Sunday -- Long Beach, California

After a long, hot drive from Stanford through the central Sacramento Valley of California, with our newly working air conditioning system in our car, we got to Long Beach early in the afternoon -- around 2:30 PM -- to the home of our niece  Karin Miller who was surprised at our arrival so early. She also was surprised to look down to see us driving a Mercedes Benz. She thought we flew to CA and rented a car.  The picture below is her condo complex where she has lived for ten years.
Well, OK. there's another view of the Pacific ocean. I guess we sniffed to soon in California.  But the purpose of this picture was all the wind surfers, not the ocean.
That's us, and Karin behind Elaine's camera.

Looking at the other side of Karin's building.
Thanks, Karin. We had a very nice time with you on Sunday, and a very pleasant morning in your beautiful pad next morning .
We think that her particular deck is pictured above between the two dishes. Claire, correct me if I'm wrong. (Claire, Elaine's sister is Karin's mom.)  The view from that deck is really spectacular, and as you might expect, I took five pictures for the panoramic you can view KARIN'S VIEW.
We took a walk before supper. A walk we would amplify the next morning while Karin is flying to China.
The tree looks a big "full of itself".

After our walk, we came back to her condo, had a very nice meal she prepared, gabbed a lot, and finally the ol' clock on the wall said she had to leave. She was invited to a meeting of persons involved in a company for which she is consulting. They sell products for Wal-Mart, hence the meetings are held in China. She had a red-eye flight from LAX, and as far as we knew, she attended  the meeting and returned.  

Quick tour of the condo. This is dining room and kitchen
Balcony from the living room.
Living room and Elaine. Note the orchid on the right.
Looking off balcony with orchid now on the deck.

Close up of orchid from the balcony

Foxglove seen on our neighborhood walk.
These pictures are roughly in the order we took them. 
I tried, and failed to get a close up of that purple flower cluster.
The map to the left shows Karin's building as a pushpin where 2nd street crosses the bridge on the left. She lives on an island. The circular canal is where the following pictures were taken. I think this is the high class part of the neighborhood.
They will be presented largely un-annotated.

Flowers in great abundance. I expect gardeners do the work. 
Elaine is looking at the foxglove we showed earlier.

That is a kayak, I believe.

These look like imported plants to me.

I really didn't run across any slum dwelling here.
It's noon, Monday, and we are finished with our tour of the West Coast of California. Our attention is now turned to driving east. But we would like to see a dessert we have never explored -- Organ Pipe National Monument. For that we will see just a little ocean on the way to YUMA, Arizona, via San Diego.

Next, we drive to Organ Pipe National Monument, Arizona.

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