The Second Journey to the North of California

By Laura Ashley

 

California… A land of dreams for many people. This journey was planned some months in advance when we got an invitation from an old friend to visit her on winter vacations before Christmas. Since December is a vacation time for teachers anyways we decided to go. And it was good.

 

So once again we threw our possessions into the trunk of our good old green Ford (an excellent car, I tell you) and started for the journey. The part from San Diego to Los Angeles is rather deserted and there’s not much to see. As for Los Angeles we planned our trip this time to go roundabout this city in order to avoid heavy traffic that is inevitable part of all big cities nowadays. And it worked really well: no traffic jam, our drive was very smooth all the way to and back.

 

One curious thing very peculiar for American reality: we needed a small mirror at Walmart and since we saw several of them right from the road we stopped at one of them. The interior plan was exactly the same as in Walmart in San Diego where we used to go. And the mirrors were exactly in the place where we expected to find them. It was amazing. Though one should admit that it’s not always like that.

 

The point of our destination was Stillwater Cove Ranch — a small place near Jenner. Never heard of Jenner? What about Gualala? At least it is on the map and you cannot demand more then that. Well, in general it is in the area north of San Francisco.

 

Stillwater is a motel consisting of several buildings with one to four rooms in each. The place is very rustic and it has both advantages and disadvantages. It is rather cold there and often very foggy since it’s right on the coast. But there are no beaches though the water is cold anyway. The place is surrounded by hills covered with redwood forests. And the best part of it that they use even in advertising sign that you can see right from the freeway is that all the rooms have real fireplaces where you keep fire with wood. The wood is provided by caretakers who work there. The room where we stayed even had a small kitchenette or more exactly a corner with a stove, a sink and a cooking table. What else can be wanted in a place like this?

 

Ojai

 

We went through Santa Paula — a little town, mainly Mexican. To the north of Los Angeles there the climate is ideal to grow lemons, oranges and avocados and we saw lots of orchards there with branches full of fruits. We even stopped at a fruit stand on the way to Ventura and bought a box of oranges for a very low price.

 

From Santa Paula we turned north to visit Ojai: another small town. The land is expensive there like in the whole area. We saw an interesting bookstore there: there are books outside that you can buy for a few cents. Lots of books inside: most of them of course are the usual junk that you can buy everywhere but you can also find some rare books and even books on rare subjects.

 

Another thing that Ojai is famous for is Theosophical Society. It is something a little bit like Self-Realization Fellowship in Encinitas. We visited the library and made acquaintance with an Indian woman who worked there. She is fond of Blavatsky. Funny like people are fond of foregn things everywhere. Also we went to the bookstore and saw an old woman there working with a computer. She had a shriek voice and hardly paid any attention to us. My friend said that whenever he went there she was always working with the computer and always looked stuck with it.

 

In fact as I leant it was Blavatsky who founded this Theosophical society. She brought from India a man named Krishnamerty whom she considered a “second messiah”. The trouble was though that Krishnamerty didn’t think so and after some time resigned. However he continued to deliver lectured that attracted hundreds of people. He travelled a lot around the world and people said he was extremely beautiful and very wise. So it is another parallel with Yogananda. The difference is that Yogananda found Self-Realization Fellowship and worked there while Krishnamerty didn’t want to be involved with the thing founded by the others.

 

The Birds

 

This time we stayed with the friends named the Birds. Jerome and Beatrice Bird. They are what you can call a typical American family, I guess. The old couple with grown up children who don’t live with them but come to visit for holidays. Due to that how explained Beatrice, “you and everybody else are welcome”. They were close to extreme as to offer this room to the tramps because they feel compassion for them. But common sense overtook and they use this room only for friends. Yet, guess what is the main entertainment or business of this couple? I really don’t know how to call it because they are both retired now. Well, anyway looks like their main entertainment is going to church and church activity such as singing in the choirs and feeding the poor. They say a grace before meal and sometimes for special occasion sing a song. It is very strange for a person from quite a different culture. This particular thing reminded me of the Trouts (I wrote about them in my previous book Notes of the Traveller, chapter Germany). But these people were very hospitable. The Birds invited another old couple and the other old man, I’ll call him Leon. This Leon is old too but is very keen on computers. It is rare to meet an old person interested in computers, usually old people avoid is like a pest. Leon also noticed some things that I though Americans don’t usually notice about themselves. He was an interesting man to talk to. A noticeable thing is that when the Birds left for their church activity Leon stayed with us and we had a nice talk.

