Category: Uncategorized

Day 23

          So, what’s in a name anyway?

          What is a Big Sur?

          Is there a Little Sur?

          Even if you have never been here and driven the California Route 1 Highway between Monterey and San Simeon, you have probably heard of this stretch of the California Coast.  I am sure that you have at least seen it in the many automobile advertisements and commercials that have been shot here.

          In fact, it ranks in the top thirty-five of tourist destinations in the world. And there are a lot of places to choose from when you consider the world has literally thousands upon thousands of places in it. So, before we get to probably the easiest post that I’ve ever done (because all I need to do is show you the photos. Never has the old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” been more appropriate than when describing Big Sur) I will answer the question that is now burning up your curiosity….

          No, there is no Little Sur.

          Big Sur is combination of the old Spanish name for this region and present-day English. The Spanish had to bypass this part of the coast on their way north from San Simeon because it was impassable. They went inland through the valleys to arrive in Monterey and they named the land that they couldn’t penetrate, “El pais grande del sur”.

          Translation: “The BIG  country of the SOUTH.”

          Hence….  Big Sur.

          So now you know!

          The highway clings (literally) to the cliffs and hillsides far above the surf that pounds the rocky coastline below. There are a few beaches along the way but there really isn’t any white sand. The sand here is comprised of ground up rocks so it takes on the color of its origins. There must have been a storm way out in the North Pacific when we were there because there was a High Wave Warning for the Coast. This made the viewing of these waves so far below that much more dramatic. I wish that I could show you a video of it!

          This is another drive that makes taking photos of it very easy.         Every time you go around a bend there is another view that is almost the same as the one that you just left, but it is also very different. I hope you get my meaning here.

          It is hard to say, “Ho-Hum…. another gorgeous view.”

          Examples for your perusal:

          We wanted to have lunch while we were out and as you can imagine, there are only a few places to stop along this stretch of the Coast. The place that we were going to (on the advice of my daughter, Lorelyn) was at the very end of our journey. Our timing was perfect as we pulled into the Lucia Lodge, perched right on the edge of the cliffs, at precisely noontime! According to Lorelyn, they had the best Fish ‘n Chips on the planet, or at least on this road. What they did not have was a place to partake of their famous fare, as the building was gutted for extensive restorations.

          Rats!

          And we had not brought any snacks with us, as we definitely had planned to stop along the way!

          So, an about-face we made and headed back north obviously along the same route that we came down on. The view going the other way was just as good as the ride down and we took advantage of the many pull-offs and Vista Points along the way in  order to grab additional photos and just gaze down at the shoreline hundreds of feet below us.

          We had seen several places on our way down, but they were about thirty miles ahead of us, so on we drove. The first spot was really cute, nestled in a grove of trees that were tucked back in a little valley, but all they had on their menu was some stuff like quinoa and beans.

          The second place we stopped looked even better. It was a very old lodge and as we entered you got the feeling that you were a traveler way back in the day and you happened upon one of those perfect cottage-type inns that only get better with age.

          They were open for dinner only, not lunch.

          Our friend Goldilocks must have been in our back seat because the third place that we tried could be the most perfect restaurant on the planet.

          Perched 880’ above the water, Nepenthe has been serving passers-by for seventy-three years. The Fassett family bought a cabin here from Orson Welles and his wife Rita Hayworth in 1949 and opened their restaurant. It is still in the family and judging by what we experienced should still be going strong for another seventy-three years and longer.

          The food was great, as was also the view. It was nice to see that the owners did not just rely on the exquisite panorama to be their calling card. The wine list was extensive, and the menu varied and a tad eclectic, but prepared in such a way that you knew that the kitchen was as proficient as the view was grand.

          It was worth every penny that we dropped there.

Day 21

          I’m sure that you’ve figured out when I learn something new to me, that I drag you, kicking and screaming, to school along with me.

          This lesson will be no exception, but we will be going on a Field Trip, so don’t forget your Snacks!

          Yesterday we took advantage of the better weather on the coast than we had the day before. Moody fog rolling in is nice to witness, but it makes for lousy sea-view gazing pleasure.

          As you can see from these photos, we had the exact opposite.

          Our destination was “Anywhere up the Coast”, so we drove past where we went the day before (the local Conservation Reservation) and arrived in the little town of San Simeon. You may have heard (or visited) this locale as it is the home of Hearst Castle, the magnificent estate of William Randolph Hearst.

          He had a lot of money.

          And exquisite taste.

          Hearst Castle was on our list of things to do in the area, but it will not re-open until sometime next month. So, all you get for now is this long-range photo of it. I was there in 1964 and again in the 90’s so I can relay to you the fact that it is nothing less than magnificent. Mr. Hearst scoured Europe and bought entire buildings such as chapels, monasteries, and villas and had them disassembled and shipped back here to be reconstructed on his Estate.

