<– Day 29 – Apr. 17th: Revenge of the Sushi | OVERVIEW | Day 32 – Apr. 20th: A Sunday Drive to Santa Rosa –>

We found a bunny at Monopoly in the Park in San Jose

Happy Easter Everyone! We found this bunny especially for the occasion!

Our drive from Santa Cruz to Pacifica on Friday.

On Friday, having rid my body of the wicked sushi curse from Scotts Valley, Ann and I left Santa Cruz for San Jose using the notoriously dangerous Highway 17. When I lived in the Santa Cruz area I drove this highway regularly and I can attest to the danger.

Fast speeds + narrow lanes + no shoulders + lots of mountain curves = dangerous highway.

Not only did I witness multiple accidents, but several times I came close, really close, to being involved in an accident myself (while going the speed limit). In each case there was a car broken-down and sitting in a lane of the highway near blind curves.

I learned that avoiding rush hour traffic on Highway 17 is one sure way to increase the odds of making it over the summit alive. On this day, I kept my ‘alive’ streak intact.

Woz way in San Jose named for Steve Wozniak of Apple fame.

Our first mission of the day was to locate the world’s largest permanent monopoly board at Monopoly in the Park. We found it pretty quickly, just off ‘Woz way’ (named for Steve Wozniak of Apple fame). We quickly discovered one downside to the monopoly board’s location. No close parking. Here are some pics once we trekked over to the board, which was smaller than we expected, yet still very fun.

The next stop was the Pez museum in Burlingame, north of San Jose [Ed Note, the Pez museum closed in July 2019]. I can’t remember why I had an inkling to search for this bit of oddness, but it proved worth every dollar we spent on it ($3/per person). Much to my surprise, Ann knew about some of the Pez history, as Pez originated in Linz, Austria, where one strain of her family originated.

The owner and museum guide.

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<– Day 28 – Apr. 16th: Artichokes and Sushi Boats  | OVERVIEW | Day 30-31 – Apr.18th-19th: Bay Area Fun  –>

I had big plans for today — a trip out to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, a walk through downtown Santa Cruz, and an excursion to the Mysterious Mystery spot.

Alas, all that was put aside as I wore a path between the bed and the toilet. Was it the sushi or the artichokes? Who knows, but something didn’t agree with my stomach this morning.

I felt much better by the afternoon. We even made it to dinner the Santa Cruz Diner for dinner (though I had breakfast), which has appeared on a number of food shows.

That’s a mural inside the restaurant. Ann was concerned the mermaid might get her! BTW, she is the understanding wife who hadn’t combed her hair yesterday. She’ll do anything for a photo!

Tomorrow, our plans to locate the worlds largest Monopoly board, visit the Pez Museum, and visit with Dan and see his Traveller will still occur.

One thing I did have time to do today was plot the remainder of our trip. The top is cut off, but I’ll provide that later on in the trip.

<– Day 28 – Apr. 16th: Artichokes and Sushi Boats  | OVERVIEW | Day 30-31 – Apr.18th-19th: Bay Area Fun  –>

<– Day 27 –Apr. 15th: Strolling Monterey  | OVERVIEW | Day 29 – Apr. 17th: Revenge of the Sushi –>

World’s largest artichoke in Castroville

Monterey was our launch point today. Before we headed north, Ann submitted a request to re-photograph the western side of Fisherman’s wharf. It took a few wrong turns, a couple mistakes, and dumb luck to find a good spot from which to take the photos she wanted. That’s where we discovered a memorial to Father Juniper Serra (he was news to me) who was responsible for forming a variety of spanish missions along the coast of California. Unfortunately, he’s seems pretty forgotten in his current spot on Monterey.

A hazy Monterey morning.

With photographs snapped, we continued toward our second goal, Castroville.

Our drive from Monterey to Scotts Valley, Ca, on Wednesday.

As we approached Castroville, the highway was lined with never-ending fields. It had been six years since I’d seen these fields, as I used to live just north of them in Aptos, California. I’d driven through the fields many times and seen folks working the fields no matter the weather. It always looks like hard work, often they are hunched over for hours. Hoodies are a popular item, as they are loose, flexible and offer sun protection. Whether hot or cold, field hands wear them.

