California - 2007

Between June 19 and June 24 we will be in California to attend a wedding of the daughter of one of my best friends - Johnny Elias. Given this opportunity we will also visit Monterey the setting of Steinbeck's novel - Cannery Row, Big Sur and also the Hearst Castle at San Simeon. Postings to this site will begin around June 20.

June 19 High Bridge to San Francisco

After an uneventful flight from Newark to San Francisco we settled into our motel before venturing out into San Francisco. We didn't have much in mind as we were both tired from lack of sleep the night before. The night before a trip is always tough to fall asleep. After dinner at a Mexican restaurant which was good but way too overpriced we took a ride to San Francisco to take a peel at the Golden Gate Bridge. we drove up the Embarcadero to Fort Point Park with an intermediate stop in the Marina district to see the grounds of the Palace of Fine Arts. By the time we got back to the motel in South San Francisco our bodies were telling us it was 12:00 midnight.

Once again - The Rock - Alcatraz

Palace of Fine Arts from the Pan Am Exhibition

Swans on the grounds of the Palace of Fine Arts

Golden Gate Bridge with a freighter under.

June 20 SF to 17 Mile Drive,  Monterey, CA

Today we drove down to Monterey to drive the scenic 17 Mile Drive along the the Pacific Ocean below Monterey Bay and amongst the numerous golf courses of Pebble Beach. I have no interest in golf but we had heard that the drive is spectacular. In Gilroy we stopped at the visitors center to see where the famous garlic festival is held in the last full weekend of July and to find the best route to Monterey. The map I had of California wasn't worth a damn so professional help was needed. The hostess of the center was most helpful.  There is a AAA in Monterey and tomorrow I will have a worthwhile map for the drive to San Simeon thru Big Sur.

The 17 Mile Drive in Monterey is a paid attraction which costs you at this time $9.00 per car. There are numerous turnouts for views of the rocky shoreline. At some spots, golf fairways intermingle with the turnouts but these are clearly marked - Private Property - No Trespassing. We took about three leisurely hours driving the round trip from the Pacific Grove entrance. For a lunch break we made do with a bag of potato chips purchased from the Pebble Beach Market. As a visitor you are allowed to purchase beer and wine along with your sandwiches but you are not allowed to consume alcohol in the picnic area next to the store. I guess they don't want any drunken of the street rif - raf hanging out in Pebble Beach. The views from the lookouts were spectacular, The homes along the road were spectacular also but I couldn't get any photos as the turnouts were in non populated areas and there was no parking where the homes were. The lady in Gilroy told us that a lot of the homes in Pebble Beach are only in use for short periods while the owners are not away in their other digs. There were for sale signs on some of the properties. I wonder how much?

Rocky coast along the 17 Mile Drive

Bird Rock - It was covered with the critters.

Looking past Carmel Bay to the beginning of Big Sur

Seals were making a living on these rocks

The Lonely Cypress - Symbol of the Pebble Beach Company

Coast View 17 Mile Drive

The Ghost Tree - 17 Mile Drive

Why they call it Pebble Beach

 June 20 Around Cannery Row, Monterey Ca.

Monterey up until around 1960 had a flourishing fish canning industry based around the sardine fishing fleet. At its busiest time during the early 1940's 245k tons of sardines were processed in the numerous canning houses annually. The fishing for sardines would take place on nights with no full moon when the when the fishermen could spot the luminescence coming from the fish. The fleet would return in the morning and the processing would start in the canneries. While this was a dirty and terribly odorous job most people called it the "Smell of Prosperity" After the mid 1940's the catch of sardines plummeted. One of the local fish biologists was asked "Why aren't there any sardines? His answer was - "They are all in cans" By the early 1960's all of the canneries were closed. John Steinbeck immortalized the rough life in Monterey in his book - Cannery Row.

Cannery Row nowdays has no resemblance to the earlier time. The cannery plants are gone and have been replaced by shops and restaurants. Some of the building shells are evident. In one section of Cannery Row concrete buildings are going up replace demolished structures. The cannery workers have been displaced by people serving the numerous tourists just like us. Monterey has a thriving tourist business. One of the cannery buildings has been replaced by the Monterey Aquarium.

