Highly anticipating the adventure, the trio prepare for their sojourn!

Dogbert is enjoying the flight. The pilot gave him a free ticket since he "knows the way to San Jose".

California from 35,000 feet.

Fry's is an electron store that has about the same floor space as a supermarket but stocks electronic goods. Silicon Valley is defiantly geek heaven!

Dogbert is checking out a see-thru computer case. He has an interesting way of "casing" the joint!

Dogbert's first night in California. It has been a very long day and he is ready for bed. Goodnight Dogbert.

There was a little fog at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge

We drove across the Golden Gate bridge and noticed that people were walking along the side. So....

...we walked across it. We went across and then returned!

Dogbert thought it was pretty breezy going over the bridge but the view made it worth the effort.

Lombard Street (a.k.a. the windiest street in the world)

Fish & Chips at Fisherman's wharf.

Dogbert getting some IV Starbucks. Frank was happy to have found it too.

We went aboard the WW II submarine The Pampanito. Dogbert did not torpedo the idea.

Its not San Francisco without the cable cars. David and Dogbert staying on track.

Ghiradelli's is famous for their chocolate and we could not resist having hot fudge Sundaes.

Coit tower on the left and the Trans-American building on the right.

A view of San Francisco from the top of the Coit tower.

Our first museum was the Computer History museum. It was a totally"geek" place so of course we loved it.

The German "Enigma" machine that encrypted messages.

The IBM 360 (tape drives and disks)

Cray 1 Supercomputer

Cray - 2

Our second museum was at the Hiller Aviation Museum. Dogbert is having a view of a Russian I-16

A racing plane

The trio in front of Solotrek XFV, it takes off vertically!

Is that a polar bear flying that ultra-light?

Dogbert revving up his engine!

The drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles is about 450 miles and we took the long route along the Pacific Coast Highway. It ended up taking about 11.5 hours since we stopped frequently since the view was spectacular!

The coastline jets very abruptly from ocean level to several thousand foot mountains.

Erosion washes away the rock over time and sometimes the large protrusions of the rock take a little longer to erode. It makes for some very pretty sights.

What would the California trip be without the surfers. Look carefully for the black dots in the picture! The water temperature is always cool so the surfers wear wet suits to keep warm in the water.

A view from a spot near Monterey.

The roads all around California are tree line and this view of Santa Barbara shows the Palm trees.

Dogbert is about to "spike one" playing volleyball on the beach with the Santa Barbara Marina in the background.

Frank spiking Dogbert instead!

God's beautiful world.

Sunset over the California coast.

The Queen Mary was a luxury liner that was commissioned in 1936 and now is permanent floating attraction / hotel in Long Beach.

It is twice the size of the Titanic and had 2,000 passengers & 1,200 crew. In WW II, it became a troop transport and carried a record 16,200 people on a single voyage.

The first class accommodations included a lounge 2 stories high with three fireplaces.

This first class suite had 5 rooms and went for the equivalent of $15,000 for the 5 day voyage between England to the US.

The engine room.

Long Beach (a suburb just south of LA) itself is a major port for the west coast

A decommissioned Russian sub (the Scorpion) is also available for touring and is docked next to the Queen Mary. Dogbert is checking out the two ships.

The torpedo room of the Scorpion.

I think Dogbert is plotting a course for the torpedoing the Queen Mary!

The quarters for the crew are worse than for the US sub we saw.

Our first stop was Venice Beach. It has "Muscle Beach", surfers, roller bladers on the sidewalks, and many recreational activities.

Surfing

One of the streets along the Venice strip

Dogbert had lunch at the Los Angeles Hard Rock Cafe.

Good food, good rock!

The "Black Entertainer's Award" was occurring today. The streets were crowded, the stars were out!

Grauman's Chinese theater.

Clint Eastwood's hand prints in the sidewalk.

We went to the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. We saw the set of the X-Files.

Dogbert is sitting at the set of Cheers.

In Sequoia National Forest, the giant Sequoia tree grows only in mountains of the Sierra Madra. The the oldest living thing on earth is the giant Sequoia tree (not me on the right!)

The largest of these is called the General Sherman and is 2,300 to 2,700 years old with a height of 350 ft.

The top of the General Sherman

Sequoia trees grow only at an altitude of 5,000 to 7,000 feet .

Within the park is the deepest valley in the US, larger than the grand canyon of the Snake Valley and is known as Kings Canyon,.

From its peak of 11,000 ft on Spanish Peak to the river below is a drop of 8,600 ft.

Very shear cliffs cut by glaciers.

Breathtaking scenery.

The water is cold, wet, and runs very fast downhill!

We went as far as Grizzly Falls.

In Milpitas is the development facility for our beloved Palm Pilot.

I guess we really are geeks!