There’s so much to see in the Golden State!
Having grown up in California, with friends and family scattered about the state, I’ve visited many California cities through the years. Born in New Port Beach, I’ve lived in Costa Mesa, Lake Tahoe, Antioch, Goleta, Isla Vista, Santa Barbara, East Palo Alto, and San Jose. I’ve taught in Santa Barbara, Gilroy, and Los Gatos. I’ve enjoyed many wine tasting adventures in Paso Robles, Solvang, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Napa, Sonoma, and Healdsburg, and have enjoyed camping and backpacking trips in Lake Tahoe, Mount Tamalpais, the Russian River, Yosemite, Santa Cruz, Big Basin, Pinecrest, Mount Saint Helena, Point Reyes, Bodega Bay, the Lost Coast, the Redwoods, and more. Whenever I travel, I love to take in the sights while I’m there, so I do my research beforehand to make sure to explore the top recommendations.
I also love taking pictures - too many, I suppose, since my photo albums and digital scrapbooks take up a lot of space on my shelves. Still, I love looking back and reliving the memories - and I love putting together the albums and reflecting on all my experiences and what I’ve learned. So, here are some or my favorite photos from my California travels. This section is a work in progress - but here’s a start to some of the sights our state has to offer.
“The Bay Area is so beautiful, I hesitate to preach about heaven while I’m here.”
- Billy Graham
Bay Area & Northern California
“On the wide level acres of the valley the topsoil lay deep and fertile. It required only a rich winter of rain to make it break forth in grass and flowers. The spring flowers in a wet year were unbelievable. The whole valley floor, and the foothills too, would be carpeted with lupins and poppies. Once a woman told me that colored flowers would seem more bright if you added a few white flowers to give the colors definition. Every petal of blue lupin is edged with white, so that a field of lupins is more blue than you can imagine. And mixed with these were splashes of California poppies. These too are of a burning color—not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of poppies.”
- John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Central Coast & Central Valley
“It was a splendid population - for all the slow, sleepy, sluggish-brained sloths stayed at home - you never find that sort of people among pioneers - you cannot build pioneers out of that sort of material. It was that population that gave to California a name for getting up astounding enterprises and rushing them through with a magnificent dash and daring and a recklessness of cost or consequences, which she bears unto this day - and when she projects a new surprise the grave world smiles as usual and says, ‘Well, that is California all over.’”
― Mark Twain, Roughing It
