These days I live in the San Francisco Bay Area in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Los Gatos. The Bay Area has so much to offer, leaving here would be hard to imagine. The climate (and weather) are great, there are amazingly good restaurants all over the place, the beaches are varied and wonderful, and there are extensive Redwood forests.

Within easy reach of the Bay Area, you can travel to the Wine Country (Napa and Sonoma Valleys, not to omit Mendocino), Carmel (Law, Order, and Ice Cream), Monterey (John Steinbeck and Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium), Big Sur (the most spectacular coastline this side of Kaua'i), and many more.

A little further afield from the Bay Area, you can visit Lake Tahoe (spectacular views, summer hiking, and winter skiing), Yosemite Valley (unbelievable vistas and hiking), then venture on down to San Simeon (Hearst Castle), and Santa Barbara (the best Mediterranean food in the Americas).

In September of 2001 I spent a couple of weeks travelling through Canada (Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City), and then to Boston, New York, and Washington. I was in New York on September 9^th, where I took a pretty good picture (even though I say so myself) of the World Trade Centre, just forty-six hours before a gang of fanatics acted out their hatred in the name of their religion.

See My Picture of the World Trade Centre