Yosemite

Carmel-by-the-Sea

The San Carlos Borromeo Mission: In February I visited San Diego, and one of the oldest things there is the Mission San Diego de Alcala, which was founded in 1769 by Junipero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan friar who founded an entire chain of missions in what is now California. In 1770 he founded The San Carlos Borromeo Mission much further north in Carmel, where he is buried. The second photo shows the memorial sarcophagus, but he's actually buried under the main sanctuary (chapel) floor.

In Point Lobos State Reserve.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Temple of Dendur and the Queen Hatshepshut room. The temple was commissioned by Augustus Caesar in Nubia to placate Egyptian locals and the reliefs depict him as a pharaoh making offerings to Egyptian deities. The statues of Hatshepshut were reconstructed from fragments and show her as a man.

Goats visit the Googleplex

Goats visited the Googleplex on April 27th. But, still no sign of the goat-pilotable VTOL I was promised back at the Robotics Institute.

California Highway 1, Big Sur

San Diego

Above: The peninsula with the gray ship nearby is Ballast Point, where historians think the Spanish under Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo might have first landed in California in 1542. There's a submarine base on the peninsula now. Below: The Old Point Loma Lighthouse near there, in Cabrillo National Monument, dates to 1855.

After Ballast Point, the next oldest place I could find in San Diego was the Mission San Diego de Alcala (above). The mission was founded in 1769 by Junipero Serra, who traveled from Mexico with Spanish looking to establish outposts against Russian encroachment. It's still a functioning Catholic church -- there was a marriage there the day I visited. The second photo is Serra's room at the mission.

The site of the (minor) Battle of San Pasqual from the Mexican-American War, 1846, is on the far side of the highway. One monument on the near side of the highway describes Kit Carson and Edward Beale's role in the battle.