Back where we started from . . .

Back in Portland in the same hotel, although we all forgot what it was like.  William feels like we've only been gone a short time, but the rest of us feel like we've never been home.  Like we're like Odysseus and everyone at home will have forgotten us.   (Although Odysseus wasn't able to blog about Circe or the Cyclops or anything!)

Last night we had no wifi.  There has been something wrong with every hotel we've stayed in.  I guess the worst was the Disneyland hotel which had a litany of problems.  When we got into the room, it seemed nice and we unloaded everything and started to relax when we noticed that there was water on the floor in the bathroom.  They sent a plumber and offered to let us change rooms, but we'd already ensconced ourselves and didn't want to move.  It was close to the pool and far away from the street.  Anyway, they fixed the leak but we still had it in our heads.  The last hotel in Los Angeles was quite swanky looking with a big glossy lobby and all sorts of people running around after us and warm cookies at the desk to greet us, but Mike was very dismissive of the furniture in the room and the window at the end of the hall was broken.  I'm reading all these Harry Bosch mystery novels and it really reminded me of the Los Angeles he describes.  All made up on the outside but dark and sleazy on the inside.  The pool looked like this mysterious blue place where some seedy Hollywood producer would meet his mistress and they'd swim at midnight and drink champagne until he strangles her because she's threatening to tell his wife about their affair, or some other cheap Hollywood scenario like that.  That was the only pool we didn't use, and the one I wanted most to use.  Also the book I'm reading now, Trunk Music, mentions the street our hotel was on and says it is the site of the "Star Strip" where hopeful actors sell their favours to keep body and soul together.  At least, that's the impression I got.

This morning we had a HUGE breakfast in Yreka (which, I discovered is pronounced WHY REEK AH) at a place called Poor George's which displayed local artists' work on the walls and had a very rustic atmosphere.  Mike and Anthony had chicken fried steak, which is breaded steak, and it came with hash browns, plate-sized pancakes, and eggs, all covered in a thick gravy.  Even Mike couldn't eat all of it.  Our waitress, who reminded me of a woman I worked with at Schenker named Joni Skibbe, said, "none of you are leaving hungry, are you?"

After we left the restaurant, we took a little walking tour of the town and saw all sorts of Victorian homes, their historic main street, and where one of the lynchings I mentioned in the previous post took place.

The people who committed the lynching were never charged -- the city fathers said it was done by "people unknown".  I guess either the whole town is guilty or no one is.  It's like now when you say that the bystanders who don't stand up to the bullies are as guilty as the bullies themselves.  I don't know if I agree.  It can be hard to intervene when you think you might be the next victim.

Mike wants a steak for dinner tonight, so we've looked in my guide books for possibilities and will go after the traffic dies down a bit (maybe at 7 or 8?).  And we'll be home tomorrow!  We'll pick up Daisy on the way and she'll have a vomit fest in the car (her blanket is with her at the kennel, so we'll try to cover Anthony's lap with it at least, since that's where she likes to vomit the most!

We spent our last morning in Monterey on the golden sandy beach and walking along Cannery Row, which is now a street of trendy shops and restaurants and hotels.   There are lots of John Steinbeck named places, John Steinbeck Plaza, John Steinbeck Square, etc.  I wonder what he would think of that.  The place certainly resonates with his books – the huge farms with people bent over picking the crops and the old cannery building and Salinas itself.  I bought a copy of Cannery Row – I don’t think I ever read it and I saw the memorial to Ed Ricketts who was the real “Doc” from the book and thought it would be fitting to read it.

We had a long drive to Yreka.  It is a small place (around 7,000 people) set in rolling hills with a backdrop of mountains.  I looked it up on Wikipedia (when I had an internet connection – there doesn’t seem to be one here) and these are the two things I found out:  the name resulted from the days of the gold rush when they were slapping up buildings at a great pace.  They’d built a bakery and had painted a sign which they’d hung up to dry.  It was hung backwards and somehow the “b” hadn’t soaked through so it looked like “yreka” and people thought it was the name of the town, and it stuck.

There have been two lynchings here.  Both happened when gold or money was stolen from the stage or from the bank and the townspeople felt that the authorities were not moving quickly enough to deal with the situation and took the law into their own hands and hanged the people they thought were responsible. 

Not a very auspicious introduction to the town, but it appears to have resolved its vigilante past and is peaceful and quiet now.  Our room has a “creekside” view and you can hear the crickets singing away outside.

Tomorrow we face another long drive to Portland and then after that we arrive home, to our girl, Daisy, and hopefully, our new floor!

