California Sunset · 365 Project

California Sunset by Rondi Aastrup · 365 Project

California sunsets are vastly different from what I'm used to in Arizona. I don't know if it's a combination of smog and sun, but they are differently beautiful I think. I made the 5 hour trek from Phoenix to Loma Linda this afternoon to spend the weekend with my nice, nephew, sister, and brother-in-law. The latter three are coming out from Boston, so we'll have a nice little reunion for a few days.

The trip was uneventful. Usually I snatch photos (usually through a dirty window) of the scenery as I whiz by, but this time I focused on some of the funny signs I saw along the way. I didn't get them all (my favorite was "Sore Finger Road"), but I got several pretty good ones.

The pictures are shown backwards here, from Redlands, CA to Phoenix, AZ.  The first two show the sunset when it finally became comfortable to drive.  There were long moments when the road was aiming directly at that setting sun and the road was literally a river of orange and gold.  Beautiful, but extremely difficult to drive in.  What had been 70 mph traffic slowed down to 60 mph (thankfully for me!) until the road curved away for awhile.  Then it would pick up again until the next time we were in the direct path of that brilliant, but potentially dangerous, sunset.

The windmill picture is taken as I was driving through the "Palm" cities:  29 Palms, Palm Desert, and Palm Springs.  I don't remember now which one this is.  Doesn't matter.  Along the highway, they all have these windmills whirring at various speeds.

Depending on which part of which state you're in, you are either crossing "ditches" or "washes."  Many of them have funny names, like this one:  "Rubble" ditch.  Some are more descriptive than others, often recording disappointments or victories relating (I suspect) to gold mining.  The one that made me laugh out loud?  "Mud Ditch."  Nothing like stating the obvious.

I couldn't capture them while driving (and through my very dirty side windows), but in certain areas, you are bound to see dozens of little dust whirls.  I don't know what they are really called, but this sign warns you to be careful of the dust and wind.  I've not experienced any driving trouble from anything I've seen in the half dozen or so trips I've taken on this route (#10), but the little swirls of dust that zip over the desert are kind of amusing to see...and kind of cool, too, as you're actually seeing how the wind works--the invisible becomes visible through the dust!

I always stop in the little town (too small to be a city from my perspective) of Quartzsite.  It's about 25 miles from the AZ/CA border.  There's not much to it except it seems to be very big on RV vehicles and equipment.  There are several businesses competing with each other on both sides of the highway.  And then there are several campgrounds along either side as well.  Personally, these places do not fit my definite of campsite AT ALL.  One is right in the town, with RVs jammed one on top of the other.  I can't imagine who would give up their home space for that!  And then there are the others, where there is miles (not quite, but a lot) of space in between campsites...but the RV or tents are just sitting in the middle of nothing, with nothing to look at, nothing to give you privacy, nothing to do...  Boggles my mind...  Perhaps there is something I don't know, can't see from my limited perspective on the highway.

The picture above and the next two pictures here are from the town itself. They sell a lot of flags...not the state or US flag, but flags that advertise stuff.  And I don't know the appeal of salt-free water, or the need for it...never thought of water as having salt in the first place, but it seems like a big deal here.  Interested me...

Then there's the jerky.  For miles before I came to the town, there were signs advertising "Really Good" beef jerky.  Being vegetarian, I don't understand its popularity, but this town seems to have the answer to anyone's jerky cravings!

The first place I stopped is about an hour into my trip.  Yesterday, I stopped because I was so sleepy I thought I was going to need a nap.  Instead I got out and walked around and was surprised to see signs for poisonous snakes and insects!  I didn't see any that day.  Guess I'm glad, although it would have been cool to have pictures of such things in the wild instead of in captivity the way I've always seen them before.

I want to say the place is called "Burnt Mill" but that might just be my imagination or faulty memory.  It's a nice rest stop, though, with interesting information about the desert flora and fauna as well as maps and such.

The last picture in line comes out of Phoenix advertising a Tattoo Exposition.  I can only imagine what that might mean!!!  Alas, I will not be quenching my curious thirst for knowledge at this Exposition!  I may find myself at the Home and Garden Show in a couple of weeks, though.  Much more to my taste!

Crossroads at the Bay

I’ve spent the better part of this week at the annual Adventist Risk Manage- ment Conference in San Francisco. It was my first time at such an event, and it was nothing like what I expected. Actually, I’m not sure what I expected. Perhaps more than anything, I thought I’d be sitting through long, boring-but-necessary seminars on insurance, economics, and other boring (to me)-but-necessary issues. And (I must be honest), that did happen part of the time. But the experiences I've already described plus yesterday's sessions redeemed the conference for me.

