Praise the Lord in Farsi

َAll these songs I've tried to translate. Not as easy as it may seem. Obviously my newest hobby is learning Persian and because I'm trying to do so mainly with worship songs my vocabulary is quite limited.
At least I can now praise the Lord in Farsi - and there's nothing more important we can do with our voice.

Translation as a blessing

My review on goodreads

A friend asked me if could do a translation because he had no time to do it. He hadn't read the book, but he told me that it was an autobiography of a muslim who had become christian.

I had been asking God for two years to give me the opportunity to translate a christian book, and although I knew that this might be his answer to my prayers, I didn't expect much.

I've read and heard many testimonies of conversions, some interesting, a few amazing, many quite boring.

After three weeks I received a first draft of a translation of the first chapter. After the first page I thought: this is going to be boring. Either the translation was poorly done or the author didn't know how to write. I decided to make the best of it.

The book is no literary masterpiece. But that's not important. Nethertheless it drew me in. His experiences are extraordinary and show in a simple way how great our God really is!

I just couldn't stop working on it. I have a job, my household, my family. I estmate that it would take me 4 weeks - I finished the translation within 10 days like on eagle's wings. I didn't get tired at all.
I feel so blessed that God gave me this opportunity!

Now, of course, I hope that this German version will soon be published and I pray that it will be read by many believers and not-yet-believers.

For believers it is a great encouragement: our God is working just as He was thousands of years ago, He is faithful and true to His word, He hasn't changed, His overflowing love and grace are the same now and forever.

Who wouldn't like to have a real conversation with Jesus standing in his room? Who wouldn't want to pray and see immediate healings? But are we ready to follow Him wherever He sends us? Are we ready to obey whatever He says? Would we endure persecution? And do we really appreciate what He has done for us? Quite often we take for granted His protection, His forgiveness and His love.

For Christians who grew up in a christian family and never doubted Jesus' sacrifice for us it's easy to forget what a gift His forgiveness really is, what it means to have certainty of salvation.

How many like him are out there who need to find the Heavenly Father they are seeking and to learn about His forgiveness and His love?

Are we ready to tell them?

Beta-Reading and First class English

It's more than two months since my last post. I didn't stop reading but for some time I encountered only average books.

Then this month suddenly there were some emails from authors asking me to read their books that have not yet been published.
I must admit it makes me proud. I want to help author's to make their work even better, and it's a big ego-booster when they come and ask me and appreciate my comments.

The varity could not have been greater.

Teddy asked me to beta-read, because Martin suggested to contact me with this stunning mail:

I should have mentioned two things, Teddy. First, Barbara's German but her English is first class.

Second, in her last beta read for me (she's a survivor of two editions of my novel) she noted something like "nice paragraph." She only did that once. She picked out the one paragraph that I thought best.
So my English is "first class"???!!!???

Teddy's quite good at writing sexy scenes and funny dialogues, but she thought it necessary to put some action, mystery and suspense in the mix. I hope Martin and I convinced her not to do it.

***

For the next one I had already been waiting impatiently. I was really excited to be allowed to be a beta-reader for the sequel of Remorseless by Will Patching.

It didn't feel like beta-reading at all: the novel is perfect. It's creepy, well constructed, full of believable strange characters...and there wasn't much to suggest, to comment or to correct. Will is really an incredibly gifted writer. As soon as I know the publication date I'll post more about it.

BTW Remorseless will be free on BookBub on November 3, 2016. Don't miss it!

***

Robert apparently found me on goodreads, had a look at this blog, liked what I read and asked me to read his manuscript.

Pirates, drugs, revenge in 1936.

I made so many hopefully friendly comments that I feared to discourage the author, something I never want to do. But I was wrong, he appreciates my comments and wants to continue the work with me, closing his email: "your forever beta friend".

***

Ok, the last one isn't a beta-read. It's just an ARC, publication date November 1, 2016. I'm not sure if I'll have a review ready by then, because this is deep stuff. I've read about 15 % now of
Gregoy Brown's                                 

"If we do not know God's words, if we do not know theology, then we cannot truly worship him."

and it's amazing. I've read my share of bible studies, but this is something different. There's so much depth in there, he is really exploring all the glorious mysteries hidden in a text I've read uncounted times - and he challenges his readers, not by difficult writing or sophisticated ideas, but by the truth of God's Word.