Eventually, we arrived in Castroville. Apparently, Castroville is famous for two things. 1) it is the birthplace of Norma Jean and 2) It is the self-proclaimed artichoke capitol of the world and holds an artichoke festival every year.

Norma Jean and artichokes came together in 1948 when Norma was named the very first honorary Artichoke Queen. History would show that such an honor didn’t keep Norma from leaving Castroville nor did it keep her from changing her name to the more familiar Marilyn Monroe.

We didn’t travel to Castroville to learn more about Marilyn, but rather to find the world’s largest artichoke. The area surrounding Castroville provides 75% of the domestically grown artichoke crop. The other 25% is grown in other areas of California.The unusual thing about the artichoke plant is it is basically a weed, a type of thistle. But, a yummy thistle it is!

The town of Castroville is pretty small, so it wasn’t hard to spot a giant artichoke once when we arrived (see photo at the top of the post).

We took some photos. Then, Ann spotted ‘Fried Artichokes’. She’d never had them, so we set about having some for an early lunch. We also added an order of spinach and artichoke dip. Life was good!

Fried artichoke hearts

Spinach and artichoke dip

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<– Day 26 –Apr. 14th: Gorditas Make Me Sleepy  | OVERVIEW | Day 28 – Apr. 16th: Artichokes and Sushi Boats –>

Today we didn’t do much but relax and wander around Monterey on a mostly cloudy day. Monterey has two wharfs, one more tourist-oriented and one more local-oriented. We started at the latter by grabbing some clam chowder at the Sandbar & Grille Restaurant. The chowder tasted good, but had a too many potato chunks and too few clams.

After lunch we got on our tourist vibe with a walk to the other more notable wharf.

The ‘tourist’ wharf even had an unofficial greeter:

It doesn’t look like his fishing is faring to well.

Visitors strolling the wharf.

At the end of wharf Ann got busy with her camera, so I got busy photographing her.

As we left the wharf I decided to see if YELP could find an interesting ice cream place. Sure enough, YELP found Kai Lee Creamery in Pacific Grove. So, we headed west until reaching the cannery row area, with some recognizable places.

Kai Lee Creamery was started six months ago by Butch Adams who had no experience in the industry. His goal is to make ice cream that is organic, gluten-free, non-soy, all-natural, vegetarian, and handmade.

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<– Day 25 – Apr. 13th: Port Why-Knee-Me | OVERVIEW | Day 27 – Apr. 15th: Strolling Monterey –>

Henry is looking toward the coast on our way from Paso Robles to Highway 1.

Today’s goal was to drive Highway 1 north to Monterey, California.

Today we drove from Arroyo Grande – Pismo Beach area to Monterey.

We started off this morning with a quick visit to Pismo Beach to say we’d been there and done that. One thing we didn’t do was give into the temptation for some pastries from Old West Cinnamon Rolls, though my mouth sure watered as we passed their store front.

Pismo Beach pier.

After a short walk on the Pismo Beach pier, we drove north to Paso Robles to visit the highly recommended Pioneer Museum. When we arrived, I discovered that I hadn’t read the fine print; it was only opened Thursday through Sunday.  Still, there were a few exhibits outside, so we entertained ourselves for a little while.

The front of the Pioneer Museum. Me wondering how I missed the fact that the museum is only opened from Thursday-Sunday

Ann took the news of the museum’s closure pretty well. I only stayed in jail for a little while.

I got a little worried when she found this witch’s pot and began uttering the words “Double Double Toil and Trouble“.

If you travel anywhere along the coast you are likely to run across signs with bells for El Camino Real, one of the early roads through California. Bells were added along the route at the turn of the 19th century.

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<– Day 24 – Apr. 12th: Dan’s FCs and The Lost Romanian | OVERVIEW | Day 26 – Apr. 14th: Gorditas Make Me Sleepy –>

Dinner off of Hwy 1 overlooking the Pacific Ocean. After all the craziness of the northern LA traffic, we found a peaceful spot for some dinner with a postcard-perfect view.

