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| William post-haircut |
The long (wet) slog
home continues. As promised I’m returning to the blog after a fun and eventful
week in the San Francisco Bay Area.
After departing
lovely Bakersfield Sunday morning we made a leisurely drive north and arrived
at my cousin Cynthia’s home in Danville, California in time to catch nearly all
of the Michigan State versus Duke elite 8 basketball game.
In an exciting and
nail biting finish the Spartans pulled out a huge win against the favored
Dukies to advance to the Final Four. That made Sunday a truly great, great day.
Cynthia made us a wonderful dinner and we caught up that evening.
Cynthia seems to
get us every year about this same time as we head home to Michigan via
California which makes no sense geographically, but makes great sense when you
have wonderful family and friends that make the detour very much worth it.
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| A well-weeded backyard |
On Monday I left
Joan and Cynthia to their own devices and I headed to Santa Cruz to spend a couple
days with my son, William. He and I headed to the little seaside town of
Capitola for lunch and then we stopped at a hair styling place to get William a
nice haircut and a shave. He looked great following the clipping.
Joan had Cynthia
drop her at a salon where she had a manicure and a pedicure. She and Cynthia
went out to lunch and did some shopping. William and I watched some movies
after we got home from our Capitola and hair cut adventure.
On Tuesday, April
2, I got up early and did some weeding on William’s backyard which has grown
considerably due to the unusual amount of rain California has experienced this
winter. While I was working my fingers to the bone, Joan and Cynthia were
enjoying the lap of luxury in Cynthia’s fine estate and they later took in a
performance of The Diary of Anne Frank.
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| Some new duds for William |
Tuesday night after
dinner with William I returned over the hill (Highway 17 between San Jose and
Santa Cruz) to Cynthia’s house. I found a car wash and cleaned some of the bugs
off the car that I had gathered driving up the Central Valley of California on
my way to Cynthia’s.
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| Our Tahoe (and this was before our travel luggage) |
On Wednesday, Joan
and I returned over the hill to visit with William again and have dinner with
his mother (my first wife) and her husband Bill at Hindquarter’s Restaurant in
Santa Cruz. During the day Joan and I cleaned William’s house a bit and then
took him shopping at a Kmart in Watsonville before joining Chris and Bill for
dinner.
After dinner we
said our good byes to William and headed again over the hill and back to
Cynthia’s.
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| Joan at Richardson's Grove |
On Thursday, I did
a few chores for Cynthia and then we went out to dinner in Danville. We had a
lovely visit with Cynthia, including seeing the movie “The Best of Enemies” in
Walnut Creek Friday afternoon. Again Cynthia cooked us a fine dinner Friday
night.
We left out early
Saturday to head to our friend Jan’s house in Hidden Valley Lake, California.
On the way we ate at the Canyon Café in Napa. The place has seen better days,
but the food was good and it was packed with locals so we knew it must be OK.
At one point I saw
a sign for “Psychic John.” I told Joan I
was going to stop, bang on his door early Saturday and when he answered and
said “What do you want?” I was going to answer back, “You tell me, you’re the
psychic.” Joan thought that was a bad
idea. Besides, if he really is a psychic he should have known I was coming,
right?
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| Joan at Founders Tree |
So we arrived at
Jan’s at noon and she took us to a nice lunch at the golf clubhouse near her
beautiful home.
Later we headed to
the Twin Pines Casino where we all played a little slots until it was dinner
time and we all enjoyed a wonderful Prime Rib meal. We returned to Jan’s house in time to see the
Spartans lay an egg against Texas Tech in the NCAA basketball semi-finals.
Well, it was a good season, but it ended on a sour note as the Spartans
couldn’t buy a basket.
We turned in and
then were up early on Sunday for a really nice breakfast that Jan cooked for us
and we headed out for our next great adventure.
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| Joan at hollow tree |
On the way out of
the Napa area we marveled at the increasing number of vineyards and wineries
that have spread throughout the area. The one sign that troubled me though is
the “Report Drunk Drivers” sign. Well, you did invite them to come up and test
your product afterall.
For many, many years I have wanted to take
Joan to the Redwood forests in northern California. She has visited the
redwoods in the Central coast area and they are beautiful, but the giant
redwoods in and around Garberville in Humboldt County must be seen to be
appreciated.
Early in our time
in Tucson I resolved to make this happen this year so it was with great
anticipation that I left Jan’s this morning knowing that this was the day that
Joan would finally get to see the impressive redwoods of Humboldt County,
California.
