Category Archives: California

One Elephant Seal and the Central California Coast

I went on a spur of the moment trip and met my daughter in Cambria this past Sunday. It was a little over 3 hours drive about 200 miles north of where I live. The drive up was gorgeous. The most beautiful scenery starts above Ventura where the highway runs along the ocean. The day was sunny with moderate temperatures and the ocean appeared calm and blue. You get a beautiful view of the ocean up to Santa Barbara. Then again above Santa Barbara where you start getting more open countryside. Everything is still green. Up into Solvang there are rolling hills and oak trees. Above there around Los Alamos you start seeing vineyards. The vines are dormant now for the winter. Then you swing by some ocean communities again like Pismo Beach. Onward to San Luis Obispo and you connect with Highway 1 and head toward Morro Bay. Highway 1 then runs along the ocean up to Cambria.

I met my daughter at a restaurant called the Indigo Moon for lunch. She had driven down about 3 ½ hours from Northern California. There is a lovely beach in Cambria called Moonstone Beach. There is a wooden walkway on the bluffs and we took a walk there before sunset and had dinner at a restaurant above the beach. There are many inns along Moonstone Beach and we could see some people sitting out on the balconies.

Moonstone Beach by Snowfalcon on wikipedia

The next day ,after a delicious breakfast at a local diner called the Cambria Cafe ,we drove a bit further north to San Simeon. The Hearst Castle is located atop the hills here. We did not go to Hearst Castle but I have toured it in the past. The Hearst family owned many acres of land around the castle. My daughter and I said how glad we are that they gave the bulk of the land to a nature conservancy so it will not be developed. What a gift to have all this open land preserved. We went to the beach at San Simeon for more gorgeous views and saw an elephant seal sun bathing on the beach, (photo above). There were signs posted about the elephant seals stating they are a protected species. The signs warned not to approach them too close. It recommended staying back about 50-100 feet from them.

When we first saw the elephant seal I was worried it was sick, injured or worse because it was laying so still. Then it opened its eyes, looked around and, as we walked over to look, started to roll over and yawn.

It had a snout, that looked like a short elephant trunk, called a proboscis. I spied a couple of pointy teeth in its lower jaw. I thought it was a young male because of its size. It had some open wounds around its neck. I told my daughter that maybe it had gotten in a fight with an older male and been driven off. A park ranger later confirmed it was a male probably about 5 years old.

My daughter and I did a little hiking along the beach and on the bluffs above. It was so beautiful with clear blue skies and sunshine that reflected off the water. We saw a few monarch butterflies among the eucalyptus trees above the beach. The eucalyptus were so fragrant as we walked along and stepped on their fallen leaves and acorns. The Eucalyptus tree is not native to California. It was brought to California in the 1850s during the California Gold Rush from Australia.

We said goodbye in the early afternoon to make our drives in opposite directions. This trip made me realize I need to do this more often. Get out and see the beauty that is so close and is the California coast.

Elephant Seals at Piedras Blancas, California via wikipedia

|Jusjojan|

One Liner Wednesday

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“When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world.”

—John Muir

I love John Muir. He was a wonderful naturalist who co-founded the Sierra Club in California and influenced congress to pass a bill making Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. He is called the father of the National Park Service.

Here is a bit via PBS on you tube:

And a biography of John Muir by the National Park Service via America Sings:

|LindaGHill|

Tangerines are from Tangiers

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For Stream of Consciousness Saturday we are given the prompt to write something that includes the letter “t.” I am reminded of tangerines.

Every year at Christmas we hung up our special decorated Christmas stocking that our mother had made for us and labeled with our names. On Christmas morning we found our stockings filled with tangerines, whole walnuts and candy canes. I carried on this tradition when my kids were little and would include chocolate and small toys. I left out the whole walnuts for my kids.

Tangerines got their name from Tangiers, Morocco where they originated. The season of tangerines is from autumn to spring. Citrus fruit would have been considered a delicacy for many people in the world. After better transport became available citrus in winter was more common.

I remember growing up that citrus from California was considered a special gift along with dried fruit and dates. There was a company called Mission Pak which shipped gift packs of oranges, dried fruit, dates and nuts to people in other parts of the country. We used to hear their jingle all the time around the holidays. It went “Say the magic words, say Mission Pak and it’s on its merry way! No gift so bright, so gay, so light, give the Mission Pak magic way!”

Later in my life, after I had moved to LA, I would see gift packs like these at the Farmers Market on Fairfax. Tourists would buy them or have them shipped as gifts.

