Mission San Juan Bautista in central California is a treasure for history buffs like me. The mission was built in 1797 as part of a string of missions stretched from Baja California to San Francisco. The missions were built a days ride apart on the El Camino Real, the kings highway. Most of the missions have been surrounded now by urban life but the town square around San Juan Bautista was preserved in addition to the mission. San Juan Bautista is the largest mission in the chain of missions.

The missions were built by Spanish Franciscan friar Father Junipero Serra.In more recent years there has been a lot of controversy around the history of the missions and of Father Serra. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988. To others Serra was a villain because he or perhaps the soldiers associated with the mission oppressed the native people of the region. There is no question that the native population lost around 90% of its numbers in this time period, although that was true else where in North America primarily because of the deceases brought from the old world.

The original name of the mission was La Misión del Glorios Precursor de Jesu Cristo, Nuestro Señor San Juan Bautista (The Mission of the Glorious Precursor of Jesus Christ, Our Lord Saint John the Baptist).

Surrounding the town plaza you will find a hotel, livery stable, old jail and plaza hall. The livery stable holds of collection of old carriages and wagons.

If the mission looks familiar it might be because you, like me, came here on a field trip as a kid. But more likely you recognize it from the 1958 Hitchcock film Vertigo.

If you take your kids to see the mission make sure to look to your right as you face the mission. The steep slope immediately to the missions right is the San Andreas Fault. Needless to say the mission has been damaged by earthquakes over the years but its thick adobe walls still stand.

This video documents the even as well as my ride on the zipline.

Variety

California has more mountains than most states in the United States. It includes both the highest and the lowest spot in the lower 48 states. Because of that, California has more than one climate. Did you know you can find all of these in California:

• California has 8 of the top 10 cities with the “least weather variety” – San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Eureka, Long Beach, Santa Maria, and San Luis Obispo. These are all coastal cities. (The other two top cities are in Hawaii).
• California has the hottest place in the United States and the second hottest in the world. Death Valley has had the second highest recorded temperature ever , 134°F (56.7°C) at Furnace Creek in 1913.
• California is one of the least likely states to be hit by lightening. Only Oregon and Washington are safer than California. I know what you are thinking, you would have thought Hollywood got hit by lightening more often.
• California has 3 of the countries driest cities Bishop (#3 with 5.61 inches of precipitation annually), Bakersfield (#4 with 5.72 inches), and Reno (no not the one in Nevada) (#7 with 7.49 inches).
• California has the 4th wettest city in the USA with 67.87 inches of precipitation at Blue Canyon. It is wetter than any city in Florida although Florida has 4 of the 10 wettest cities.
• Blue Canyon is also the snowiest city in the USA with 240.8 inches of snow annually. That is almost twice as much snow as the next closest U.S. city. Mount Shasta, California is the 6th snowiest city in the U.S. with 104.9 inches.
• California has 2 of the sunniest cities in the U.S. but they are not the coastal beach cities but instead Fresno (79%) and Sacramento (78%). Although California is the “sunshine” state, Arizona should take that honor with 4 of the top 6 sunniest cities.
• Perhaps you remember the 1972 hit song “It Never Rains in Southern California”? 6 of the 10 cities with the least rainy days in the U.S. are in Southern California: Bishop (#3 – 29 rainy days), Santa Barbara (#4 – 30 days), Long Beach (#5 – 32 days), Los Angeles (#6 – 35 days), Bakersfield (#9 – 37 days), San Diego (#10 – 42 days)
• Of course since it doesn’t rain, California also has half of the top 10 cities with the dirtiest air: #1 Los Angeles, #2 Bakersfield, #4 Visalia, #5 Fresno, #7 Hanford.
• California has 2 of the best cities in the U.S. for allergies (based on pollen counts) with #4 San Francisco and #9 Los Angeles but also one of the worst with #8 Sacramento.

Micro Climates

The bottom line is that the hills and mountains of California break the state into a number of smaller micro climates. You can easily find a spot that gets 50 inches of rain a year 20 minutes from one that gets 20 inches. In the Summer driving from San Francisco to Sacramento you can easily see the temperature rise 40 degrees in an hour and a half. Southern California is dry while the most northern part of the state is a rain forest.

If you don’t like the weather in California, just get in your car and drive and it will change. My home town has a number of ski shops but has not seen snow in my life time. People drive to winter when they want it. So before you come to California make sure to look at the weather map a little more closely to see if you need to bring an umbrella, beach shorts, a parka or all of the above.

* Thanks to Interesting United States Weather Facts

A man walked up with a runny-nosed kid in green fatigues. The kid had a hand-lettered sign which said “Remember the POWs”.

“Can my son come with you?”, the man asked.

We were not keen on the idea. The kid was pretty young and I am sure we would have said no but David’s father was with us and thought that sounded just fine. So now we were 5.

Other things weren’t perfect either. The tank looked pretty great but Kevin and Reggie had a bit more help from their fathers. Both the tank and the half-track were cardboard on a wood frame but the tank was somehow more finished looking. It did not help that we had only been able to find one pair of shopping cart wheels (one never asked how kids were able to get their hands on shopping cart wheels) so we had had to improvise a back axel from the axel of a red wagon. It was hard to walk pushing the float without kicking the back axel. But that still it was our best entry in the Kiddie Kapers parade. This was our night.