He told me that The Armor of God is part of this book.

After finishing I'll write another post about it.

Amazing Grace

What is grace?

We know that our redemption is grace, we are re-born and will live in eternity with our Father in heaven. Our sins are forgiven because Jesus died on the cross. He sent his spirit to live within us.

But do we really understand what that means? Have we embraced the whole truth or just got a glimps of it? 

Last week I got two books about grace that widened my horizon.

I had no doubts about forgiveness or that I am "saved" and will live forever in heaven. I knew that the Holy Spirit lives in me because I hear him from time to time. I just wasn't sure about "walking in the spirit" (Gal.5:25) or "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).

I did not feel it. I could not see this in my life. And I didn't know how to achieve it.

This first book puts the emphasis on the fact that we live under the new covenant, under grace and not under the law, whereas the second points out that we can not and need not do anything on our own.

 

We are indeed a new creation, Jesus really lives in us 

and He wants to act and shine through us.

We only need to accept and capture this truth.

Grace seen in this light is amazing.

One year blogging

Time to look back.

I've been blogging for one year now. And I still don't know if this makes any sense. The numbers are disappointing: less than 10 visits daily, sometimes even only 4 or 5. Only when an author twitters or blogs about my review of their book traffic increases for one or two days. That's great and I really feel good when it happens because it shows me that they appreciate what I'm doing.

I've mentioned and recommended 54 books, written about my trip to California and my experiences as a reader and beta-reader, my first efforts as a writer.

It is work and it is fun. Self-reflection combined with the wish to help good authors and some fishing for compliments.

Basically it's just some kind of diary, keeping record of my addiction. Yes,addiction. 

Have I become too picky?

Did some really outstanding books spoil me for the average good books? Does reading too much too fast change my view on literature?

Since my last post I've read 10 published books and none of them was worth a blogpost. There was not one bad book among them, I rated them 3 or 4 stars, and I'm sure that some time ago I would have liked them better.

I don't think I made bad choices. Outstanding books are rare. My expectations are high, maybe too high now.

Am I really asking too much?

An outstandig novel needs a good story, an intelligent plot without logical gaps, even if it is placed in a non-existent futuristic world. The plot needs enough twists and surprises to keep me turning the pages in anticipation and longing for the next opportunity to continue when I'm forced to do something else.
I want to read about well-developed characters I can relate to and with whom I can suffer, fear and/or rejoice. I want to know what's going on in their mind. I want life-like dialogues and believable behavior.

But all that is not enough. In addition I want it to be written in a unique outstanding writing style. All these above mentioned 3 and 4 star books are well-written in a way that flows smoothly, doesn't distract from the story, but isn't exceptional, just kind of unremarkable. I love writing with a wow-effect.

Who am I to judge English writing?

I'm just an avid reader. I can't name any criteria why a specific writing is better than others. There's just this feeling when the language reaches my soul, when I want to linger on a phrase because of its beauty, when feelings are expressed the way I feel, when people or situations are fully described in a few sentences...

I don't think I'm asking too much 

There are authors who have got the talent to write the way I love it.
Sometimes it's pure luck when I find one of them.
Probably they are to blame for my actual selectiveness.

This month I had the pleasure to beta-read Chris Brown's new book (I absolutely need to read his first one in this series, Dirty Tiger!)

On Goodreads I met some outstanding writers. I don't think I would have chosen their books in a book store or on amazon.

The first one I discovered was Peter Rosch. His challenging writing in never-ending complex sentences made me translate his book But I love you.

Then there's Mark Matthews. His dark novels about addiction make me experience what his characters go through.

Michael Lewis captured me with a short story. His skillful writing shows in both his untypical  love stories.

The voice of Anthony Vicino's blog made me read all his work although in a genre I don't normally read.

Will Patching is another highly talented author who combines psychological insight with thrilling action.

Looking outside the bestseller lists
All these authors and many more are not (yet) on the bestseller lists. I'm lucky (and proud) I have the pleasure knowing them and I'll continue browsing Goodreads for others.

Amidst all the average books out there, there are some jewels. We just have to find them.

Short stories are like a good photo

I feel it's time for a new post, even if nobody seems to read this blog anymore.

