My dear friends,
Our nephew and his wife from Holland came to visit us and
spent their vacation with us here in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. He
knows the East but they were here in the West for the first time. As
Indonesian Californian what are the good places in California for me to chose
and show them? Too many interesting places to cover in two weeks of their
vacation time and limited to convenient distances from the Bay Area where we
live.
Number 1 on a travel agent list for foreign tourist visiting San
Francisco area is of course San Francisco itself, followed maybe by Las-Vegas-Grand Canyon-Hoover
Dam, Disney World Anaheim, Sea World San Diego, Reno-Lake Tahoe, and many more.
We picked Yosemite National Park and its surroundings.
Going to Yosemite Park with our guests was the 5th
time for us. I don’t know if 5 times is too much or never
enough. But amazingly, every time I am in Yosemite Park, I am impressed and
fascinated by the grandeur of Yosemite, the beauty of nature, even if it is just a tiny showcase
of our magnificent globe.
Let the photos that I took speak for themselves.
As Indonesian Californian, I can tell you that you can find
the greatness of nature also in Indonesia and all over the world. It is not a
monopoly of one country or one nation. Anywhere you go in our world,
you’ll find great and awesome places that is there for us, and also for us to
preserve.
The Yosemite brochure published by National Park Service
U.S. Department of Interior describes “Yosemite’s natural beauty can be found
in things big and small, from towering granite cliffs and giant sequoias to
diminutive wildflowers.”
About "Wild Yosemite" it says: "Congress has designated over
three million acres of the Sierra Nevada for protection in the National
Wilderness Preservation System. Wilderness is meant to protect forever the
land’s natural condition, opportunities for solitude and primitive recreation,
and scientific, educational, and historical values as well as watershed, air
quality, and wildlife habitat.
John Muir wrote: “It is by far the grandest of all the
special temples of Nature I was permitted to enter.”
Who is John Muir? He was a Scotsman, scientist, writer, conservationalist. When he arrived in San
Francisco in 1868, it is said that he asked for direction to anywhere that is
wild. He was pointed toward Sierra Nevada, and the story goes that John shouted
with joy when he saw Yosemite. His message:
”Climb the mountains and
get their good things. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into
trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their
energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”
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