Before even entering the magnificent city of Florence we are greeted by a grand overlook of the entire city underneath a replica of the David statue. Besides, the overlook from the Campanile in Venice, this was one of the coolest city overlooks I have ever seen. All of Florence lays before you, you can see Il Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, spires from cathedrals, and all the wonderful components that make up the glory that is Florence

It is so very strange how different this city is than any I have been to in the United States. There is such a grace and splendor that emanates from this city that is not present elsewhere.

You can feel the Renaissance as if it happened yesterday. You can feel the presence of some of the greatest minds of all time, living here. Walking the streets that they once walked. Seeing the sights they say as part of their daily routines. This is the city of minds, of rebirth and discovery.

The Ponte Vecchio, a bridge that is full of artisan splendor, with jewelry shops hanging from the sides of the bridges and on either side the main fairways of Florence.

This is a city that cannot only be seen from an overlook and enjoyed because the real life of the city can be found walking through the streets between works and houses of the greats. Once you enter Florence, it will never be the same.

Venice is extraordinary and one of its most stunning assets is Piazza San Marco. A massive square which contains the Campanile, St. Mark’s Basilica, and lots of pigeons.

Filled with tourists, this place can seem overwhelming but there is so much beauty and awe-inspiring architecture in this small area that it truly can blow your mind.

First and foremost is the Campanile, which at my new home at UC Berkeley lies a close cousin of this monumental tower. The dazzling brick monolith stands high above all else in Venice and stands as a musical guardian over the city.

We waited in quite a line  to get into the tower and then crammed in a stylish elevator for a ride up to the highest point in the city. The view was in no way disappointing.

It seems like the whole city is within your grasp. Huge expanses of red roofs, rising cathedral of church towers and twisting streets gripping the sides of dark waterways. There really is nothing like it. Looking over the giant square that is the piazza and turning every which way and seeing red roofs for what feels like miles.

In the Piazza itself was an amusing spectacle. Hundreds of pigeons filling the square where people where feeding them and letting them crawl all over them. It was extremely entertaining to watch but I would never let those gross rats with wings touch me. More photos of this will be seen later.

The Basilica was beyond words. This overly ornate structure is a house of gods built by thieves. A strange concept to build a holy structure entirely constructed of goods that were stolen from other places like Constantinople or any of the other numerous Venetian neighbors. It amounted to quite a spectacle.

The inside of the church was covered in gold and the most amazing feats of architecture. It is a strange concept though, if not an hypocritical one to build a church out of stolen goods. Whether the grounds of which this place was constructed is correct or not, it still amounted to an intricate and stunning structure that is nearly indescribable.

The Piazza San Marco was an amazing and awe inspiring place, it is still hard to believe that the Venetians were able to squeeze that much beauty into a small square.

It was gorgeous, one of the most exquisite sunrises I have ever had the pleasure of watching. The way that the sun peeked over the mountains and seemed to crawl across the dunes was near magical.

With the sun newly risen, another aspect of this desert land was revealed to us; the texture. The lines and contours that have been etched into this land are amazing. The sun really accents its natural beauty and exaggerates the shape through definition.

There is so much beauty hidden in this desert it continues to amaze me. People assume that a place like Death Valley is barren, godforsaken land, but it is in a place like this that people can truly feel near god or some unearthly presence. Here, and every where around us is beauty, we just have to open our eyes and find it ourselves.

But a place of beauty is still incomplete without a bit of fun. My mom and I went down into the crease of the dunes to mess around. We played with the puzzle like pieces of dried river bed.

And even played with our own exaggerated shadows stretching across the desert floor. M for Multer, go travel buddies!!!

The dead heat of the afternoon was slowly creeping in around us so we quickly made our way out of the desert and moved onward to our next stop. Though ultimately our next stop was Yosemite, we made a stop along the way in Manzanar Historic National Park.

For those of you unfamiliar with this park, it is an old Japanese internment camp turned into a place of reflection and historical contemplation. Set beneath the beautiful snow-capped mountains near Mt. Whitney, this one square mile of land was once reserved for the relocated Japanese in California. It is intriguing and saddening to visit this place but most of all for me at least, it is a place to consider the decision of the past and wonder what the decision of the future may hold through the reflection and remembrance of a place such as this. The pillar in the cemetery here really brings this idea to the foreground.

Tokens of remembrance are left here like the long chains of paper cranes and coins for those who once had to call this place home. We can only wonder and remember this time where the world seemed a little darker for everyone.

After this stop we made our way upwards towards Yosemite with one more small stop along the way, Mono Lake. This unique lake is saltier than the ocean and is surrounded by strange monoliths that look like coral that wound up out of the water.

It si a strangely beautiful place, with blue-green waters and the snowy mountains behind it, these spires have an amazing location. Stuck between summer and winter, this strange place stands solitary.