Typical Cannery Row living shack

Fisheries Laboratory

Cannery Row now

Boat loaded with sardines coming into Monterey

John Steinbeck is dead and so is Cannery Row

Inside a canning plant

Inside a canning plant

June 21 Monterey, Ca to San Simeon via Big Sur

We started the day off with a visit to the statue of Fr. Juniopero Serra on the grounds of the Presidio in Monterey . This was the spot where the first Catholic Mass was celebrated in Monterey. Subsequently a crude fortress had been built on this hill overlooking what is now Fisherman's Wharf. In 1818 two privateers from Argentina had attacked this fort and sacked and burned Monterey. The occupation lasted about two weeks which gave the Argentinians enough time to refill their supplies and leave. I never knew that the Argentine flag once flew over what was to become a part of the US. We then drove to Carmel to visit the Mission Carmel. This Mission was the second mission established in California by Fr. J. Serra with the first one being in San Diego. The mission was established here in the 1770's but was not finished at the time of Junipero Serra's death in 1784. While the Catholic Church remained the official religion of Mexico, the Mission grew and prospered. In 1832 Mexico declared a separation of church and state and the Mission in Carmel became one of the victims of the loss of government support. By the 1880's the church basilica had collapsed. At the urging of Robert Louis Stevenson, Mrs. Leland Stanford donated the funds to restore the main basilica. Subsequent restorations have brought the site to its present state. We spent about and hour and a half walking looking around this site. In the beginning I had to contend with the tripod people. A photography club was on tour and the courtyard was filed with tripods. I joked with the visitors that their tripods were blanking out the sun. Eventually they moved on and we were able to get some good shots of our own.

From Carmel we set out on the 90+ mile drive to San Simeon via Pacific Coast Highway through the area known as Big Sur. The road follows the coast line and is mostly situated on edges of cliffs with drops of several hundered feet to the water. In many spots there are no guard rails. There are numerous vista turnouts and the scenery is spectacular. We took about 5 hours to traverse the distance. About an hour of that was lost at lunch. It seemed that a lot of other people had the same idea to drive the route. At some of the turnouts, people were painting the scenes in front of them. We saw numerous residences tucked into the sides of the cliffs but these were not organized around population centers. I believe we saw 3 gas stations along this route between Carmel and SanSimeon. Before San Simeon is a beach that is populated by Elephant Seals. We stopped to watch the males playing mock battle games while waiting to molt their skins and get ready for the mating season. there was a lot of jousting going on.

San Simeon is a town with a population of 450. It's main reason for existence is the Hearst Castle which is only 5 miles away. We spotted at least 10 motels in town. The woman at the gift shop next to our motel said that the town is mainly composed of retirees and people working in the tourist industry. a lot of the retirees volunteer their time at the Hearst Castle.

Mission Carmel without the tripod army

Altar of the Carmel Mission

Italian Nativity set at the Carmel Mission

Mission from the courtyard

What the basilica looked like in 1880's

Altar cross from the first restoration in 1880's

Along the Pacific Coast Highway

Along the Pacific Coast Highway

One of numerous bridges spanning canyons

Along the Pacific Coast Highway

Another of the canyon crossing bridges on the Pacific Coast Highway

Along the Pacific coast Highway

Elephant seals mock fighing in the water

Beached elephant seal

Elephant seals at rest and play.

 June 22 San Simeon to Livermore, Ca

Today we started off the day with a visit to the Hearst Castle at San Simeon. The onetime home of William Randolph Hearst was deeded to the State of California upon his death and is now run as a Historical Museum. The transfer included only approximately 130 acres and buildings thereon. The balance of the huge land holdings are still in the Hearst Family and a huge beef cattle operation is the primary activity. William Randolph was in his 50's when he acquired the property upon his fathers death. His father George Hearst had acquired his wealth in mining operations throughout the world. By this time William had already accumulated a vast publishing empire starting in San Francisco. Having spent a lot of time on his fathers property in his youth he realized his dream of building a "Ranch" in the style of a castle.