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| Joan next to Dyerville Giant |
As a boy in the
late 1950s and early 1960s my stepfather and mother took my brother and I to
Richardson’s Grove State Park and even as a young boy I was impressed with the
size and magnificence of these special trees.
My father and
stepmother also brought my brother and I to these same redwoods on another
occasion and we stayed at the Benbow Inn. The Benbow Inn of the late 1950s and
early 1960s was a tired old, but grand hotel, that had seen better days. It was
a stopping point for many celebrities in its day, but when we stayed here my
single biggest recollection was of a large daddy long legs spider that was in
our bathroom.
Don’t get me wrong
we had fun at the Benbow Inn and I was with my family so I was very happy being
there, but I never imagined then that when I returned 60 years later I would be
staying in a 5-star hotel with a 5-star restaurant. But stay we did thanks to
my sister who found a “group-on” coupon for the hotel that brought the nightly
rate down to a level that fit our budget.
Without a coupon
for the restaurant we did not eat in the restaurant because along with its
5-star rating it has 5-star prices for dinner. It also has a dress code that we
could not possibly meet considering we are traveling in something other than
the “casual elegant” dress that is required for dinner.
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| A small redwood root ball |
But I digress, the
weather was wet nearly all day Sunday, but that did not hamper our visit to
either Richardson’s Grove or to Humboldt State Park where we took a couple of
short nature hikes to visit the historic and impressive trees.
At Richardson’s
Grove (so named after the governor who agreed to protect the Redwoods only
after it was agreed to name the place after him) we were given a private tour
of the visitor center, which is being completely restored. I remembered some of
it from my visits there as a youth, but I was glad to see they are keeping much
of former building intact as they remodel.
Joan seemed
impressed by the trees and after leaving Richardson’s Grove we headed north on
101 and started the 31-mile “Avenue of the Giants” portion of our tour just
north of Garberville.
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| Back of the Benbow Inn |
We enjoyed the
wonderful, leisurely drive as we weaved among these stately trees that measure
their existence not in centuries but millenniums.
It can only cause
awe to stand next to a tree that may have been a young sapling at the time
Jesus was walking around the Middle East. Or touch a tree that was 700 years
old when Columbus arrived in America.
I could only feel
small when I realized that a tree I was standing next to on Sunday, had not
only been there when I was a boy, but had only added a couple inches to its
girth since the last time I visited. Thank goodness someone had the good sense
to stop the excessive logging of these great trees so many years ago.
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| Joan by the Eel River |
Just past Humboldt
State Park visitor’s center is a place called “Founder’s Grove.” We stopped and
took a half mile interpretive nature walk that included a close up look at the
Dyerville Giant, a 375-foot monster redwood that crashed down in 1991 after a
long, steady rainstorm that also included high winds. The 1,600-year old tree
crashed to earth causing a seismograph 10 miles away to register it as a small
earthquake.
A resident 10-miles
away reported that when he heard the noise he thought a train had wrecked. We
stood next to the tree that once stood taller than a football field is long and
felt nothing but awe.
It will be rotting
away on the forest floor many centuries after I am long gone from this earth.
After finishing the
31-mile Avenue of the Giants trip we returned to the Benbow Inn and checked in.
I couldn’t help but walk around the building to the back and look at the place
where our room had been as a boy. They are all updated and beautiful now, but I
remember the magic of staying in a hotel where you walked out the door and down
to the Eel River.
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| A forest trillium blossom |
The Eel River is a
large impressive body of water that has overflowed its banks many times leaving
death and destruction along its travels. We saw photos and accounts of past
floods at the Humboldt State Park Visitor’s Center.
I also have recollections of a large daddy long legs spider in our bathroom on my boyhood visit. No spiders on this trip.
After my trip down
nostalgia lane, we drove back to Garberville and had dinner at Calico’s Café.
It advertised Italian food, but when we arrived we were told they don’t serve
that food on Saturday or Sunday, but they have a Mexican menu on the weekend so
we had Fajitas.
The rustic old
Benbow Inn does not have TVs in the room so that’s why I used that time to
write this post instead of watching some stupid television show.
Time out at Jan’s: 8:40 a.m.
Mileage out at Jan’s: 9068
Time in at Benbow Inn: 4:15 p.m.
Mileage in at Benbow Inn: 9307
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