Warning: lengthy trip report follows.

After 5 plane trips, a New York taxi ride, and 900 miles in a
Mitsubishi Gallant rental car, Joy and I are back from the Left
Coast. It was sunny and comfortable for much of our trip to
California.  We hear that it had gotten pretty chilly back east and
some snow was left for us to brush off when we return, but we found
the car pretty much as we left it.

While I was tending to business in California, Nancy Morales was
tending to my wife.  Nancy is a friend from my Digital days.  It is
amazing how the computer makes the world smaller.  Joy and Nancy went
out to lunch and after business on Thursday, we all went out to dinner
(with her two boys, Matthew and Clayton) at the Black Angus steak
house.  Brief moments with friends are always better than no moments
and so we were happy to have had the opportunity to visit a few hours.

On Friday, Joy and I packed up and headed south to Los Angelas for a
few days to stay with our friend, Rosita (Iglesias) Yates and her two
children, Julian (5) and Taylor (4).  On the way, these northeastern
eyes saw strange mountains (they call foothills) that were all wrinkly
and for the most part smooth.  Trees were a rare commodity along Route
5, which at times reminded me of the route through the Shennandoah
Valley (Rte. 70?)  on our way to Georgia; long stretches of nothing
much to see except mountains off in the distance on one side and flat
lands on the other.  We took a detour at lunchtime to see Kettleman
City: all of it.  It consisted of two main roads and perhaps a dozen
secondary roads.  Population: 1505; a booming metropolis for the vast
tracts of farmland that we were passing through.  I think most of the
town must work at the fast food restaurants and gas stations off the
exit.  Not far from there, we saw a large cow ranch, where the rest of
them must work. We actually smelled the ranch a mile before we saw it.
HoooWee!

On Saturday, we were given a driving tour through Hollywood.  Joy
caught a glipse of the famous sign on the hillside; I didn't.
Instead, I was enthralled by the protest parade du jour.  I forget why
they were walking and pounding on some native American drum (Something
about "Whirrled Peas" perhaps), but they were as much a sight as any
old landmark.  I did see those stars on the sidewalk but declined the
invitation to get out of the car to step on them.  I was content being
with friends, which was the purpose of our travels.

Rosita took us to Griffith park which is actually a series of
connected parks.  We went to the Travel Town museum where there were
lots of train locomotives that we and the kids could climb up on.
Well, climb into the engine area.  I was told that I should not be
climbing on the sides of the locomotives.  (Brian B would have loved
it.)

Saturday evening, we ate dinner at the home of Rosita's parents'
(David and Jeanette), and later progressed to have dessert at her
sister Evangeline's home.  Both Rosita and Vange have houses on the
side of a mountain where the city lights of Los Angelas twinkle at
night like the glowing embers of a well-worn fire.  All of it is very
pretty, but the relative flatlands of New England, or the rather dull
looking mountains we have (with trees all over them) are something
I've grown attached to.  If we could shorten the winter in New
England, there'd never be a reason to visit anywhere else.

On Sunday, we went to Pasedena Fist Church of the Nazarene, or Paz Naz
as they like to call themselves.  Again, style, like geography and
climate, is subjective to one's taste but the preaching was very well
received.  We spoke for a moment with Dick Prichard, my father's
associate from a long time ago. (He sends his greetings, Dad.)

On Monday, we decided to take the scenic route home along the pacific
coast.  We were under the clouds, in the clouds, and above the clouds
at times.  There was a very long stretch of hairpin turns on the side
of the mountains over the sea and NO connecting roads for miles and
miles and miles.  I was running low on gas and fortunately came by a
long station atop one of the peaks.  It was the only station for 40
miles in either direction. And the gas price was $2.59.  Not a shock
to you people in England, but quite a shock to us in the States.  I
got a couple of gallons; enough to get me to Monteray for another
tanking.  The views were good, even though it probably takes a couple
of hours longer than traveling Route 5 through the middle of the
state.

On Tuesday, I went and did the business meeting thing again and got
out early enough to beat much of the traffic into San Francisco where
we were to meet Joy's high school friend, Craig Carter, who was on
business also, coincidentally.  Craig treated us to a nice Japanese
dinner inside the San Francisco Hilton; a very posh hotel!  i hate to
think at what it cost their company which was sponsoring some event
for over 2000 of their employees. We spent our brief hours chatting
away.  One thing particularly caught my attention in our conversation
while we were talking about the cruise Joy and I took last May for our
twentieth anniversary.  Craig commented "Rekindling the fire, eh?"  I
was quick as a wink to correct him. "No," I said, "fan the flames; no
rekindling necessary."  (It was very good to have my wife along with
me on this business trip.)

I made the mistake of parking in the hotel garage because I didn't
check the rates.  How bad could it be?  It cost me $27.89 because the
attendant forgave the other 11 cents that I didn't have on me.  They
would have taken my Visa card except it was not going through.

On the home front, Mom and Dad stayed with the kids from Tuesday to
Saturday.  On Sunday, we had Joe and Heidi Farris come and stay at the
house, intending to have adult coverage for the kids (even though
Jessica is almost 18) and to perhaps give them a little time away from
home in a big old house.  It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped
since Joe had trouble getting to sleep for his early-rising job.  And
we found out that Andrew got sick and missed a day and a half of
school.  All's well that ends well though.  Emily did much of the
cleaning and cooking (by her account of things).

California was nice, the friends were even nicer, and it is good to be
back home.  Joy and I played Dr. Mario (a video game) before going to
bed last night.  Now, everything is right again.

Mark
        __________          Mark Metcalfe 
     .- __   / -- -\        Cadence Design Systems, Inc. 
    / <___> ___  | |\-      270 Billerica Road MS04
 .^| _---_ /   \ =   / \    Chelmsford, MA 01824
 |o |  =  / o | |   ||  |   Phone: (978) 446-6451
 =0=======0==|  |----|  |=  Fax:   (978) 262-6363
  \_\_/    \_\_/   \_\_/    metcalfe@cadence.com