          I told you he had a lot of money!

          Our real reason for coming back was to simply drive California Route 1 up the coast and stop along the way at convenient overlooks that dot this scenic highway. What we discovered is the topic of today’s lesson, er, I mean post 😊.

          Elephant Seals!

          We stumbled upon the only place in the world where you can gaze upon an entire Northern Elephant Seal rookery without trekking, getting sandy, or disturbing the critters. The Piedras Blancas Northern Elephant Seal Rookery is right here. It is free to pull up to and California has done a wonderful job of educating and giving access to the public of these guys. We were kept at a decent, but close distance, up on a boardwalk of sorts, that ran the entire length of the beach.

          The seals could not have cared less that we were there.

          Apparently, some Elephant Seals “re-discovered” this stretch of beach back in 1990, liked it, stayed, imprinted it on their young, and now their Great-great-great-great-Grandkids are still coming back here every year. Back in the day, before we all came here needing blubber oil, these seals lived on the coast  without any interference. They were hunted almost to extinction and the only surviving rookeries are way out on the inaccessible Channel Islands. About 25,000 of the 250,000 of the total population come to this rookery every year.

          Elephant seals spend most of their time at sea where they are all alone. Except for their enemies, the Orca and Great White Shark. The males feed in an area that is rife with these predators, so it is estimated that one-in-three are gobbled up each year. The females tend to stay in a different area that is not as dangerous, so their mortality rate is closer to one-in-seven. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like those odds either! I never go more that knee-deep at the shore!

          These guys get big when they mature! Males are up to sixteen feet long and weigh about 5000 pounds and the females are a tad smaller at twelve feet and 1700 pounds. The kiddies pop out at about eighty pounds and are three to four feet long.

          When these guys are out at sea, they routinely dive to more than five hundred feet and they can go as deep as three thousand, all while holding their breath for about twenty-five minutes or so. While they are in the rookery they do not feed at all. Eating is reserved for their foray’s way out at sea.

          One of the other things that they do while here on the beach is to go through a “Catastrophic Molt”. This is an extreme case of molting where they shed their entire skin of fur and obviously grow a new one in its place. This fur, along with their blubber, keep them relatively warm while out in the ocean and diving to those depths for food. That’s why, while on land, they actually need to keep themselves cool, not warm. They do this by using their flippers and covering themselves with sand to protect themselves from the heat of the sun.

          I hear it has a relatively high SPF rating!

          The Rookery has activity all year as the entire population comes and goes depending on the age and sex of the individual seal. So, if you are out this way, just drive by and you too will be treated to something that you cannot find anywhere else!

          It is now time to get out your Snacks.

Day 21

          Yesterday was a Travel Day. It was probably the shortest one that we have had to date. It only took two hours to travel westward towards the Coast and the Paso Robles Wine Region. We are staying at one of the Harvest Hosts locations, Tobin James Cellars, and we are one of six traveling RV’s that are parked along the perimeter of the big field across the street.

          The Paso Robles region is probably the third most popular wine growing region in California behind Napa and Sonoma. Maybe I should have said, grape growing and /or wine producing? I’m fairly sure that they do not grow wine anywhere! 😊

          Anyway, there are over two hundred wineries in this Region, and most are smaller, family-run operations.(Napa and Sonoma  have around four-hundred wineries each). Of the two more well-known areas, Napa is the more established commercially while Sonoma is a little more like Paso Robles in that you will find a more laid-back feeling there as Sonoma, like Paos Robles, has a bit more family-run vineyards.

          Enough about comparing regions! I am so far from being a wine snob that it is almost comical that I wrote even that! Suffice to say that it seems that no matter where you go, there is a local winery that produces some nice stuff. We have a local one in Texas, Saddlehorn Winery, that (according to more experienced wine aficionados) has some really nice wines.

          If you like wine, and you want to watch a good movie, dial up “Bottle Shock”. It is a true story about a winery from California that won a blind taste test against the finest French wineries. There’s nothing not to like about this movie!

          Our goal was to come over to the Coast and visit this area between Loa Angles and San Francisco. We are about eighty miles north of Santa Barbara. It is easy to find on a map. We decided to have our Wine Tasting after we explored a bit so we headed further west until we hit the Coast. I looked for the “Coastal Access” signs that dot Route 1 and we followed them as they led us through a little sea-side neighborhood. We emerged at a small parking lot near a preserved area of land the was supposed to be developed. This afforded us a nice walk along the cliffs and we were treated to the sights that you now see before you in the photographs.

