Las Vegas, Nevada

These are my standard tourist photos of the Strip (except the fig tree, which is from my sister's backyard in the Vegas suburbs). Mom and I did go to a magic show by Jeff McBride, which was really neat, with many objects flawlessly appearing from thin air. Otherwise we have not been having the sort of Vegas experience that I think tourists come here for: I have so far not gambled even a wee bit. It is interesting that most of the non-tourists here are artists and performers--sort of like a giant stationary circus.

Mohave Desert

These are all from Highway 58, before we got on the giant interstate to Las Vegas, which is where we are now. We're staying here until tomorrow, and I plan to get some pictures of Vegas, which is amazing, tacky, and overwhelming--it's really something. Don't worry, I will not gamble up our traveling money.

The Pacific/ Cambria

These are from when we woke up (after sleeping in our car on a little pullout, ahem) at dawn on the Pacific. Then we checked out Hearst Castle, but the tour was $20 each, so we just had a coffee at the visitor's center, where Mom rescued the docent from a potato bug. Then we headed to Cambria, a sweet, touristy small town Mom wanted to visit because it's the setting for several books by her favorite author, Christopher Moore. (If you've read his books, Cambria is the basis for Pine Cove.) We had some breakfast, walked around, and bought a book in the local proper grungy bookstore.

Big Sur Fire

We drove by the fire at Los Padres National Forest at about 8pm Thursday. The road wasn't blocked, but a lot of the little parks on Highway 1 were closed. I took this right from the highway. It's blurry because my awesome new camera used a slow shutter speed in the dark, and I didn't use a tripod. But it's still pretty neat. That's all smoke, not clouds.

San Bruno, CA

This is from the rose garden out front of San Bruno city hall, where my mom had stopped to sign some papers. From there we got onto Highway 1 and drove down through Big Sur.

Ukiah

Bye Bye House!