2 Senior Southerners Visit California -- Post 4: My 3 Favorite Moments

You have them, I'm sure.  Tiny capsules of time that will stay with you forever.  From our California trip, I have identified 3 that were my absolute favorite moments of the trip.

1)  After spending the first three days in and around the city of San Francisco, riding a cable car, eating sourdough bread and seafood on the Wharf, taking a boat cruise around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge, and experiencing cool, foggy mornings burn off into warm, sunny afternoons, our tour bus crossed the bridge for the final time and headed out of town toward Yosemite National Park.  Our Tour Guide made the brilliant suggestion for us to all just be quiet and listen to Tony Bennett's version of his iconic song:  "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."  For a music lover like me, it was sheer perfection.  The best possible song played at the best possible time.

"The loveliness of Paris 
Seems somehow sadly gay 

The glory that was Rome 
Is of another day 

I've been terribly alone 
And forgotten in Manhattan 
I'm going home to my city by the bay.

I left my heart in San Francisco 
High on a hill, it calls to me. 
To be where little cable cars 
Climb halfway to the stars! 
The morning fog may chill the air 
I don't care! 
My love waits there in San Francisco 
Above the blue and windy sea 
When I come home to you, San Francisco, 
Your golden sun will shine for me!"

Happily, I "took my heart to San Francisco" (Silver Fox himself), but I got to bring him right back home with me.  :)

2) I was awed by the natural splendor of Yosemite National Park.  The thunderous waterfalls.  The towering walls of granite.  The rushing river.  The majestic trees.  The air was so clean, and the sights were so magnificent, I just couldn't imagine a more splendid example of God as Creator.

3) When we got to Hollywood, our group made a tour of the SONY Studios buildings and grounds.  It was okay, interesting but not particularly gripping .  . . . . UNTIL. . . .

We were led into a sound stage/studio.  Microphones, movie screens, music stands and equipment, director's podium, mixing boards, the works.  And then, the guide said, "In this room on this spot (as he pointed) is where Judy Garland stood when she recorded "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for the movie The Wizard of Oz." All of a sudden I felt I had entered a kind of wonderland.  The guide went on to describe how John Williams went about scoring the soundtracks for E.T. and Star Wars also in the same room.  We weren't allowed to make pictures, and it's just as well because pictures could not have captured the magic of that place in my mind.  Another perfect moment that I will savor for a long time to come.