Lush Monterey - the last of the Missions Tours

September 6, 2011

After many days of good and rich food, we decided to have a healthy breakfast today.  We cooked up three kinds of oat meals this morning, and sampled all three.  There is the Irish steel cut oat meal, a multi-grain oat meal, and the regular five-minute oat meal.  No, no instant oat meal.

Sue cooked the Irish stone cut oat meal.  Four cups of water, one cup oat meal, bring to a boil, then simmer for five minutes.  It takes a bit of time, but this can be cooked at night and stored in the refrigerator.  Louis cooked up the multi-grain in another pot, and microwaved the regular oat meal.  We sat around the table, and sampled all three, with complements of brown sugar, raspberries, blue-berries, and half-and-half.  It was a very satisfying breakfast.


For today's tour, we drove to Carmel Mission Basilica. This old church was built by Fr. Junipero Serra in 1770.  At some point, it was restored and enlarged to what we see today.  In 1987, the then Pope John Paul II visited the church, and spent some time there praying.  Pope John Paul II declared the church a minor basillica, and the restoration project began.






The main courtyard of the church leads to the main entrance. Two clock towers surround the main building.  This is the original church building.  The long hall on the left house the museum, library (the first library in the country), and the gift shop.  The long building is not reinforced for earthquake, and had toppled once during an earthquake before.






In this room, Pope John Paul II had prayed when he visited in 1987.












Outside the main building, there is a very big courtyard, with a center fountain.  On one side are the school rooms, and school was in session this day.

The three sisters lined up for a photo shoot.







From the courtyard, the bell tower is flanked by flowers on each side. At noon, the bell rang very loudly, and a child screamed.











Continuing with my experiment to frame the subject of my photograph with interesting background, I found this tree with large branches to frame the cross.  This cross marks the original location Fr. Serra erected the cross.








This is the original fountain in the old church.  It was completely restored in 1987, in time for the Pope's visit.










The long corridor outside the museum and library.












In the courtyard, there are two large barbeque pits.  The fire pits burns wood, but may be started by gas.  The BBQ looks like they are large enough to cook 50 chickens at once, each.  On the side, there is a large cooler for cold drinks, and a wash basin for washing hands and things. This must have been a great place for an outdoor party.

More picture of the main building.  After seeing the museum, I went back outside to take more pictures of the main building, including some artistic ones.









I like the way the archway frames the building inside.  I have another picture of this archway with the vines on the wall, looking very much like a Spanish villa.

This picture shows the original church, before the restoration.  the long building in front and to the left is in ruins. 

Outside the gift shop, a humming bird was flying from flower to flower.  Here he is shown at the top right of the picture.

After visiting the Mission church, we went down Ocean Avenue, and stopped for lunch at The Forge in the Forest. Paula had tea, and the tea mug bears the name of the restaurant.

We drove down to the beach at the end of Ocean Avenue, and walked onto the sandy beach.  The beach is called white sands beach.  There was a lot of big waves there this afternoon.  Across the bay, you can see the green fields of the Pebble Beach Golf Club.

I received an email from Tim, enclosing two pictures of Lena.  Today is Lena's first day at kintergarten.  Here she is with her new dress, new shoes, new backpack (?) and sporting a new hair do.  

What a beautiful girl. Oh, she is growing up too fast.

Apparently John Paul wants to get into the act too.  He looks like he is ready for school. They are such good  children, I really love them

I am glad I receive this email and the pictures.  What a great way to end the day.  Thank you, Tim.

Late entry: Manny the cat

Manny is such a friendly cat.  Here I am, late at night, stretched out on the sofa watching TV. Manny just jumped up on the couch, and rested his head on the arch of my foot.  He appears to be quite comfortable and stayed for a long time.

Day of leisure - Day 5

Day 5, September 5, 2011

We are going to hang around the house today: do some laundry, some fix-up, watch TV and eat cake. Sounds good after running around for the last few days.  Look at Manny.  He knows how to relax.

Louis made waffles in the morning.  He didn't have his regular recipe, but was able to find something similar online, and used it successfully.  The waffles were super fluffy inside, and crispy outside.

While Paula and Ann were busy doing the laundry, Louis and I worked on fixing the faucets in Sue's room, and the guest bathroom.  (Louis did all the work.  I only hand him the screwdriver when he needed it.)  This involved running out to Home Depot multiple times.  On one of the trips, we stopped to get Paula a birthday cake - a yellow cake with strawberry filling.

We changed the light switch upstairs and telephone plated too.  Tomorrow we will fix up the dinning room chairs.

Sue put a dozen (xxxx) flowers in our room for Paula.  Paula really liked it and asked me to take pictures of the flowers.  Thank you, Sue.