The last beta-read took more time and thought than I had expected.
The last two books from Netgalley weren't bad but not worth a blog post.

For a change I decided to plunge into short stories. I've always liked them. I startet with beta-reading some stories but that wasn't very pleasant, I had obviously chosen the wrong author. So I headed over to smashwords where I found an infinite variety of free short stories and startet a download spree.

After reading 30 stories - ranging from "nonsense" to "wow" - an idea came to my mind. I understood what I like a story to be: like a good photo. Novels resemble good movies, short stories shouldn't try to be short novels.

Short stories should be like this photo.
It tell's a story.
We know these people are refugees who finally made it to the shore after surviving a difficult journey hoping for a better life in peace.

We don't know where they come from, if they have lost anybody during the journey, what is waiting for them in this new country.
We don't know what their life was like before.
We don't need to know. This snapshot is a story in its own right.
The rest is left to our imagination.

A novel would probably start with their normal life at home, describe the circumstances that led to the decision to flee, recount in detail the exertions of the journey with a dramatic peak in the storm and the hopefully happy outcome. Some characters and their relations with others would be deeply explored. Nothing wrong with that.

But you can't do that within 10 pages. Some authors try and the result is boring at best.
Good gripping short stories jump into the situation, maybe give you some hints about background, make you feel what the main character feels at this moment and end with a preferably surprising climax.

Trying to listen to an English audiobook

I don't know why I never tried audiobooks. It seems to be too difficult to find enough quiet hours to listen carefully without distraction. I never even considered listening for hours to a story.

But then Will Patching offered to send me the link to his new free audiobook Remorseless. I love the book and therefore I decided to give it a try.

Of course I knew it wouldn't be easy to listen to a British audiobook, but at least I know the story. I'm not used to listen to English, always only reading (and surely "pronouncing" badly in my mind), much less British English. But this excellent story was worth the try.

Another reason was that I wanted to know how Will would master the job, if he is not only a very talented author but also a good narrator.

I was surprised. Will has done a fantastic job: the different voices are distinct and even the female voices are believable. That's of course a great advantage. On the other side it's a problem for me: When certain characters talk I have difficulties to get what they say, Especially Peter Leech is a challenge! Then again, I understand the narrator much better than I had expected.

To tell the truth: I haven't finished the whole thing and I'm not sure if I would have been able to follow the events if I hadn't read the book.

I guess I'll stick to reading. I can read while I'm not alone in the room, I can take my book wherever I want without creating a wall around me by wearing earphones.

For a short time Will is offering this audiobook for free on his very interesting blog!

A tsunami of love

After A.D. 30 I had to read A.D. 33.
Maviah's story is full of suspense. This alone would make the books worth reading.

But there's much more to it.

Jesus' well-known original words put in this different context spoke to my heart in a fresh way.

It might sound strange, and I don't get this sensation very often while reading a work of fiction, but I felt physically the presence of the Holy Spirit talking to me.

From a literary point of view this book isn't Ted Dekker's best. Some truths are repeated too often. But that's a sign, how important this is to the author, how much he wants his readers to understand the Lord's Kingdom, His freedom, peace and love.

His Kingdom is in this world but not of it. We can experience it. That's what's shining through the pages of this book.

After reading this excellent book, I followed the link in the end to find a small booklet. Ted Dekker describes in a very personl way his journey of faith, his doubts, and how overwhelming and life-changing it is to get a glimpse into His realm.

I definitely love all three books.
They were not like a wave but like a tsunami of Jesus' love for me.

Afterthoughts

This is supposed to be the last post of this "Journey Journal". I'm back home, glad and grateful for this wonderful experience.

People ask me what I liked most. I can't give an answer. The cities, the coast, everything was even more beautiful than I had expected! I don't know about other arts of the country, but what I've seen is just overwhelmingly awesome!

Wonderful nature, beaches, rocks, trees, flowers, animals, sunsets, weather.....and interesting towns with piers (some have a pier but don't have an harbor), big cities full of life.

There seems to be an international flair, because you see people of all the races on the streets, much more than here, but then there's Chinatown or the Mexican quarter. I don't know how much of a melting pot it really is, co-existence or one nation?
There sure is patriotism, flags everywhere, fleet week. But there's as much patriotism for California as there is for the United States. And all the ethnic groups raise their own flags.

