California Dreaming

Another good thing about being retired is that one is flexible when it comes to travelling. I can take off almost at a moment’s notice and when the opportunity arrives – carpe diem.

So when Marie let me know that she was going to be in California for a couple of weeks to work at the NHQ of the company implementing Oracle, I immediately went online, found a good fare from Ottawa to Los Angeles and started to look for my summer clothes.

I don’t know what it is that Mother Nature has against me, but every time I have gone somewhere this winter, it has snowed. This time, the snow started just as I was leaving Ottawa and within a day, another 25 centimetres had fallen. Thank goodness I have great neighbours; one looks after my mail, and the other has cleaned my driveway each time I have been away.

Anyway, upon arriving in Los Angeles all thoughts of snow had disappeared. The sun was shining as I took the rental car shuttle over to get my car. My name was listed in the fast rental area which meant I could go out in the lot and take my pick from the car class I had rented. I was severely tempted by a small, white, two-seater sports convertible that was included, but when I opened the trunk, I could see that my suitcase would barely fit. So instead, and somewhat reluctantly, I chose a cherry red Ford Focus.

I turned on Kate (my GPS) and headed out to partake in the Great LA pastime of freeway parking. The hotel was not far, though, and by 5 p.m. I was sitting on the hotel balcony, refreshment in hand, soaking up a few rays in the late afternoon sun.

The next day after seeing Marie off to work, I headed due west about 5 kilometres to the Pacific Coast Highway. It once connected all the small towns along the coast but now all the small towns are part of greater Los Angeles. I turned south at Redondo Beach towards the Palos Verdes Peninsula and then onto Palos Verdes Drive to follow the cliffs along the ocean. This turned out to be a beautiful drive with few cars on the road and a speed limit of forty-five miles an hour (about 80 km an hour in non American English). My first stop of the day was at Point Vicente to visit the Point Vicente Interpretive Centre and Park. This Centre has information on the Palos Verdes Peninsula’s history and geography, but specializes in studies of the Pacific Gray Whale. The southern migration of these whales occurs from December to April and whales can often be seen in the Catalina Channel offshore from the Centre. I spent an hour or so scanning the water but alas did not see any. The Centre is adjacent to the closed Point Vicente Lighthouse. This park is a great place for picnics and for just enjoying nature.

A little bit further down the coast, in the town of Rancho Palos Verdes (named after the large Spanish cattle ranch that was here when California belonged to Spain and Mexico), the road passes by the Wayfarers’ Chapel, a peaceful glass and wood church designed by Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright’s son. Lloyd Wright had redwood trees planted on each side of the church and these now form ‘tree walls’ that complement the wooden frame of the building. A service was underway while I was there, so I could not enter the Chapel itself, but I enjoyed walking around the grounds and taking a few minutes to rest and contemplate the warm sunshine, beautiful location and quiet, which is why the church was built in the first place.

Re-energized, I headed further down the coast and crossed an interesting area of about 2 kilometres where road signs warned of landslides. The often repaired undulating roadway and indeed several work crews in the process of actually backfilling and repairing the lane on the other side, attested to the geological instability of this area. No houses were built along this part of the road. I thought about stopping for photographs, but the no stopping signs and evidence of very recent landslides changed my mind.

After passing by the Trump National Golf Club ($275 plus tax to play a round), I arrived at Point Fermin Park , located in San Pedro. Here, the road turns north as this is the western side of the Los Angeles Harbour. I stopped in the Park to have lunch (a beautiful day for a picnic) and also to visit the Point Fermin lighthouse. Built in 1874, the lighthouse is a rare example of Victorian ‘Stick’ architecture (there were only six like it built and only three still exist). Whereas most Victorian architecture is based on the ornamental Queen Anne style, the Stick style stressed the wall surface itself as a decorative element rather than as a surface to which decorative detailing was added. No curlicues for this Victorian style.

