San Francisco-last "leg" of our US trip

San Francisco is much colder than I expect but I love it. From the Coit Tower, you can have a splendid view of SF, its long straight street, the famous Golden Gate Bridge & of course its breezy bay & the infamous Alcatraz.

Lombard Street looks a very long straight street on the map until we reach junction of the most crooked street. This steep winding street with beautiful flowers by its side winds down in a series of sharp bends, from Hyde Street to Leavenworth. We took the plunge & it is an experience we are glad that we tried.

The famous cable car along Powell street.

We had great time driving along the hilly streets with rows of buildings on both sides. Gives you the feel of a roller coaster ride. My children said that you need strong legs to live in this area.

Golden Gate bridge -

The view from the Vista point across San Francisco is even more spectacular night at night. Pity I didn't get good pictures.

Fisherman Wharf - The clam chowder soup in sourdough bread is a must try & a favourite dish served along the fisherman’s wharf.

View of the Wharf from Pier 39.

Alcartraz – surprisingly prison island is so well visited. Luckily we went early on our last day and only managed to get tickets for the afternoon trip. View of SF from the island.

We visited a few winnery at Nappa Valley. According to one winnery we visted, this is one of the best location for wine making. The cool weather & the water there is conducive for growth of grapes for quality wine.

Overall, we had a very wonderful & memorable trip in California. Full of surprises too. Well, maybe there will be another trip - depends.$$$...

FATHER'S DAY

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL FATHERS, GRANDFATHERS, UNCLES....

A brief history of this occassion, celebrated on 17 June this year..



Sonoro Louis Dodd of Washington thought of the idea for Father’s Day while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. She wanted to honour her dad, William Smart who raised his 6 children by himself when his wife died at childbirth.

Reaching adulthood, Sonoro Dodd realised how courageous and selfless her father had been when bringing them up, and of all the sacrifices made. She decided that she wanted a special day to honour him and campaigned for a ‘father’s day’ in 1909. The first Father’s Day was celebrated on 19 June 1910, in Spokane, Washington as William Smart, her father, was born in June.

In 1972 Father’s Day was fixed as being the 3rd Sunday in June by President Richard Nixon, and the rest is history

What Makes A Dad
God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it ... Dad
Author is unknown



Fathers are Wonderful People
Fathers are wonderful people
Too little understood,
And we do not sing their praises
As often as we should...

For, somehow, Father seems to be
The man who pays the bills,
While Mother binds up little hurts
And nurses all our ills...

And Father struggles daily
To live up to "HIS IMAGE"
As protector and provider
And "hero or the scrimmage"...

And perhaps that is the reason
We sometimes get the notion,
That Fathers are not subject
To the thing we call emotion,

But if you look inside Dad's heart,
Where no one else can see
You'll find he's sentimental
And as "soft" as he can be...

But he's so busy every day
In the grueling race of life,
He leaves the sentimental stuff
To his partner and his wife...

But Fathers are just WONDERFUL
In a million different ways,
And they merit loving compliments
And accolade of praise,

For the only reason Dad aspires
To fortune and success
Is to make the family proud of him
And to bring them happiness...
And like our Heavenly Father,
He's a guardian and a guide,
Someone that we can count on
To be alays on our side.
By Helen Steiner Rice

So cheers to all of you
and just a reminder of being a father

The little arrow on your monitor

How does the small arrow on your computer monitor work when we move the mouse?

Have you ever wondered how it works?

Now, through the miracle of high technology, we can see how it is done.

With the aid of a screen magnifying lens, the mechanism becomes apparent.

Click here to find out the truth.

The image may take a minute or two to download and when it appears, slowly move your mouse over the light gray circle and you will see how the magic works.

Yosemite Park

The stop at Yosemite Park on our way from Vegas to San Francisco, is the best decision we made. The view is so scenic & weather there is much pleasant than Vegas. You can still see the snow left over on some parts of the park. We arrived there in the late afternoon & took a stroll at the giant sequoia wood. The stroll became a hike through to sunset.

The beautiful sunset in the midst of the giant trees is a fascinating scene and refreshing smell of wood.

The cone from these giant sequoia is as long as your forearm. Really giantic in comparison to those fist sized cones that I used to see.

Snow plant, is a small red plant, which grows between April to Nov. It has no chlorophyll & survived on dead plant material.

On our way back to the hotel, we made a left turn & had the traffic police right behind us. Oophs, that was an illegal turn and we did not see the sign which was high up on the post. Thankfully, the police let us off.

The next day, we made our way to the glacier point & had a fantastic view of the Yosemite valley.

Along the way to the big Yosemite falls (left photo), is the bridalveil fall – exactly like a bridal veil (extreme right photo).

That’s the El Captain, which is the largest granite monolith in the world.

On our way from Yosemite to San Francisco, we chance upon this beautiful view. I later found out it is Lake Don Pedro.

Truely a memorable trip.

Water Into Fuel?

Reported by Michael O'Mara Created: 5/22/2007 7:28:52 PM Updated:6/1/2007 7:16:22 PM

Retired TV station owner and broadcast engineer, John Kanzius, wasn't looking for an answer to the energy crisis.

He was looking for a cure for cancer.

Four years ago, inspiration struck in the middle of the night. Kanzius decided to try using radio waves to kill the cancer cells.

His wife Marianne heard the noise and found her husband inventing a radio frequency generator with her pie pans.

"I got up immediately, and thought he had lost it."

Here are the basics of John's idea:

Radio-waves will heat certain metals. Tiny bits of certain metal are injected into a cancer patient.

Those nano-particals are attracted to the abnormalities of the cancer cells and ignore the healthy cells.

The patient is then exposed to radio waves and only the bad cells heat up and die.

But John also came across yet another extrordinary breakthrough.

His machine could actually make saltwater burn.

John Kanzius discovered that his radio frequency generator could release the oxygen and hydrogen from saltwater and create an incredibly intense flame.

"Just like that. If that was in a car cylinder you could see the amount of fire that would be in the cylinder."

The APV Company Laboratory in Akron has checked out John's amazing invention. They were amazed.

"That could be a steam engine, a steam turbine. That could be a car engine if you wanted it to be."

Imagine the possibilities. Saltwater as the ultimate clean fuel.

A happy byproduct of one man searching for the cure for cancer.

PLAY VIDEO

The Man Who Travelled Forward In Time?

Some of us may want to go back in time to a simpler (and happier?) time or perhaps to relive part of our (imperfect) lives.

But here's a man who claimed to have travelled forward in time - and met himself? Well, watch this ...