Notes of an Outsider (7) The eighth day. The fact that you are in Nevada you can easily determine by coming into any hotel. The first floor is surely occupied with casino. Having passed by the casino I understood that I'm not a gambler, I hadn't had any wish to pull a handle of "one-armed bandit". The next place we had planned to visit was Death Valley. We had been told later that were lucky. The temperature was 35 Celsius degrees only, so we didn't suffered much from hot. On the way to valley I had been realized that American military personnel in common and pilots of jets in particular have the sense of humour. When I drove along the road suddenly something had crashed literally above the car's roof. I almost drove into the ditch from suddenness. Then I thought that our car was fallen into pieces and just a second later I saw two jets flying away. Having driven a little more we saw the table where was written that Death Valley was an active training ground for pilots making flights on the extra low height. The valley has educational meaning mostly (in my humble opinion, sorry) but you can see something beautiful on this place nevertheless. We had gone along the salty road in the lowest place in USA - Badwater Basin and we had had luck to see so named "rainbow cloud" what is quite rare phenomenon. One episode had amazed me to the bottom of my heart. When we stood in the view point in place of extraterrestrial landscape, a mini-van had driven near. Two young men got off and helped to get off an old man whose age was about 90 years. He moved to the valley and young men supported him. I had begun right away to respect the man who having been in such an advanced age didn't lose his curiosity and interest to life.

Notes of an Outsider (6) The seventh day. Cities had been bored. That's does it! It's time to move to the nature. The next point is Yosemite National Park. Another time I cursed myself for my unability to describe the nature's beauty in words, by the way not only in English, but in my native Russian although. I can only say: it's very beautiful and if you have the least possibility to have been there, you must do it. So I will tell you about more "down to earth" matters. The park is very clean and well-groomed. Racing ahead too quick I can say that about every park where we had been. During the travel we enjoyed serpentine roads without fences in full. Sometimes we slightly felt awkward on the sharp turns. During the day we spent in the park we went through four types of weather: sunny, rain, heil and glaze-clear ice. The sun was in the morning and I even had a dip in the waterfall but to be honest not on my own wish. I forgot about my age and decided to cross the stream near the foot of the waterfall jumping by the stones. Highesh forces didn't permit such an impudence and I had slipped and then went down into the water. We revealed the glaze-clear ice when had been moving to the pass on the height of 9000 feet because we were going to a hotel in Nevada state. There was a moment when we want to turn back because our car has a summer tires but healthy Russian "perhaps" won and we passed it by luckily. To be continued...

A Drought vs a Drowning My friend from California complained that they have an appalling drought and heat this year. This morning I just have gained an understanding about where their moisture had gone. It seems to me that all of a moisture emigrated to Russia and settled down in Arkhangelsk province. Since May we had only two or three not-rainy days over here. We are drowning. Now purchase of a motor boat instead of a car doesn't seem to me a too mad idea.

Notes of an Outsider (5) The sixth day The next morning we were going to San Francisco. In the last post I mentioned that had seen how looks an american dwelling inside. Having been driving to San Francisco we passed aside the construction works of a house. Then I saw how these houses were building. I think that in Russia wintering in such a house would become the last fallacious decision for its inhabitants: structure of wooden bars, planking with something about cane fiber board and coating of plaster inside and outside. Well, I'm sorry, it seems to me that I have been distracted. San Francisco is an amazing city. It placed on hills, there are constant winds. In spite of the end of May there was rather cold when we had driven there. We visited Golden Gate Bridge, abandoned military base on the mountain above it, Palace of Fine Arts and Coit Tower. The most impressions to me were made by city roads. There is no way to drive there on a car with manual gearbox. It is pasttime not to nervous persons to stop on the stop-line on the crossroad and then set out on a road which is coming up on 30 degrees when the next car is propping you up to the rear bumper. There are crossroads where rising changes to sloping down and you don't see where are you dipping. As a matter of fact we got our month's dose of adrenalin on city roads. Tonight we returned to San Jose. To be continued...

