Santa Cruz & Monterey

Stephen and I have been having fun doing touristy things on my day off. Last week we drove to Monterey which is about two hours away from us. We did the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach and saw the beautiful ocean, cliffs, cyprus trees, and golf courses.

Here I am with the Lone Cyprus, the symbol of Pebble Beach

Here is stephen walking along the cliffs and pointing at something

There is a big fat seal laying on the cliffs

After the 17 mile drive we drove into Monterey to have lunch at a yummy seafood restaurant. After lunch we went to see Cannery Row, a part of Monterey that was famous for its sardine factories. Stephen wanted to see it after reading John Stinebeck's book, Cannery Row, that was inspired by the place.

On our way home we drove through Santa Cruz to Natural Arches state park. It was beautiful! We are loving being in California.

Dominus Winery

Stephen and I went on an architecture tour of Dominus winery today. It is a beautiful winery in the small town of Yountville in Napa Valley. The winery is typically closed to the public for tours and tastings, but they do give small architecture tours once a month to groups no larger than 20. According to our hostess, most tours are attended by architects or students of architecture because the building was designed by famous swiss architects Herzog and De Meuron, the same architects who designed the De Young museum in San Francisco and Prada building in Tokyo that I have written about in this blog. They also designed the bird's nest in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Most of the technical information about the building went over my head, but I did enjoy the scenery of the winery and the design of the building. Here are some pictures.

The arch of the building draws your eye to the winery.

The building's facade is meant to blend in with the scenery

the building is surrounded by wire cages filled with rocks

this door is supposed to make you feel like you are inside a wine bottle

french oak barrels, this room is kept cool by the thick cement walls and rock exterior of the building, no air conditioning is required.

Plants

Stephen and I have been moved in to our apartment for almost a month now, but we are still busy doing some finishing touches. Last week Stephen was busy shopping for plants that would work on our small balcony. Our balcony faces north and doesn't get much sun, so he had to do some research to see what plants would be the best for us. I don't know the names of any of the plants besides the herbs, but i do love having them right outside our window!