The last day of the Conference was devoted to issues of health and diversity. The sessions were outstanding. They started with Gwen Foster, former health and fitness czar for the city of Philadelphia and Charles Mills, editor of Vibrant Life magazine. Both were interesting, articulate, and challenging. I also attended a seminar on how to establish a wellness program “at your organization.” All three sessions provided food for thought and motivation to get out of my chair and move more.

It was the last session, though, the very last words of the conference, that I am having a hard time shaking. One of the leading motivational speakers in America, Samuel Betances is a diversity trainer and consultant who challenged us to use our diversity to create unity. “When people of different races have reason to work closely on projects where both are indispensible,” he said, “race will not be an issue. . . . When we unite together to pursue a common goal, prejudice disappears.”

He talked about the importance of words, and of reading widely. “Read to expand your horizon, to build your vocabulary, to increase your critical and abstract thinking abilities. Read to be universalized,” he said. He talked about reading the “literature of resiliency,” books about people who “had it tougher than you, people who experienced breakthroughs.” He said we “need words in order to grow” and that the words we read should be those that will change our lives.

He told the story of his own life; how he grew up poor, neglected, and abused; how he dropped out of high school; how he flunked out of military school; how his work supervisor at a hospital, a Christian woman, told him he needed words to get beyond his life situation and how Christian education would give him those words and teach him how to use them. “In academy,” he said, “they are always looking to see if you have gifts the Lord can use.” Certainly the Lord has used him as he graduated with high honors from Harvard, worked with Oprah, and has been a consultant to three US presidents.

Yes, there were moments that I wondered why I was clear across the country from my “real work,” but there were many more that I realized the importance of taking a step back and putting that “real work” into perspective. Exploring my spiritual roots, recognizing my need to be a healthier person physically so I can give with more energy and clarity and generosity and responsibility...that was definitely worth the trip.


Photos: The watercolor painting I won yesterday (!), Gwen Foster, Samuel Betances, details of the floral display in the hotel lobby.

Coming to America

The San Mateo County Courthouse had several exhibits displayed throughout the two stories that were open to us last night. One was about famous entrepreneurs from the county, another was about famous athletes from the county (Olympian Debbie Thomas, NFL player Lynn Swann among others), and one on the immigrants who came to the county. I found this one the most colorful (literally and figuratively) as well as the most interesting.

The major nation- alities immi- grating into the San Mateo County are Chinese, Japanese, and Irish. The pictures here show some of the cultural aspects of these nationalities.

Night Court

Last night, we went to the San Mateo County Courthouse for an evening of mock trials. After spending the day listening to all kinds of legal situations and issues, it was fun to see some of the things we heard put into practice. Literally.

The courthouse itself is beautiful. Built in 1908 it has survived many a shake up (again, literally). It's dome with beautiful stained glass is particularly striking, inside and out, especially after it got dark.

The trial I attended (there were four to choose from) was presided over by a feisty county judge from Florida (Tallahasee) who had given an outstanding presentation earlier in the day. She sees a lot of young people in her courtroom and helped institute a drug court that gets young people into rehab rather than jail as first-time offenders. Her mercy and grace approach to her work was inspiring.

The evening's situation involved a youth pastor who misused his time with a 17 year old youth group member. The lawyers were actual lawyers in their real life, but the rest of the participants were playing roles unfamiliar to them (clerk, jurors, plaintiffs, defendants, etc.).

It was an interesting and, at times, amusing evening. A couple of times the situation caused the judge to break up (a la Carson in his skits), which, in turn, cause laughter and/or applause in the audience. The actual case, of course, was not laughable though, and we learned a lot despite the occasional levity.

Art in the Courtyard

Sunday night's dinner was served in the hotel courtyard after Eleanor Clift's keynote. It was a little brisk, but otherwise, it was a lovely evening.

The food was delicious, and there were dozen photographs,s of paintings, sculptures, and pieces of pottery on display for us to enjoy as we strolled through the (somewhat crowded) courtyard.

I particularly loved the Native American pottery crafted by teenagers from an Indian school in Arizona. I wanted to purchase a piece, but thought I'd get it later when it wasn't so crowded. Turns out I missed my chance. I'll have to go to the website now, although everyone got a lovely small vase or bowl as a welcome gift courtesy of our hosts. All the guest speakers of the conference got larger pieces. What a great gift idea, don't you think?