The American Dream has come true for a large group of people in this part of the country. The state may be broke, but some are obviously quite wealthy. Billy's friend made a fortune in California, just as the gold diggers made then.
But others live on the streets. Homeless, hungry, addicted, ill, depressive...lost.
Outstanding differences are eye-catching.

It's a fascinating country and I'd love to go again. There's so much I haven't seen yet. I didn't talk enough with these open and friendly people.

I hadn't anticipated that I'd love it that much.

Driving, signs and other differences

I want to mention here some of the differences I noticed during the two weeks. I'm well aware that in two weeks you can't know a country. But while travelling I met things that were obviously different, besides the weather, the landscape or the language.

The first impression I got after landing at LAX was how friendly everybody was.
This impression stayed with me during these two weeks.
I don't know, if all these smiles and wishes for a great day are genuine or just good behavior, but it feels good, brightens my mood.

Traffic

The next thing I noticed was that traffic is a lot different. I hadn't expected that there are different driving rules. I thought those were universal. I was wrong.            
Obviously Americans prefer tellng over showing. I'm sure anybody who doesn't speak English can follow the rules.
Where have all our nice signs gone? I'll put jut two examples here, there are many more.                        

It is allowed to turn right with red traffic lights, there's no rule "right before left", so everybody has to stop at every crossroad without lights and they have to guess who was first. Sometimes that's confusing, but coming from left you won't have to wait an eternity. And STOP means really STOP, even if there's no one in sight.

There's no rule to pass only on the left lane. I thought this was dangerous, but I saw that they change lanes much less than in Germany, because they all drive with the same (relatively slow) velocity and there's no need to change lanes.

It's great to be a pedestrian in California! They always stop to let you cross the street, even if you don't intend to.

But if you need to change lane in full traffic, it's difficult. Suddenly all this politeness is lost.

All in all they drive much more civilized than in Europe.

Directions offen are given only as North or South, not the next town. When you see the coast, it's easy, but otherwise...how shall I know where is East???

At construction zones you actually see workers holding signs (all day?). As if that wasn't enough there's a sign to inform you that soon you'll see one of them. 

Warnings

Besides the strange traffic signs I found some other very interesting signs.

It's a really dangerous country!!

Prices

An other striking difference: You never know what you'll pay! Yes, there are prices on the menues and price tags on the goods, but that's not what you'll pay.

There's always the tax. Sometimes one, sometimes more (state tax, county tax). 

In restaurants you are supposed to pay the tip, at least (and that's bad service) 10 %. Good service may change the price remarkably.

Percentage calculation as an every-day-challenge.

I can't judge if life is cheaper or more expensive. Fuel is much cheaper, shampoo and dairy goods are shockingly expensive, clothes cost about the same, but there are many thrift stores. Medicine seems to be cheaper, cigarettes not.

As everywhere else you need to find out where to buy.

Construction

Most houses are built of wood, even the roofs, even buildings that seem built with bricks.

Windows open either upwards or outwards but never inwards and shutters are mounted on the inside. Door knobs and toilet flushing systems are different, keys turn the other way. Fire escape staircases are common (as we all know from movies).

Bigger

Yes, it's true. Everything seems to be bigger. The ocean is bigger, the beaches larger, the cities are bigger, the skyscrapers are higher, the cars are huger, the fields larger, the trees higher, the streets larger.....

So are the portions you get in restaurants. Two appetizers and two meals are easily enough for 4-5 persons - and no waitress is wondering about such an order, they'll just bring you some extra plates.

Stand-by

The chances were bad. At 11 am we arrived at the airport, said good-bye to Uschi and Billy and tried to find out wether we would fly or not. Nobody could tell us and Susan und Meike got really anxious. Meike insisted we should try to book instead another flight with United, nobody knew if the chances were better, they sent us continually from one counter to the other. It seemed best to try our chances with the original flight. After check-in and passport control we learned that there were seven people on the waiting list.
If there'd be only place for one of us, we'd send Meike home. I needed Susan as staff member to change the booking (without paying full price for a new ticket). We'd have to get back through pass control, search our lugagge, try to find a flight...Again without knowing how the chances are.

I was surprisingly calm. I prayed for a solution, knew that Uschi, Billy, Philipp and Lisa were also praying. And I knew that God would find a way. And so it was. We all got on the flight as planned.