Another interesting thing is worthy of attention. I noticed that many people over certain age are hunchbacks. Leon is a hunchback and he is very tall. Beatrice is a hunchback too and Jerome is bold. As for another hobby, Jerome paints and their house is decorated by his pictures. He also plays golf with his old friend.

 

On our way back we stayed with the Birds again and this time they invited the other man. So it was quite amusing. Beatrice even invited us to her friend who lived the next door to see her knick-knack. The general impression from Ventura is that this is a town that is especially favourable for old people.

 

Ventura is back and we follow the same way as in the previous trip. I already mentioned that this is one of the nicest parts of California: from Ventura to San Luis Obispo: not far from the coast and the way goes through fields and orchards. It is often sunny there and climate is really pleasant. this part is not so deserted as the extreme south where San Diego is and not as rainy and foggy like the northern California is. And the towns are this area are really growing fast though not nearly as fast as big cities. The brightest example was San Luis Obispo: we drove through and this town was crammed. The streets are too narrow for this heavy traffic. Santa Maria was a little better: the town was obviously constructed for cars as the streets are wide but there are not many historic monuments there.

 

The Morsels

 

We didn’t have enough time to look around those two towns as it was getting dark and we wanted to make our way to the friends’ house. It would be even more correct to say relatives as they were a Tom’s cousin and her husband. Well, an interesting species, I’ll tell you. For me it is very interesting to look and observe different types of people. And in this case the difference with the Birds was quite big. But was it really that big?

Their name was Sheryl and Hayward Morsel. They belong to what you can call a rich class people who have no idea about the problems of the common world. Look, Hayward plays golf early in the morning. Here is another parallel with Jerome Bird. I learnt a little bit later that playing golf is considered to be a hobby of the rich people. To me golf or tennis is all the same but it happens in order to play golf you should be a member of the club. (Somebody should take care of the lawns and equipment, right?)  Anyway we were not that important as to sacrifice golf for our sake. Frankly, I still don’t know is it considered a sign if superior trust and friendliness (feel yourself at home, don’t mind us and we don’t mind you) or a sign of slight neglect (oh, these poor relatives, well, we cannot break our usual mode of life because of them). I can only say that I would probably stay with the friends or relatives who came to visit me. Get me right: I don’t complain, after all what we did is called mooching that is not the best thing to do. To me it was a very interesting experience.

 

Like this very evening the Morsels invited is to “the club”. Something between a social club and a fancy restaurant. Or both since you have to be a member of the club in order to enjoy eating in this restaurant. Anyway we were told to dress nicely but not overdress. I was a little bit surprised when they said “no jeans. Well, just for such occasions I always have a skirt and a blouse in my suitcase. So I wore them. And what do you think? Everybody else wore pants, it happens that when they said “no jeans” they mean “no blue jeans”. I wore black jeans and they would be just right. Ah, it does not really matter because I became to immune to all kinds of confusion long ago. Watching how some people make a big hassle over small thing like what fork to use or what dress to wear without being able to understand the core of the problem makes it ridiculous.

Call me a country bumpkin if you want but I really don’t care a broken trinket.

 

The dinner was quite good but the amusing part is that there were no prices (a peculiarity of being a club) in menus and all the waiters ask is your number.

After the dinner they showed us their sport facilities which were in the other part of the same building. They included a swimming pool, showers and a gym with exercising machines. As for the golf course: there were lawns all over the place. Hayward himself mentioned that he like soup, which was served when they played golf. Mexicans take care of the whole place. The socializing is quite obvious. They even put a grown tree in the place where they want a tree.