Notes of an Outsider (4) The fith day (part 2). Santa Barbara. In spite of passions raging in the same name series which became proverbial (in Russia, anyway), this town is calm, sunny holiday place itself. The main sight is historical edifice of county court. It is used for these purposes to this day. It took place the acquaintance with the local police due to visiting this building. When we came inside the elderly woman who was sitting beside the entrance inquired us about the aim of our visit. When she understood what she was dealing with foreingers, she asked us where were we from. We answered that we are from Russia. Then she digged in her table and got a booklet in Russian about this building. After that she invited us for tour of it. While we wandered through the passages and looked at frescos, we were catched up by a policeman (I still don't know whether the word "cop" is offensive or not). He had greeted us and was interested where were we from (phrase "We are from Russia" was learned by heart by every member of our company to this moment). When he knew that we were from Russia, he asked us to teach him greeting in Russian. The word "Zdravstvuite" (analog of "Hello") became unutterable for american vocal chords, so we chose simpler word "Privet" (analog of "Hi") for that. I am still in doubt if it was just curiosity or test for adequacy. None the less he wished us a good vacation and we said our goodbyes to each other. Further we moved along the coastline. The places are very beautiful, but I have no abilites of describing nature by words. Welcome to the Internet, please. I want to point out the numerous sea lions rookeries. Point Lobos is the nature reserve on the sea coast. There are picturesque forest and mountains, tremendous rookery of sea lions and fountains of whales which had been grazing not far from coast. We were saying that we were lucky men because it is a good luck to see them in May. Already in the dark we achieved San Jose where we had been met by our friend. He lives in his own home. I had known there how american dwelling looks inside. To be continued...

Notes of an Outsider (4) The fith day. Our trip began at last. We chose San Francisco as a interstitial destination point and decided to visit Santa Barbara and San Jose on our way, where we were waited by our ackquaintance. The main part of our route ran along the California State Route but we decided to cut off a corner and a bit of our way rode through mountains. Either on a sea shore or mountains we saw a lot of interesting things. On the mountaing trip I had had my first communication with American. We stopped on the sightseeing ground near the lake, which is ajoining to the dried up storage pond (I forgot its name, Americans help me remember, please!) . Then to this ground droved biker of classic appearance: 250 pounds of weight, beard like shovel, leather pants and jacket, helmet. He spoke with me and we exchange by remarks about view. Then he said: "You are from Russia". When I asked him how do he knew, he confidently claimed: " Your acsent. I have friends in Russia and Ukraine. They have the same acsent." Then I understood that carrier of spy is lost for me forever. I wished him good luck and we said our goodbyes each other. To be continued...

Notes of an Outsider (4) The fourth day. It was decided preliminarily to rent a car and travelling on wheels further. Said means done. We had gone to the rent firm and took a car. It meant that we had got a great headache on our heads. It is IMPOSSIBLE to find a charge-free parking in Los Angeles! Because we wanted to start up our travelling the next morning, we parked our car in the rental parking lot. The bill for that compelled us to comb our backs of the head. In order to swallow the money loss we drove to the local Zoo and then to the beach in Santa Monica. I didn't find out where is the border between Los Angeles and Santa Monica. This is a mysterious thing for me. The beach is excellent, the sand was clear, hot and laid by wide strip. The Pacific we liked a more less. Water was rather cold. It was the serious challenge for mollycoddled Russians to swim in it. On the beach I had seen how Americans are serious about their health and physical shape. There was a lot of runners, bicyclers and scaters. Gym apparatus and horisontal bars weren't empty too. I noticed one strangeness there. There were whites and blacks mainly among sportsmen. Mexicans almost hadn't been seen on gym apparatus and running tracks though they prevailed over on LA streets. To be continued...

Notes of an Outsider (3) When in one of the previous posts I claimed that my affairs are in order I had taken the wish for the reality. Now I am making the next effort of doing unwise declarations. The third day This day we moved to Hollywood. It need to be said that Hollywood slightly disillused me. It was common touristic parade place with a lot of souvenir shops. The only attractive place was Hollywood Walk of Fame where I made a photo near the imprints of hands of my favourite Anthony Hopkins. By the way, Hollywood Bouleward was the only place and the only time in the USA where I had seen the man who lost his temper and hollered out on somebody. During my travel I took a confidence that Americans are very polite and quiet men, who never raise their voices. To be continued...

Notes of an Outsider (2) The first day. So, our plane had landed in LAX. We obediently stayed in line to the customs, took our luggage and at last we had got a chance to hug our daughter. Then was short driving on a shuttle and blissfull moment when we could stretch our legs after 13-hour flight. We decided to eat out and rest for half an hour before it. When we had woke up there was a morning of the next day. Fail. The next day there was a ceremony of graduating in USC. Practical Americans had made it very unpretentiously. They assemled a light pavilion at the university stadium, arranged chairs under it, put a sound equipment and ... there enough. There was a modest stand-up meal after the ceremony and it seemed to me that my daughter drew an easy breath when it was over. She threw off her mantle and proposed to visit the California Sciense Center. It was very interesting. There are exhibited the legendary shuttle "Endeavour" and not less legendary spy jet "Blackbird". There was a lot of children and adults. Americans are very interested in sciense and technics. After our educational visit we were heading to a supermarket, where I got into curious situation. As distinct from Russian shops there wasn't strict border between trade area and public area and when I wandered around the shop, at one moment I discover myself behind the checkout counter with the full basket in hands. It was scary moment, I didn't know was it acceptable or not, so I hurried back to the trade hall. To be continued...