Thursday, 24th of April

Grady's Chevy
Grady's Chevy
Grady's Chevy
The Mercedes
The Mercedes
Pauls Pontiac
Paul's Pontiac
Paul's Pontiac
The Studebaker
The Studebaker
The Studebaker
The Studebaker
The Studebaker
TheStudebaker
The fireplace at the terrace
The wonderful garden
Again the garden
... and: the garden
... and: the garden
... and: the garden
... and: the garden
... and: the garden
... and: the garden
... and: the garden
... and: the garden
Rare Flowers
The "Greenhouse"
The orchid
--- and what ist this?
A house like no other
The wonderful house
The kitchen
Linda and Grady in the front garden
Linda and Paul at the terrace
Rare interieur...
The bar
The Chihuahuas
The parrots

(Klick at the pictures to see them in original size))
Ten days in the sunshine-state California – via Amsterdam my friend Linda and me had booked a direct flight to San Francisco. In the morning at 11.30 o'clock we started – in a big curve over Antarctic and Canada in a ten-hours flight directly to sunny California. We reached the city of the hippies and the Flower power San Francisco at 22.15 o'clock CET/Central European Time – in California it was just 13:15 o'clock lunchtime. A Nine-hour time difference we gained : We were looking forward to a long day.

At the airport we were warmly greeted by Grady, one of our American hosts. Paul and Grady live in Prunedale near Salinas, seven miles away from Monterey, about 100 miles from San Francisco. Grady is an interior designer and garden fan – this is also reflected in their house, witch is very tastefully decorated. Paul is a vice-president of a company for medical laser devices with headquarters in San Francisco. He drives 100 miles to his company every day by car.

This is an other special hobby of both of them: Cars, Above all Grady is a passionate car-collector. In the vehicle park you can find  a Chevy pickup truck, a Pontiac Solstice roadster, a man made copy of the 1929 Mercedes Gazelle and a Studebaker Pick-up originaly from the year 1951. In HP this has unique:  the Studebaker has 600 HP, the Chevy more than 400 HP. For me as an car-fan this was like paradise. This vehicle park had only one disadvantage: All these cars are two-seaters, so that Grady and Paul had to borrow a Ford Expedition, 4 wheel drive to be able to show us the Monteray Bay area during our stay.

The house Paul and Grady live in is unique. Affectionately furnished with antiques, all kinds of souvenirs from all over the world. This is Grady’s work. He has completely altered and formed the house. Linda and I were staying in the guesthouse and we had a big room with our own bathroom. And a bed in which easily three persons could sleep. Every evening we amused ourselves about the fact that we had  to climb up into this bed– most American beds have two thick mattresses on top of one another, so that makes it extremely high. What has mostly impressed me aswell as Paul and Gradys home, was the garden. Not only the front garden is inviting, also the terrace and the patio garden area behind the house are simply overpowering with the huge open fire and magnificent chimney. Also here you can discover nothing but small treasures, that Grady has inserted affectionately in the garden creation. Gradys whole pride is his greenhouse where he breeds rare plants. Here you can find an rare orchid of witch there are only four specimens worldwide. At the moment there are no Great Danes, Paul bred harlequins in the past but has stopped breeding His kennelname *Chauffered* was well known, but at the moment they live with four chihuahuas, two parrots, two nymph's parakeets and several free range chickens.

Paul is the perfect cook – and his kitchen is in contrast to the remaining equipment of the house: Very modern high-grade steel cooking devices and high-grade steel shelves: In the whole kitchen you can’t find a cupboard. But everywhere you can see chicken sculptures in all dimensions and colours, a television, a HiFi arrangement and a computer. A little bit different, but, however very practical and comfortable. The kitchen is a communicationcentre in the house, both Linda and I loved to be there to have our first morning coffee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, 25th of April

Our "princess-bed"

In the morning, after ten hours of sleep, we slipped out of our „princess-bed “. During our first day we wanted to outlet-shop extensively. Grady took us at about 20 minutes distantce to Gilroy: There is an Outlet centre with nearly 150 shops. We drove just a few miles on the Highway and our first batch of bad luck happend: The Highway-Patrol pulled us over – Grady was driving too fast.

In Gilroy we had our second bad luck incident happening: Linda set a rubbish bin on fire when she thought she had put out her cigarette,  apparantly it was not completely out. Grady and Linda said the next bad luck thing would be for me that I should be next in the row – all good or bad things, come in three´s, and then the week-end would be safe. And so: Shortly after I found out that I had lost one of my earrings, that was three so the weekend would be good.
 
What surprised us in Gilroy, was not only the choice of goods there were, but above all the favorable prices. In view of the present dollar rate America is really a shopping paradise – no matter what you buy, clothes, shoes or electronics.