American Travelnotes 7/7 - Palo Alto & Santa Cruz coastline

Palo Alto is located 50 kms south of San Francisco, in the Bay Area. That's the core of the 'silicon valley', with Apple, Xerox, Adobe, ... in one word, a good place if you like Microelectronics.
This is a nice and small city, very confortable; Palo Alto is also the place of the famous Stanford University. The campus is simply magnificient! it's big, with a blend of modern looking laboratories and older buildings (see pictures below). Given the fact that the place is great and that the University looks rich, no wonder why they attracted people among the best researchers in the world (Felix Bloch, for instance, used to work there).

Stanford University

Stanford University

On sunday, i am welcomed by a couple of friends of mine and after a good brunch we head to the highway California One, which roughly follows the coastine. The scenery is really nice and surprisingly wild ... California is really a land of contrasts. Anyway, the road is puntuated with beaches and places like Pigeon's cape (see pictures below). The cape is occupied by a lighthouse (what? the coast is dangerous? you bet!) and by a colony of sea lions.

Pigeon's point lighthouse

Pigeon's point: can you see the sea lions?

Further in the south is the Monterrey bay and the city of Santa Cruz. Business as usual: nice beaches, lovely cliffs and a large bunch of surfers in the water waiting for 'the' wave. There is also a big amusement park and long long wharf ... really, not the worst place i ever visited :)

Santa Cruz beach

After Palo Alto, it is already the time to come back home.
I first moved from SF to New Haven and spent another day in Connecticut. Then, i took a train to Newark to catch my plane to Canada, and then France.
All over, around 3 weeks in USA and a lot of nice memories.
Thanks to all the people who welcomed me, that was really nice of you :)
See you somewhere, somehow ...