What's New in November and December, 1999
PIER 39
There are several piers at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. One of them, Pier 39 has been turned into a shopping center which has several attractions. The floor is, as shown in the left photo, made of wood and the atmosphere of a pier is felt. In this shopping center, there is an interesting aquarium named "Under Water World". The reason why the aquarium is interesing is, because visitors can see fish through a tunnel in the water with explanations. There is an explanation about the fish named "Homo Sapience" as "A fierce fish". Very American! As a matter of fact, in the right photo, the "fierce fish" which has a yellow tail can be seen. They showed us a performance like feeding the fish.
Santa Cruz
The family made a trip to Santa Cruz which is located on the coast of Pacific Ocean to visit the Mystery Spot where we were told by someone that it was an interesting place to visit. As shown in these photos, the height difference of Takeshi and Haruka is different in the two pictures. We realized the surface of the flat rock where they are standing is accurately horizontal. We can see the fence in the back causes such an illusion, but there were other places where something unexplainable created illusions. Mysterious..........
Santa Cruz is famous for the Board Walk amusement park at the beach rather than the Mystery Spot. Visitors can enjoy both beach and park, but machines may get rusty faster because of salt. The beach is beautiful and many young people enjoy beach volley ball(Left). Santa Cruz also has a mission like other places in the West Coast. The park in front of the mission was also beautiful(Right).
Deep Autumn
In this area, the trees change the color of their leaves in Autumn. Hearing that the colorful trees made a tunnel shaped road in the old Palo Alto area, Junko and Toru visited the area with a camera. As expected, we saw such a scenery as shown in the left. Many people walked around in those tunnels. They stopped by Palo Alto Cafe on the right, and got some Cafe Latte. Cafe Latte is Cafe Aulait(That is mixed with milk) based on the Cappucino, and became their favorite instead of coffee. By the way, vegetarians use soy-milk instead of milk.
Death Valley and Southern California
The family made a long drive in Christmas holidays, partly for Takeshi's driving excercise and partly for avoiding the cold. The cource was, to Death Valley National Park which is at the east end of California, San Diego which is the most southern city of California, after that, went back to Palo Alto on the sea coast line, seeing Christmas in Los Angeles.
This photo was taken at the front of the hotel they stayed in, in Bakersfield. Residencce Inn, they stayed at one of the same hotel-chains in San Diego. It was suitable for family stay because it was wide and had a kitchen.
The salt in salt water lake has remained widely in Death Valley. This area is called "Bad Water" and the height is below sea level. As seen in this photo, we feel as if we are in the snowy field when we enter in the center. But it is hot, the white doesn't come from snow. As it is hot even in winter, we cannot imagine how much hotter it is in summer.
This is the view of Death Valley from the observation point "Dante's View" which is on the east side mountain. Normally when we see a view such as this, it would be assumed that it was snow but since it actually salt, it looks pretty bizarre.
In San Diego, the family visited 2 zoos. One is the world famous San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park(Left), the other is the Wild Animal Park(Right). Both zoos are very big, and were kept clean. The cages were wide and animals seemed to be able to live and relax in them, especially in the Wild Animal Park.
La Jolla is in the north of San Diego and it is a beautiful sea shore. Toru visited here about 10 years ago and recalled it with nostalgia.
In Los Angeles, they visited Universal Studios and Six Flaggs Magic Mountain which were the places Takeshi and Haruka were very willing to go. They had said they had wanted to enjoy the backlot tram tour, Water World and Terminater 2(This attraction was newly opened in LA, but they had already enjoyed it in Universal Studio Orlando in February.) again. Magic Mountain was the place for Takeshi because he loves screaming riders. This photo shows Riddler's Revenge, the highest and fastest coaster in the world which does somersaults and spins without seats, and Freefall Satellite Tower which drop the capsule from the height of a 10 storied building. Takeshi enjoyed both and Junko tried the former. Toru was a cameraman and Haruka was a watcher.
On the way back from Los Angeles, they stopped over at a Danish town named Solvang. There were Danish designed houses(Left) and windmills in the village. Solvang was tiny and cute. There were many wonderful viewpoints along California State Line 1 as shown in the right photo, and we were able to relax and the views released the fatigue felt from driving.
Concert (Toru & Junko)
Junko and Toru enjoyed a concert by San Francisco Symphony held at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco on December 30. The program was based on Strauss Family's music and named as "A night in old Vienna". The last of the encore was the Radetzky March which the audience participated by clapping and people were enthusiastic like the famous new year concert in Vienna. This photo shows people leaving from the hall after the concert.