Fresno and More

We spent a wonderful weekend in Fresno (yes, seriously).  The grandson of a friend of Jerry’s from when they were wee kids got married.  It was a wonderful wedding and fun to see friends from the past (not the grandparents, we get together all the time).

The next day we went into an underground garden.  Baldassare Forestiere, a Sicilian immigrant, came to the US to farm.  Unfortunately he bought land that was mostly hardpan.  A man who doesn’t give up, he dug and dug and planted his trees 25 feet down.  This is a great orange tree.

  Using hand tools, he created a unique garden of tunnels and rooms.  He carved the hardpan into bricks to line the walls.  He designed the woven tunnels so he could see if anyone entered his home.  Our tour of the gardens was great fun as well as a lesson in perseverance.

Now the “more” and a great more it was.  Our son Jeff and grandson Bennett came out for a first visit sans Bennett’s parents.  What fun and what a lot of energy.

Timing was excellent for seeing the goats that “mow” the hillside behind our home.

Bennett went swimming in our communal pool and

he played with a whirligig.

He destroyed us at a memory game and let us win at other games.

He made a new friend.  She is the grand-daughter of a friend of ours and the two children enjoyed the Powerhouse museum in Sacramento.

We saw the play James and the Giant Peach in Nevada City.

The highlight was going to SF to the Exploratorium.  Jeff was the first in our family to go there way back when he a young kid.  The original was in the 1915 Palace of Fine Arts and was quite funky (60ish).  In 2013, it moved to Pier 15 on the waterfront and filled with hundreds of items to really get your hands on.  This is a learning experience filled with fun.

 This piece of "toothpick art" took about 40 years to build and is still a work in progress.

A Flashback to Some Adventures

In June our RV friends Paul and Carol traveled through the area.  We decided to meet up in Richmond, CA.  While Richmond itself is not a travel destination, it has a strong history.  As the US entered WWII, the need for naval ships was paramount.  Richmond was the location for major ship building, both Liberty and Victory ships.  The city was transformed into twenty-four-sevenday per week industry.  With men heading off to war, women entered the work force as did African-Americans who moved from the South.

We toured the Red Oak Victory ship, the last remaining ship of this type, learning about its construction.  The Victory ships replaced the Liberty ships because they were much faster and able to outrun submarines.  They were designed to carry cargo to Europe and the South Pacific and were lightly armed with anti aircraft guns.  

We went deep into the engine room,

seeing both officer and enlisted men’s quarters,

learning about communication between ships and land

and seeing the bridge

After a delicious lunch at Assemble Restaurant , we went to the Rosie the Riveter Museum.

 The displays show what life was like in a town that was dedicated to helping with the war effort.  Henry Kaiser, who had never built a ship, was the chief builder there.  He used any man/woman power he could to build, weld and rivet his ships..  Kaiser got in the hospital business by wanting to treat on-the-job injuries close to where the work was done so workers could quickly return to their jobs.

The highlight of our day was an amazing lecture by Betty Reid Soskin , a ninety-seven-year-old African-American woman who was a clerk in Richmond during the war. 

She presented an excellent lecture on what life was like for African Americans in the Bay Area.  She is a good teacher, a captivating speaker and an inspiration to her audience.