Mal and Lauren

July 9, 2026

The Walt Disney Concert Hall is one of the world’s most celebrated concert halls. With our daughter-in-law Kylie and our grandson Oli, we decided to check it out. We will have to return at some stage for an actual concert. Opened in 2003 in downtown LA, it was designed by the late great American architect Frank Gehry, in his signature flowing curves.

Surrounding the hall, there is a serene rooftop garden.

The centerpiece of the garden is a fountain shaped like an open rose blossom with water gently flowing over its surface. It was designed by Gehry for Lillian Disney whose $50 million gift had launched the concert hall project. Gehry had learned that Disney had a lifelong love of roses and gardening as well as a special fondness for Royal Delft blue and white porcelain from the Netherlands. To create the fountain, more than 200 Delft vases and around 8,000 porcelain tiles were deliberately broken into pieces and then reassembled into a shimmering mosaic.

While the outside of the hall is shining stainless steel, the interior is lined with Douglas fir and oak, woods which are apparently known for their acoustic qualities. Musicians and critics consistently rank the hall as among the world’s finest because of its rich, clear sound.

Oli also approved.

July 7, 2026

Sunset is a classic little Californian beach community lying between Seal Beach to the north and Huntington Beach to the south. We started off walking down the long sandy beach. To the north we could see a navy ship, no doubt loading up munitions at the Naval Weapons Station at Seal Beach.

Walking through the streets just back from the beach, with its older, smaller cottages, it was easy to imagine that you had been transported back in time. It being so close to July 4th there were plenty of American flags on display. We noticed a number of locals gathered in their garages which they had transformed into man caves.

Feeling nostalgic, we decided to have an early dinner at Woody’s diner.

Adding to the old time vibe was this 1950s Chevrolet Bel Air.

If like the owner of the Bel Air, it’s important for you to have a clean car at all times, you may want to consider one of these apartments, located conveniently above the local carwash.

After dinner, we crossed the Pacific Coast Highway (AKA the PCH) and explored the newer and much more upmarket homes of Huntington Harbour. Created in the 1960s by dredging wetlands, to form a network of protected channels and islands, it is now one of California’s largest residential harbors. We could see how it would be appealing to boat owners, walking out your back door, hopping on your boat and heading out to sea.

June 23, 2026

Sausalito is a small waterfront town just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. With its Victorian buildings, laid back vibe and location across the harbor from a large city, it reminded us quite a lot of Devonport in Auckland. With its slight shabbiness and surrounding steep hills it also had more than a little hint of Wellington.

There is a nice view back to San Francisco

And also to Alcatraz, the infamous island prison.

Alcatraz started life in the 1850s as part of the defenses of San Francisco but quickly became a military prison in 1859. From 1934-1963 it operated as a federal prison housing some of America’s most notorious criminals, including Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and Robert Stroud, the infamous “Birdman of Alcatraz” . Although remembered for his pioneering writings on bird diseases, Stroud was also a convicted killer who spent more than five decades in prison, much of it in solitary confinement. The prison was famous for being escape proof. Officially, 36 men attempted to escape in 14 separate attempts. Of these, 23 were captured alive, 6 were shot and killed, 2 drowned and 5 were listed as missing and presumed drowned. From 1969-1971 the island was occupied by Native American activists, an event that became a landmark in the modern indigenous rights movement.

We may not have seen the Birdman of Alcatraz but we did admire this beautiful Red-Tailed Hawk, quietly surveying the scene.

June 23, 26

Just north of Sausalito, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, are about 500 houseboats lining about ten docks. Each home is individually designed, so no two are exactly alike. The community traces its roots back more than a century, but it really flourished after World War II. When the nearby Marinship shipyards closed, surplus barges, ferries, and workboats were left behind. Artists, boat builders, and free spirits converted them into homes.  

During the 1960s and 1970s, the docks became famous as a haven for painters, musicians, writers, and counterculture figures. People built remarkably imaginative homes from recycled materials, creating an eclectic floating neighborhood unlike anywhere else.  Many of the homes have gardens in pots, sculptures, and colorful exteriors that give the docks a whimsical feel.

Some of you may recognize the boats from the recent TV thriller The Last Thing He Told Me, starring Jennifer Garner.

Here is the home where Jennifer Garner lived in The Last Thing He Told Me.

It seems to us that it might not be necessarily smart to eat even those fish with less chemicals.