          It was the perfect first encounter of this Coast that I wanted for my California Neophyte that is traveling with me.

          No crowds.

          No rushing.

          And not much sun.

          A little brighter would have been a little better, but we’ve had such great weather that we really couldn’t complain. Besides, as we were leaving we were able to watch the coastal fog actually roll in giving it all a surreal aspect that only heightened the experience.

          Back to the Winery we went having decided that not being able to see the water as we went along was not the best way to drive the Coast. Paula had a very nice Wine Tasting and I had a Coke. As I alluded to before, a Tasting would have been wasted on me!  

          The place was quite busy for a Tuesday afternoon. They had seven different bartenders helping with the tastings. Mind you, if this were a regular bar where one just gets a drink, well, they’d be crazily over-staffed. But when you really only get a sip or two and someone needs to engage you on the finer points of the vintage that is in front of you, then their staffing was perfect. We had a really good time and met some of our RV neighbors from the Parking Field.

          Armed with two new bottles of Tobin James Cellars wine, we headed back across the street to store them away in our wine cellar which is  underneath the seat of our dinette.

          They are safe and awaiting the proper time to be consumed.

          Probably today.

Day 19

          We could not determine the language of the visitors that spewed forth from the large shiny black bus.

          My guess was that it was from some Eastern European country, but it was of little consequence because they seemed to be really enjoying themselves, so origins at this point did not matter.

          We have commented to ourselves so many times over the last few days that we felt like we were in the minority when it came to the “Where’re ya from” category. Our best “Line Friends” on Moro Rock were a Japanese family with the cutest little two-year old girl who said “Happy Easter” to every person she saw. We saw them again at the General Sherman Tree and had a happy reunion of sorts. Both Grandmas were there and were real troopers as both activities required some fairly strenuous uphill walking.

          One cannot help wondering what it is like in other countries. To be fair, if we visited another land, we too would be included in the mix of tourists. I wonder if the citizens of said country would feel like they were in that same minority that we felt that we were in.

          Maybe that’s Ok.

          A pie-in-the-sky hope may be that if we all visited each other and felt welcome, then maybe in the future we could avoid some of the animosities that spring up between us.

           We always try and make eye contact with people on the trails and say “Good Morning” with a smile. We make an extra effort to ensure that we greet folks from far-away lands with something a little extra, something that underlyingly conveys, “Welcome, we’re glad that you’re here”.

          The LAST thing that we want is someone to go back to their homeland feeling is that the USA is filled with “Ugly Americans”.

          But even with the busload from wherever, the crowds were non-existent. There are several reasons for this, and they worked in our favor (mostly). I say mostly because one of the reasons was the time of year. In this season, the elevation determines the weather, not the calendar. So, the roads to the back country were still closed and for a good reason. There was a snowfall just two days ago that made the travelling a bit hazardous. Hence the closures.

          The other reasons were that it was a Monday, Spring Breaks were over, and we were in Kings Canyon National Park, one of the most beautiful, but less popular Parks in the System.

          Kings Canyon is connected at the hip to Sequoia, with who it shares a very large contiguous border. Sequoia is kind of the Big Brother here. If you have limited time, Sequoia definitely gets the nod, and the crowds.

          But we discovered something nice.

          Not all of the Giant Sequoia grow inside the confines of Sequoia National Park. Thirty or so miles away, in Kings Canyon National Park lies the formidable General Grant Tree, securely immersed in the middle of the Grants Grove grouping of these big guys.

          In a way, with the smaller crowds helping, we enjoyed our walk among these trees more than our experience from the day before.

          The Park is just a little further away from our KOA than Sequoia is, but the drive up to the Park did not have the twisty-turny switchbacks that kept us dizzy the day before. So even though it was a bit further, it was a far more comfortable drive.

          As for the bus tours, I’m glad that we went this time of year because this Park and it’s relatively-not-zig-zaggy access road, is the only one of the two that can handle the size of a bus. Hopefully bus tours need to make some kind of reservation  to ensure that not too many show up at the same time. This place is not large.

          We were able to drive a bit further past the Grant Grove to Hume Lake. The lake, as nice as it was, was not our reason for the extra drive. Our goal was to find an overlook that peers into the heart of the Kings Canyon, which was still back a bit further in the rugged Sierra Nevada.

          We found it and were not disappointed!

          I would not rule out a return trip in a season that would allow entry into this Canyon. I have only seen photographs but both John Muir and Uncle Ansel (and his camera) liked it as much as Yosemite, so who am I to argue?  😊

Thanks for reading,,,

Day 18

          How do I describe something that defies ordinary description?