There is almost no wildlife here to speak of except two species. The exotic seagull,

and it’s swarming food source, the Alkali Fly.

They sit in droves at the salty shores and only seem to move at the disturbance of humans. Upon which they rise up and swarm in black masses until the intruder is forced to run away due to fear of choking from the massive amounts of flies. Terrifying really…

Moving on, we finally made it to Tioga Pass, the entrance to Yosemite. This was quite a turn around because all of a sudden we found ourselves surrounded by deep snow banks and extreme snow run off.

In one day, we had gone from 108 degree deserts to snow laden valleys. It was quite a shock and seemed like this single dy had spanned weeks. However it was a very nice way to return home, what better views are there when returning home than half dome? Ok there are some but it was pretty nice!

It was a day that seemed to last forever but finally we found our way home. So here we are, safe and sound after a long week of adventure. As always, I am ready for more

Only life’s most beautiful artifacts can be found were no one would expect life to thrive.

My mom and I started out the day with a long hike up on top of a mesa. It was difficult but entirely worth it. We had to climb up the face of the red rock mountain. It was beautiful with the red rocks contrasting against the blue sky painted with delicate clouds.

From the top of the mesa we could see the entire town and all of the monoliths surrounding us. We were standing amid the giants of Sedona and it was amazing.

Probably my favorite part of the hike was the overlook of a huge red rock monolith. There are mitten shaped rocks like those in Monument Valley, but this was not just a mitten rock but an awkward turtle rock. A double-sided mitten.

After the hike my mom and I set out on an adventure in search of indian ruins around Flagstaff. First on the list was Walnut Canyon National Park.

We had to climb down into a canyon via 285 feet of stairs. It was quite an interesting descent into this dry canyon. FRom there we had to walk around a little island of sorts to find the ruins which were imbedded in the walls of the canyon.

We got to climb into and explore inside of the ruins but still, hard to compare to Mesa Verde. Next up was Wupatki indian ruins.

The ruins were on top of an oddly balanced rock and we could climb around in them. It was nice to see this huge pueblo house in the middle of the painted desert.

Then we headed to another section of ruins in the park that were comprised of three parts.

It was a long and exciting day full of adventure. We are staying another night in Sedona before moving onto Phoenix for more adventure. We will see what the next few days hold for us as Spring Break winds down.

It is amazing to stand on the edge of a huge precipice that seems to stretch on forever knowing that I have now been on both sides. I would love to go across the canyon at some point in my life.

It is hard to imagine that there is so much beauty everywhere in the world. Without seeing things like this, I would never have believed that just around the corner is an amazing sight like this.

Out on this white pillar I spotted another rare sight hidden in the trees. It was making strange sounds and crawling around in the bushes. So of course I went to investigate.  There in the bushes was…..

The Gabriel! He was only one of many interesting sights we saw. The Colorado River could be sen far below in the canyon.

The colors were phenomenal and created such depth in the canyon that the entire canyon was just breath-taking.

At the edge of the East side of the canyon was the Watchtower. An impressive tower that you could climb into and overlook the canyon.

We also found some ruins that were interesting. However, no indian ruins seem nearly as impressive as Mesa Verde was.

We ended our day by taking a quick visit to Sunset Crater Volcanic National Monument. It was slightly disapoointing because there was no crater you could go see, just volcanic rock.

It was a long but impressive day. Tomorrow we are exploring Sedona!

Within an animals eyes lies all their beauty.

Then we started out on our long days journey to Lamar Valley. We saw all sorts of animals including coyotes, bison, elk, bald eagles, and big horns. However most of them were to far away to get actually decent photos of them. The big horns however decided to cooperate with us and get close enough to photo graph as they ate their lunch.

After that my dad and i went snowshoeing into a canyon at Pebble Creek. It was beautiful, with high stony walls, snow hatted rocks and a partially frozen river.

Due to fear that we may have been very close to encroaching upon a bear den we decided to take the safe route and return to our car for lunch. After that we headed out to see if the otters from last year were still in their same spot. Sadly we saw no otters today but hope to see them soon.

It was a beautiful day but the wildlife wasn’t super active. I am hoping for more activity tomorrow and hopefully some wolves. For now it was just another beautiful day in Yellowstone.

It is always the most interesting type of beauty that can be found within the dead and withered objects. The things you believe are beyond the beauty of life and have passed over into a place where only death is. Often, however, it seems that these dead things carry their own beauty. A distinct majesty from the living beauty that stands far a part from any normal type of beauty. It seems there is even beauty in death. The withered and the dying, a beauty that is not from a world we can fully understand. Instead, a beauty that awaits us for a certain time and until then we can not fully understand this withered and dead beauty, just what it could mean.