June 23, 2026

As our regular readers will know, we are on a quest to visit all of the historic missions in California. Mission San Francisco Solano was the last of the 21 missions to be built. It is also the farthest north and was founded in 1823, two years after Mexico gained its independence. Consequently, it is the only mission to be established by Mexico rather than Spain. The mission only operated for 11 years because Mexico started closing the missions in 1833. In a process called secularization, the church portion of the missions were kept operating, albeit by Mexican rather than Spanish priests, while the vast lands of the missions were taken from the Church and distributed to local inhabitants. Half of the lands were supposed to go to the local indigenous people, but we are sure to no one’s great surprise, most ended up in the hands of the local rancheros.

Unlike the other missions we have visited, Mission San Francisco Solano is not owned and operated by the Catholic Church. Rather, it is managed by California State Parks as part of Sonoma State Historic Park. It is a museum rather than an active parish. It also appears less cared for than the other missions but, nevertheless, was one of the favorites that we have visited.

June 22, 2026

Driving through Napa Valley we passed numerous wineries. They were built in a variety of styles. Many looked as if they would be at home in France or Italy or Spain. Some were modern. But they were all immaculate and tidy as the rows of grapes surrounding them.

We stopped briefly in St. Helena for a quick look around.

Before moving on to our final stop of the day, Yountville. It is a pretty little town with charming buildings and colorful rose gardens.

There was even a mushroom garden outside the local post office.

But the village is mainly known for is its many outstanding restaurants, including the celebrated French Laundry.

From the outside, The French Laundry doesn’t look all that special. The building dates to around 1900 and used to be the home of a French steam laundry, hence the name. But the restaurant has had three Michelin stars for many years and is consistently ranked among the world’s best restaurants. Three stars are the highest Michelin rating. There are only 157 restaurants in the world with three stars and just 14 in the United States. Many of the vegetables and herbs used by The French Laundry come from the three acre culinary garden right across the road.

Deciding to save the several hundred dollars per person it costs to eat at The French Laundry, we ate under the olive trees in the beautiful courtyard of nearby Clementine.

June 22, 2026

Next stop on our California tour was Napa Valley, home to over 400 wineries. Neither of us are wine people, so why Christopher and Carla headed out to various vineyards for tastings, we explored the local towns. First up was Calistoga. The town is known for its geothermal pools and volcanic ash mud treatments so we headed to Golden Haven Hot Springs to try out our very first mud bath. It was strangely relaxing and disgusting both at the same time.

After we went for a stroll along the town’s Main Street.

The old train depot had been transformed into a brewery and distillery and some train carriages had been turned into restaurants, including a particularly beautiful Mexican restaurant.

June 21, 2026

Good question. Where indeed is Groveland? It is, in fact, a small historic town just outside Yosemite National Park. It was originally a gold mining camp, known as Garrote (execution by strangling). According to local tradition, the name came after a suspected thief was lynched by being strangled with a rope—a grim example of the frontier justice that was common in some Gold Rush towns. As the settlement became more established, residents felt the name was too violent and changed it to Groveland in 1875. It is now a quaint little western town and home to the Iron Door Saloon. Established in 1852, it is claimed to be the oldest continuing running saloon in California.

Now that the town’s wild days are behind it, the jail is now the home of the local gardening club.

The Groveland Hotel has been beautifully restored and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Here are some of the other historic buildings on the Main Street.

But Groveland is not just stuck in the past, as evidenced by the fact that it has charging stations for both Rivians and Teslas.

June 19-20, 2026

In homage to Japanese printmaker, Katsushika Hokusai and American photographer, Ansel Adams, we offer Ten Views of Half Dome.

June 20, 2026

Mariposa Grove is the largest grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite and is home to more than 500 mature trees, many of which are over 2,000 years old. They are the largest species of tree by volume, meaning no other tree species in the world contains as much wood in a single trunk.

Their bark can be up to 2 feet thick which protects them from heat and fires. In 2022 a fire that started near the bottom of the grove burned about 5000 acres but because of decades of forest management and an intensive fire fighting effort none of the mature giant sequoias were lost. Many do however have blackened trunks. In fact, sequoias commonly carry fire scars for centuries while they continue to grow.

The Grizzly Giant is estimated to be around 3,000 years old and is among the world’s largest sequoias.

The California Tunnel Tree is a living tree with a man-made tunnel carved through its trunk in 1895.