          How do I photograph something that doesn’t compare unless there is something in the frame that gives it some perspective and scale, let alone fit it in the lens?

          These are good problems.

          For those of you who have had the privilege of visiting Sequoia National Park, you understand where I am coming from.

          For those of you who haven’t, I will do my best to help convey the experience that we had yesterday and share it with you.

          Everybody knows about Sequoia. Everybody has seen photographs. The usual superlative adjectives are thrown about with reckless abandon in a desperate attempt to describe these wonderful beings.

          Are they sentient?

          No.

          Not that kind of being. But when you walk among them they are so much more than just trees. But, in fact, that is what they are.

          Only, simply, basically, ……. Trees.

          Most of the conifer type trees that grow here in the Sierra Nevada grow BIG. It’s the location. It has to do with tree cell make-up and metabolism. So, what’s the big deal?

          You look around and see big trees all over here. White Fir, Douglas Fir, Sugar Pine, Incense Cedar, and Ponderosa Pine all grow almost as tall. They are all truly impressive trees.

          But there is something else about Sequoias.

          Something that you can’t quite put your finger on. It goes back to that list of superlative adjectives that I mentioned earlier.

          You may not be able to put your finger on it, but you can put your hand on it.

          Go ahead.

          Put your hand on the bark of one of these monoliths.

          Even the bark conveys something to us.

          At up to two-feet thick, it defends its owner like a castle wall defends its Keep. It repels insects and fire. In fact, a Sequoia depends on fire to insure that it lives and reproduces.

          What???!!!

          Hey! Remember, Only You can Prevent Forest Fires!

          Smokey Bear has ingrained that into all of us since he first rolled out of a New Mexico forest fire decades ago. But now we know that forest fires are good.

          What???!!!

          Yes they are. Fire has been a key component in Mother Nature’s Forest Management Program for as long as she has been around. It’s us, the human factors, that have messed up her plans and we have just (relatively) learned that suppressing naturally occurring fires has its downside.

          So, Smokey’s message has morphed a bit and he now reminds us that, Only You Can Prevent Wildfires!

           Wildfires are different than naturally occurring forest fires or prescribed burns.  We now use prescribed burns as an intermediary tool to kind of bridge the gap between all-out Armageddon (in a human-desirable type location) and Nature’s need to scour that forest floor of detritus, undesirable insects, and other nasties.

          So, Sequoia had a forest fire.       

          It is ugly.

          I’m guessing that only the most hardened Naturalist and Forest Management scientist can look upon the charred remains of this once verdant woodland and smile. But I will venture that even they would secretly wish that this area had remained “pretty” if their families had been visiting for the first time.

          But it didn’t.

          I guess that the solace here is that our descendants now have a better chance of gazing in the same wonderment that we enjoy.

          But not everything burned. Just enough to help some areas with their long-term health and, most of the Giants were left un-affected. Remember that fire-resistant bark?  😊

          So now we get to get back to the fun stuff!

          As you can see from the photos, we had another 15 on the 1 to 10 scale of weather. The road that climbs up into the heart of the park rises about 6000 feet and when you engineer that kind of road in a relatively small area you must use the dreaded switchbacks.

           Which means that your road speed averages about 18 mph.

           Which means that it takes another forty-five minutes to get from the Visitor’s Center to the Giant Forest.

          Which means that by the time you get there you need to use the restroom!

          That’s good because it gives us the opportunity to include the restroom building as one of those objects of scale that I mentioned earlier!

          No matter how much time you spend here it is impossible to be unaffected by the massiveness of the citizens of the Giant Forest. I think that it’s a human thing. We are subject to evolution just like any other living organism on our planet. For gazillions of years we, as a species, has experienced trees. We’ve cut them down, used them to build things, climbed them, made tree-forts, and planted some in our respective castles and used them as a great landscaping tool.

          We really only “discovered” these Giants a little over a hundred years ago. That’s’ way too short a time to affect our collective experience with trees. So, as a consequence, they still blow us away no matter how long we stay in close proximity to them. Even the Rangers here speak in awed voices about their Big Friends. My daughter Lorelyn was a Ranger here over twenty years ago and is still affected (nicely) by her experiences here.

          Sequoia has more than Big Trees. It has the Sierra Nevada as its home. That means that one of the most dynamic mountain ranges on our planet is home to the Sequoia.

          It is kind of fitting.

          The only place in the world that has Sequoias is right here in these mountains. In a mere fifty miles or so, we go from the highest point in the lower forty-eight to the lowest point in North America and one of the lowest on the Earth. Mount Whitney  tops out at 14,505 ft above sea level and proverbial stone’s throw away is Death Valley at negative 282 feet below sea level.

