Date 22 Saturday Long Beach at Tom/Kitty

What to see in Long Beach area? Well it is the Getty museum off of Pacific Coast Highway north of Santa Monica. This is the first one and has been updated to survive an earthquake.

What a beautiful setting tucked back into the hill on a series of levels which give the feeling of an archeological dig down to antiquity. With his oil money he designed and furnished the complex with artifacts from early Middle Eastern times, Rome and the like. And he left it for the masses at no cost to us to see.

We are in the Getty complex and I turn around and who do I see but Sandy and Bob, from our bridge group in Mankato, who are visiting their daughter, Cindy, out here in LA. What a surprise, as you have to signup for a time to come to the Museum, so we signed up late but got in at 11 and a half hour late but they didn’t care. And then we meet them. We were able to meet there daughter and arrange some important bridge stuff. Tom has the beard.

The museum is in an Italian villa around Herculaneum Italy. The inlayed floor has been hand fit no grout.

I snuck a picture of the three fish on a plate. Even though photos are not allowed, many used phone cameras in the sight of the attendants.

Then the elephant for Michelle.









After church with Tom and Kitty we went to a favorite restaurant of mine – Joe Jost, on Anaheim Blvd.

The two sandwiches available are there polish sausage, with Swiss cheese, quarter pickle and mustard, with pickled eggs heavily peppered in a bed of pretzels and a bag of fresh roast peanuts; did I mention a large schooner of beer? It was nice to have there kids and grandkids go with, Cheryl, Steve, twins Grace and Adam.

More reminiscing - Jerry

Day 21 Friday at Long Beach

This morning we jumped on #5 to head to Nixon’s and look for a self car wash. The highways are full and everyone is speeding along. We have to exit three highways so we are really on the lookout for the turns, if I miss one we may end up in Mexico.

We spot the museum entrance. Again it is bathed in the sunshine of southern Cal! Half staff flags for the two Californians who died in Bushes war.

The story of Richard Nixon is again portrayed, as all presidential museum’s, nicely exhibited and monetarily sponsored by their wealthy followers. They gave his public life as a California politician thru his exit from the white house when president. Well we all remember him as we do, these museum’s will project a different image to those who follow us, you take it from there.

The exhibits I like are those that are given to the President from people and dignitaries from all over the world. You can click on any picture in this blog and get the full picture. A string of Mikimoto pearls from Japan; a green jade Eskimo hunter from Canadian Minister; a silver and gold peacock from Britain’s Prime Minister; a carved wood nameplate for Richard and Pat from Richard Scharbach from Madelia MN for Christmas.

Voted Jerry’s best of show – is a Chinese collage composed of jade, mother-of-pearl, ivory and mahogany, lacquered with wood inlay. The artist stamp is at the bottom in white with red lettering, Wang Xizhi, a fourth century calligrapher. Represent his vision of figures “Chariot in the Sky.” Which represents the Queen Mother of the West, a Daoist myth.

As we walked into the next room, there are statues of the states people he worked with; my favorite is Winston Churchill, Golda Mier, and more. These were plaster of Paris statues done by the Schwartz’s, who did the train station in Galveston TX we saw a couple years ago.

Remember Nixon was the one who started to extend a hand to China and that trip was the start. He travelled all over the world as most do. His wife Patricia Nixon was a mild women who travelled the world being an ambassador for the US with dignitaries and children alike.

Along side of the museum and part of it, was his birth house. It was a house bought from a catalog out of Chicago. The family being Quakers, wanted to build church there. That they did and it is the biggest in the US. It is a story and a half, raising four kids and the parents in it was, bringing the family together. The bodies of both are buried there. The state of California does not allow bodies to be buried outside a cemetery or church property. Remember the largest Quaker Church is within sight of the museum, they bought a small portion of the property so they could be buried on sight. Bet they would not do that for me or U.

We have about 20 miles to find Tom and Kitty’s house, I have a hand map drawn on a 4 by 4 inch piece of paper from Santa Clarita to Nixon’s and then their house, could not find a place to wash the car so we arrived well soiled. Even though we saw them a couple years ago it is always fun to see those who are closely related and see occasionally through our lifetime. We caught up on things and are headed off to dinner at Ferraro’s Italian Kitchen on Los Coyotes Diagonal. All is home made and you can tell by the flavors and the noodle softness. Well we ordered a carafe of the house Chianti;

next came the bread with a slightly sautéed sauce with large chunks of tomatoes, sliced onions with garlic cloves and olive oil and room temperature. the girls, Kitty with her special sauced order of which I blurred the pix and can’t figure out what it was, Shirleen with her Shrimp Scampi over fettuccini noodles; Tom and I ordered the same; fresh mussels, pieces of calamari, whole scallops, a fine light sauce over fettuccini noodles.

