Photo Opportunities

Given the subject matter of my last two blogs, I wouldn't want you all to think that I spent my entire long weekend waiting at the airport. On the contrary. Considering we flew from one coast to the other, I think we managed to do quite a bit in about two and a half days. After arriving in San Francisco on Saturday morning we grabbed our rental car and arrived at my brother's apartment in downtown San Francisco shortly thereafter. We spent a half hour or so decompressing and then we went out to get lunch. It was rather early by California time but it was already late afternoon back home in Washington. Plus the fact that coffee and a small muffin weren't enough to stave off hunger, we all were quite hungry. We grabbed lunch and then did some wandering about the city.

The next day we had dedicated to going up to Napa and Sonoma. Now for those of you non-alcoholic-drink-drinkers out there, these two valleys are quite well known for their wineries. Along a stretch of two-lane highway, they are literally lined up from field to field. Having seen the sites I can only assume that this is what portions of Europe look like in terms of wine grape fields. It was charming and one could hardly believe that we were only an hour or so away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Now not being wine experts by any stretch of the imagination, we were in a quandry as to what winery to visit. When in doubt go with a known quantity. So one of the first on the map was Robert Mondavi. We'd had their wine at one time or another so we decided to go there and take a tour and do the wine tasting thing. We arrived and as usual, our punctuality meant we had to do a bit of waiting. We decided to wait in the arrival archway until our tour was called up. The winery itself is situated in a lovely spot and there was a wonderfully cool breeze that made it just heavenly to wait there.

Being an amateur photographer, I was constantly on the prowl for nice pictures to take, unusual architecture or something that caught my eye. As we sat and talked and waited, we all realized that there was a certain spot under the arch that virtually everyone chose to take a picture in. It was odd how many people came up at random in their groups and took pictures on that exact same spot. I asked Amar to take my photograph there to see if our theory would hold true. Hey, we had the time before our tour started so we figured it would be a funny way to pass the time. Sure enough, shortly after I took this photograph another couple came up and took their photo there, on almost the exact spot I had pointed out.

It was almost like being at Disney World where everyone wants a picture with Mickey Mouse but in this case there was nothing there other than an arch and some beautiful scenery in the background. There was no magical sign pointing the spot out nor was there a line of people following one another blindly to that spot. There was just a steady stream of people coming up there and taking pictures. There's something inherently beautiful with certain spots in the world. Even the worst photographers in us seem drawn to those spots; so much so that even if we only ever take one good photograph, it will be at that one spot. It's heartening to know that sometimes, some of the things we think are beautiful are seen as beautiful by everyone else as well.