For lunch, we went to a fast food place called "In and Out" burgers.  Their menu choices are simple: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, or double-double (double cheeseburgers with buns) and fries or not?
Paula and I each had a cheeseburger with their special sauce, and shared an order of fries.  We asked for lettuce, tomatoes and onions too, but I have to fish out the pickles.  For drinks I had root beer and Paula just have water.

The burgers were delicious, and the fries cripsy.  We all left feeling happy and satisfied.

For dinner, Sue made shrimp civiche. It is like a shrimp salad on Tostidas chips.  Everyone enjoyed it, and finished the big bowl of civiche.  I think this dish will even go good on salad, or eaten plain in a cup.

Besides the civiche, I also had a piece of pizza leftover from yesterday.  Ah, another satisfying meal.  I soon fell asleep, while everyone watches a movie.




Both Paula and I loved the dish, so I am going to make it when we go home. I found a recipe online:  I will alter it to be closer to Sue's recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 pound peeled and deveined medium shrimp
• 1 cup fresh lime juice
• 10 plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced, or to taste
• 2 avocados, diced (optional)
• 2 ribs celery, diced (optional)
• chopped fresh cilantro to taste
• salt and pepper to tast
• 
  

Directions

1. Place shrimp in a glass bowl and cover with lime juice to marinate (or 'cook') for about 10 minutes, or until they turn pink and opaque. Meanwhile, place the plum tomatoes, onion and jalapeno (and avocados and celery, if using) in a large, non-reactive (stainless steel, glass or plastic) bowl.
2. Remove shrimp from lime juice, reserving juice. Dice shrimp and add to the bowl of vegetables. Pour in the remaining lime juice marinade. Add cilantro and salt and pepper to taste. Toss gently to mix.

ci

Here is Paula, ready to serve her birthday cake, in her pretty pink dress.  Sue commented that the color of the cake matches her kitchen color.  Ann thought the green color on the cake looked like guacamole, and that she has never seen a cake with such straight edges.  The cake was delicious.

Mission Church - San Juan Bautista

Day 4 - September 4, 2011

It is Sunday.  For Mass, Sue decided we should check out the old Mission church at San Juan Bautista.  This cute little (and very Western looking) town is just a bit south of Prunedale on Route 101 South.  It took about 30 minutes to get to the town, and off the center of the town is the large compound of the old Mission church.

This church is an adobe church, built in 1797, with the help of the native Indians.  The floor tiles inside are clay tiles, and some of the tiles have hoof prints on them.  These are left by animals stepping on the tiles when they were drying in the sun.





There are three aisles inside.  The two outside aisles are empty. The main aisle has two columns of pews.  We sat pretty much up front on the left side

The three sisters.

This is the long corridor that leads from the street to the church.  You can see the clay bricks in the column in front.  Outside, it is lined with tall trees, and we can park our car just in front, under the shade of the big trees.

A front view of the corridor.

I have come to enjoy using geometric shapes to frame the pictures.  This is my first attempt to get the white building across the field.  I want to show the thickness of the wall, but was not able to center the white building without losing the full thickness of the wall.

This picture just shows the geometry of the corridor.  I like the simplicity of the image.

This is a building, next to the white building. It is a beautiful building.  We did not go inside.

The Plaza Hotel is just across the street.  The right most door says "Bar Room", and Louis and I were going to belly up to the bar and yell "Bar keep!".  I don't think the hotel is open anymore.  Along the front is a horse hitch, the long pole for cowboys to tie their horses while they go in for drinks.











On the side, there are individual posts with rings, also for hitching horses.

We had lunch at the Jardin xx xx in town. A nice Mexican restaurant.
We ordered a pitcher of Margarita, but they served the drinks in tiny wine glasses.  Sue was not pleased.

Paula having her 'birthday' chocolate ice cream.  The waitresses and hostess sang "Happy birthday" to Paula.

My big fat Greek Festival - Day 3

Saturday, September 3, 2011

We were lucky our trip coincided with the Annual Monterey Greek Festival. This is held at the park next to the Wharf.  We were also lucky to find a parking garage near the wharf that still have spaces.  So everything worked out for us today.

I left the camera in the car, and after getting to the festival, I was not in the mood to go back for it, so I decided to just use my camera to take pictures.

The festival was already in full swing as we entered the park.  Tents were set up selling Greek food and drinks.  On the other side were crafts and souvenir goods.

Most of the food stalls only take tokens.  You go to a token booth to pay and exchange you money for tokens. Unused tokens can be exchanged back for money.