Reconnecting

A year and a half ago, I was in Corpus Christi for some marketing meetings and a former principal sought me out and asked forgiveness for a situation years ago. It felt good to let go of the hurt that had accumulated for many years. Today, a similar thing happened. I'll spare you the details, but this was a much more satisfying and meaningful reconnection with a former dear friend. I need to go to more of these meetings =)

Photos are of flowers in and around the hotel.

Through a Glass Darkly

Our bus trip yesterday didn't give us any chances to stop and take pictures. Some of the scenery was breath-taking, particularly as we got up into the mountains. I often take pictures from inside vehicles, something my sister laughs at. sometimes the pictures turn out. I didn't get any pictures in the mountain, but took some of the vineyards and of San Francisco. I cropped out the reflections as much as I could and here is theBut results:

Day Trip to Napa Valley

Yesterday was a long, interesting, inspiring day. I've come to San Francisco (San Mateo to be exact) for a 4-day conference on Risk Management, but I came early to take a tour of area sites related to the history of my church. What started out as a fairly "intimate" group of 75-80 turned out to be a well-behaved mob of more than 200 people on 5 tour buses rather than the original 2. That's OK. As I said, we were well-behaved. Instead of the travelers getting rowdy, bus #5 decided to go up, or down as the case may be, in flames (literally) and had to be abandoned barely 15 minutes into the journey north into the Napa Valley.

Our destination was two-fold: first to Angwin where one of our denominational colleges, Pacific Union College, is located and Elmshaven, the last home of Ellen G. White, one of the founders and early leaders of our church. It took about 2 hours of travel north, through San Francisco itself (did you know that one of the reasons it's one of the most beautiful cities in the world is because it has the three necessary ingredients: ocean, bay, and mountains. That's according to our bus driver.), the famed Napa Valley vineyards, and into the mountains above St. Helena.

The organizers of this tour had a very special day planned for us. First, we met in the college church for an inspiring presentation by Christian artist/scupltor, Victor Issa who, according to his website, "is one of the foremost figurative sculptors in America today, and is heralded for his remarkable ability to make bronze appear alive. His artistic hallmark "Creating Living Bronze" is the embodiment of his life-focused spirituality, respect for the human figure, love of life, passion for perfection, and undaunted perseverance. Victor has been sculpting professionally for nearly two decades. His works have been featured in shows and exhibitions across America since 1985. Victor's sculptures are displayed in private and public collections worldwide."

Victor did a presentation for us called "Testimony in Clay" that began with a clay bust of Christ which he than proceeded to transform live into Christ on the Cross and finally Christ the resurrected Savior. He worked to music and narration about Christ's ministry... It's hard to describe here, but it was moving and powerful.

We ate lunch in the college cafeteria and then got a tour of the campus, which interested me as I've always heard it is one of the most beautiful college campuses (it is) and one of our graduates is planning to go to school here. Also, one of my college friends is head of the Honors Program and a professor of English there. I'm friends was the president as well, and was glad to find myself in his tour group (remember, there are more than 200 of us doing this, so they had several group leaders to show us around). One of the highlights of the tour was a visit to the May Pavillion where they have a collection of several dozen animals from all over the world donated by a couple of alumni.

Once done with PUC, we went down the mountain to St. Helena where Elmshaven is located. I had really been looking forward to seeing this home. I'm one of those who loves standing in the room where an author wrote, seeing the chair or desk where best sellers were born, looking at manuscripts with my own eyes, glimpsing the author's work in their own hand. Ellen White was a prolific author and many aspects of the Christian walk. I've read a significant number of her books, and this year our staff is reading her book Education, a great treatise on the value and purpose of Christian education, so I was eager to learn about the place where this book was written.

Imagine my dismay when, after only hearing details about one of the 8 rooms of the house, someone stepped into the house and called "all buses are leaving NOW! It was not a joke. We were SO disappointed! Several of us rushed through the rest of the rooms, madly snapping pictures so we could research them later, and got ourselves back to our bus rather unhappily, as you might imagine. We never did find out why we had to leave in such a rush, but such was our misfortune.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the bus, it seems. We had to go a round about way back to San Francisco because of a major traffic tie-up thanks to a sporting event, so we didn't get to cross the Golden Gate Bridge as had been promised. Instead, we saw it from the distance of the Bay Bridge, which is actually longer.

We stopped for refresh- ments at the San Francisco Central Adventist Church, which has historic significance because it is one of very few buildings to survive the Earthquake of 1906. It's a lovely old building, built in 1892, and the church members were very generous with their snack of crackers and cheeses, falafal, quiches, fruit, and corn bread.

We arrived back at the hotel rather tired of sitting, but having enjoyed a lovely day.