The tour of the "Castle" starts in the visitors center which is 5 miles by twisting road from the castle itself. We started by watching an interesting movie detailing the building of the castle and then proceeded to the buses for our tour. There are basically 4 tours available and we selected the introductory tour. Each tour lasts approximately 2 hours but one of the rules here is that each tour must begin and  end at the visitors center. If you were taking back to back tours you would be taking the bus back down the mountain and then getting on another to ride right back up. We also took this tour as this involved the least amount of steps - 150. Some of the other tours include in excess of 300 steps. There are no elevators in the building. In our tour we started of at the Neptune Pool, passed thru one of the guest houses and then proceeded thru the first floor of the "Casa Grande" visiting the assembly hall, dining room, movie theater and then ended at the indoor Roman pool. The house is filled with museum quality in statues, tapestry and paintings. Reading a book on WRH would make for interesting reading.

After the visit we needed to return to the San Francisco area. We didn't select the Pacific Coast Highway as the route as that would have been too time consuming and besides we did it the day before in the other direction. We crossed over the Pacific Coast Range to Paso Robles and picked up US 101. At San Miguel we stopped to visit the Mission of San Miguel Arcangel. This Mission is listed in the AAA book as being one of the most intact of the old Spanish Missions. The property is huge and still run by the church. The Franciscan order uses the facility to train those preparing for priesthood. We were only ble to visit a small portion of the Mission and the guest house. The majority of the facility including the church building were declared unsafe for use following an earthquake 4 years ago. The portion that we did visit had been restored at a cost of 3 million and now funds were being collected for the balance. Being a church property, the site will not be getting federal aid for restoration purposes. I also learned more about the secularization process carried out in the 1830's. Basically, with the separation of church and state, the government confiscated the majority of the churches properties. Thus the missions were broken up. The mission at San Miguel was returned to the church by President Buchanan upon the annexation of California into the USA. An interesting site and my best wishes to them in recovery.

Old One Room Schoolhouse in Old San Simeon

Castle from the air

View of Patio at Castle

Neptune Pool at Castle

Guesthouse at the Castle

View over the Pacific from the Castle

Castle - Main Building

Dining Room

Indoor Pool Diving Platform

Indoor Pool

Mission San Miguel Arcangel Outer walls

Covered Walkway at Mission San Miguel Arcangel

Outdoor altar at Mission San Miguel

Outer Wall Basilica at Mission San Miguel

Bell Tower ar Mission San Miguel

 June 23 (AM) Legion of Honor Art Gallery and the Wedding in Livermore

 Since the wedding that prompted this whole trip wasn't until 5:00 PM we took an hours ride into San Francisco to visit the Legion of Honor Art Gallery within the grounds of the Presidio Park. We spent over two hours in this museum which contains mostly European art by the masters. The lower floor has a lot of antiquities. It is a fabulous museum which doesn't prohibit photographs as long as no flash is used. I took many shots and am displaying only a small portion of the ones I took. For some I didn't get the name of the artist or the name of the painting or sculpture.

St. Boniface wooden carving almost lifesize = pre 1600

The Choir Boy by the Candlelight Master - one of my alltime favorites

Peter Paul Rubens - The Tribute Money

The Brides Attire by Konstantin Makowski

Dorothy Spreckles Munn by Salvador Dali another of my favorites

June 23 (PM) The Wedding in Livermore

In the late afternoon we attended the wedding of Kylara Elias to Robert Parker. Kylara is the daughter of one of my closest friends from my days at BASF - Johnny Elias. I have known Johnny since 1986 when we first met in Freeport, Texas. After that we worked together on the SAP project between 1993 and 1995. Since then we have kept in touch. It was an honor to get the invitation and we put off the departure for the upcoming Alaska trip in order to make this wedding. It was a fun afternoon.

Sharon Elias Mother of the Bride

Johnny Elias and the Bride - Kylara

Rob Parker and Kylara leaving the ceremony

The Cake - It was unique

Johnny and Sharon Elias

Teresa(Johnny's Sister) Elric (son) and JOhnny and Sharon

Rob and Kylara Dancing

Johnny dancing with Kylara

The cake in action - the little girl is a niece.

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