I received a personal tour of the lighthouse by an elderly volunteer who was a veritable fountain of information about the lighthouse, San Pedro and the Peninsula. She asked me at the end of the tour if I knew where the first lighthouse in the world was built, and when I said the Pharos (meaning light in Greek) Lighthouse of Alexandria Egypt, she said I was only the second person she had met that knew that. I did not correct her, however, when she stated that the Alexandria lighthouse was named after the Egyptian Pharaohs. After all, I was not on Jeopardy and she was a very kind lady.

After leaving the park and lighthouse, I drove up the hill for a view of the Korean Bell of Friendship, a gift from South Korea to the American people for the US bicentennial in 1976. The two "people" guarding the entrance to the bell reminded me of pictures of South Pacific island art rather than Korean. I particularly liked the "sunglasses" on the carvings as well as the hat on the figure on the left. From the bell's location, the views out over the Catalina Channel, the Port of Los Angeles and the terraced hills to the north are amazing. The bell weighs 17 tons and the pagoda it sits in is very beautiful. An ocean marine facility that rescues marine animals shares the park in which the bell is located, but I did not visit it.

As it was now late afternoon, I cruised north through San Pedro (which is a port city that has seen better days) before catching the Harbour Freeway back to the hotel.

The next day, I decided to drive 80 kilometres south to San Juan Capistrano to visit the Mission that I last saw in 1965 on a trip with my brothers and parents. I thought I would be smart and waited until 9:30 a.m. for the morning rush hour to dissipate and accordingly, for the first 40 kilometres, I sailed along at 100 kph which is rare on the LA area freeways. Then for about 10 kilometres near Irvine, we slowed to 10 kph, so it took almost ninety minutes to make the trip. I do not understand how Los Angelinos can live where they do if they have to drive. If you have not been to LA and area yet, and are planning to drive around the city, make sure you budget enough time for the traffic.

Mission San Juan Capistrano is a beautifully restored and still functioning mission that was founded twice – in 1775 but abandoned because of Native unrest, and then again by Father Junipero Serra in 1776. The Mission was once famous for the ‘Return of the Swallows’ each spring and still has exhibits on the swallows even though the massive built up area around the City has all but meant that the swallows don’t return anymore.

The church that was built in 1777 is still used today. The mission and grounds is a beautiful place, small and compact enough so that the whole site can be seen in about three to four hours depending upon the number of school children present who learning about California history. Although an excellent audio guide is included in the admission price, tagging along within earshot of the guides who take the student groups around was also very informative. I have seen a few California Missions in my five visits to the State (there were 21 original missions between San Diego and San Francisco, each about a day’s journey by foot apart) and I would certainly recommend this one (and Purisima on the ocean drive between LA and San Francisco) as the two best to visit in my view.

I spent a few minutes in Old Town San Juan to see this historical area which still has original adobe houses (but which now is a disappointing and mostly commercial district; commercial being committed hippies who run candle shops, tea shops, fortune telling shops) literally on the other side of the tracks from the Mission, before heading back late in the day to the hotel.

The next day, with the weather still great (indeed, it was sunny and warm for the whole week I was there), I thought a trip to Long Beach would be entertaining. Long Beach is famous for its large Port, attractions such as the Aquarium of the Pacific (#2 visited after Disneyland), the 1936 ocean liner Queen Mary, and ocean parks and walks. I had lunch and then walked through Rainbow Park (the location of the Aquarium and a marina). The Aquarium was very busy, but the restaurants, park, marina and shopping area adjacent to the park were not. I noticed a headline in the local weekly that the Queen Mary was having financial and ownership difficulties, so it appeared to me that Long Beach is no longer the mecca that it used to be when the US Pacific Fleet was located here. The fact that Long Beach is surrounded by oil refineries, the huge breakwater built to protect the Navy boats and that keeps water from circulating in the harbour (very polluted) and the container port also detract from its potential beauty. The city is trying to clean up the harbour though and apparently fish have returned - at least the bird in the picture thought so. I did not stay long, instead I set out to do some shopping on the longer way back along the Pacific Highway (no bargains considering the difference between the US and Canadian dollars).

Marie and I had decided to go to San Diego on Saturday since we really enjoyed this city on our first visit in the 1980s. We booked a hotel in Old Town which we remembered as a beautiful and historic area where the city was first established. We arrived early and headed downtown on the San Diego Trolley (to the city centre) to visit the San Diego Maritime Museum.

