Yesterday I hiked the 1 ½ mile San Andreas Earthquake Trail in the Los Trancos Open Space Preserve. To reach the Preserve from Highway 280, you must drive 7 miles up a long and winding road, a drive of about 30 minutes. The Preserve is located on Montebello Ridge 2,000 feet above Palo Alto in...Read More

Last week I visited Moffett Field and its Museum. Located in Mountain View beside the Bay, the airfield has served as a military presence in Silicon Valley since the 1930’s. Moffett Field began as a Naval Air Station in 1931, became an army base (1935-42), the headquarters for early space research (NACA in 1939 and...Read More

The Pulgas water temple is located in Woodside, near the Crystal Springs Reservoir and one mile north of the Filoli estate.   It was built in 1934 to celebrate the completion of the Hetch Hetchy pipeline, and represents the terminus of the pipeline.   The Temple closely resembles an earlier structure, the 1910 Sunol Water Temple, designed...Read More

“Chinese Whispers” is a local research and storytelling project dedicated to recording the history of the Chinese in the Bay area. Currently they have teamed with the National Park Service to tell the story of the Chinese shrimp-fishing industry of the late 19-early 20th centuries. Saturday, I drove to Richmond for the kick-off event, a...Read More

Perhaps you have already noticed the larger-than-life sculpture of Father Junipero Serra on a hillside near Hillsborough as you drive north on Highway 280. Father Serra was the Franciscan missionary who established the first 9 missions in Alta (Northern) California from 1769 to 1784 for Spanish King Charles III. Artist Louis Du Bois designed the...Read More

Sir Norman Foster, acclaimed British architect, and his firm, Foster & Partners, are currently juggling multiple commissions in the Bay area. Foster’s success is due in part to his long-term advocacy for technologically advanced buildings that serve the client, while remaining environmentally sensitive. Foster & Partners has proposed two skyscrapers for San Francisco’s Transbay Project...Read More

The Puya Raimondii plant from South America blooms only once in its lifetime, and then it dies. Ordinarily this plant, also called the “Queen of the Andes”, doesn’t bloom until it is 80 -100 years old. Thus, every time this species blooms, it attracts attention. The Bay area has experienced blooming Puya twice in the...Read More