John and Kate G. suggested we look at San Juan Bautista (established in 1797), a short drive south of San Jose, as a first stop as we continued on our way to L.A. San Juan B. is a Spanish Mission church, now mostly a museum, but a side room is still used for Sunday services. The church, an old hotel and several other Spanish era buildings are grouped around a grassy plaza -- it's all very interesting, the church in particular is worth a look -- (Among other things, some of the original hand made and sun dried floor tiles have dog foot prints in them. Accidental, I would guess).
Three bus loads of primary and middle school kids were unloading just when we got there, so while we got a fair look around, we didn't stay as long as we otherwise might have. A small item of historical interest: part of the original El Camino Real runs just east of the site. It's dirt / gravel about the width of a one lane road and still could be used after more than 300 years.
(In many places hwy 1 is El Camino Real with pavement. The route has been marked with 12 foot high poles, shaped like a shepherd's crook and topped with a bell)
The SJB town itself is a pleasant small town. We did a minor bit of looking around. One shop had a display of Mexican Day Of The Dead figures, skulls, tableau etc. One item, a tin cut-out eight inch tall female skeleton with a Carmen Miranda hat, red skirt and big glued on boobs, caught my eye but alas the store wasn't open.
We stopped at Carmel and Monterey and looked at several art galleries. As would be expected the craft work (furniture, jewelry, pottery, etc.) was exceptionally good, while the painting and sculpture and other "fine art" was mostly mediocre with only some excellent work. Galleries, like any business, display what will sell and generally speaking, realism and non-experimental art work are what keeps galleries open. dw did see a print of a cat that she liked (as did I), but the printmaker was sloppy and the print (38/100) was missing some crucial detail. dw had some -- should I or shouldn't I -- moments but decided to pass. Otherwise, we didn't see anything we could afford that we also wanted to buy.
We drove the Big Sur coastal road (which is indeed beautiful) and spent the night at San Simeon. The town has six motels, the worst quickie-mart in the U.S. -- staffed by a very pleasant pyramid shaped middle aged woman who had not a hint of shoulders -- and nothing else. -- Really. San Simeon, the town, has absolutely nothing. Not a river or stream, not a beach, nobody peeing on a lamppost, not even a cow mooing in the night. --- nothing ---
In the morning we took a tour of Hearst Castle. That was interesting and we spent some time walking around the grounds, looking at plantings, pools, out-buildings, statues etc. The tour of the house itself frankly was a rip-off. The actual house tour went through only four rooms and the rather plain and modest sized movie theater. I'm glad we stopped but the in-house part of the morning was entirely inadequate. Otherwise, the place is impressive. I was surprised -- the buildings and grounds were as ostentatious as expected, but in much better taste than I thought it would be. Over all, only because of the time spent wandering freely around the grounds, a two thumbs up experience.
(Hearst statuary, Hearst details 1 and 2, Princess Leia you scamp!, outdoor pool, Hearst Castle)
After the tour we stopped at a store / wine tasting room / greasy spoon just across the highway from the Castle entrance. We each had a hamburger -- a heart attack on a plate -- they were delicious. Big, piled with onions, tomatoes, lettuce a large patty of grass-fed Hearst meat -- well seasoned and dripping with grease -- wonderful stuff -- I had to use a knife and fork to eat it. It was too over the top to just use your hands. We did pass on the wine tasting since it was only noon and we would still be driving.
For the rest of the day we stopped at Der Solvang and visited several Der art galleries and a Der pottery shop and had a Der ice cream cone from a Der candy store. Der Solvang is just fixed up -- Yodeling Heidi style -- to death. Solvang does have a "Big Bopper" hamburger joint. I thought of sticking my head in and singing a few bars of "Chantilly Lace and a pretty face" but since I'm a nice guy I didn't. The people who work there probably had enough of that 50 years ago.
We stopped at Pismo Beach and Goleta Beach for the Monarch Butterfly groves. There are several sites along the California coast where Monarchs over-winter and those two sites are among the best for looking at them. This wasn't one of the better years but it was still interesting. They fold their wings when they cluster so they mostly look like clumps of dry brown leaves. It still was a worthwhile phenomena to stop and see.