This museum has an interesting collection of ships, including the world’s oldest active ship, the ‘Star of India’ which was launched in 1863 at the Isle of Wight, England, with the name Euterpe for the England – India cargo run. She is an iron hull ship, one of the first of its type. She had a disastrous beginning. ‘On her first trip she suffered a collision and a mutiny. On her second trip, a cyclone caught Euterpe in the Bay of Bengal, and with her topmasts cut away, she barely made port. Shortly afterward, her first captain died on board and was buried at sea’. Her next life was as a passenger ship, making 21 trips to take emigrants to New Zealand. Sold to Americans, in 1902 she began her third life sailing to the Barents Sea to fill up on canned salmon from Alaska and had her name changed to the Star of India. She was sold to a group of San Diego people in 1926 who wanted to restore her, but her restoration was not completed until 1976.

We took an outstanding harbour cruise on the museum's Pilot, the official pilot boat for San Diego Harbour from 1914 to 1996. You don’t sit in the Pilot, you sit on the cabin as it is a small boat. Which makes for an interesting ride since the harbour is really busy and the larger boats that pass by create wakes that cause the Pilot to really bob about. We also toured the Soviet era ‘Foxtrot’ submarine, B-29. Built in the 1970s to a 1940s German U-Boot design, she shadowed US Navy Pacific Fleet ships before she was taken out of service in the 1990s. The Maritime Museum web site warns “Persons that have trouble bending, crouching or climbing or are uncomfortable in confined spaces may have difficulty touring the B-39 submarine” for good reason. The small hatch that connects compartments is a challenge for anyone no matter size or age. If you saw the movie K-19 – Widowmaker, you will know what the inside of this submarine is like. Just remember that things (particularly the small hatches) on the screen look bigger than they actually are.

We returned late in the afternoon to Old Town and walked back through this historic area which is a State Historical Park. A celebration of the Mormon Battalion, the only religious unit in American military history (the Salvation Army does not count), which marched from Iowa to San Diego during the Mexican-American War in 1846, was underway, complete with period costumes, food and music.

I was glad to see this celebration, because Old Town has been completely commercialized since we last visited in the 1980s and is now quite disappointing. Before, some of the buildings were portrayed as they had been, i.e. the General Store, but now there is a 'tourist' store in just about every building selling some pretty tacky stuff. I suspect that the State Parks in California are like our national museums in Canada; they receive less and less government funding and have to find other ways to raise funds.

On Sunday, we headed inland and north from San Diego to visit the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park, an 1800 acre site in the San Pasqual Valley. Affiliated with the San Diego Zoo, the Animal Park protects endangered species and has breeding programs (notably for the California Condor) which releases animals back into the wild and provides specimens to other zoos around the world. The Park is well worth visiting and on the day we were there, the animals were very active as it was sunny with a high of about 23 degrees. We travelled into ‘Africa’ aboard the Journey into Africa tram which circuled the park and made one feel as if you were actually out on the African veldt.

Later on, Marie had fun feeding the lorikeets (native to Australia and New Zealand). We also walked the Naroibi Trail past the camping area (called Snore and Snort) and past the elephants, tigers, lions (but no bears, oh my) to Condor Ridge and marvelled at the size of the California Condors, we laughed through the Animal Encounters game show (might have had something to do with the 1.5 litre ‘large’ beers we bought) and peered into the canopy of trees in the Hidden Jungle exhibit. I have visited the San Diego Zoo as well, but I would recommend the Wild Animal Park for a day’s excursion if you are in this part of California.

The next day, I left early for the airport (10 kilometres but forty minutes away by freeway and no I did not take the 'giraffe') for my morning flight home. Serendipity must have been my middle name that day, because the Air Canada lounge was closed for renovations, so Air Canada passengers were directed to the Air New Zealand lounge. As New Zealand is our next major destination (notwithstanding Marie going to Moscow for work), I was able to pick up several books, maps and other materials to start planning the next getaway later this spring. Until then, keep on Dreaming.