Lighthouses and Roses

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.

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.

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