 

I forgot to mention that the entire place is a fenced community considered to be a part of Monterey. You have to pass a guard when you enter there.

 

At first they both seemed to be look quite young but this impression didn’t last for long. In fact I think it was caused with the contrast with the Birds. After a close look one can notice that Hayward was perhaps as old as the Birds. The traces of age and quite immobile mode of life were quite conspicuous. Sheryl looked better but she belongs to the type of women whose age is hard to say. She is very short and preserved quite well.

 

They were hospitable and we enjoyed the visit. Of course their problems are quite different from the problems of people like us.

 

Still, Hayward is not Adam von Trout. Something is missing and it’s elusive. They sold their old house and bought a new one because it was cheaper. Now he is retired, their children all have a good job. Looks like children of rich parents never have troubles to find a job. Sheryl is “a welcome wagon” for all the newcomers. Some of the newcomers come there only once or twice a year — mostly Asians.

 

Hayward Morsel speaks very slowly so it’s difficult to lead a dialogue, you have to wait until he stops.

 

But the end was the most significant. On our last day they were both gone. We expected at least a cup of coffee in the morning but when we went to the kitchen we found nothing. We didn’t really feel like ransacking the place and decided to drink it somewhere on our way. We invented various reasons why it happened but the fact remains and it’s difficult to ignore it.

 

Stillwater Cove Ranch, Fort Ross and a Country Party

 

So on the third day we arrived at Stillwater Cove Ranch (later SWR). The first person we met was Linda: she is a very short witchy looking woman — this impression is especially strong when she does not wear her hat. We also met some of the other workers. There was not much talk though as the people were agitated to prepare for the next evening party.

 

Then we met Jerry and Lynn:  the “rival” family. I don’t want to go into details, just say that there is a kind of feud between those two families. They are relatives and the feud is connected with the land.

 

Jerry raises sheep, peacocks and chickens. They are the literati of the community. They both write books and involved with the historic work at Fort Ross: an old Russian stronghold. They even gave us the book.

 

We went to see Fort Ross the next day. It is a site not far from the coast. One can see several old barrack-looking buildings. The whole place is surrounded by a wooden fence. The building and the fence are both of a dark grey dirty colour. The corner fortresses are only two-storey high and one can see little windows used for cannon shooting and observation. All the buildings but one there were empty and dusty and there was not much to see. The only building that was not empty was a refectory, where the rangers’ “office” was situated. I’ve got an impression that people there was enchanted with once foreign site and try to keep the illusion. For example they wear dresses that nobody wears in Russia. Once a year they have a celebration: Russian day when all of them pretend to be Russians. I guess the attraction to foreign culture is quite strong even in America though it’s funny to see it for a Russian.

 

The nice addition to this Russian atmosphere was given by a cat named Vasska  (Basil in English), a very typical Russian name for a cat.

 

We saw a house of commandant near by.  The fort is situated in a deserted place far from big cities. So no wonder that only people who live there take care of the place. It’s a local place of interest and also a state park. The whole place is organized like a museum: a gift shop where you can buy postcards and books on history of the place. There is a tiny museum there too and actual site that was restored and is kept in good condition. In a way it’s good that people have something there.

 

The party at the SCR. I’d like to describe it but it was really a very ordinary party and I am not a party goer in general. All of them are alike. If you were at one you were at all of them. So it was: lots of people, mostly locals who naturally know each other. Lots of food that didn’t exactly whet an appetite. Lots of drinks in bottles. People stood in line for the food. Lots of people who speak to each other. Everybody was dressed casually: it is a village after all. People talked to Charlie and for me there was nothing to do. Yes, we’ve been introduced to some people but on the whole it was boring like all the parties. The only real talk we had with Jerry who joined us for ten minutes. He invited us to his house for lunch.

