California - Friday Night and Saturday Morning

Just got back from a great trip in California! We were there to attend my Brother-in-law's wedding.
San Francisco is beautiful this time of year (maybe all times, I don't know?).

The fog rolled in over the Golden Gate Bridge
and gave us this beautiful scene even from a freeway:


And when the fog rolled out it left us with this amazing blue sky:



















We arrived on Friday and after checking into the Travelodge, we ventured out to a Puerto Rican restaurant called "Sol Food" which was rated #1 restaurant in San Rafael. While a few family members disliked their meals, I thoroughly enjoyed a veggie sandwich with a tangy garlic based aioli spread. After the Sun Food, we headed to Coldstone Creamery, which of course made everyone happy!

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and after Ihop, headed down to the San Jose area to meet up with the Bride and Groom. We met them and some of the bride's family at their residence and then "caravaned" up a long steep and windy(wine-dee not wind-ee) road toward the Lick Observatory.

 
 

The building houses an extremely large telescope called a Refractor as seen in the photo. The Observatory gave us a small lecture about the instrument and its origins and what it could do. Very interesting stuff - the telescope itself measures 3 feet in diameter. In order to see out of it, the floor is hydraulically raised up 16 feet so that the scientist can peer into the viewfinder. The top of the dome spins around and a large piece of ceiling slides back to expose the night sky.






This is the Telescope room from the outside.

And the amazing view from the top of the mountain that the observatory is on.