Stanford University:
Stanford has a magnificent outdoor collection of Rodin sculptures: Angst in Bronze (my title)
Rodin is instantly recognizable. Also equal-opportunity; it seems most modern sculptors do only female nudes; Rodin does both.
The Gates of Hell:
And who should be perched atop those gates but The Thinker:
On top of that is another riff on the Burghers of Calais: Fewer clothes, but the same dejected attitudes.btw, you see The Thinker, the Burghers and several times the Gates of Hell, all over. Sculpture seems to be one of the media where you're allowed to just plain copy. The original statues are mostly clay; the copies are made by various foundries. There are a couple of dozen Thinkers, for instance, in various sizes and by various foundries, none of which are specifically called copies.
Mountain View, California: The Computer Museum. Just getting going, and partially closed when we saw it.
The Rosicrucian Museum, San Jose: Rosicrucians are a mystical sort of group that claim Amenhotep, the Egyptian Pharaoh who tried to swing Egyptian religion from polytheism to monotheism - in this case, The God was Amen, the Sun Disk - as its founder. The museum is good: a good quick survey of the history of Egypt from the prehistoric dynasties to Cleopatra and Julius Caesar to the present day, plus a lot about Amenhotep and his son Tutankhamen, who ended up switching back to polytheism. (Possibly, the nub of it was about which bunch of priests got to be the In crowd. The worship of Amen involved establishing a new temple in a new city, now Tel el Amarna, and abandoning the old temples in Thebes. Under Tut, they moved the action back to Thebes.)
Papyrus plants
The sign on the sides of the statue, the Ankh, a symbol of life, seems to be a symbol of the Rosicrucians - not totally sure about that.
A replica of Tutankhan's sarcophagus.
Replica of the interior of Tut's tomb.
Model of the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut - who might have been the first female soverign ruler
About Ramses II (who called himself Ramses the Great). He reigned 67 years, built many temples - including Abu Simbel, the one they had to raise up to avoid getting flooded by the Aswan Dam - and had 156 children by about 200 wives and concubines.
Castroville, "the Artichoke Capital of the World". Earlier we saw Sequim, the "Lavendar capital of the world.
Irrigated fields near Castroville - the surely do grow a lot of vegetables here.
---and employ a lot of workers to harvest them.
Prickly Pear cactus. We ate one; you have to boil them about three times and throw away the first two pots of water; then they taste sort of like boiled soybeans. The other thing is a kind of green cauliflower.
Ever wonder where Brussels Sprouts come from?
Then Monterey, home of Cannery Row of John Steinbeck fame.
The canneries are all gone now - they were about sardines, which all left or were fished out rather abruptly about 1946. But there are plenty of shops...
The Monterrey Bay aquarium - rather famous. It concentrates on stuff found in Monterey Bay. 
Jellyfish
Ah, science. Interesting - at one time, the theory about why fish go in schools was that they mimicked a single big fish and scared away predators.
Mountain View, California: The Computer Museum. Just getting going, and partially closed when we saw it.
The Rosicrucian Museum, San Jose: Rosicrucians are a mystical sort of group that claim Amenhotep, the Egyptian Pharaoh who tried to swing Egyptian religion from polytheism to monotheism - in this case, The God was Amen, the Sun Disk - as its founder. The museum is good: a good quick survey of the history of Egypt from the prehistoric dynasties to Cleopatra and Julius Caesar to the present day, plus a lot about Amenhotep and his son Tutankhamen, who ended up switching back to polytheism. (Possibly, the nub of it was about which bunch of priests got to be the In crowd. The worship of Amen involved establishing a new temple in a new city, now Tel el Amarna, and abandoning the old temples in Thebes. Under Tut, they moved the action back to Thebes.)
Papyrus plants
The sign on the sides of the statue, the Ankh, a symbol of life, seems to be a symbol of the Rosicrucians - not totally sure about that.
A replica of Tutankhan's sarcophagus.
Replica of the interior of Tut's tomb.Model of the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut - who might have been the first female soverign ruler
About Ramses II (who called himself Ramses the Great). He reigned 67 years, built many temples - including Abu Simbel, the one they had to raise up to avoid getting flooded by the Aswan Dam - and had 156 children by about 200 wives and concubines.
Castroville, "the Artichoke Capital of the World". Earlier we saw Sequim, the "Lavendar capital of the world.
Irrigated fields near Castroville - the surely do grow a lot of vegetables here.
---and employ a lot of workers to harvest them.
Prickly Pear cactus. We ate one; you have to boil them about three times and throw away the first two pots of water; then they taste sort of like boiled soybeans. The other thing is a kind of green cauliflower.
Ever wonder where Brussels Sprouts come from?
Then Monterey, home of Cannery Row of John Steinbeck fame.
The canneries are all gone now - they were about sardines, which all left or were fished out rather abruptly about 1946. But there are plenty of shops...The Monterrey Bay aquarium - rather famous. It concentrates on stuff found in Monterey Bay. 
Jellyfish
Ah, science. Interesting - at one time, the theory about why fish go in schools was that they mimicked a single big fish and scared away predators. Herds of impala and such use the confusion factor against attacking lions: while the lion's pursuing one animal, others streak across his path and confuse him. That often works, too.
