Day 3-4
Death Valley was filled with colors and complex patterns.

Day 5 (12/29 Friday, Mt. Whitney and Ventura)

The peak of Mount Whitney seen from Alabama Hills.

The Owens Valley and Alabama Hills in the morning light. From the Mt Whitney portal road. The view of the morning was wonderful. My camera could not capture the beauty of it, but I hope this photo may give some glimpse of it.

Continued our tradition of waking up at 6:00 am, we headed to see the Mount Whitney. The 211 miles long John Muir Trail starts in the Yosemite NP and ends at the Mt Whitney. There was no way we can even hike up the trail (12 miles oneway), but the drive to the trailhead itself was very scenic. The road first passes through strange red rock formation called Alabama Hills. The contrast between the Sierra's almost blue-ish grey granite and Alabama Hill's red rock is stunning. Yet it is interesting to know that these rocks are originated from the same material.

The road ascends from 4,000 to nearly 10,000 feet. This is not unusual for the Owens Valley. But the view from the road was wonderful. The Owens Valley and Alabama Hills were lit by the early morning light. The long and dark shadows of the Alabama Hills created a mosaic like scene on the Owens Valley floor.

The nature was wonderful so was human's creativity. Our favorite of the morning, however, was "Mr. Isshie" (named after a Japanese word "Ishi" meaning rock) in the Alabama Hills. Someone has a good sense of humore.

After 2 hours of driving, we had a breakfast in Lone Pine. Of course we ordered steak breakfast.

(left) People in Ventura enjoying the warm weather. Some people were relaxing on the beach, reading books, others were running, surfing, or fishing on the pier. (below) The pier and restaurant in Ventura.

Nearly 3 hours of driving, we were almost at the Pacific coast. We were driving down CA Highway 126. It was warm. Differently warm than the Death Valley. The air was slightly moist from the ocean, orange orchards along side the highway, more people, more cars. I asked my friend "do you miss Ohio?" "Do you miss snow?" His answer was definitive: NO.

When we saw a nice pier on the ocean, we just could not resist to visit. The town was called Ventura. Not Santa Barbara, the original destination, but who cares? In fact, we liked the town very much. It is more towards vacation rather than tourist. We felt people were more relaxed. We watched people fishing on the pier. Stared at ocean for nothing. Then, we rambled along the beach side for a few hours. There were people doing all kinds of activities, typical of southern Californian beach.

We were back at the pier. Should we stay or should we go?

We decided to have dinner at the pier until the sunset. As we expected, sunset was wonderful. Food was also nice. You know, beer, calamari fries, shrimp salads, and clam chowder, all the sea food we could eat.

We also had another decision to make. Should we go back to the SF, or stay one more night? It was amuzing to think that we could drive back to the SF, which is only 5 hours away from here. The decision was we stay one more night to drive the CA Highway 1 and Big Sur. We stayed in the middle of nowhere (I think the town is called Buellton). First time in this trip, some motels were full. Other people were also enjoying the last weekend of the year 2000.

Day 6 (12/30 Saturday, Highway 1 and Big Sur)

The first stop on this day was called Moonstone. There are no such state park, beach, nor town on my map. But it is there. A rustic small town is a great place for relaxing vacation. But after here we ignored all kinds of interesting points, including Elephant Seal Vista Point (where you can see tons of seals and humans watching seals) and Hearst Castle San Simeon State Historical Monument (where you can see what a rich guy could do before WWII).

Before and during driving the Big Sur, we dropped by several view points. Unfortunately I have no idea what the names were. All I knew was that I would be coming back here for more.

The vistas along the Big Sur were the most stunning along this stretch of Highway 1. Only if I knew where these points were.

Before we finish this trip, we decided to visit two more coastal towns, Carmel and Santa Cruz. For Carmel to see the big white sandy beach, and Santa Cruz to see the sunset at the beach once more.

The Carmel beach is always full of people. This time a crowd was surrounding an artist and his latest object, three mermaids made of sand. He was asking for a donation of money. So, I tried to take a photo from far away. But he noticed me. He walked up to me, and ... OK, OK, I paid $1 (only!?) and took the photos of mermaid in up-close. I think he did a really good job.

I wanted to goto the lighthouse in Santa Cruz, but ended up in Natural Bridge State Park. It didn't matter. We just wanted to see yet another beautiful sunset and ocean. This park is also famous as a resting area for Monarch butterfly. Every winter (Nov-Mar) thousands of butterfly nests in this small state park. In the dark, we walked searching for the butterfly. But no luck. Someone was talking loudly that there were a lot fewer butterfly this year.

In San Mateo, we went to a Japanese restaurant. Had some Japanese beer, sushi, a lot of appetizers. Finally the tour is over. We were back to my apartment in Menlo Park around 10:00pm. Total, we drove about 1750 miles in 6 days and 5 nights, went many hikes, drunk a lot of beer, and had a lot of fun. Year 2000 was a good year for me and for him.

Day 3-4
Death Valley was filled with colors and complex patterns.