This book is a visual celebration of California. It includes pictures taken by Julian Lippi, and a few by me. It also includes select quotes and book passages focusing on how different people from very different walks of life see and experience California ... So, I have combined these elements to create a portfolio of the diversity and richness that is California ... its enormous contrasts from coast to desert, its natural landscapes and its urban vistas ... its wonderful art collections and the sensational places that house them; its architecture - old and new, and the dazzling and varied plant life; its Spanish heritage; its domination of and by man made transportation - autos , trains and planes and the oil that gave them life and finally the people who live there and give it its character.