 

 

Light and Water

Here we are in Cannery Row in Monterey, California.  Monterey is a really beautiful little city, right on the Pacific Ocean with cute old fashioned houses and a great aquarium and the world famous jazz festival.  We arrived after a five hour drive from Los Angeles, checked into our hotel (William was happy to see a small pool at the front and Anthony was gratified to realize the wifi is strong) and went straight to the aquarium!  We had a nice lunch, albeit in a cafeteria, which is the bane of Mike's existence, and then set about to explore the aquarium.  It is smaller than Vancouver's, but it doesn't have whales or sea lions performing, which, to me, is better.  You can go out on a viewing deck and see wild sea otters frolicking in the ocean.  They are attracted to Monterey Bay because there is lots of food here for them and it is relatively sheltered.  The otters we saw were in a harem of females who are visited from time to time by one male, who impregnates them all and then goes on his way.  It seems to work out for all of them!  The aquarium staff is out there to answer questions and lend you binoculars.  They have all sorts of rescued animals and all sorts of beautiful displays -- jellyfish that seem to go on forever and a whole section of seahorses of all different kinds, even sea dragons!  Anthony took lots of pictures, but I can't figure out how to get them off his phone.  This is a picture of the outside part of the aquarium.

 

 

There is a shorebird area with all sorts of lovely shorebirds, like killdeer and plovers, all of whom are endangered because of people's encroachment on their habitat.  If only we could leave animals some space to do what they need to do.   They have huge areas for sea turtles and sharks and tuna and my favourite part was the  octopus area.  They have two octopuses (or is it octopi?) and one of them was bright red and flowing along the glass with his eye fixed on all of us out on the other side of the glass.  He was so graceful and elegant.  The aquarium person said that the octopus is very intelligent (I've heard that it is as intelligent as a three year old person) and can recognize individual people by touch and changes colours when its emotions change  I wonder what red means.  We had a great time and the icing on the cake was that they have jazz musicians from the jazz festival play from six to eight on Saturdays so we were treated to an excellent quintet of musicians and they served wine, beer and pop and even snacks while you listened to the music.  How Monterey, huh?

 

Tomorrow we really start our trek home.  We will drive 6 1/2 hours to Yreka (I don't even know how to say the name of the place, but it is in "gold" country).   It is halfway to Portland, which will be our home the next day.  We have had a terrific time with lots of memorable experiences, but it hasn't been all smooth sailing.  The thing I hate most about travelling is the part where you arrive in the place and you're tired and you want to just flop down and relax, but you have to find some place to eat or order room service or make some sort of decision.  You can't just heat up some leftovers from the fridge.  And I hate always having to eat in restaurants and look at the menu and pick something.  I like eating in restaurants once in a while, but not every night. 

 

But soon I'll be home and thinking "oh, what am I going to make tonight?"   You can't win. 

Time's winged chariot

There are three generations of Taylors above!  We were able to get back to Banning today
 and it was great to see Gordon and Annie again.  They have a lovely home and they welcomed us with open arms and we had another terrific visit and a delicious meal of "gusto" and salad with fresh California avocado and great conversation.  Gordon played the piano for us and the music took me right back to one of Mike's and my early dates when we went to the Arts Club to see "Ain't Misbehavin'" -- Gordon performed in the show along with a number of other well loved Vancouver musicians and actors, including Mike's cousin, Lovena.  That's when I met Gordon for the first time - what a wonderful show it was!  Gordon says it is one of his best memories as well.  We walked around their property -- they have fruit trees of all descriptions -- lemons, oranges, pomegranates, apples -- and nut trees.  They live in the mountains and the land is very dry -- they have a huge cactus right at their property line, laden with fruit.  There are so many birds and William was very taken with how many lizards he was able to spot.  This visit is one of the reasons we came to California, so it was fitting that we were able to go back.  Pablo, Annie's little rescued chihuahua, was very nervous when he first met us, but he took quite a liking to Anthony and was able to relax in his bed right next to Anthony on the couch.  He reminded us a bit of our own nervous girl, Daisy, who I hope is thriving in the kennel while we're gone.  It was very hard to leave at the end of our visit, but hopefully, we'll be able to come back sooner than we managed to come our first time.