The flight was uneventful, again I couldn't sleep and set among strangers in the middle. The train home was delayed, it was cold, I was tired, my cell phone didn't work and I couldn't tell my familiy when to come to the station and I had to walk home with my lugagge.

At 4 pm Saturday afternoon I was finally home again.

The last night

The last full day, the last night.
It's 7.45 pm and I'm sitting with my coffee from Peet's in front of a mall. Once again. The others went to eat pasta. I'm not hungry. I can cook pasta every day at home.
Billy wanted to go "home" at 6, but our host hasn't arrived yet and Susan and Meike were hungry. So where to go? To a mall, of course. There's always a food court...
So we passed through the city after our first real traffic jam over Golden Gate Bridge, left the city behind us, why stop, it's dark now, we won't see anything. God, what's that?! Unbelievable!
At 8.30 we'll meet again and that was that for today.
Tomorrow there won't be anything else than packing our suitcases and going to the airport in the "hope" to get on the plane.
I really don't want to be ungrateful. I've got too much to thank for. First of all for this trip. Without them I'd never have had the opportunity to come here!!

Today was a cloudy und quite cool day. We spent the morning at Stanford University. Interesting, huge, impressive, exclusive. If I had studied here...

From there we went straight to Japan: an All you can eat japanese buffet. Very japanese, but the food was nearly cold and unseasoned, but we got stuffed nethertheless, enough for the rest of the day.

We crossed the town to reach Muir Woods National Monument, a forrest of redwood trees. These trees are something special. After a walk through the woods we took a short look at Muir Beach before we decided to get back into town.

Uschi had planned a walk through Golden Gate Park, but after the traffic jam that took us about 45 minutes it was dark when we arrived. For them reason enough to skip the walk.

The next decision to be made was where to eat. Billy categorically said he can't park in the city and headed south, direction home, while Susan searched the navigation system for the next mall.
I don't even know where exactly I am right now, but it doesn't matter. All the malls are more ore less the same. There's one difference here: I'm looking at a tram station in front of the mall and the thought passes my mind to take the next tram, go downtown and leave them here.
Of course I won't do that.

I understand that Billy wants to spend time with his friend, but he needn't leave tomorrow. He and my sister always sleep early, but the 26-year old ladies?! What's wrong with me that I want to savor this experience until the last moment?
I'm not old and tired.
Perhaps they are just saturated, having seen so much of the world, travelled so many countries and cities. I haven't. I'm still excited and thrilled to be here.
I'm sad that tomorrow it's over. Back to every-day life, probably jet lag after 12 hours sitting in the plane lika a sardine in the can.

Back in the city

Yesterday we returned to San Francisco. First a walk through Chinatown. Billy says I needn't go to Hongkong - it's just the same. The girls went shopping around Union Square and we took the Cable Car uphill. A nice but expensive trip. From the last stop we walked our way back to Union Square absorbing the atmosphere of this unique city, watching people, admiring architecture, amazed by the contrasts, the variety and beauty. I drank all of it, the colors, the noises, the smells, I felt the city.

There's one distinct fact that besides the fabulous landscape and impressive architecture makes this city differ from others I've seen. People are relaxed, there's not as much stress as elsewhere. And they smile! As if there were happiness in the air.
Normally when I walk through a street and look at people they look away. Here I nearly always get a smile!

My feet were tired after nearly seven hours. My mind was not.

Sacramento and surroundings

Our young ladies Susan and Meike made these three days here a shopping marathon while my sister and I discovered Sacramento with the Capitol, the cathedral, the museum about Native Americans, and Folsam's old town and prison.
Entering the Capitol was like going through the control on the airport - but surprisingly without passport or ID control. If you want to visit the Bundestag in Berlin or the Landtag in Stuttgart or the European Parliament you first have to send an application or to be invited by a member of parliament.
Here we just went in.

The prison on the other hand was intimidating and depressing. So many have died in there and couldn't even leave after death. Even their graves behind high walls... In Germany life sentence means 25 years at most, but here it's different. What may life be like knowing there's no way out?