Our first objective on Sunday was to grab a bagel at the Old New York Deli & Bakery Company in Newberry Park, California. I’d spotted the bagelry when it delivered some bagels for an event at the Hampton Inn where we stayed Saturday night. They looked so good, that I made the bagel place a must stop. Thankfully, the bagels didn’t disappoint. They were chewy and tasty. If you are in the area, give them a try.

A map of our trip from Thousand Oaks to Pismo Beach.

From Newberry Park, we drove to Port Hueneme to visit the new Seabees museum. If are like me, you are unsure how to pronounce the name of that Port. I learned it is pronounced Port Why-Knee-Me, named for a local tribe. Again, Hueneme = Why-Knee-Me

On the way to the museum we encountered this terrible fire. Ann determined it had been a medical building (we pulled up to a gas station to fill up while watching the action).

We put the fire behind us and soon arrived at the new Seabee museum. Unlike the old location (which is the only address we had), the new address does not require access to the Naval Base, making it less of a hassle for non-military visitors to visit the museum. It’s very easy to spot the museum by the large “Seabee” out front:

You can see Henry parked in the background.

The beautiful new building apparently replaced some leaky, smaller buildings. The entrance sure looked welcoming:

Inside the building is a spacious lobby where a change in exhibits was in progress:

This was a creative use of landing grates:

There were several rooms that shared the history of the Navy’s civil engineering program. One question we had was how did the Seabee’s originate and get their name? The answer involved the problem of civil engineers fighting in a war.

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<– Day 23 – Apr. 11th: Vintage Cars and Campers | OVERVIEW | Day 25 – Apr. 13th: Port Why-Knee-Me –>

Dan Horenburger and I in front of his Streamline FC Motorhome. See more pics here: http://thefcconnection.com/dan_horenberger_fc_motorhome.htm

Our home for Friday and Saturday night was the Thousand Oaks Hampton Inn. Thousand Oaks was great in part because they had some good food stores. The local Whole Foods had some sliced bison meat they sold in a warming bag (kind of like they do with chicken). Since Ann avoids beef most days (beef protein sensitivity) having some Bison was a treat for both of us!  Not only do they have food, but this small community seems to have more shopping per square foot than most. There are shops everywhere, but not many houses (that we can see) to support them all.

Saturday we did a big loop. The drive north and west on 23/118 was particularly beautiful, due to the beautiful rocky and hilly terrain. The remainder of the drive (especially 101) was full of traffic.

On Saturday, after sleeping in late (due to being awakened by someone walking very heavy in the room above us at 4:30am), our first adventure was a meeting with Dan Horenburger, who has collected an amazing collection of Forward Controls. It was a unique treat to have him share their history with us.

Dan explained that he was brought home in an FC after being born. Clearly he caught the Willys Sickness within just a few days of his birth, the poor guy. By his mid-teens he purchased and rebuilt his first FC. By then there was no turning back, so instead of medication or therapy, he embraced it. Since then he’s spent many years searching for unique vehicles. Fortunately, his professional (carousel restoration) allowed him to travel far and wide to search for them. As you will see he’s been successful.

Here are some of the Fire FCs he owns:

He also has this rare Mobile Driller attachment on the back of an FC-170:

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<– Day 21 – Apr. 9th: Day 2 at Disneyland | OVERVIEW | Day 23 – Apr. 11th: Vintage Cars and Campers –>

On Thursday we drove down to meet a friend of my mothers and her husband on Balboa Island.

Today we drove to Balboa Island.

They took us out to Ruby’s on Balboa pier:

Even we couldn’t pull of this photo. It’s from this magazine: http://newportbeachmagazine.com/taste-of-the-town/

We gorged ourselves on hamburgers, fries and chocolate shakes. The best part of the day was getting some of the down low information on my mother from her longtime friend. And, as Mom reads that previous sentence, she is wondering just what Karen told me . . . lol 🙂

<– Day 21 – Apr. 9th: Day 2 at Disneyland | OVERVIEW | Day 23 – Apr. 11th: Vintage Cars and Campers –>