 

We went. It happened that they invited a couple of their friends as Charlie became a kind of local celebrity among those people as a writer. They have his books and one of their friends was particularly interested. Well, he actually didn’t show any special interest. In fact I had to listen for the n-th times Charlie’s story about his travels in Russia.

 

Still, it was interesting to attend the real country party. In fact it was not much different from the Morsels’ club except the exterior.

 

After lunch we went to Gualala but it began to rain on the way there. Gualala is a tiny village, you can’t even call it a town. We noticed nothing interesting in Gualala not to count several deer tat we saw on our way. On the way back we found a so-called non-denominational chapel intended for people of all religions. It was small, not really tiny (I saw smaller chapels) but just small. The building had an interesting roof that reminded me of Sidney’s Opera building. There was no altar (I guess that means non-denominational) but instead there was a cabinet with locked doors. Interesting.

 

We had another day to spend. So we went to the woods but I have I admit the woods there are not as exciting as in Germany. It is mostly a redwood forest but there is not even a slightest impression of wilderness. The roads are too good and the people’s present is felt nearby.

 

We went to the local beach if you can call it so: the water is too cold to swim there any time of the year. Nevertheless we picked some stones there to give to our friends.

 

After that we went to see another local place of interest: a Buddhist temple and found it closed. Worse than that: we learnt that it was closed all the time but if the monks wanted to get some money they opened the gate just to let people see the place and charged money for admission. You cannot see inside the temple. All we could see is a glimpse of the golden stupa. Well, we were warned about it in advance so we were not really disappointed. At least we experienced the riding on a wood narrow wiggling road which is quite exciting.

 

The story would not be complete without description of the other party, this time a real folk celebration. They celebrated Christmas in Casadero, a small village not far from SCR. One of the workers lived there and we decided to look at the place. We were lucky to be there on the holiday.

 

First thing that struck us was snow. Snow in Casadero? How is it possible that it snows in Casadero when we haven’t seen snow in any other place? We were puzzled.

 

The puzzled state didn’t last for long though. Stepping on that snow we approached a big crowd of people and had a closer look at the snow. Imagine our surprise when we found pout that what we though was a snow was actually soap foam or studs. A man in a truck was pouring that foam on the ground and it covered one half of the road while the people was standing on the other half. Children looked excited and played in that “snow”. I believe they never saw a real snow otherwise they would not be that excited. But it was funny to see how people try to make a proper Christmas decoration. You are supposed to have snow in winter so they tried their best to make their snow. It was funny but especially funny for people who saw the real snow, people who lived in cold country.

 

We spent interesting time at SWR. We had a chance to see people and places that you can hardly encounter any place else. But three days is enough for that kind of thing. Other adventures expected us as much as we expected them. Though the role of observer began to be boring and I wanted ore participation but it was coming too. Some time later.

 

On or way to SCR we visited Korbel vineyard and tried their champagne. We drank this champagne from the mugs sitting in front of the fire place in our cosy cottage. We liked it so much that we made another stop on the way back and bought another bottle.

 

 

San Francisco

 

San Francisco. Like Paris it was a city of my dream. I am enchanted by some names and if the sound of a name is as good as a place itself I enjoy it in particular. I knew a little bit of San Francisco from a video game Golden Gate. This game depicts this city at its best: very beautiful water colour pictures of the city and no people. It is a convention for the game of course but this game is the best one to create an atmosphere of this famous city together with an atmosphere of mystery that was implied by the game story. 

 

I am glad to report that this city didn’t disappoint me, my only wish was that I could spend more time there. However due to its geographical position San Francisco doesn’t grow any more and too many people want to live there.

 

We drove on the famous Golden Gate bridge. The view from it is very beautiful. I especially like that they didn’t put any fences, an irritating thing that many city authorities do in order to prevent suicides. Naturally it does not really prevent them as a potential suicider, if he is serious, will always find a way.