Before we headed out to Banning, we stopped off in Hollywood at Gaumann's Chinese Theatre, which I think is called something else now.  I wasn't prepared for the effect it had on me.  We saw Burt Lancaster's star on the "Walk of Fame" and of course, I have always loved him and it was so wonderful to see his name and star there and remember his performances in movies like "The Birdman of Alcatraz", which I mentioned here before.  When we went further, there were all the stars' footsteps in the cement.  Apparently, the tradition began when Norma Talmadge (a great actress of the early days of movies) accidentally planted her foot in fresh cement outside the theatre.  There were all sorts of great actors represented there, but not too many who were familiar to the boys.  The first one I spotted was Bette Davis and of course, she's one of my heroes and I felt quite emotional to see her footprints and handprints there.  I took heaps of pictures -- Jack Benny's, Jack Lemmon's, John Barrymore (who put his profile there!), Joe E. Brown (whose lips were memorialized in concrete!), the stars of "West Side Story", and the stars of "Giant" (except for poor James Dean, who had died by the time the movie was released).  It really seemed to express a bit about the elusive nature of fame -- I wonder how many people remember Susan Hayward.  She was a big star in her day, but I wonder if any of my students have heard of her, even the movie buffs.

In conclusion, it was a big day for all of us and we're going to get up early tomorrow and head north to Monterey, on our way home.  We're going to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium which we're heard wonderful things about and then onward north to reach home by July 30.

A Zoo with a View

We went further afield today to the San Diego Wild Animal Safari in Escondido, California.  This is a dream zoo if you're an animal and it's pretty great if you're a person.  Whatever questions we had about zoos were answered here.  It is a huge expanse of land and the animals have vast areas where they roam and the people are kept to paths and trams and things.  When we first arrived, we climbed up to a tower and were so excited to see giraffes and rhinos just wandering around in the distance, eating grass and going to the waterhole and reclining under trees.

Originally, the park was closed to the public and was meant as a breeding facility for the Zoo, but in the 70's they decided to let the public see what they were up to.  They have an excellent record for animals breeding which is a sign that they aren't too stressed.  I've read about the idea of the time capsule zoo -- meant to preserve species while we get our acts together as far as preserving habitats, preventing conflicts between animals and people and educating people about climate change and the importance of wilderness and diversity -- I guess this is one of those places.  One of the keepers who spoke to us said if we told ten people that rhino horns are made of the same material as our fingernails, and then those ten people told ten people, we could make a difference for dwindling rhino populations.  So pass on the word to whoever you meet.









When we first arrived, we went into a tropical bird enclosure.  You could buy nectar and feed the lorikeets.  Both boys bought a little cup and came in ready to get up close to a beautiful brightly coloured bird.  There was a bunch of other people in the enclosure as well, and a little blond fellow who seemed very popular with the birds.  They were all over him!  William managed to attract a bird to his nectar and didn't that little blond fellow come over and try to entice William's bird away!  Then a lorikeet landed on William's head!  Blondie was there a

gain, like a dirty shirt!  I wish you could have seen William's face.

After seeing bats and meeting a lemur up close, we took a tram trip around the whole park and then visited the lions, cheetahs, tigers, elephants and best of all, the gorillas! Unlike the regular zoo, all the animals (except the lions) were very active, roaming around their large interestingly designed areas.  We all agreed that it would be good to be an animal in this place.  Although Mike still thinks the cats need to have a chance to hunt once in a while.  The tiger area was huge with all sorts of different terrains and places to swim and climb and hide, but Mike said, "it sounds cruel, but they should put a goat in there once in a while".  I know what he's talking about, but I wouldn't want to be the goat or see what the tigers would do to it.

The gorillas were great, of course.  There is a large diverse troupe and they also have a big area to live in with trees and running water and caves and little niches for them to hang out in.  The silverback, Winston, is apparently a gentle leader although we did see him take one of the female gorilla's leafy branches and plop himself down and eat it, while she and her baby had to move away to a less comfortable spot.  I guess he's gentle but he still wants to be the boss.

Now we're back in Los Angeles again. This time in Culver City.  We are a lot closer to the heart of Los Angeles here than we did in Anaheim and have a great view of the big city and all the lights and the hustle bustle.  We're going to go out to Banning again tomorrow to have dinner with Gordon (Mike's dad) and Annie (his wife) and maybe we'll have time to do a little sightseeing in Hollywood.  Maybe I'll wear a tight white sweater and go to a soda shop.  You never know what might happen.  I think I'm just as good an actor as Lana Turner.

Lions, and tigers and bears, oh my!

Here we are in San Diego.  It is a very pretty city with a low crime rate and an ocean beach and lots of car accidents!  Mike has noticed that California drivers follow very closely and change lanes seemingly at will and with very little room to maneuver and this seems to foster a lot of accidents one of which took place right outside our hotel window!  So far we have managed to avoid them.

