is amazing against the clear blue skies at 5000 elevation and the rock colors.

Have a look:

Here is a panorama to give you a feel for what it looks like when you look around:

As I mentioned, the colors around the Rio Grande river are amazing.  Here is view of the river that is narrower and closer to the Rio Grande Gorge (closer to Taos).

Also, when you drive towards the mountains (here the Sandia mountains) the drives through the desert landscape are terrific:

I love such big sky views.  Very relaxing and then with good music playing or just no sound at all is the best way to chill.