Did you get tangerines or oranges in your Christmas stocking? Do you remember Mission Pak? I really like the little Clementines that are seedless. They are a nice size for kids to have for snacks and no worry about spitting out or swallowing seeds.

|LindaGHill|

Swift Water Rescue Has Your Back

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For my Stream of Consciousness Saturday post I decided to write about a local stream, the LA River. Our prompt today is to use the word “back” in our post.

The Army Corp of Engineers created a cement channel for much of the LA River. The process is called channelizing. This was meant to control flooding. What happens when we have a big rain is the river turns into a bullet train of water as it races through the channels like a gigantic water slide. Invariably some foolish, careless or uninformed people decide to go down to the river and are swept away. The LA Fire Department has a Swift Water Rescue Unit that will come to the rescue. People have died in past years despite desperate rescue attempts. Here is a story from the LA Times about the rescues from the recent storm which includes some video.

The Ventura County and LA Fire Departments, Police and Sheriffs Departments and the officials of other Southern California communities have been busy with a swift water rescue of 2 people, evacuating people from their homes and rescuing people trapped in their cars in mud slides along the Pacific Coast Highway.

In all these life threatening situations our Fire Departments, Police and Sheriff Departments really have our backs. We need to be aware of nature and potential threats in our environment and stay away from natural water channels, creeks and rivers during or after storms.

Video via news10d You Tube of Firefighters getting ready for rescue:

|LindaGHill|

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful-Let it Rain, Let it Rain, and Blizzard

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LA River

Thunderstorm via Pixabay

Donner Pass via Sierra College.edu

Mammoth Ski Resort via wikipedia

US Drought Monitor Chart

“Sopping, and with no sign of stopping, either- then a breather. Warm again, storm again- what is the norm, again? It’s fine, it’s not, it’s suddenly hot: Boom, crash, lightning flash!”

–The Old Farmer’s Almanac

We Californians don’t do well with big weather. After all, this is a sunshine state. The LA Times ran a story Wednesday about the Pacific Storm system heading our way and according to a JPL Climatologist Bill Patzert these storms have “declared war on the drought” and can bring blizzards to the Northern Sierra Nevada mountains. The ski resorts are happy to hear snow is on the way. It does increase our snow pack in the Sierras which brings us our water.

I can remember when I was new to Southern California and we would get a big rain storm. Intersections would be flooded and street drains overflowing. I asked my husband why does LA have such a bad drainage system. He would say LA is just not prepared for a lot of rain.

One of the first winters in our house we had a big rain storm. It rained for about 14 hours straight. Well our property was not prepared for so much rain. We found out our back yard had a poor drainage system with the patio tilting down slightly toward our house. Well you can imagine our surprise to look out the patio door in the morning and see about a half-foot of water sitting up against the house. It was still raining and my poor husband went out to bail the water off our patio. He was out there in the cold rain bailing water. The problem was where to put the water. Our swimming pool was gradually filling up to the top. The water was starting to fill most of our yard.

A neighbor came to the rescue that year. He had a pool as well and anticipated our problem. He brought us a little electric pool pump he had. My husband set it up on the patio and attached a garden hose to it that acts as the drain and ran the hose around the side of our house to the gutter in front. That little pump was a real trooper and managed to drain the water off our back patio. We ended up buying one of our own. We did need it a few more winters. We did eventually get our patio re-done and put in better drainage in the yard. So we are in a much better position now for rain storms.

People tend to forget about the natural water channels here. Like the Ventura River which is usually dry. One year during a big storm, the river became a real river. Some people had set up a trailer park in the river bed. Well you can picture what happened. Many of those trailers were swept down the water filled river to the ocean.

People here have trouble driving in the rain and there are always traffic jams due to accidents. You haven’t lived until you have driven a low profile car on the freeway and had a truck pass you in a rain storm. The windshield of your car gets hit with a wave of water. It makes visibility a bit tough. And you want to look out for water pooling on the side of the road or at intersections or you can find your car hydroplaning.

I am happy that I do not have to commute toward LA. My work takes me to the areas outlying the metro area. I experience traffic but not on the scale of the traffic going into LA from here. I have figured out my route that will avoid the freeway all together.

My husband still commutes several days a week into LA. He always anticipates rain with dread. He warns me when it is expected to rain and likes to keep apprised of the weather reports.

The rain started around 10 PM last night. I was awoken in the middle of the night. I heard the rain pouring down in buckets with some being blown toward our windows around 3 AM. It had been raining steadily for quite a while. I looked out into the backyard. So far not flooding. The drains are doing their job well.