          In a land of extremes, the Sequoia embodies that extreme.

          The Sierra Nevada are mostly granite.

          Morro Rock is all granite and is scarily cool to climb. Since the early 1920’s there has been a stairway folded into its cracks and crevasses for us to scamper up. Well, may be not scamper, more like laboriously put one foot in front of the other because at over 7000’ of elevation (unless you are acclimatized for this height) breathing is not the same as at sea level.

          But then, the view isn’t either!

          All of the peaks that can be seen looking eastward into the heart of the Sierra Nevada are over 12,000’. Looking the other way, way down into the valley, you can see the road snakeily (that word is not in spell-check!) winding its way through the different levels of the landscape until it emerges up here in the Forest.

          We made lots of Rock Friends on the climb up and down!

          The last thing that we did was to pay a visit the largest living entity in the world and that is the General Sherman Tree.

          It is not the tallest.

          It is not the oldest.

          It is the most massive.

          And …..  the top is dead.

          But the bottom keeps growing! Somewhat ensuring its remaining at the pinnacle of this list.

          That concludes our lesson for today. I hope that I have not over-exaggerated any of the attributes of this area. I believe that it is impossible to do so as there really are no words, or pictures, that can take the place of an actual meeting with our Giant Friends.

          Come out here and meet them for yourself.

The weather up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains where Sequoia National Park is nestled, was forecasted to have a ‘Winter Weather Advisory’ that had anywhere from three to nine inches of snow attached to it. As wonderful as that sight would have been if we had already been up there, we decided that a day “off” was not the worst thing that we could do.

          So, discretion being the better part of valor, we stayed down in the Valley and did practically nothing of consequence. We did watch a few more episodes of Madam Secretary and I had the opportunity to work a bit more on my ship model of “Old Ironsides” which needs to be finished by mid-summer because it will stay behind in Manchester-by-the-Sea in Massachusetts with my son Donny and his family. That, some wash, and a venture to the Visalia Farmers Market rounded out the day.

          Visalia is the largest town at the base of Sequoia. The Park is still about forty miles away, so there’s still a little traveling to do in the Honda. Visalia is also one of the larger towns in the San Joaquin Valley which is one of the largest growing areas for produce in the United States. Over twelve percent of our fruits and vegetables come from this area which produces year-round.

          If you have ever been down to the Vineland region of New Jersey you can grasp the vastness of what it looks like here. Mile after mile of rows upon rows of neatly planted crops slip by your windshield. That paints an accurate picture of what it looks like here. What it doesn’t give you is the scale of these plantings.

          In Vineland (which happens to be the world’s best Eggplant growing region, sixty-six percent of the worlds eggplant comes from the Garden State!) your windshield visage remains that of farms for maybe an hour or so. Imagine a place that is three -times the size of the entire state planted with  an endless variety of produce. The Valley is about fifty miles wide and about four-hundred miles long. It was once an inland sea which left behind some awesomely fertile land. So, couple that with a fantastic growing climate and you can see why plants love this place!

(Here is a list of what is grown here, in no particular order, Grapes, Lettuce (71% of the nations supply) Walnuts, Almonds, Pistachios, Oranges, Lemons, Strawberries, Peaches, Nectarines, Tomatoes, Carrots, Cotton, Winter Wheat, and Cows, for milking. Yup, California leads the nation in milk production)

          Now, mind you, not every square mile of this is planted, they needed to leave some room for cities, towns, and roads and some areas are better suited than others for planting, but I hope that you can grasp the seemingly limitless vastness of this Region.

          Oh, I almost forgot,

          This stuff is really good too!

Hope you enjoyed these, thanks for reading! Feel free to forward the blog to anyone that you think may enjoy it. It’s def not a private blog!

Day 15

Nancy, our Biologist, told us that her favorite part of the three-hour Catalina Eco-Tour that she was leading was the second half. She said that the first half was all learning, but the second half was all fun.

          I think that she liked the second half of the tour because she really got to show off her four-wheel driving skills as she wielded our Toyota Tundra truck (with stadium-style seating for us students) around the interior of Catalina.

          Nancy works for the Catalina Island Conservancy who “owns” and manages about eighty-eight percent of the Island. The Wrigley family (Yes, that one, of Gum and Chicago Cubs fame) deeded over all of the land to them back in 1972. The family still has a presence on the Island, they are involved locally as benefactors and they have several residences there, one of which has stables and an active, producing, vineyard.

          Our day started really early as the availability of the high-speed catamaran that makes the crossing from Long Beach to Avalon was booked up by the time we arrived. The only places left for our day were on the first and last crossings of the day, namely 6 AM and 7:45 PM.  And we needed to be in line by 5:15 AM.

