Reagan

Rain blurred our view down 101 to Greater Los Angeles and two Presidential Libraries. We start with Reagan.

While we may have some differing opinions on his career, one thing stands out: his sense of humor. Whether it was to lighten a political issue or react to his own personal life, he found a way to be amusingly charming. With Reagan voicing so many quotations from his early movie career, political speeches, or reflections on his life, he seems like a narrator in his own museum.

Among the movie memorabilia is his “Gipper” sweater from Knute Rockne: All American.

The duplicate of the Oval Office, including the Resolute desk from Queen Victoria, is impressive.

Along with the obvious displays on his life, career and political offices are small sections about the Challenger tragedy, the Grenada invasion and the Iran-Contra scandal. The most touching displays are his letters and telegrams to Nancy. The most dramatic are clips from the assassination attempt and the display of East Germany and the Cold War.

The walk through Air Force One was interesting. Unfortunately the US government does not allow photographs. His Cadillac Limo had the license plate “Gipper.”

Jars of Jelly Belly candies were readily available in the Oval Office and on Air Force One.

This photo is made of Jelly Bellys.

This piece of the Berlin Wall overlooks the Simi Valley.

Reagan is buried next to the library.

Back home there is no such thing as good deli, but we are near LA. Mark and Ellen have been raving about Brent’s as long as we have known them. This was the night for them to put the food on the table. We shared a platter of lox, white fish, herring and smoked cod. These we layered on rye bread and bagels. Oh, yeh, it was great. So good we bought more to have in a day or two.

This is the dessert Jerry was not permitted to enjoy.

Santa Barbara

We forgot to include Mark and Ellen’s photograph in the previous blog. Since we are traveling together for two weeks, we want you to know them.

The Presidio at Santa Barbara was the last and largest Spanish military outpost in Alta California.

We wandered through the buildings seeing exhibits of local Chumash pottery and Spanish goods such as this leather saddle bag.

We learned that the Mayan word kakaw and the Aztec word cacahuatl form the delicious word chocolate. A special exhibit on the old Japanese community provided a different perspective of this diverse town.

This wagon stands outside of one of the original buildings that housed an officer’s family.

We returned to the Santa Barbara Courthouse so Jerry could enter through the Lawyer’s doorway and visit the law library. Over the doorway are the words Reason Is the Life of the Law, a serious thought for all of us.

This time for lunch we took Guy Fieri’s (Diners, Drive-ins & Dives) recommendation and had a British meal in a Spanish town.

Mac’s fish and chips are delicious and disappeared before they could be photographed.

Highway 101

We are continuing our trip south on Hwy 101 with friends Mark and Ellen. Our first stop was in Santa Maria. Jerry and Anna Lee went into San Luis Obispo for another 10K walk. This one was rather ordinary and doesn’t even have a photo to commemorate it.

Today, Super Bowl Sunday, we are in Santa Barbara. For Chanukah, Cheryl and Dave gave us 1000 Places to See in the US & Canada before You Die. While it is fun to read about where we have traveled, we find the book has much to suggest as we continue on down the road. Our first proof of this was lunch at La Super-Rica Taqueria, a unique local spot with really good Mexican food.

After lunch, the four of us took a docent-led tour of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. This Spanish-Moorish style building is beautiful.

Ceiling, floors, elevator doors and even the drinking fountains are adorned with wooden carvings and ceramic tiles.

The tour started in the Mural Room where the history of California including the Chumash Indians, Missionaries, and US Statehood fill the walls.

Throughout the building the art styles of Sicily, Tunisia, and Spain blend creating one of the most beautiful courthouses in the nation.

In the afternoon, we returned to the Elks Lodge campground and joined their Super Bowl party.

Carmel

Our RV club has enjoyed the temporary addition of Paul and Carol from Rochester, NY and Rich and Manni from San Jose. As you can see, they fit right in. Today we bid them safe travels and hope to see them again on the road.

This was another fabulous day in Monterey County, blue skies, light winds, shirt sleeve warm. Part of our group went shopping, the rest went hunting in Point Lobos. They were successful and found whales, dolphins, seals and egrets. Paul, a most helpful docent, provided information on Monterey marine life.

For us it was perfect for another 10K Volksmarch. This one took us into Carmel. We climbed up a wooded trail to Ocean Avenue where we wandered past the exclusive shops. A luscious tidbit at the bakery kept us going to the beach where the surf churned and the water was appropriately aquamarine

We also found our next house and we don’t even have to change the street name. We thought we had a nice view from our Scenic Drive but it is dull compared to the one from the same street name in Carmel where multimillion dollar homes add a multimillion dollar panorama of the Pacific.

We finished with a walk past Mission Carmel. This walk rates in our top five favorites.

Our lunch of crab/shrimp Louis salad at Sea Harvest was delicious.

For our grand finale dinner the core Springfield RV group took a recommendation from the wine server at Ventana and enjoyed a scrumptious dinner at Monterey Fish House. We all dined well on oysters, scallops, crab cakes and shrimp. And for those of you who have been wondering, here is our meal photo.

Pleasures: Books, Food & Wine

Reading Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley on our Southern Trip increased our motivation to visit the Steinbeck Center in Salinas. The museum is a tribute to the words of this native son. It is ironic that his writing was vilified by many in his home town yet the Center is a draw to tourists. He even foreshadows this in Travels.

Personal items from his home are used as backdrop to audio quotations from his books. Displays show the connection between the people he knew in Salinas and many of his characters. The museum included the actual RV that Steinbeck and Charley used to travel the country.

Clips from his movies are shown in sets from each film. This is quite a good museum and a great place for students first encountering this Nobel Laureate.

A question for blog followers: Who is today’s John Steinbeck????

One of the purposes of this trip was to taste the wines of Monterey. Our first tasting was at Ventana. Not only was the wine good, it was on sale. We all felt obligated to show proper respect and improve the economy of the area.

After this excellent winery, we needed supplies and found a local farmers market an ideal place to replenish the larder.

Several of us enjoyed super fresh fish for dinner.

On Wednesday, before our second and third tastings, we stoked up on brunch at First Awakenings in Salinas. The food was good and plentiful; the service excellent. After walking off a bit of brunch in town, we went to Paraiso Winery where we were joined by Bob and Louise (see December blog entry for their fiftieth anniversary event). Again the wine was good and we added to our collections.

By the time we got to Hahn Winery we were about sated but still managed to buy a bit more wine. Jerry and Anna Lee took a moment to toast Bill, Dick and Louise, RV friends who led us on a trip to visit this winery several years ago and are sadly no longer with us.

If you are wondering where we keep wine on an RV, check the storage spots. We always have space for good things and plenty to share. Exhausted from the work of wine tasting and eating, we settled in around the campfire to unwind.

Our Springfield community has many clubs. One of the more adventuresome is the RV Club. This weekend five couples plus two guests couples are parked over the Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey.

The sky blazed with color upon our arrival.

We started off the best way, with a pot luck dinner and found that we all do a great job of cooking and eating.

The first morning the group headed in different directions to enjoy the amazing clear skies and warm air of the central coast. Paul, Carol, Jerry, Anna Lee and Mark took a 5k Volksmarch through Point Lobos State Park. Early wildflowers are budding. Fat seals are basking. The blue sky, emerald cypress trees, and gently surging blue-green ocean all made this hilly walk a pleasure.

We then rewarded ourselves with great seafood at Vivolos Chowder House. Paul who knows Cape Cod chowder said this was a good as back in New England.

While we were hiking, other members of our group went to another section of Point Lobos where they saw hundreds of spouting grey whales.

Over pot luck redux we all shared tales of a beautiful day on the bay.