Now back to some reminiscing. Jerry

Day 24 Monday Rancho Mirage – part of the Palm Spring cities

trying to catch up on blog

Day 19 – Wednesday March 24, traveled 0 miles tonight at Caruthers

Today Dennis and I went to visit Kent at the old Manna Pro testing lab in Fresno. A long time since I saw him and his sidekick Judy, a nice visit. They haven’t aged a bit since 1995.
As we stood on the loading dock by the lab, I look behind Kent – there are a pile of Hubbard Feeds Crystalyx half barrels – my old cmpany. Manna Pro apparently bought it from Hubbard and the farmer returned the barrels and they will stand there till the place is demolished.

We met up with the gals after a couple wrong turns. We stopped at the Sunkist Raisin Company wrote and gift shop. They had free samples of the small pack of raisins along with some chocolate covered ones. A cute shop to stop at. The video they put on for us talked about the 200,000 acres of grapes that are grown for them. The harvest and drying was eye-opening. Matting is placed between the rows of grape vines and the grapes picked off the vine and placed on the matting to dry for up to 3 weeks in September. This month is when they have a chance for rain and if they do watch for mold but at least they can turn them to dry. When they say sundried raisins, they mean it.

All through the valley there are field after field of grape vines and many fields of fruit trees, not identified. In the afternoon we sat around and did nothing.

We are headed to Royal and Ancient Grill, dinner tonight. It is a small restaurant, holds maybe 20. Owned by a mother and son. Its menu changes monthly and noon lunches are available. When they build in this community they have to have it approved by the city and it has to have some Swedish accent to it. This town, Kingsburg, is building up there reputation with there heritage. They point to St. George’s golf club as their Swedish accent?? Oh yes, a bottle of Sunfire Cab 2006, added so you don’t by this one. But she gave us a taste of a Sunfire Tempranillo 2006 was just great.

Shirleen and Dennis ordered the rib eye, Diane the Orange Ruffy with shrimp, I the New York Strip. All were prepared just right and the flavor was intense. All had a baked potato and veggies.

Day 20 Thursday

The next morning we joined Diane to attend the meeting of the California Garden Club district meeting.

The drive to Three Rivers was through some normally brown areas, but because we were coming they had plenty of rain to show off the lush green hillside with its gigantic rocks showing through the hillside also. There were about 35 people and three men. The society which was putting it on today was the Redbud Garden Club. The presentation was by a botanist from Sequoia National Park. Her presentation was an introduction to the 6,000 wild flowers of California. She wanted the groups to think about growing home state flowers in their yards. The locals furnished the lunch, they had five soups – I tried two of them, tortilla and a bean variety. With it was a delicious lettuce, walnut, apple salad. We had many choices for dressings. This group had a band of Garden Watchers who looked after the 5 gardens they planted in the town. We were able to tour 3 of them and must have blown by the other two.

After the meeting we went up to the 6,400 foot level and saw the great stand of the Sequoia’s. Again many curves and this old man is getting wore out. We went higher and higher, it is fun many corners were so slow that 10 MPH was top speed. Many times the front scrapped along the pavement. Then we make a corner and here is a little snow, then ore snow then the landscape is covered by snow and we get glimpses of the big trees. Why do they grow here and not at lower levels, God only knows. On some of the large sequoia’s there are scars of fires from long times ago. We now head back down the trail, turn after turn.

Now the real reason for the drive today – to find The See’s Candy store. On the way from the Sequoia’s we found a store in Visalia CA.

You walk in and your are quickly greeted to See’s by the counter people. Once in line they give you a complimentary candy. We picked up a dark chocolate walnut piece, I a pineapple nugget centered dark chocolate and a dark chocolate truffle, TASTY!


We drove over the mountain and found a place to stay. It turned out we were still 65 miles from Nixon’s museum. We ate at a Outback, it was close and we walked to it. Didn’t need much food so Shirleen got their Onion soup, we split a Blooming Onion and I there mild chicken wings. jerr

Day 18 – Tuesday March 23, traveled 145.1 miles tonight at Caruthers

Then off to Hearst Castle. What a nice stop. We took tour 1 of 5 tours. What a castle. In my mind

I compare it to The Biltmore; the largest castle in the US, this one has the Spanish – Italian look to it. We went to the center where we picked up the bus to travel up the windy road for 5 miles to the top of the hill. There are about 5,000 cattle roaming the 80,000 acres.

The guide, Robert Latson, I broke my rule on last names but he is a guide and whatever, had 31 years of experience and took a course in tour guiding. It sure showed. People from all over the world were there, Norway, France, London England, Germany and of course the US. He could relate to the foreigners with respect to the items that Hearst had bought from an art dealer in New York. Hearst had travelled Europe with his mother when he was around ten years old. This gave him the lust for the castles and great structures from Europe.

In his fifties he began building this structure with its many guest luxury accommodations I believe three of them. They were much larger than our house at home and designed for four people to live independently.

We then walked through the garden and viewed the swimming pool, this is the third in one built in this location as they outgrew the others. The castle area we went into was first the gathering area and then the refractory – where he and the guests dined together after a long day of playing tennis, dancing, swimming and horseback riding to name a few activities. The castle was built by a lady who received her degree from England and was a premier designer but remember this is back in 1919 and women were not accustomed to this type of work. she was his personal designer for 27 years but no hanky panky.

