This photo is of some of the scenery mentioned in the previous blurb. This is the head of the Merced River. The road descends into the valley, crosses a bridge over the river and then winds its way back up the next mountain. The road on the other side of the valley is visible in the top-middle of the pic.

This Bear valley is not the same one we went through on our way to the mountain cabin. There was a lot less trees at this one but it was just as hot. Just a small collection of old buildings and a few houses here.

Our last stop on Highway 49 was Mariposa. This town is not far from Yosemite National Park but we didn't have enough time to visit there. Mariposa was an odd little town but just passed muster for a place to stay. Strangely enough for a small town it had 15 churches.

Mariposa had some areas of historical interest, including these next few photos of stuff on display outside the local museum. A mostly self-explanatory pic of an old wagon...

This is a photo of an old sluice gun used for mining gold.

Also in Mariposa, this is an example of a pretty swept-up stamp mill, similar to the one at Coloma only much, much bigger!

These photos are taken at the Castle Air Museum. We will try to match the planes with their names...! Apologies to any airplane buffs for calling them the wrong thing!

We think this was a WWII plane but can't find the name for it in the booklet.

We think this might be a McDonnell F-101 Voodoo...

This one is either a P-80B Shooting Star or a T-33 Shooting Star...

This was the only helicopter. A Kaman HH-43B Huskie, not to be confused with a Hillman Huskie...

This is a General Dynamics FB-111 Aardvark. It has wings that can be extended or swept back depending on what the plane was doing at the time.

We think this is a Douglas B-18 Bolo, a WWII bomber.

This plane was our favorite, a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. It was flown at up to 80,000 feet and at speeds of over 2,350 mph. An impressive plane!

Wow. Imagine meeting this in a dark alley...!

We went to the Intel Museum that is located at the head office of Intel in Santa Clara. It's only about a 15 minute drive from where we live. This pic is of a lighted display near the entrance.

We were quite impressed by this interactive display! It is about 6 feet square and is a very large LED display board that shows the steps taken in a computer's processor chip when it does a simple addition (2+3) - you can see the 'keyboard' (right front) and the display of the output that would appear on the computer screen (front left).

Rod and a new friend...!!

Here is a display of some really old computer gear. You know you're old if you remember using any of it...!

Seattle here we come... courtesy of Alaska Airlines AKA Bob Marley Air (at least, we thought so - spot the likeness mon... no the air hostesses weren't wearing rastafarian floppy hats). It's about 2 hours from San Jose to Seattle by air and we had nice smooth flights both ways. Thanks Bob...

About 10 minutes drive from Seattle Airport is the CBD. This is one of the first views of it from the freeway. Apparently it rains a lot in Seattle but we had great weather both times we were there!