I bought $100 worth of tokens and distributed among ourselves.  We each went out to get some food and drink.  I bought a Green stuffed cabbage, very much like a Polish golomki but less tasty.  I think the leave is a grape leaf, instead of a cabbage leave that you would find in a Polish golomki.

Louis and I were at the  cocktail booth, and we bought three red Greek beers (one for Sue.)  We were lucky to find a big table under a big umbrella near the stage, and settled down for food and music.

I don't remember how it happened, but someone said I will not dare to go up to the stage and dance with the  people already dancing on the stage.  Anyone in the public is invited to go up and dance, but there were not many people dancing. I bet for $10, I will go up and dance, and Sue, Ann, and Paula accepted my challenge, so I did.   I walked up to the stage, held hand with one of the men dancer, and danced.  He took me in and showed me the steps.   I could not follow him, but later found out it is a 12 step dance.  You start with your left foot, cross over the right foot, then with the right, cross over the left foot, and keep count.  On count 8, you kick that foot, and bring it down, continue crossing the feet, and on count 12, kick that foot.  What nonsense.  Who thought of this?  At count 8 and 12?  so unsymmetric.  Anyway, after a while, I lost interest, and went back to the table, where I put my hand out and happily counted the cash Sue, Ann, and Paula handed me.   (I later gave the money back to them.)

At the fair ground, Paula found a Turkish bag that she liked.  It was just the right size for her sun glasses.  She had been looking for something small to store her sun glasses on the trip. She like this very much, so I bought it as her birthday present.

We stopped at the Wharf, locally called the Fishermen's Wharf, after leaving the fair ground.  This is similar to the famous wharf in San Francisco.  There are restaurants on both sides of the board walk, and shops selling jewelries, souvenirs, candies, and what-not.  You can take a whale watching cruise from here, or go on a fishing trip with the party boats as well.
 The party boats that dock here will clean up the fish for you, throwing the guts into the water.  This is why they attract sea gulls, pellikans, and seals and sea lions around the docks.

On the far side, looking at the Pacific, we spotted two sea otters.  They were too far to be photographed. 

On the way back, off Route 156 West, we came across Perzini Farms.  This is where Sue gets her artichokes.  We stopped at the store in front of the farm, and bought some small items.

Parked outside the farm is a food trailer.  Sue recommended we try the French Fried Artichokes.  This is artichoke hearts dipped in batter and deep fried.  It is obviously not good for your health, but oh so good tasting. As usual, by the time I thought of taking a picture of it, it is already half gone.  The white powder on the fried artichokes is Parmasean cheese .

At supper time, we gave up our plan to go out and decided to just cook up a simple meal for the night. We have some Brussels sprouts.  I cleaned them, cut off the bottom tips, and halved them.  With a little squirt of olive oil, I pan fried the sprouts until they are tender, then sprinkled some balsomic vinigar on the sprouts.  They were delightful.

We had some fingling potatoes.  Sue brushed with with some olive oil and had them baked.  Another beautiful dish.  With the leftover salmon and chicken, we had a very happy meal.

He shared his castle with the World - Day 2

Day 2, September 2, 2011

After a good night's sleep, everyone's mind turned lightly to what is to have for breakfast. There is a great little bagel shop in the shopping center near the grocer
y supe
r
market. Su

e, Paula and I went out and grabbed a bag of assorted bagels, and four bagel d

og
s. Bagel dogs! They are like corn dogs, except with bagels, and no sticks.

For bagels, we had some of the usual ones: regular

, cinamon s

ugar, etc. but they also have a jalapeno topped bagel,

so we tried one of those. Sue also brought out a bi

g bowl of frui

t salad. She also showed us how to use the built-in coffee machine. I had tw

o cups of coffee, and Paula tried the cafe latte. The coffee has a very nice crema on top, and

smelled an

d tasted wonderful. As much as I like the coffee percolator I have at home, this is the way to go for coffee lovers.

We planned the day while at breakfast. There is a farmers' market today (every Friday in the Summer) that Sue wants to try in Monterey, and from there, we can shoot down Route 1 South to San Simian to see Hearst Castle, from the wind up Route 46 to some winery for wine-tasting, then cruise up Route 101 North back to Salinas. That was the plan.

The road to San Simeon from M

onterey is 132 miles long. I don't recommend taking Ro

ute 1 South anymore, due

to the winding roads. Passengers tend to get car sick

on suc

h a long and winding road. The

view, on the other hand, is spectacula

r. The coasta

l road has

a lot of hairpin curves

, with the Pac

ific Ocean on the right side. You go over four bridge

s, one of

which has a large arch underneath. I believe the arched bridge has been in a few movies.