A sea otter: They hang out in kelp beds. and spend a lot of time swimming, or just floating, on their backs.
They are playful - they love pieces of green plastic.
( These are sea otters we saw along the shore.)
South African River Otters
South American Small-clawed River Otters: They do seem to specialize in otters.
Back to the coast: Kelp
Lots of kelp. It seems to get pulled loose from the bottom, and washed up on shore, in large quantities.
Starfish
Sea Beans - Andrew Molera State Beach
Windblown tree
A sea otter: They hang out in kelp beds. and spend a lot of time swimming, or just floating, on their backs.
They are playful - they love pieces of green plastic.
( These are sea otters we saw along the shore.)
South African River Otters
South American Small-clawed River Otters: They do seem to specialize in otters.
Back to the coast: Kelp
Lots of kelp. It seems to get pulled loose from the bottom, and washed up on shore, in large quantities.
Starfish
Sea Beans - Andrew Molera State Beach
Windblown tree
The celebrated Lone Cypress. Monterey cypress originally grew only in a couple of places along the shore, but have since been transplanted to a number of places around the world.
Surfers - big out here.
Paddle surfing
Kite surfing
Elephant seals - the females and juveniles (seen here) look pretty much like other seals,
but the mature males have this wierd-looking snout:
Mist:
Guy with homemade moped, using a recycled Weedwhacker for propulsion. The gentleman here was going to the next town south, about 50 miles, to get a 40 lb box of cat chow. Wow. of course, we are capable of going 50 miles out of our way to find a Walmart...
The coast near Big Sur (the town of Big Sur is rather small, spread out and pretty well gentrified):
The coast highway hugs the side of the hill for miles - spectacular and just a little bit scary to drive , if you think about it...
Near San Simeon: the Hearst Castle (he actually called it la Questa Encantada):
The tower:
William Randolph Hearst inherited money from his father, who made it in gold and silver mining, then made a lot more in newspapers. He pioneered comic strips, in daily as well as Sunday editions, lin color. His King features Syndicate originated. among others, Popeye, Blondie, Prince Valiant and Beetle Bailey. Lots of sex, murder and corruption, too
A story they don't mention here is that Hearst pushed the country into the Spanish American War. He sent a famous artist down to Cuba to get pictures of the Cuban rebels and the war; he wired back "No war here." Hearst is supposed to have replied, "You furnish pictures. I'll furnish the war."
Conrary to Citizen Kane, Hearst had some success in politics: He was a two-term Congressman from New York city.
The castle is a happy collection of statuary and stuff from all over, with no particular unifying theme:
Lampposts:
The outdoor swimming pool
The indoor swimming pool
The fireplace in the large assembly room. He almost always had a bunch of invited guests, including a lot of Hollywood people. They'd gather here for a lavish happy hour from 7:30 to 9:00, in which Hearst would never participate. Instead, he'd appear at 9:00 sharp and lead the way into the dining room.
Surfers - big out here.
Paddle surfing
Kite surfing
Elephant seals - the females and juveniles (seen here) look pretty much like other seals,
but the mature males have this wierd-looking snout:
Mist:Guy with homemade moped, using a recycled Weedwhacker for propulsion. The gentleman here was going to the next town south, about 50 miles, to get a 40 lb box of cat chow. Wow. of course, we are capable of going 50 miles out of our way to find a Walmart...
The coast near Big Sur (the town of Big Sur is rather small, spread out and pretty well gentrified):
The coast highway hugs the side of the hill for miles - spectacular and just a little bit scary to drive , if you think about it...
Near San Simeon: the Hearst Castle (he actually called it la Questa Encantada):
The tower:
William Randolph Hearst inherited money from his father, who made it in gold and silver mining, then made a lot more in newspapers. He pioneered comic strips, in daily as well as Sunday editions, lin color. His King features Syndicate originated. among others, Popeye, Blondie, Prince Valiant and Beetle Bailey. Lots of sex, murder and corruption, too
A story they don't mention here is that Hearst pushed the country into the Spanish American War. He sent a famous artist down to Cuba to get pictures of the Cuban rebels and the war; he wired back "No war here." Hearst is supposed to have replied, "You furnish pictures. I'll furnish the war."
Conrary to Citizen Kane, Hearst had some success in politics: He was a two-term Congressman from New York city.
The castle is a happy collection of statuary and stuff from all over, with no particular unifying theme:
Lampposts:
The outdoor swimming pool
The indoor swimming pool
The fireplace in the large assembly room. He almost always had a bunch of invited guests, including a lot of Hollywood people. They'd gather here for a lavish happy hour from 7:30 to 9:00, in which Hearst would never participate. Instead, he'd appear at 9:00 sharp and lead the way into the dining room.After dinner he usually made the guests act-dress up and do qa musical or theatrical piece. Since there were a lot of Hollywood types there, it must have been pretty good.
A guest bedroom
Statues
Back to the shore - more mist---
Pt Lobos State Beach- this Visitor's Center is pretty old
The Beach is beautiful. A memorial service, apparently:
Sunset, with moon---
A guest bedroom
Statues
Back to the shore - more mist---
Pt Lobos State Beach- this Visitor's Center is pretty old
The Beach is beautiful. A memorial service, apparently:
Sunset, with moon---
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