We went to the zoo today.  This was something I was really looking forward to and it didn't disappoint.  We saw all our favourite animals (Mike - rhinoceros, William - reptiles of all sorts, Anthony - kangaroos and pronghorns, and me -- the great apes and elephants).  The zoo is very large, but even so some of the enclosures (for the cats in particular) seem too small.  When you think of the expanses that these animals use in the wilderness an acre doesn't really cut it.  We tried to think what it would be like for an animal in the zoo -- there are pros and cons, the boys decided.  You'd get all your meals and healthcare and a safe place to live -- all very important, but then it would be horribly boring, just to live in your house and your yard and never get to go anywhere.  They have programs for enrichment for lots of the animals, but it's still not like being free. 

The zoo is very forested with great swathes of bamboo everywhere and running water in almost every animal's enclosure.  You can always hear the birds singing and it feels very natural and lush.  The zoo keepers are knowledgeable and there is lots of room and you don't feel rushed even though there are hoards of people everywhere.  It was very hot and many of the animals were asleep, but the tiger was pretty lively and the gorillas, bonobos and orangutans looked into our eyes and did some ape-y things that made us wonder about how different we are from them.  We saw a couple of tortoises mating (very passionate in a stony, slow sort of way) and lots of animals we didn't know existed.  It is wonderful to see the diversity of life on the planet -- and the zoo is very active in conservation and habitat preservation and animal research of all sorts so you feel good about spending money there.

We will see what the safari park is like tomorrow -- it's supposed to be a place where the animals are free and the people are enclosed, so I hope that's true.

After the zoo, we had planned to have a picnic in Balboa Park and we found a nice spot near all the museums and the Theatre (which is a gorgeous Spanish looking building) and started to set up the barbecue, when we realized that I had forgotten the propane back in the hotel.  Plan B!  Hodad's Restaurant in the Ocean Park area (like an edgy Kitsilano)

was featured on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" -- one of the boys' favourite Food channel shows -- so we headed out there.  There was some sort of street festival going on with music and crowds of cool looking people.  The restaurant was very hipsterish -- license plates covering the walls and an actual car parked inside with a table fitted inside.  There was a line up out the door and down the block so we took take-out and trundled off to the beach with our bag of burgers, milkshakes and "frings" (onion rings and french fries).  The beach was spectacular -- soft golden sand and great crashing waves and people trying to surf and swim and pelicans diving into the water head first to catch fish.  The milkshakes were delicious but the burgers not anything to write home about.

It was a full day and now we're back in the hotel -- all tuckered out.  We'll have an early night and start up again bright and early tomorrow.

I'm still behind with the pictures -- this is us in front of the "House of Mystery - the Oregon Vortex" which I mentioned on July 16.

Thanks to Esther Miller and Mike, we have visual images now!!  We haven't loaded the images from yesterday or today, but I did want to try to see if we could do it and it appears we have.  Any of you folks who might read this might let me know if there are actually pictures on the blog or if I'm living in a fool's paradise!

I thought about Universal Studios more after I blogged yesterday, and I do think they've missed the mark.  It's fine and dandy what they do there, but the reason people are interested in Universal Studios is the movies, so the rides are really not necessary.  Maybe one to show how they use modern technology to give people a virtual experience, but I think they should have screening rooms where you can see movies on the big screen and Mike thought they should have a show being made, from the beginning idea (the pitch) to the final show, with actors and lighting technicians and filming and all of that.  It wouldn't have to be real -- you could use real actors to play all the different parts.  I think if we come back to Los Angeles (and I've really enjoyed it -- I would come back, in spite of the smog and the traffic) I'd rather see a real studio tour rather than one with amusement park rides.  Lots of the studios offer them and they'd probably give you a clearer picture of what the work is like.

Today we left Los Angeles and went out to Banning to visit Mike's dad.  Mike has wanted to come for a long time because he hasn't seen his dad for a really long time (long before we were married, which is an eon, of course).  Mike's dad is in Banning and still plays music -- he has a couple of "gigs" coming up even though he's 81.   He and his wife, Annie, were great hosts and we had a good visit.  Mike showed them pictures of all the furniture he makes and of course, they have seen his website before but they were still impressed.  It is the first time Gordon has seen Anthony and William and they were good guests and I was proud of how they behaved.   Gordon and Annie invited us back for "gusto" and we're really going to try to come, although our schedule is really tight.

Tomorrow we're going to the San Diego Zoo (we are in San Diego now) and then the Safari Park.  I've read that in the safari park, the people are enclosed and the animals roam at will and that's as it should be, I think.  Mike and William are down at the pool right now, and Anthony wants something hot to eat so we'll probably slip down and see what we can find in the area.