We also drove through (but didn't stop in) Buellton. Some of you may not know that Buellton is the Pea Soup Capital Of The World. Earlier we had driven through Castroville: The Artichoke Capital Of the World. On previous trips we've driven through Waddington, NY: The Carp Capital Of The World ---- Kelso, WA: The Smelt Capital Of The World ---- and Blackfoot, ID: The Potato Capital Of The World. We've nearly completed a Full Meal Capital Of The World.
Madonna Inn, listed on California maps as a point of interest was another stop. Madonna Inn is named after it's founder, not the Madonna. It's a large pink and white confection of rooms, dinner / dance hall, restaurant, wine cellar, candy store, cheese shop, and souvenir store.
Madonna, the founder, co-owned a ranch with John Wayne and was friends with Hearst so the place is full of (name of movie star)-slept here-memorabilia. It's also chock full of pink and white, red and white, other and white -- kitsch. After Der Solvang where the visitors center recommended the Thomas Kinkade Gallery for our art gallery fix, the visit to the Madonna Inn put us into dangerous territory: When a person gets too immersed in schlock there's a danger you'll start thinking it looks good and you might actually buy a velvet painting of a pink piggy bank in a tutu. (A pink Elvis in a tutu would be another story).
We finished the day's drive at Ventura. Walked around a bit after we got a room. We found Perry Mason's office (actually the office of Earl Stanley Gardner) -memorialized with a bronze plaque. (of interest to many Portlanders: One local station ran Perry Mason re-runs at noon weekdays for 46 years) And I found out that Ventura's actual name is San Buenaventura -- although it hasn't been called that for a hundred years.
---- Travel usually includes moments of danger, not including buying a singing Santa doll dressed in a pink tutu. A lesser early one, familiar to Oregon drivers, is the speed trap set up by Coburg just north of Eugene. Coburg expanded its city limits to include a section of the I-5 freeway and uses a speed trap to largely fund the city.
Of more interest, however, is the potassium iodide tablet give-away program set up by San Luis Obispo Public Health Department. If there's a need, residents (although not tourists -- such as us) can get free iodide tablets --- not at the Monitoring and Decontamination Reception Center (!), but at several other places. Why do they do such a thing? On the coast, nearly centered in the county and just a few miles from San Luis Obispo the town, is the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Reactor power plant. The reactor is built near 2 or 3 faults and directly over another fault (let's take a moment to think about Japan)
San Luis Obispo is considered one of the best places to live in the country. Hmmmm. By whom?
Word of the day: "Sheeple" -- people likened to sheep for being docile, foolish or impressionable.
Milder than some words, but still useful in political discussions.
And along the same line: "If someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists." -- Antoine de
Saint-Exupery -- With all due regard to Antoine, what if you want a goat? If you want a goat are
you suddenly like Schrodinger's Cat -- neither here nor there? And so it goes. DJA
(In many places hwy 1 is El Camino Real with pavement. The route has been marked with 12 foot high poles, shaped like a shepherd's crook and topped with a bell)
The SJB town itself is a pleasant small town. We did a minor bit of looking around. One shop had a display of Mexican Day Of The Dead figures, skulls, tableau etc. One item, a tin cut-out eight inch tall female skeleton with a Carmen Miranda hat, red skirt and big glued on boobs, caught my eye but alas the store wasn't open.
We stopped at Carmel and Monterey and looked at several art galleries. As would be expected the craft work (furniture, jewelry, pottery, etc.) was exceptionally good, while the painting and sculpture and other "fine art" was mostly mediocre with only some excellent work. Galleries, like any business, display what will sell and generally speaking, realism and non-experimental art work are what keeps galleries open. dw did see a print of a cat that she liked (as did I), but the printmaker was sloppy and the print (38/100) was missing some crucial detail. dw had some -- should I or shouldn't I -- moments but decided to pass. Otherwise, we didn't see anything we could afford that we also wanted to buy.
