In June 2013, I was on a business trip to Mountain View. I had never been to California before, so I spent as much of my free time exploring as I could.
I drove down to Santa Cruz, and I saw the Breakwater Lighthouse.
![A traditional white lighthouse with green trim on the end of a rocky breakwater curving to the left. The lighthouse has no house, just a door. A person stands on the jacks-shaped cement forms at the end of the breakwater.](https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/1214/2023/6768ada19a.jpg)
Then I went west to Pigeon Point Light Station near Pescadero.
![A traditional white lighthouse, faded and spotted with rust, atop a house with a gabled roof and two chimneys. An empty bench looks out onto the ocean, while an empty sand parking lot and overcast sky complete the gloomy picture.](https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/1214/2023/b0b30b57c1.jpg)
But despite my love of lighthouses, the vast majority of the photos I took that week—with my disappointing-in-retrospect iPhone 4 camera—were from the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, which is a thing that exists. Some of them even turned out pretty good!
![Two giant, bright pink roses with petals unfurled](https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/1214/2023/9168c373d3.jpg)