Driving on the West Coast

Is about the journey, not the destination. 

It took us two days to travel from L.A. to Yosemite. Why? There are so many things to see and feel and enjoy on the road in Monterey County.

We stopped to admire the surfers and their kites on Del Monte Beach...

... to admire and photograph again hundreds of sea lions, laying on the shores of Monterey Bay in process to change their skin...

... to watch the birds in the trees...

... and the sun behind the clouds...

... and the strangest sunset ever seen... 

... then, McWay Waterfalls, in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

McWay Fall drops over a cliff 80 feet (24 m) into the Pacific Ocean, and is a spectacular view from a gorgeous terrace in the mountain, on the other side. 

If you drive in Monterey County, make sure you stop for a while here to admire this incredible waterfall.

We ended the road trip in El Portal, Yosemite, meeting Dave and the other attendees at the photography workshop, then getting some 

good night sleep in the Cedar Lodge.

Let's the adventure begin!

Back in the U.S.A.

It started with a business trip for Bogdan, he prepared many months ago. Then, he thought would be nice to attend Dave Wyman's photography tour Water Works in Yosemite. And, few weeks ago, he found some cheap plane tickets for me, so here I am!

He made some huge sacrifices for me, for instance now we sit together on the Big Bear Lake's shore, in a very pleasant shadow, instead of melting and driving in more than 110F (43C) in Death Valley but, hey, this is life! We have to stand by each other in bad or good! 

By the way, this is the view from our room's terrace. Hate me now, kill me later.

It took us two days to get to Yosemite, we slept the first night in Arroyo Grande, and the second night in Marina, near Monterey, CA. Of course we took plenty of pictures on the way, with many stops and relaxing breaks.

Morro Bay, California, an historic fishing village, is located on the Central Coast midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It’s most distinctive and recognizable landmark is the famous Morro Rock.

In 1542, Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo named Morro Bay’s magnificent landmark “El Morro” (Spanish for crown shaped hill). 

Morro Rock is also sometimes called the 

“Gibraltar of the Pacific” .

Fooling around is one of our specialties, you'll see even more later...

Morro Rock is the last of a line of long-extinct volcanoes formed about 23 million years ago, which include nine peaks ranging from San Luis Obispo to Morro Bay. These peaks are named the Nine Sisters because they are all in a row, and in close proximity.

In the way, we stopped to eat at Moonstone Beach, where we were surprised by a magnificent residential area we entered by mistake in our way to the beach. It was so quiet and relaxing, we forgot about how hungry we were.

 

Then, to our huge surprise, we found on the beach the sea lions, and we spent hours watching and photographing them.

Then, back on the road again. To see more see lions, surfers, kites, waterfalls and beaches. 

See you later, and meanwhile be happy, my friends. Life is short, but it has plenty of goodies in her pockets.

Istanbul, Some More

I'm a hell of a blogger, almost a month has passed since our Turkish adventure and I didn't find the time to write about it.

I almost forgot how it was, so many things happened since: it was the Easter and we had a mini-holiday, we went to visit my mother in a village near Bucharest and our children's godparents, we spent all the time with the kids and there was no room for anything else.

Back to Istanbul, in the first evening we went out to see the neighborhood, and we had dinner on the quay. 

 Then, we ceased at sellers' persistence and we took some waffles filled with chocolate and fresh fruits. Happy, happy children!

In the next morning, we woke up early with a clear target: let's go downtown. We wanted to see the famous Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the Topkapi Palace. We saw them: one for each day. With (our) children you can bet from the beginning that a schedule is impossible to respect. In Istanbul is even more chaotic, due to the crazy traffic and huge distances. 

We had a very trustworthy guide: Radu told us (permanently) where and how to go.

 

We parked the car behind the Yeni Cami (New Mosque), which is one of the best known sights from Istanbul. The construction of this mosque began in 1597 and it took more than half a century to be completed.

 

The interior of this mosque is a square with 41 meters on each side. The dome has a height of 36 meters and is 17.5 meters in diameter. The interior is beautiful decorated with blue, green and white Iznik tiles.

In the mosque's courtyard, a family of cats were so affectionate to each other, it took ages for us to leave. Mara would love to move there and sleep with them in a box.

 

The Spice Bazaar was just across the mosque, so we couldn't avoid entering. Is such an explosion of color, noise and flavors, that only to pass through makes you dizzy.

 

The traditional Turkish delight is everywhere, the sellers invite you to taste a little bite, then you leave with a bag full of sweets.

The ambulant coffee seller wanted to have a picture with us. I really enjoyed his coffee, it was just perfect.

 

We ate in the middle of the street, while Radu felt in some pigeon dropping, staining his shoes and his trousers, and smelling like a men toilet. Thank God it was dried by the time we went to the car, we just shook his pants and the dirt was gone.

I have to stop now, but I'll be back tonight with some more. The next days were sunny, so you can start to hate me from now :).