LIVERMORE -- For years, Alex Dourov
relied on newspaper listings to find valley homes twinkling with holiday
lights that he and his family could ogle.
The paper certainly was helpful, the Livermore man said,
but inevitably, the carload of Dourovs would get lost or, worse yet,
stumble on a stinker.
"What may be excellent and beautiful to me may not be for
the next person," Dourov said. "People sometimes nominate the neighbor or
themselves just for the heck of it."
What seasonal sightseers needed, he thought, were maps and pictures to
determine for themselves which houses were worth a visit.
With that idea and 20 hours of work, Dourov created the Lights of the
Valley (www.utkaduck.com/valleylights)
site on the World Wide Web.
Visitors to the Web site can preview Livermore and Pleasanton houses
with holiday decorations before rounding up the family and hopping in the
car.
More than 30 lighted displays were listed on Dourov's site as of
Friday. Clicking on small photos of the houses yields larger views, while
addresses provide links to instantly-generated maps.
Dourov, a Web page designer by trade, takes the photos while checking
out the lights with his family. He scans them in and posts them to the
site.
There are the cartoon characters on Leland Way and on Candy Court in
Livermore. There are the animated figures on Calle Reynoso in Pleasanton.
And of course, valley fixture Deacon Dave's place is listed. As if the
glow from the Dave Rezendes house on Hillcrest Avenue weren't enough to
attract attention, Lights of the Valley offers up several previews of the
193,000-light spectacle. Captured in the snapshots are 33,000 more lights
than last year; they need to be powered through an industrial transformer
that PG&E recently installed nearby.
Also appearing on the site is the Jefferson Avenue house of Dave &
Donna Van Arkel, whose relatives back East and in Albuquerque, N.M. can
share the spirit online, Donna Van Arkel said.
"I thanked (Dourov) so much because I think it's a wonderful idea,
especially for the people who can't get out," Van Arkel said.
Julie Fairclough, whose house on Alysia Court is part of a neighborhood
decorating effort, said getting a map to exhibits of exterior illumination
is invaluable.
"We go out several times a season," Fairclough said. "We usually drive
around a lot."
Dourov said response has been heavy since the site went up last
weekend. About 2,000 people from places as far off as the United Kingdom,
Sweden and Japan have visited the site.
They're not likely to make their way to the Tri-Valley to look at the
lights. But the folks from places like Dublin, Walnut Creek and Pleasant
Hill have been asking Dourov when the site will include houses in their
locales.
"We've got eight houses we're going to visit tonight," he said Friday.
"But if I can get volunteers to send in pictures, it can spread into
Contra Costa."
Brian Anderson covers general assignment stories. Reach him at
925-847-2121 or banderson2@cctimes.com.
