Salinas Valley CaliforniaThis is the source of most of our vegetables and strawberries. The produce was great here where it was picked ripe and sold in the stands along the road. Avocados were 5 for a dollar, imagine that.
In the field outside Salinas were these larger than life figures depicting the workers in the field. There were great and one had on an FFA jacket. Great high school project.
Point Lobos State Reserve
From Salinas we took a couple of day trips along the coast. One day we went to Monterey and then on to Carmel. Late in the afternoon we drove into Point Lobos and were informed by at the ranger station that we were too late to enter the park as it was closing in less than an hour.
When we made a u-turn to leave he waved us down again and asked if we were really from Iowa (per our license plate.) When we confirmed our Iowa roots, he let us go into the park, promising to be out by closing. He also was from Iowa, an Iowa Stater. To say the least, we did not have enough time to explore this fantastic park, but did enjoy what we saw. These amazing rock/sand formations. This is a must see and explore more fully next time.
We always marvel at how they make the highways along the cliffs and this day got to experience the precarious feat. This is not the best photo of the narrow passage the workers had marked off going around the bend on a cliff on Highway 1. They were on the other side of the right barrier building highway on the drop off side.
Great Pelicans
On the peir at Monterey. They were great to watch, need I say more. Oh yes, one more, thorns to the woman who picked one up and carried it around...to prove??
Yes we actually stopped and paid to see it this time. We had stopped here 26 years ago but Mox just could not spring for the admission price for a car load. I thought I might be too overwhelmed by its grandiosity, but I must say it was too grandiose to overwhelm me. It was more like a fantasy than something a person could actually own.
The inside was great with its art archives and furniture, but of course, my favorite part was the two pools.
The guides said at the end of the summer season they have a party there and get to swim. I am thinking about this as my next job as I could hardly contain myself.
We stopped in Los Angeles to visit Larry LaRose and his wife Nancy, daughters, Tessa and Meagan. Larry was Mox's freshman college roommate at Iowa. It was a brief one night visit, but it was like we had seen each other every year rather than 26 years ago! It was amazing to me what kindred spirits the two of them are.
Their daughter's, twins, are studying at the University of Hawaii and were home for the summer where they work as ocean life guards. We learned a lot about Hawaii and life guarding.
This 60 pound African Tortoise was one of their pets. He roams the yard and keeps the grass mowed.
We had heard about the USS Iowa becoming a museum before we left Iowa. Mox had also heard that anyone with an Iowa drivers license could get in free. That is his kind of tourism place. It was true we did get special Iowa treatment.
The walls of this battleship are 18" inches of steel. Built in 1940 she served for over 50 years in WWII, the Korean Conflict, and the Cold War. She was named the ship of presidents as she has been the host of many presidents.
The Iowa hosted President Franklin Delano Roosevelt across the Atlantic and Back in 1943 so he could attend a secret Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting with Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Chaing Kai-shek at the Tehran Conference.
It was a great sunny southern California day and while we still had our Iowa Drivers License we decided to enjoy the tour.
One of the best surprises of our trip happened while I was in the produce department at Sprouts. Brooke was interviewing for a job in Estes Park and after three hours in we had almost given up on hearing from her.
When she called she announced that she not only interviewed, but was offered the job on the spot. I was crying amongst the carrots. People must have thought I had received bad news.
When we got home we celebrated Brooke's new job.
We met up with our niece Megan, Kevin, and Orrin at Del Mar. We had gone for a beer festival which wasn't that great, but the track is historic and magnificent. I had not really been to a horse race and the grandeur and excitement were great fun.
We never did get around to betting so we broke even on the day....except for the price of beer.
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