Along the way, we passe

d by River Inn. The hotel and restaurant is built along a sleepy river. Acros

s on the other side of the road is the La Padres State Park (which ex

tends for miles near Monterey all the way down to Big Sur. This is a good rest stop. You can check out the gift shop, or walk behi

nd the restaurant, down to the river, and relax a bit in the shade.

The restaurant has a few chairs in the water, in the river, so custom

ers can sit there and o

rder a

cocktail, while dipping th

eir feet in the wat

er, and enjoy the cool sprint water. The gentle flo

w of the water will soothe the tired feet, and help you relax and unwind from the long journey.

Past River Inn, there is a bakery and a restaurant on the rig

ht. Further down the road, about 20 miles later, you will come to Rocky Point Inn. This

is another good rest stop

. You can walk to the back of the Inn, and see the sheer cliffs of the Pacific highway.

After almost 3 hours, we finally arrived at Hearst Castle.

The castle is built on top of the hills of San Lucia Range. It is an actual working cattle range. You can buy meat (beef) in

the gift shop of the castle.

It was a short drive from the highway into the parking lot of the gift shop and visitors' c

enter. You buy your tickets at the visitors center, and eat at the cafeteria, and visit the gift shop and museum at the visitors' center. There are four tours. We took the Grand Room tour, which is recommended for first time visitors. We have all been there, except for Louis, so we took the first tour so we can visit the movie theatre again.

The movie is interesting. It is an IMax

movie, and talks about how George Hearst struck silver in the Sierra Nevada, and bought a lot of land, including 400,000 square miles of land where the castle is situated. He married a 19 year old school

teacher Phebe Appleson. William Randall Hearst is the son. When he was 10 years old, his travelled to Europe with his mother, and spent a year and a

half touring the European cities, se

eing the great architectures and art wor

ks. This has a lasting impression on his.

After his mother died, WR Hearst inherited the ranch and decided to build a house at the ranch, where he used to camp. He wanted the house to reflect the European architecture, yet gi

ve him access to na

tur

e and the camping experience. He commissioned a woman archit

ect, Julia Morgan, to accom

plish his dreams, and thus the castle was born. Very interesting movie.

From the visitors' center, we took a bus and drove the fi

ve miles up the

hill to the castle. The ride was interesting, and winding. We passed b

y some anim

al pe

ns. Hearst had stocked the hills with wildlife in his days. There were still some zebras, goats, etc (only the tame animals) roaming around the hills. I saw some deer, but no zebras.

The castle's main house is modeled after a church in Spain. We went around t

o the

side and entered the dining room. It was dim inside, and we were not all

owed to use flash, so the pictures are of

ve

ry poor quality. I tried to take pictures of th

e tapestries, but they did n

ot come out very well. We started at the convergence hall, to which visitors and dinner guests were escort

ed for cocktails and conversation before dinner. According to the guide, Hearst likes to invite guests for their conversations, and dinner is mandatory. The guests are seated according to how lively the conversation tends to be, and how long

the guests have been on the grounds. The longer you have been around, the f

arther you are seated from Hearst.

The next room is the pool room. The walls are covered with 400 year old tapestries, 200 year old Persian tiles, and valuable paintings,

but in the center of the room are two ugly and

modern pool tables, which do not go with the decor.

The next room we visited was the movie room. Hearst liked to show movies after dinner. Sometimes he will have his guests act out a play instead of watching movies.

After this room, we were released to the grounds, where we were free to roam or leave on the next bus.

The grounds are covered

with statues and very nicely landscaped. I took as ma

ny pictur

es of the statues as p

ossible. They will be

interesting to look at back home.

There are two swimming pools onthe grounds. A large out

door pool

called the Neptune pool is on the far side of the estate,

overlooking the moun

tains. It is a very impressive pool, and appears to have blue water. Th

e guide said the water just appears to be blue, from the reflections of the sky. The tiles in the pool are actually white. I took quite a few pictures of the outdoor pool.

At the far side, behind the big house is the sports complex (unfinished.) Here is the tennis court.

Those little squares under the net are glass blocks.

Below the tennis courts is the indoor Roman swimming pool. There are Roman statues standing on guard all around the pool. In the middle of the pool, there is a side hall. That is the shallow part of the pool, about three feet deep. Outside in the main pool, the depth is about 12 feet, deep enough to allow swimmers to dive in from the platform in the second floor.

The shallow lane is necessary becau

se back in the forties, not many people know how to swim, so they will mill around the shallow lane.

Remember the tiles in the tennis court? They shed light into the shallow lane from above, like skylights.

In this picture, you can see the diving platform, and the sun light streaming in from the glass blocks.

After his death in 1951, WR Hearst donated the castle to the California State, and it became part of the State Park, opening the castle to visitors year long. He shared his castle with the World.