We drove the Big Sur coastal road (which is indeed beautiful) and spent the night at San Simeon. The town has six motels, the worst quickie-mart in the U.S. -- staffed by a very pleasant pyramid shaped middle aged woman who had not a hint of shoulders -- and nothing else. -- Really. San Simeon, the town, has absolutely nothing. Not a river or stream, not a beach, nobody peeing on a lamppost, not even a cow mooing in the night. --- nothing ---
In the morning we took a tour of Hearst Castle. That was interesting and we spent some time walking around the grounds, looking at plantings, pools, out-buildings, statues etc. The tour of the house itself frankly was a rip-off. The actual house tour went through only four rooms and the rather plain and modest sized movie theater. I'm glad we stopped but the in-house part of the morning was entirely inadequate. Otherwise, the place is impressive. I was surprised -- the buildings and grounds were as ostentatious as expected, but in much better taste than I thought it would be. Over all, only because of the time spent wandering freely around the grounds, a two thumbs up experience.
(Hearst statuary, Hearst details 1 and 2, Princess Leia you scamp!, outdoor pool, Hearst Castle)
For the rest of the day we stopped at Der Solvang and visited several Der art galleries and a Der pottery shop and had a Der ice cream cone from a Der candy store. Der Solvang is just fixed up -- Yodeling Heidi style -- to death. Solvang does have a "Big Bopper" hamburger joint. I thought of sticking my head in and singing a few bars of "Chantilly Lace and a pretty face" but since I'm a nice guy I didn't. The people who work there probably had enough of that 50 years ago.
We stopped at Pismo Beach and Goleta Beach for the Monarch Butterfly groves. There are several sites along the California coast where Monarchs over-winter and those two sites are among the best for looking at them. This wasn't one of the better years but it was still interesting. They fold their wings when they cluster so they mostly look like clumps of dry brown leaves. It still was a worthwhile phenomena to stop and see.
We also drove through (but didn't stop in) Buellton. Some of you may not know that Buellton is the Pea Soup Capital Of The World. Earlier we had driven through Castroville: The Artichoke Capital Of the World. On previous trips we've driven through Waddington, NY: The Carp Capital Of The World ---- Kelso, WA: The Smelt Capital Of The World ---- and Blackfoot, ID: The Potato Capital Of The World. We've nearly completed a Full Meal Capital Of The World.
Madonna Inn, listed on California maps as a point of interest was another stop. Madonna Inn is named after it's founder, not the Madonna. It's a large pink and white confection of rooms, dinner / dance hall, restaurant, wine cellar, candy store, cheese shop, and souvenir store.
Madonna, the founder, co-owned a ranch with John Wayne and was friends with Hearst so the place is full of (name of movie star)-slept here-memorabilia. It's also chock full of pink and white, red and white, other and white -- kitsch. After Der Solvang where the visitors center recommended the Thomas Kinkade Gallery for our art gallery fix, the visit to the Madonna Inn put us into dangerous territory: When a person gets too immersed in schlock there's a danger you'll start thinking it looks good and you might actually buy a velvet painting of a pink piggy bank in a tutu. (A pink Elvis in a tutu would be another story).
We finished the day's drive at Ventura. Walked around a bit after we got a room. We found Perry Mason's office (actually the office of Earl Stanley Gardner) -memorialized with a bronze plaque. (of interest to many Portlanders: One local station ran Perry Mason re-runs at noon weekdays for 46 years) And I found out that Ventura's actual name is San Buenaventura -- although it hasn't been called that for a hundred years.
---- Travel usually includes moments of danger, not including buying a singing Santa doll dressed in a pink tutu. A lesser early one, familiar to Oregon drivers, is the speed trap set up by Coburg just north of Eugene. Coburg expanded its city limits to include a section of the I-5 freeway and uses a speed trap to largely fund the city.
Of more interest, however, is the potassium iodide tablet give-away program set up by San Luis Obispo Public Health Department. If there's a need, residents (although not tourists -- such as us) can get free iodide tablets --- not at the Monitoring and Decontamination Reception Center (!), but at several other places. Why do they do such a thing? On the coast, nearly centered in the county and just a few miles from San Luis Obispo the town, is the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Reactor power plant. The reactor is built near 2 or 3 faults and directly over another fault (let's take a moment to think about Japan)
San Luis Obispo is considered one of the best places to live in the country. Hmmmm. By whom?
Word of the day: "Sheeple" -- people likened to sheep for being docile, foolish or impressionable.
Milder than some words, but still useful in political discussions.
And along the same line: "If someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists." -- Antoine de
Saint-Exupery -- With all due regard to Antoine, what if you want a goat? If you want a goat are
you suddenly like Schrodinger's Cat -- neither here nor there? And so it goes. DJA
