More Fall Happenings

December 2, 2022 - Bravo Lake Redux

    Remember our outing to Bravo Lake Botanical Garden? In the mail today we received a thank you gift from Linda, our Montana friend who accompanied us on the outing: our very own Lady Bug Crossing, just like the one in Peter Rabbit's Garden!

Lady Bug Crossing in our garden. 

Lady Bug Crossing in Peter Rabbit's Garden.

November Birthday Celebration in Monterey

It's about a 3-1/2 drive from home to Monterey. We took the scenic route coming home. 

 

   For the past several years, our granddaughter in Davis has celebrated her birthday in Monterey. Her dad has a conference, so they make it a family weekend. This year we joined in!

    On the drive over from the Central Valley, after we left I-5, we were in the coastal agricultural area. Fall harvest was in full swing.

Farmworkers picking lettuce.

Farmworker bus & portapotties.

Field of Brussels sprouts after picking.

Melon field after picking.

New row crops being irrigated.

Rich soil readied for planting as far as the eye can see.

Fennel.

Classic barn. Note white farmworker bus.

Agriculture mosaic.

    We arrived in Monterey in time for lunch with the Davis crew: Marilyn's older son, Andrew, wife Emily, and children, Leah and Hudson.

The kids stayed near the wharf & we stayed in a hotel on the Presidio, a working Army base & home to the Defense Language School.

    We spent both afternoons at the beach in Carmel.

The weather was spectacular!

Carmel Beach City Park: Andrew, Hudson (7), Leah (9), Em, & Marilyn (in pink fleece). Where is she going???

We walked the beach, waded in the water, looked for shells, skipped stones in the ocean, built slides in the sand, and played lots of football.

Hudson charges Andrew as he hands the ball off to Leah.

Going out for the pass from Dad.

Even Grandma Moo (Marilyn) got in on the action, teaming up with Hudson & Emily against Andrew & Leah. I don't think we succeeded in blocking the pass from Leah to her dad.

Us.

    It was an easy walk to eating spots: Mexican, followed by ice cream, for Leah's birthday, deli and Italian on Saturday, crepes Sunday morning. 

Leah & Emily.

The grace of pelicans in flight.

    Before heading home, we checked out Cannery Row. It'd been years since we'd been to Monterey, and we had to pay homage to Steinbeck and his wonderful characters.

Pacific Biological Laboratories, owned by Ed Ricketts, on whom Steinbeck based Doc in Cannery Row.

The back of the lab opened onto Monterey Bay--the tide was out when this picture was taken. Concrete holding tanks held specimens.

The Bear Flag was where Mac & the Boys congregated.

    Cannery Row got its name from the sardine canning factories that cropped up at the start of the 20th century. In 1948, the industry crashed because, as Ed Ricketts said, all the sardines were in cans.  

Fish hopper for transferring sardines from boats to canneries.

Pilings from former piers.

    Native Americans were the original inhabitants of Monterey. It became a port in the early 1800s and began to draw immigrants from around the world.

Each immigrant community had its own area of town, with housing such as these shacks on Cannery Row.

Monterey Bay Aquarium, opened in 1984, occupies a former cannery at one end of Cannery Row.

    A monument to Cannery Row's history was installed in 2014. Along with Steinbeck and Ricketts, it honors Native Americans and Monterey's generations of immigrants, among them Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Mexican, Filipino, Norwegian, Scottish, and Japanese. 

John Steinbeck, top. Ed Ricketts, bottom.

    Before the sardine canneries, in the 1850s, shore whaling bases were established at numerous locations along the California coast, including at Monterey Bay. Many were operated by Portuguese immigrants, most of whom were natives of the Azores.

Mural depicting Portuguese shore whalers.

    From Cannery Row we drove the coastline around Pacific Grove.

Pacific Grove.

Then we headed home through Carmel Valley and Priest Valley.

Fall vineyard colors.

Clouds, hills, vineyards, iconic live oak.

Ranch in the brown landscape of California's ongoing drought.

Bee boxes will be moved to fields & orchards come spring. We were now in the area of California's infamous San Andreas Fault. 

Herd of buffalo near Coalinga.

Numerous pumpjacks dot the landscape around Coalinga.

Cotton being harvested.

A cotton picker dumps its load into a press which will compress & shape the cotton into a giant rectangle before it is taken to the cotton gin, where the cotton seeds are removed.  

Doug, Monterey.

Thanksgiving
    We had a Friendsgiving on Thanksgiving Day. A neighbor's 6-year-old brought energy to share.

Our backyard mandarin tree (or tangelo, not sure which) produced a real crop after many years, which we enjoyed for breakfast & snacks.

  The next day we drove the van to Davis, where we met the newest member of the Davis family, Olive.

Grandson Hudson & Olive.

Granddaughter Leah & Olive.

    Twenty of us gathered at Andrew and Emily's home, including Marilyn's younger son Stephen and wife Jessie and Emily's family. The 7 cousins, ranging in age from 5 to 14, had a ball. 

 

Stephen & Andrew solving the world's problems while Hudson kicks a soccer ball around & awaits the arrival of his only male cousin.

Nothing like good conversation--especially outside.

The cousins head through the back yard gate to Davis's city-wide Green Belt of paths, playing fields, & playgrounds.

Stephen & Doug discuss over Andrew's famous Old Fashioneds.

Jessie chatting with Emily.

    In the morning, everyone packed up to head home. But first...

...we had to wait for the local wild turkeys to vacate the street.