          Thankfully (and we didn’t plan it this way) the embarkation port was a five-minute walk from our RV Park.

          The benefits of this situation was a guarantee of a full day on Catalina and of course, great lighting for early morning photos! We were not disappointed as once again; we had a fifteen on the one-to-ten scale of weather. Catamaran’s ride nicely in the water, with a minimum of movement compared to a displacement (regular shaped) hull, but still, there is some movement, it’s the ocean!

          Avalon, the largest city (?) on Catalina was barely waking up by the time we arrived, the crossing takes a little over an hour, but that was ok, it afforded us the opportunity to have a leisurely breakfast and stroll around before we met Nancy for our adventure which started at 9 AM.

Avalon is a really cute little town, complete with the obligatory shops, but some how they have managed to remain less kitschy and rather inviting. The whole place is adorned with beautiful tile-work, most of it depicting scenes from around town, The Casino, which does not have gambling, is the gem of the harbor and is worthy of all of its fame. Unfortunately it is closed on Thursdays, so we were not able to avail ourselves of a tour.

         Nancy was a fountain of local information. We learned tons of factoids about the flora, fauna, and history of Catalina, all of which would fill this post with ease, but probably bore you to death! Maybe I’ll do a separate one with a Cautionary Warning about the content in the beginning of it.  😊 Some highlights are the fact that there are only about 4000 residents on the Island, there is a 20 year waiting list to register a car here, and the other mode of transportation, a golf cart, can only be had to residents and you only get one per household! There is one grocery store, Vons, which they all adore!

          Anyway, there are lots of stories about the waxing and waning of several species of critters and plants on the Island, namely the Bald and Golden Eagles, the Channel Island Fox, and some cool butterflies. Just like what Mr. Darwin learned way down in the Galapagos Islands, here too, Catalina has her own stories to tell about how species adapt and evolve separated from anywhere else.

          Oh, and there are American Bison (Buffalo) on the Island.

           They are not endemic, they are invasive! The story goes that twelve males  were brought over to the Island back in the 20’s for a movie that never got made here. Enter a well-intentioned Wrigley family who brought a bunch of females over to keep the males company and the rest, well, let’s just say biology took over and in a few years there were over 500 of these grazers roaming the hills. Combine them with the goats and sheep which were descendants of some long-ago settlers, and we have a recipe for intense over-grazing.

          Here’s the good part of the story.

          Enter the Conservancy who determined that the optimum number of Bison was about 150, (sans goats and sheep who were successfully repatriated to farms on the mainland). That was all well and good, but what to do with the rest? They put out inquiries to anyone that they thought that would like them, but the caveat was that they could not be slaughtered. The Lakota Indian Nation of South Dakota was interested but when they found out what the cost was going to be to round up, inspect, and transport them, they determined that they did not have the funds to accomplish this. So…. they sent out a request to every Tribe in the United States asking for some assistance. Every single Tribe responded in the affirmative and even sent a representative to help with the round-up when the time arrived.

          There is now a very nice herd of American Bison securely ensconced on the Lakota Reservation thank you very much!

          The Bald Eagle story is as good. It involves DDT (Boo!) and an enterprising young biologist, Dr. Sharpe (Yay!) who use the fine imposed on the nasty company that dumped all of the DDT illegally off the coast, and started a very labor-intensive salvation program. This involved the gathering of nesting pairs of eagles from the Northwest, watching the nests, taking the eggs out of the nests, replacing them with wooden ones, hatching said eggs, and putting the little guys back in the nest after they hatched.

          Phew!

          It was very successful and now the Eagle population is thriving once again on Catalina!

          Our inland excursion ended around noon back down in Avalon. Thankfully there were no cruise ships in port this day. I cannot imagine this tiny town being over-run with that many people. Good for business, but I’m sure that our experience would not have been as enjoyable. We were able to procure a water-side table on the deck of Antonio’s for lunch and once again, we took our time as our next adventure did not start until 3 PM.

          At 2:45 we reported to Captain Nemo aboard the Nautilus where we were given or orders to report to the engine room of the submarine for Duty Training before our under-sea excursion.

          Well, not really.

          We did report to the Captain, but it was to be shown our seats aboard the semi-submersible craft that we would cruise over to a Marine Sanctuary in to view the undersea denizens that lurked behind every strand of propeller-entwining  kelp there.

          Well, not really.

          The kelp is just really pretty and all of the little fishies like to swim around it.