As we traveled down the road back to Cambria (not Minnesota) we saw an advertisement for the Moonstone Beach Bar and Grill.

Shirleen’s glass of Harmony Cab, Spinach salad, she ate half of it but all the accoutrements, bacon, hard boiled eggs and caramelized onions. I a Opolo Pinot Grigio with a fish taco, had everything on it should, cabbage, cheese (to much) and a sauce, - not coming back for seconds, no flavor. Then we had the Ice Cream with Berries, it had red raspberries, blueberries, marionberries, sautéed in Grand Marnier

We arrived at Dennis and Diane’s for the eve. We had a great meal of BBQ pork tenderloin on the grill with tasty baked potatoes and fresh raw vegetables followed by a fresh strawberry shortcake – home made. Jerry

Day 17 - Monday March 22, traveled 182.5 miles At San Simeon

We set off toward the Hearst Castle area with an intermediate stop at Sheryl’s Uncle and Aunt in San Louis Obispo, had a nice visit. Photo of JoAnn was blurred, sorry.

Today we first went to The Old Mission in Santa Barbara. It went back into the 1700’s and showed its Spanish influence. They had a self guide tour, which led you nicely thru the rounds. The church was long little width and dark. A nice place to visit.

We then went to the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden. Last year this gorge burned. There was heavy damage to the area but it is being rebuilt.

We walked the trail down to the creek, many nice wild flowers blooming. At the bottom we had to cross the creek on a rock bridge. We ran into a couple who were born in Scotland but moved here and became citizens a long time ago. They have taken a number of interesting trips. The strangest one was a frieghter around the world. Did I say the guy was a shipbuilder? This may explain this trip. They do every couple years a Alaska trip, train to Seattle then a ferry north.

We stopped in Lompoc for a noon lunch, hard to find a place, but turned into El Toro Bronco a Mexican restaurant. Shirleen had her traditional Cheese Enchilada with a mild tomato sauce. The menu had many items and I spied the word Carnitas, that’s what I had for the meat in Winslow AZ, La Posada Hotel and its partner café, The Turquoise Room Restaurant. The roasting of that pork was delicious so I ordered a Carnitas Burro. When they set it down in front of me, no sauce on it and I wondered what to do. It turned out the flavor was again a nicely roasted piece of pork inside and so flavorful that I didn’t need sauce.

We followed along the outer highways close as we could to the ocean. We found a motel Oceanside and decided to stay with the roar of the ocean out the window.

We took a second floor room with a view of that crashing surf against a lone rock on the shore. The motel had a restaurant adjacent so we decided to eat there. Shirleen had a Cavalier cut rib eye steak with Me a Calamari Piccata what a nice piece of sea life.

Reminded me of the one I had two years ago when in Long Beach with Tom T., the fish was placed upon a bed of rice pilaf with broccoli and cauliflower. Jerry

Day 16 - Sunday March 21, traveled 86.5 miles, At Santa Barbara Inn - Oceanside

Out our lanai.

Started off the day with mass at St. Rose of Lima, nun at Holy Trinity was Rosalima – same? The priest was from the old school and thought by being boisterous would make people do things. Not my kind but good message. They have 5 English and 1 Spanish mass a day. Six priests.

Off to Reagan’s museum, we stopped there yesterday so we knew the way. His life had many parts. Started out as a broadcaster, actor, air force, actor again, governor and then president. From democrat to republican, maybe why he had moderate views. Didn’t think his way was the only way as they do not.

 Burial Sight

Many remembrance items given him; ceremonial swords, beautifully decorated knifes – one with a Damascus twist look, rifles, and hand guns. The art was many; paintings, jade elephant and a tree Nancy gave to governor’s wives. One of the neat items was a belt buckle made by an Indian band in Deer River MN, made with the small beads and just a beauty. We walked through Air Force One, a 707 retired in 2001. And the helicopter we saw Nancy Reagan fly down to Fort AP Hill with the Boy Scout Jamboree in 1985 – Mark do you remember?

Impressive item was part of “The Wall” that was given Him for his part in asking Russian President to “take down that wall”.

There was a one inch to one foot replica of the White House. It was started in 1962 and has been in every State and some presidential museums. It is an exact, replica with hand carved chairs, wall molding and even little TV's that play, this was before I-phones and the like. Everything was hand made. Wow.

We ate at Eric Ericsson’s On The Pier, out on Ventura Pier. Shirleen had coffee and fish and chips, nice light breading; I a glass of house Chardonnay with Grilled Stuffed Chilis, two roasted Pasilla chilis stuffed with shrimp, crab, Jack cheese, and cilantro with a nice tomatillo cream sauce served with white corn tortillas and rice.

We walked the sidewalk arts fair in Santa Barbara and saw all kinds of things. A hand painted vehicle, where did we see that before?

Bye for now Jerry