1999 Photo Highlights

We love traveling but it can be exhausting, so this year we have been taking only short trips; no cross-country marathon driving.

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Fresno, California — Kitty and Bud Thompson are Scott's great-aunt and uncle. In the larger photo, you'll see the "tombstone" that their nephew Norm Williams made for their yard (doesn't everybody have a tombstone in their yard?). Aunt Kitty knows the Williams family history inside and out; it's fascinating to hear her talk about folks. For example, her dad, James Henry Williams, was a Sheriff in Bedford County, Tennessee in the early 1900s; her mother, Mollie Scott, was born in Scottsboro, Alabama, in the town named for an uncle who donated the land for the local court house in the early 1800s.

San Luis Obispo, California — Steve and Eleanor Weinstein are known throughout the San Luis Obispo community. Steve is a veteran math professor at Cal Poly, and even students who hate math love his classes; he and Scott's father have been friends since high school, over 40 years ago. Eleanor develops curriculum for local elementary school science programs. This photo shows us with the Weinsteins and Jim and Linda Williams. Not pictured: Steve's numerous antique cars.

Monterey, California — We always enjoy seeing the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which has beautiful exhibits with unique animals. This photo shows sea nettles (Chrysaora fuscescens), which are found off the Northern California and Oregon coasts. These jellyfish grow to more than two feet in diameter, with tentacles 10 to 12 feet in length. No, the photo is not upside-down; they really do swim with their tentacles floating upward.

Monterey, California — Another photo of the sea nettle jellyfish, showing more detail of the animal's tentacles and body.
Travelers' tip: To avoid long ticket lines at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, buy your tickets in advance through their web-site, or by phone (1-800-756-3737, toll-free within California).

Woodside, CA — Filoli was built in the early 1900s for Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn II, whose wealth came from a gold mine in Grass Valley. The name "Filoli" is from Mr. Bourn's credo, "to FIght for a just cause; to LOve your fellow man; to LIve a good life." The estate (including 16 acres of formal gardens) is now a property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
This photo was taken in the Sunken Garden at the height of tulip season, in early April. In the background are some of the estate's 210 yew trees, grown from cuttings from yews at the Bourns' property in Ireland, now known as Bourn Vincent Memorial Park, part of Killarney National Park.

Aboard the USS Constellation — We have always wanted to visit an aircraft carrier, so we really enjoyed touring the USS Constellation (CV-64) when it came to San Francisco; it is one of the Navy's 11 carriers. Here we are on the flight deck with the Bay Bridge in the background. In the lower middle of this photo are inflatable 25-man life rafts (they look like small gray barrels); each raft costs about $13,000, and if it is used, it costs $5,000 to deflate and re-pack each raft.
Travelers' tip: If a carrier announces that it is open to the public between "10 a.m. and 4:00 p.m." you should be there ASAP; the day we visited, folks who showed up at 2:00 p.m. were turned away at the gate. We stood in line for three hours before finally getting on board at 4:00 p.m.

Aboard the USS Constellation — This is a "catapult" on the flight deck; the deck is 270 feet wide. When planes take off from an aircraft carrier, they turn on their engines full-throttle and latch on to a catapult, which steam-propels them along a short track and "catapults" the planes into the air. In other words, "0 to 170 mph in one second" (each track is less than one-third of the length of the deck). The Constellation is longer than three football fields, but that's not enough to give pilots a big margin of error, which is especially critical for night landings. Pilots are graded for each landing; if a pilot has to circle around for another try, he/she goes back to school.
Click on the thumbnail image to see the larger photo, showing the width of the aircraft carrier. Judging by Jette's foot on the right side, the catapult is only about 22 inches wide by 30 inches long. The steam holes along its side are about the size of a half-dollar coin.

Aboard the USS Constellation — The USS Constellation has more than 3,000 sailors and pilots in its crew, so you know it's big, but how do they fit 85 aircraft??? The helicopters and a few of the planes don't fold down, but some planes do have fold-down wings, such as the plane pictured here. Also, some aircraft take the elevator down to a large bay under the flight deck.
Here is another plane with fold-down wings; the black nose is where the radar is.