          After we were safely deposited back on terra-firma we made our way back into town and awaited the arrival of Bear, our Avalon Discovery Tour Guide. He probably could nave been one of those guys at Disneyland as he peppered his travelogue with funny anecdotes that kept us smiling. I can’t believe how he guided his large, articulated, two-bus sized, vehicle around those tiny streets. Up and down the surrounding mountains we went to give us great views of Avalon.

          An hour later, back in Avalon proper, we landed at the Blue Water Café, the prized location for lunch or dinner, which has a first-come, first-served policy. The waiting times can be excruciating as this place is right next to Antonio’s, which means waterside!

          No Cruise Ship, No Waits!

          We procured a rail-side table complete with two propane overheard patio heaters as it was starting to get cool. Avalon is on the east side of the Island, so those surrounding mountains cast a long shadow in the evening, helping to cool things off. Good in the hot summers, but this day was around 70 degrees, so when it cooled off, it cooled off!

          Dinner and dessert completed we walked back to the pier and waited for our ship to come in (literally).  We tried our best to fall asleep on the voyage back to Long Beach.

          Catalina is one of those places that you can immerse yourself in and not worry that there’s no Walmart or rental cars, or any fast-paced annoyances to mitigate your de-compression from real life.

          The kid in third grade staring longingly at Catalina from his school bus those many years ago, was not disappointed.

Day 13 / Palos Verdes

          This narrative is not really something that will help you if you decide to go traveling, it is more of a reminiscence for me as I spent two great years here in 1963/64 when I was in 3^rd and 4^th grade.

          And I still think about it all the time.

          Paula was a trooper as she followed me around the Peninsula yesterday. We drove all over and even though I tried to explain where we were and what I did there, so much more was locked up in my head that I didn’t say.

          Who cares if that house is where Tommy Daniels lived, or that’s where my old school bus stop was?

          So, I did my best to show the highlights of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and not overly expound on its virtues because  unless you’ve lived here, there is absolutely no way to describe it.

          Palos Verdes is a Peninsula on the California coast just outside of Los Angeles. Not only is it a peninsula, but it rises to about 1500 ft. and everything else around it, including L.A. is basically at sea level. This means that from the very top of the peninsula, where my grammar school and the playground were located, I could look out across the Greater Los Angeles area all the way to the San Bernadino and San Gabriel Mountains and all the way up the coast to Santa Barbara.

          My bus ride to school was maybe one of the best in the world because we went past Marineland of the Pacific (this was way before SeaWorld even existed), up the hill past the active Nike Missile Base, and all the way along I could see across the Catalina Channel to the Island that holds the same name.

          Catalina Island (Yes, that one, “Twenty-six miles across the sea, Catalina Island is awaitin’ for me,”) haunted me for those two years that we lived there.

          We never visited it.

          We went lots of other places in Southern California, Sequoia, Lake Arrowhead, the Salton Sea, and uncountable weekend days at the local beaches, but we never went to Catalina.

          So every day I stared that twenty-six miles across the sea at that mysterious Island that haunted me in a way that only a nine-year old can be haunted. It took another thirty-four years for me to get there. That was on a family vacation that we took combining it with a wedding in Lake Tahoe.

          We are going there for a full day tomorrow and that should make a really nice post! We leave on the 6 AM jet-boat to Avalon Harbor and don’t return until almost 9 PM. Blog Post to follow (If I get up in time)!

          Back to Palos Verdes.

          Lots of things have changed since I lived there. Many more homes, the Japanese farms have disappeared (that’s where the homes are) and some of the areas that I hiked in as a kid are now nature preserves complete with hiking trails. There are four different political entities on the Peninsula, but they all seem to have each other in mind.  They collectively keep the whole peninsula cohesive when it comes to planning and executing public places and they even have a coalition of Conservators that help keep these public trails and ocean-side areas  maintained.

          We hiked down the cliffs to get to the beach where the tide pools are. It’s not the same as back then, the sea urchins are gone, as are the abalone, both victims of our modern (read environmentally stressed) times. We did see some anemones!😊 We were there at low tide and were able to scramble out on the rocks a bit. The water is still clear, but way too cold to try and go in.

          We stopped at the Wayfarer’s Chapel, an all-glass chapel built in 1949 and was designed by Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, and you can see all of the Wright-inspired styles in it. What a setting!

          This place, as close as it is to Los Angeles, is about as far away (in all ways that you can imagine) from it as it can possibly be.

          I take back what I said in the beginning. This would be a great place to visit and spend some time. There is a world-renowned spa and hotel here and more outdoor activities than you can imagine. All in encased in the Mediterranean -type climate that helps make Palos Verdes so nice a place to be at.

          It truly is in a world of its own.

We don’t gamble, we don’t smoke, and we rarely drink.

          So why in the name of all that’s Holy would we spend almost three days in Las Vegas?