 

Anyway I mentioned the game to show that that San Francisco was not totally unfamiliar to me. I recognized some views and was looking to experience the same mystical feelings that you experience when you actually see the place about which you knew before. San Francisco is famous for its houses: first they reminded me of European houses a little bit but then I saw that in fact the style was not European. The houses are two-storied buildings of different colour. After a while you notice that they are all made in the same pattern but slightly different in details and this minor differences produce the impression of variety. The city reminds much more of Europe though, it has very different impression from the city style of South California. A curious thing: even people looked differently there. But this was all noticed in a very short period of time.

 

Winter is the best time to visit San Francisco because there are very few tourists there and all the famous places are deserted. We visited Fisherman Wharf and ate fish and chips there: it was tasty though both fish and chips tasted pretty much the same. We saw the famous rudder and the sign. The bay was full of boats though it was very small. On the streets there are all kinds of boutiques and small stores and in that point it is like all the other tourist places.

 

Another point of interest that we could not skip was the famous Mission Dolores. The mission is very small but it is one of the best. There is a beautiful garden full of tombs so it is a cemetery at the same time. I think though that this garden is at its best in summer when all the flowers are blooming. When we were there the sky was grey and the garden didn’t really look picturesque.  But Mission Dolores is one of the most interesting: the cemetery is very peculiar, you won’t confuse it with other missions. And there is a wigwam in the corner of the garden.

 

What else can be said about San Francisco? We drove streets jammed with cars but the traffic still moved. We saw a street wit rainbow flags on poles. The rainbow flag in America (I don’t know about the other world) is a symbol of homosexuality. People usually put them on their houses and offices but here it was a whole street.

 

San Francisco is considered a cultural centre of California and it deserves this title much more then Los Angeles. For the ballet they gave Nutcracker: I think they picked it because of the Christmas theme.

 

There are still lots to see fro our next visit. We didn’t have time to visit Angel island. We missed Golden Gate park and pacific Heights. We haven’t been to Chinatown and didn’t walk on the crooked part of Lombard Street. All these places are still waiting for us.

 

Highway 1

 

Highway 1 is a narrow wiggling road running among the ocean and the mountains. On one had you have a magnificent view on the ocean, on the other your trip is quite slow. Slow speed and wiggling road are the main reason that this highway is not very popular. One can add that there are not many towns here. We passed a couple of tiny villages (in fact it was hard to call them “villages”, there are but a three houses, sometimes a gas station). But on the other hand this road contained some surprises.

 

The primary purpose was to visit the mission San Antonio that is situated on the territory of a military base. The restricted area but they give you a pass at the entrance. In order to get there you have to drive quite a long way through the hills and woods. Then through a military base. By the way it seemed quite empty: no military equipment or tanks. The only military thing I saw was a truck of soldiers.

The mission San Antonio was badly damaged and was all in ruins. They restored it now and it looks like most of the mission: the museum, the gift shop and the chapel. There is a familiar stature of Serra in front of the building. The whole place looked pretty much deserted. Not far from the mission you can see a building with a golden dome or roof but we haven’t been there. It was probably a house of a general or commander. The mission and the commander house are both constructed in Spanish colonial style.

 

Another thing worthy of attention was a monastery. We found it by accident: read a plate when we were looking for the mission. We decided to look and found ourselves in a monastery, I don’t remember the official name. Their office was closed but in a few minutes opened and there was a monk there dressed in a monk robe. He greeted us warmly and even posed for a picture. An interesting feature is that their chapel was made in style modern: vast space, simple chairs and a very simple almost geometrical cross hanging on a thread so you got an impression that it was hung in the air. Really the feeling was close to the impression you get when you visit a museum of contemporary art: white walls, spacious rooms and primitive painting. The monastery itself was a restricted area unfortunately but their practice was to rent rooms to tourists, a kind of retreat for which they charge big money and you have to make reservations far in advance. Something like Yogananda retreat in Encinitas, only not that pleasant, at least in the area where we’ve been. The view on a sunny day from the mountain is magnificent though, especially plants, road and the sea. But the place in Encinitas is also on the sea coast and there is a marvellous garden there.