Tonight Uschi wanted to show us the old town of Elk Grove. But that wasn't so easy, she didn't find it. We drove around this endless scenery for about half hour until we came into one street that was indeed a bit narrower and the houses were a bit older. All in all perhaps a quarter mile. I didn't expect to find an old town, but I expected the town to have something like a center, with the city hall, post office, market place, some cafés, I don't know, 160.000 people just spread out in their neat little houses or big villas, their gated communities, the broad boulevards, unbuilt-on areas in between and of course shopping centers, seems strange to me.

Tomorrow morning we are going back to San Francisco. We'll have two full days there and on the third we "hope" to leave, always stand-by.

I'm not looking forward to go from 97 F (36° C) to 50 F (10° C), from vacation to work, from carelessness to everyday worries.

Stores, stores and more stores

Is Elk Grove a typical town? I don't know - What I see here are an uncountabe nummer of agglomerations of stores with huge parking lots, unused areas in between, some parks with a playground, some widespread areas with single-family houses, no "downtown" or any kind of center.

And today we literally passed our day in these endless stores. We left the house at 10 am, had a break for a burger at an In-N-Out and returned here after 5 pm. It's unbelievable. How can anybody pass his time shopping in grocery and thrift stores? Today I did, but just because it would have been impossible to go anywhere alone without car. The distances are too big and I had lost orientation because everywhere seemed the same to me, just the names of the stores around a parking lot changed. And these are the sites worth seeing here?!

The highlight of the day was the evening service at the church my sister attends when she's here. It wasn't bad - but I was the youngest of the 20 people there tonight. They all were very friendly but definitely not my generation.

I hope Sacramento will be more interesting tomorrow.

Half-time

More than half of my time here has already passed.
So many new impressions, I've seen so many new places, and time passes too quickly.

I'm now sitting in Billy's house in Elk Grove near Sacramento. I haven't seen much of the town because we arrived here at 11.15 pm after a two-hour drive.

Today was a strange day. When we woke up the wonderful view from the villa was hidden by fog and it was cold. Until about noun it stayed like that, but in the afternoon the sun was shining bright again. Practically we haven't done many things. We passed two much time in the car looking for a parking space. But it was Saturday, Obama was in San Francisco (we didn't meet him) and it was the last day of the Fleet Week. Again there was an airshow, but from where we were we hadn't a good view. People were watching from rooftops, wherever there was a good spot to watch it was packed with people. But my sister said: "I don't understand why you're so excited. I'm a pacifist. Think of all the good things they could do with that money." I know that the same planes throw bombs on people. And when they hear the same noise it's a very different kind of excitement.

Today we had to meet another friend of Billy. He has a shop stuffed with all sorts of things. You can hardly walk in there and I don't know how anybody finds what they are looking for. Cheap souvenirs, clothes, suitcases, kitchen items, dolls,.....
Nearby, we went to a Nicaraguan Fast Food. Billy and Uschi ate with appetite but the rest of us couldn't eat it.

I wanted to buy a metallic case for self-made cigarettes. The tobacco shop had to offer a lot of things but they had never heard of such a thing. Instead they wanted to sell me plastic cases for joints.
Meike finally found the Harley Davidson T-shirts for her father, we tried to go to Chinatown, but it
was impossible to park anywhere, drove through the famous Lombard Street, visited the Palace of Fine Arts and found the street along the Pacific coast to the beaches where Billy insists that it is too dangerous to swim and nobody is swimming there.

We had to leave the city quite early. Billy's Chinese friends expected us for dinner in a Malaysian restaurant. So we tried some strange new foods, some quite good, some not really, and some just strange, like the dessert: crushed ice with coconut, beans, peanuts, corn and different kinds of jelly.
I clearly prefer American Food, as far as I've tried it.

Sight-seeing

I seem to be the only one who needs 6-7 hours of sleep. Everybody else needs a lot more.
This is the quiet hour I have for me alone, to write and to read. Yes, I still try to read, but I just can't finish the book I've startet nearly two weeks ago!

Today was sight-seeing day at San Francisco. What a unique beautiful city!! The landscape, the houses, the colors, the feeling, the sun, .....Now I understand why everybody tells me that this city is different from other cities.

We startet our day by changing our rented Jeep with a rented Kia Van. We're one person more and tomorrow we'll have to leave to go to Sacramento, because our hosts will leave for three days.