1999 highlights
YOU ARE HERE!

Thumbnail (click to view larger image)	Photo description and comments
	Fresno, California — Kitty and Bud Thompson are Scott's great-aunt and uncle. In the larger photo, you'll see the "tombstone" that their nephew Norm Williams made for their yard (doesn't everybody have a tombstone in their yard?). Aunt Kitty knows the Williams family history inside and out; it's fascinating to hear her talk about folks. For example, her dad, James Henry Williams, was a Sheriff in Bedford County, Tennessee in the early 1900s; her mother, Mollie Scott, was born in Scottsboro, Alabama, in the town named for an uncle who donated the land for the local court house in the early 1800s.
	San Luis Obispo, California — Steve and Eleanor Weinstein are known throughout the San Luis Obispo community. Steve is a veteran math professor at Cal Poly, and even students who hate math love his classes; he and Scott's father have been friends since high school, over 40 years ago. Eleanor develops curriculum for local elementary school science programs. This photo shows us with the Weinsteins and Jim and Linda Williams. Not pictured: Steve's numerous antique cars.
	Monterey, California — We always enjoy seeing the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which has beautiful exhibits with unique animals. This photo shows sea nettles (Chrysaora fuscescens), which are found off the Northern California and Oregon coasts. These jellyfish grow to more than two feet in diameter, with tentacles 10 to 12 feet in length. No, the photo is not upside-down; they really do swim with their tentacles floating upward.
	Monterey, California — Another photo of the sea nettle jellyfish, showing more detail of the animal's tentacles and body. Travelers' tip: To avoid long ticket lines at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, buy your tickets in advance through their web-site, or by phone (1-800-756-3737, toll-free within California).
	Woodside, CA — Filoli was built in the early 1900s for Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn II, whose wealth came from a gold mine in Grass Valley. The name "Filoli" is from Mr. Bourn's credo, "to FIght for a just cause; to LOve your fellow man; to LIve a good life." The estate (including 16 acres of formal gardens) is now a property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This photo was taken in the Sunken Garden at the height of tulip season, in early April. In the background are some of the estate's 210 yew trees, grown from cuttings from yews at the Bourns' property in Ireland, now known as Bourn Vincent Memorial Park, part of Killarney National Park.
	Aboard the USS Constellation — We have always wanted to visit an aircraft carrier, so we really enjoyed touring the USS Constellation (CV-64) when it came to San Francisco; it is one of the Navy's 11 carriers. Here we are on the flight deck with the Bay Bridge in the background. In the lower middle of this photo are inflatable 25-man life rafts (they look like small gray barrels); each raft costs about $13,000, and if it is used, it costs $5,000 to deflate and re-pack each raft. Travelers' tip: If a carrier announces that it is open to the public between "10 a.m. and 4:00 p.m." you should be there ASAP; the day we visited, folks who showed up at 2:00 p.m. were turned away at the gate. We stood in line for three hours before finally getting on board at 4:00 p.m.
	Aboard the USS Constellation — This is a "catapult" on the flight deck; the deck is 270 feet wide. When planes take off from an aircraft carrier, they turn on their engines full-throttle and latch on to a catapult, which steam-propels them along a short track and "catapults" the planes into the air. In other words, "0 to 170 mph in one second" (each track is less than one-third of the length of the deck). The Constellation is longer than three football fields, but that's not enough to give pilots a big margin of error, which is especially critical for night landings. Pilots are graded for each landing; if a pilot has to circle around for another try, he/she goes back to school. Click on the thumbnail image to see the larger photo, showing the width of the aircraft carrier. Judging by Jette's foot on the right side, the catapult is only about 22 inches wide by 30 inches long. The steam holes along its side are about the size of a half-dollar coin.
	Aboard the USS Constellation — The USS Constellation has more than 3,000 sailors and pilots in its crew, so you know it's big, but how do they fit 85 aircraft??? The helicopters and a few of the planes don't fold down, but some planes do have fold-down wings, such as the plane pictured here. Also, some aircraft take the elevator down to a large bay under the flight deck. Here is another plane with fold-down wings; the black nose is where the radar is.