One Liner Wednesday-Heaven

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“One day if I do go to heaven…. I’ll look around and say, It ain’t bad but it ain’t San Francisco.” —Herb Caen

|LindaGHill|

The Christmas Train

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We were stopping overnight in Santa Cruz on our way up the coast to visit our daughter. We were meeting her in Sonoma. We wanted to break the drive up instead of driving straight through in one day. Santa Cruz is about half way.

We thought we would go to a Thai Restaurant for dinner that our daughter had introduced us to when she was living in Santa Cruz. As we drove up to the restaurant we noticed it was closed. This was Christmas Eve. My husband started checking his smart phone for other places. If you stay on the main streets it is very well-lit. When you get onto the residential streets it is quite dark.

We were pulling up to a stop light and the street was very dark with a heavy mist in the air. I noticed some bright lights down the road coming toward the intersection. I wasn’t sure what it was until it got closer as the mist caused the lights to glow.

It was a train covered in beautiful Christmas lights and decorations. It looked like something from the Polar Express. It slowly came across the intersection and stopped.

We were transfixed. It was so beautiful. We could see passengers inside having a good time. Santa Claus was walking down the aisle of the train giving out gifts from his large sack.

Slowly the train began moving again and left the intersection behind. We sat there for a while looking after it. We did find another great Thai restaurant a while later. I did not know about the Christmas Train. I would love to take a ride on it if we are up in Santa Cruz again around Christmas.

Here is a video by Matt Corley via You Tube:

The Christmas Train is operated by Roaring Camp Railroads. The train in the video is shown crossing Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz.

The City of Paris

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The City of Paris in San Francisco was a beautiful department store that was founded in the years of the California Gold Rush. I remember it in its final location on Geary and Stockton. The store had an open rotunda which was a large open circular space that went all the way to the beautiful stained glass dome ceiling.

During the Christmas season the City of Paris filled their rotunda with a giant Christmas tree. The store fell on hard times and Neiman Marcus wanted to buy the property and tear down the building. The National Trust for Historic Preservation and many San Franciscans fought against it. Neiman Marcus won and they tore down the original building.

One happy note about this story is that they preserved the rotunda with the stained glass dome in the new store. Part of the stained glass image contains the motto “Fluctuat nec Mergitur,” which means It floats but never sinks.

City of Paris at Union Square

Rotunda Dome

Rotunda from old City of Paris

December 2007 Neiman Marcus SF Photo by Miguel Vieira

City of Paris

Historical information from the Nora Leishman article on foundsf.org and More history of the City of Paris

San Barbara Day Trip

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We had a nice day trip to Santa Barbara. I did not take many pictures. The weather was beautiful. Blue skies with white clouds and in the 70s with just a bit of a chill in the air. The coastline between the city of Ventura and Santa Barbara is very scenic. We like to stop in Carpenteria, a town on the way up, for bagels and Pete’s coffee at a little breakfast place. The 101 takes you past a few other towns on the way like Summerland and Montecito.

Summerland was started in 1883 by H.L. Williams, a spiritualist and real estate speculator. He sold land parcels to other spiritualists and they even had a community séance hall.

Montecito is nearby with expensive real estate and some celebrity residents such as Jeff Bridges and Opra Winfrey. Lotus Land is in Montecito. This is the estate of Madame Ganna Walska an opera singer who owned the property from 1941-1984. She created an exotic botanical garden which you can tour by appointment. The Montecito Inn was built by Charlie Chaplin in 1928.

There are many beautiful sights to see all around the Santa Barbara area. Above Santa Barbara is the Santa Ynez Valley. Solvang in located here. It is a Danish American town with lots of shops and restaurants and a few windmills. You can get Danish pastries and apple skivers. The film Sideways was made around here. There are wineries around Santa Ynez Valley and beautiful rolling hills with oak trees.

We took a long walk around State Street in Santa Barbara and peeked into a few shops and a new bookstore. We could smell the sea air. Below are a few photos taken near and around State Street.

Japanese Garden Lotusland via wikipedia

On State Street Santa Barbara

Off State Street

View from State Street toward hills

Me attempting photo from car near Ventura

Rainy Day Tuesday

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It is raining in Southern California today and will continue on and off through the night. I have decided to start visiting my followers blogs today and some of my frequent readers. I think this will take more than one morning. It is something that has been on my mind to do. So my post is brief today. I am mulling over my posting schedule and will be deciding my topics. So stay tuned.

Good day for Southern Californians to snuggle up with a warm drink and put on a sweater. Those who have to be out driving, be careful. People tend to drive a bit crazy in rainy weather don’t you think?