          The answers to that and the secret of life will be revealed a little later.

           But first, we are in Day 11. Our travel day from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, a trip that was supposed to take about five hours which instead took almost eight hours. You all know our Wind stories by now and are probably sick of hearing them so, I promise No More Wind Stories, unless they are significant enough to warrant a mention.

          Mention!

          Day 11, yesterday, was mainly traveled through the high desert lands of California, namely the Mojave Desert. This is where Edwards Air Force Base is located, the scene of both various Space Shuttle landings and also the location of where Chuck Yeager broke the Sound Barrier.

          It is also the location of High Winds.

          All of the Winds that I have previously reported to you, have been in the 18 to 20 mph range. These are obviously high enough to wreak havoc on driving otherwise I would not have given them a mention.

          Yesterday (our Travel Day) we encountered winds of double that speed.

          Yup, 38 to 40 mph winds howling across the desert and through the mountain passes, were high enough to have our cell phones go off with Dust Storm Alerts. The bad part about wind is not its speed, but the force that it exerts on our big flat-sided vehicle as we drive.

          The Force goes up exponentially as the Wind Speed increases,

          For Example,

          A Wind Speed of 5 mph exerts 15 pounds per square inch of force on an object.

          When the wind speed doubles the force does not. The force is not 30 psi as you may expect, it is 60 psi. Now lets cut to the chase and look at yesterday’s wind speed of 40 mph and we arrive at a screamingly large (for driving a motorhome) 960 psi!

          That was enough for us to need to travel slower, say, like 40 mph, which in turn, made our travel time increase, say nothing of our stress level, which also decreased the slower that we went.

          Hence aa almost eight-hour foray into Southern California.

          Now that we’re here I can comfortably report on Day 10 of the trip, our last day in Las Vegas.

          In the beginning of this post, I asked a question, Why in the name of all that’s Holy would we spend almost three days in Las Vegas? 

          Well, there are actually several reasons, and you will find them illustrated here in just a few paragraphs. Paula has been here once before about twenty years ago with her cousin. I have never been here, and I have always wanted to see The Strip (as it’s called) and also see some of the older sections of town that still exhibit the original architecture, which is something akin to Art Deco, and also see where the boys from the Rat Pack hung out. Frank, Sammy, Dino, Peter, and a few others put Las Vegas on the map when it came to entertainment and even though I was in NO Way cool enough to hang with them (and too young!) I just love their renditions of the Classic American Songbook, as it has become to be known.

          Did you know that most of the fancy parts of town are not in Las Vegas at all? I wondered why when driving up Las Vegas Avenue (The Strip) past the Venetian and the Strat (the high needle-nosed building with the revolving restaurant at the top) I passed under a sign that read, The City of Las Vegas Welcomes You.

          It turns out that of all of the big-name casinos, only the Golden Nugget is actually located in the confines of the City. The rest are in the unincorporated sections of Winchester, Paradise, Enterprise, and Spring Valley.

          But no one cares!

          It’s like saying “I’m going to Newton” when you’re really visiting the Walmart. No one says, “I’m going to Hampton”. It’s the collective area that carries the moniker of Newton. Most of the time  😊

          We were able to find an original section of La Vegas, known as Fremont Street. They have managed to make this into a more modern, partially-closed to traffic, covered street, but if you walk a few blocks you can see the older places still in existence and a few Wedding Chapels, awaiting both loving and inebriated couples with all the kitsch that only Vegas can muster.

          We went back in the evening because you can only really experience the true spectacle of Las Vegas after the sun retreats behind the surrounding mountains.

          If you have been here before, you know what I am speaking of.

          If you haven’t, then…. Yikes!

          This place is one of excesses in all ways and means that that word can express.

          I wanted to see the buildings and lights after dark and I was definitely not disappointed!

          This place is like Times Square on steroids!

          We were there with about 750, 000 of our best friends who were on the street at the same time as us, and this was a Sunday night! I cannot imagine what it must have been like on Friday or Saturday nights! We walked a few miles, up and down the Strip, with all of the others, gawking at the sights, some of which (the drunks) were not pleasant to see and others (the pretty girls in their “Show Girls” Photo-Op outfits) that were!

          Since we are not the smoking, drinking, and gambling types alluded to in the beginning, we would probably not go back. I know that the shows are great and maybe we should have tried to see someone, but we accomplished what we set out to do and were happy with the outcome. Saying all of that, I o recommend visiting Vegas at least once in your life, if only to be able to say, “It’s Vegas baby!”

          I almost forgot.

          I did say in the beginning that I would reveal not only the answers to the questions, but also the secret of life.

          That is easy.

          It is Chocolate.