Then we climbed on the Twin Peaks. The road was closed because of the airshow during Fleet Week. It was worth it. The view from up there is fantastic! After lunch in a small café - luckily far from any tourists, we drove to the Golden Gate Bridge.

That, of course, is a must-do. We stopped after the bridge for photos and at a small yacht harbor. Next stop Sausalito. There Billy said for the first time, that he needed a nap.

Just driving through the town is impression overload. Wherever I look is something interesting, different, beautiful. On our return to the city we stopped again after the bridge. An other round of photo shooting. And, surprise, the airshow was still going on. Now with 6 airplanes together. I hadn't expected to like it, all day we saw
some planes doing tricks, but they were quite far away, not that impressive. But now they flew several times very low above our heads, made spectacular tricks over the Bay, came back. It was exciting. For my sister it was a waste of kerosine, for my brother-in-law it was dangerous. Both true. But I admire their skills and discovered the beauty.

After that Billy and Uschi wanted their nap. Susan and Meike wanted to go shopping. Of course I joined them while Billy and Uschi parked somewhere and tried to sleep in the car. What a waste of time!

We strolled through Haight-Ashbury with it's variety of shops and people. I could have stayed for much longer to absorb the feeling of the city, but the program said Fisherman's Wharft. Billy parked about 2 miles away from there fearing not to find a place nearby. So we walked along the piers. I've no idea how many miles I've walked today, but it must have been a few. Billy wanted to eat Clam Chowder. Obviously a local speciality. I didn't try. I don't prefer soups in general and I don't eat clams.

Finally we arrived at the wharft. It is nice, expensive and touristic.

No night-life for us. At 8.30 pm Billy reminded us, that we have to go because Philipp and Lisa are waiting for us to go to bed. So we just walked back the two miles, drove about 40 minutes to Hillsborough and that was the end of the day.

One problem is obvious though: the number of homeless people. I don't judge them. They don't disturb me. I just wonder how many of them chose to live like that and how many fell through the non-existent social net.
I haven't seen anywhere else signs like "no loitering", "no soliciting". That doesn't mean anything, I haven't seen too much of the world, but still.

And there are other unknown signs: "No smoking at the seated area (outside!)" or "Smoking only on the curb at least 15 ft from the entrance". They sell "medical" Marihuana in shops, but you can't smoke a cigarette on the sidewalk.

From Monterey almost to San Francisco

Now we are almost at San Francisco. We can see the Bay Bridge from here. Here, that's the house, or better the villa, of my sister's friends. It has 5 bedrooms and each bedroom has it's own bathroom. So for the next three nights I'll have my own room and won't bother anybody with my snoring.

The friends are Chinese, just as my brother-in-law, and they're all talking Chinese. Billy and Philipp went to school together in Malaysia - now the one lives in San Francisco and the other one in Germany. But they kept their friendship over 50 years!
Their English is even worse than Billy's German.

The day startet with a good self service breakfast. Again it was a sunny, even hot day. Monterey is a very nice town, I fell especially in love with Pacific Grove. A town where "real people" live in beautiful houses in many different styles. But we read in the local newspaper that on Tuesday the police shot fatally a man near the harbor of Monterey. It seems unbelievable. The town seems so neat and quiet.

We didn't go for whale watching, because $40 per person is a lot and three hours were to long. Nor did we visit the aquarium (about the same prize).
In Connery Row we ate at a Bubba Gump shrimp company. While waiting for the really delicious shrimps we had to answer questions about Forrest Gump  Just everything reminds the movie.

It wasn't far to Santa Cruz. Another town I fell immediatly in love with. So beautiful! Susan and Meike went shopping, while Uschi and I went for a walk.The famous rides were closed. In October they open only on weekends. I didn't mind.
Again I would have loved to go to the beach, but no, again we had to leave.







The coast is so beautiful, the rocks, the dunes, the beaches, the very interesting and for us unknown flowers and trees. I look around and I can't help but praise the creator!












We hoped to see the sunset at Half Moon Bay, but about twenty miles before we found ourselfes suddenly surrounded by thick fog. We couldn't see nothing else than just the street. But God is great - just when we arrived at Half Moon Bay, the fog dissolved and the sunset was the most beautiful I've ever seen!

And as we were watching this natural phenomenon, Meike was sure to have seen the blow of a whale. For sure we all saw 5 dolphins.