 

We spent the night in Vagabond Inn in San Louis where we went to Chinese restaurant and it was different from European Chinese. In fact all the Chinese I visited were quite different but American Chinese restaurants are more standard. The unusual one was in Bad Hersfield, Germany. The next day we drove to Santa Maria. The major difference between these two towns is in layout. Santa Maria is perfectly flat surrounded by fields. The roads there are wide, residential and business areas are very different. Huge shopping centres. San Luis is obviously much older: the streets are narrow, many of them are one-way streets. Besides that lots of streets are lines with parking meters. Crammed traffic. Their main business is tourism.

 

We dropped by the old mission of San Miguel and a shabby mission it was. Still it preserved some of the ancient charm. And no tourists there. What it really needs is a good manager who would take a proper care of it as some things need to be restored. Their chapel was big but gloomy, the cemetery was abandoned and the garden needed watering. On the other hand nice to find something that is not so popular. Tourism is an industry and you can attact tourists everywhere if you really want to.

 

I thought there was a mission in Santa Maria but it happened to be in Lompoc. A curious thing was when we asked the residents of Santa maria about the mission they all answered with a dose of uncertainty. Looks like none of them really knew if they had a mission or not. Lompoc is a quite a new agricultural town growing fast: surrounded by fields. It was in the good climatic zone. The mission of Lompoc La Purissima Concepcion was very nice. It was much bigger than other missions. This mission has a long history. It served once as a headquarters of a military garrison. Almost the entire mission is a museum now: you can see shabby soldiers dormitories and quite elegant rooms of generals and priests. There were even two chapels there if I remember right. The place was surrounded by garden: in fact one can say that it was built like a separate community: there is still a corral there with goats, sheep and some other strange animals, a garden. In the garden there were a few Indian huts (the same hut of smaller size we saw in Mission Dolores). Were these huts put there to show that Indians had been living there before or were they actually used by Indians, I cannot tell. Many rangers worked there and this mission is taken good care of compared to the not so lucky San Miguel. There were several fountains there too and sun dial. 

 

I forgot to mention about Carmel mission. It was situated in much more prosperous area surrounded by town of Carmel. The town is mainly touristic intended for rich people. We went into coffee shop there and the coffee was not too good. The Starbuck’s is far better. Other things were typical as in other mission except for the cenotaph of Junipero Serra: one can see an interesting bronze sculptures. The cenotaph was empty, the body itself was buried under the altar. Next to the mission was a Catholic schools and it was not untypical for modern missions. There were lots of schoolchildren there too, looks like it was a visiting day for them. But we didn’t see any Serra stature there. I asked in the museum if they have a miniature copy of it. They didn’t.

 

Santa Barbara is not a pleasant city in spite of or rather because it is filthy rich. The grid structure of the town was especially noticeable there: straight corners, straight streets. It’s easy to get lost and not easy to find a parking place. The town somehow lacks vitality. We went to city hall there to see the murals. The murals were not particularly impressive but we had a chance to look at the city from the roof of the building which was quite exciting.

 

For the night we stayed in Ventura with the old friends. In the morning we decided to stop at L.A. to visit the museum. Los Angeles is one of the most unpleasant cities we saw. Cars and freeways, traffic jams and huge distances. Some residential areas that we passed are almost ten times as big as an average residential area in San Diego. These people really “think big”. It’s not easy to orient because what you expect to be close in fact is far, farther than you thought. We had troubles with finding a museum. The museum we wanted to visit was Huntington and after a while we found it. The museum consists of several buildings and a garden. There are all kinds of stuff there: pictures, furniture, glass and metal ware, books. I haven’t noticed many statures. The most interesting section was the one with early books. In general not as much to see as you could expect from the museum of that size but we taking in consideration that it was a private collection it’s not bad at all. There are some pictures by Reynolds and Gainsborough including the famous Blue Boy.

 

Anyway we decided to visit Los Angeles for later visit (see the chapter Los Angeles Visited) and directed our steps to San Diego.

 

December 2001

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