The California Rodeo, one of the 4 largest rodeos in the world, was the big event in my home town of Salinas California. The festivities around the California Rodeo in Salinas include around 7 parades:

• The Como del Rodeo parade was a night parade and was the largest night lighted parade west of the Mississippi at the time. That parade has been discontinued but I was pleased to see it would come back in 2010 for the centennial of the California Rodeo.
• Each of the 5 days of the rodeo was proceeded by a horse parade down main street.
• The Kiddie Kapers parade was our parade. This parade was only for the kids and we came on bikes, on foot and in homemade floats from neighborhood playgrounds and garages. This was our night. The 2009 parade was the 80th Kiddie Kapers parade. My parade was more than a few years ago.

Things continued to go a bit downhill. Our unwieldy craft must have gotten that one bad shopping cart wheel . It tended to pull to the right. The kid was in the tank and wet his pants. At one point David’s foot was caught by the back axel and he lost his shoe. The crowd was amused when he had to be handed back his shoe. Finally the back axel broke on the half-track and David’s dad had to tow the disabled vehicle to the finish line.

But good things happened too. When the kid with the sign joined us we were no longer just some kids who liked to dress up in Kevin’s dad’s old uniforms (we did look good) but we now had a theme “Remember the POWs”. This was 1970 and we were still at war. We won the category for group floats. This was our night.

This story was written as an assignment for MatadorU travel writing school.

• Travel to the Napa Valley in California’s Wine Country – Episode 190
• More blogs posts about Napa Valley
• More podcasts about California

Chris: I’d like to welcome to the show Carol Terwilliger Meyers, who is the author of Weekend Adventures in San Francisco and Northern California:. And we’ve invited Carol to come on and talk about the wine country north of San Francisco. Carol, welcome to the show.

Carol: Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

Chris: It’s a pleasure for me too. The wine country is certainly some place I’ve been. It’s only an hour or so from where I live, but I really wanted somebody who had a little more expertise, who had a little more knowledge about it. And when I say the wine country in California, that is increasingly an inaccurate term because we grow grapes for wine all over the place here. So, where do you think of when I talk about the wine country north of San Francisco?

Carol: It’s true. It really is spreading out. I think most people think of Sonoma and Napa and Napa probably first.

Chris: Uh huh.

Carol: That’s probably the accurate description when you say it like that as, “The Wine Country”. But there’s vineyards and wineries all over the place.

Chris: Ok. And why would somebody go to that area and what should they do?

Carol: Well, I think that Napa is probably the place most people have heard about and so if you’ve never been up here before, that’s probably where you want to start.

Chris: Uh huh.

Carol: But one of the things to keep in mind if you’re visiting Napa is the town of Napa is different from the Napa Valley.

Chris: Right.

Carol: The town of Napa is more like a portal into the valley. The town is doing a lot of building right now to put in hotels and restaurants and all kinds of things to make it more visitor friendly. So it’s becoming a nicer place to stay at this point and there’s more things to do there. There are plenty of wineries around Napa. But most people find themselves on Highway 29 going through to the Napa Valley on up to St. Helena and Calistoga. That’s one section of the wine country and then the other section is the Sonoma area, which is just to the west of that, not that far away. And it would be easy as a visitor spending the night to come and do one part of the wine country one day and another part another day. Those of us that live in the area, can easily go there just in a day and back again. So it’s possible to spend the night in San Francisco and just go to the wine country for a day.

Chris: Right. So we talk about this as both as a destination and also as a possible side trip, for instance, from a visit from San Francisco.

King Tut may have been a minor ruler by Egyptian standards but the treasure made a pretty big splash in 1922 and continues to impress. A portion of that treasure and of the artifacts found in the tomb are touring with an exhibition sponsored in part by the National Geographic.

I had a chance to tour the exhibition last week at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and thought it was worth the price of admission. It is a popular exhibit so expect crowds. I was amazed to see how well preserved some of the artifacts were, especially the wooden ones considering that Tutankhamun died in 1323 B.C. The craftsmanship was wonderful. I also learned that Tutankhamun’s name means “Living Image of Amun” where Amun was a chief god in the pantheon of gods that Tutankhamun restored.

You might be a bit disappointed to learn that there are no mummies in the exhibit and the gold statue that is used to advertise the exhibit is not one of the (3) sarcophagi that Tutankhamun was buried in but a smaller statue about one foot tall. It is a bit disappointing to get to the last room the in exhibit and realize that the most impressive pieces are behind you, but I would still recommend this wonderful exhibit.

To save 20% on admission to “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharohs” use the code NATGEO

This is a picture of my standing in front of my other car at a winery in NapaSonoma California. OK, maybe that’s not my other car… yet. There is apparently good money in wine. The Napa valley is a gorgeous place with grapes everywhere and these beautiful wineries. Even if you don’t like wine this is a great place to travel. Do take a winery tour if you have not done one previously.

For more information about the wine country check out Travel to the Napa Valley in California’s Wine Country – Episode 190

Mistakes to avoid while in San Francisco

Last month my daughter and I went to St Helena to visit my son who is attending school at the CIA. It was not a flawless trip.

Mistake #1. In Napa, we pass a little strip mall that has a UPS sign on the street that says they ship wine. I told my daughter as we drive past it that maybe I should turn around and go back and  have them send the wine so we don’t have to check a piece of luggage for $15. She doesn’t say anything so i am thinking i had a bad idea and i just keep driving south.

Mistake #2. Our flight out of Oakland was at 6:10 pm. I didn’t really know where to go shopping in Oakland so I opted for San Fran.  We get to the Golden Gate bridge and I have $4 on me. The toll is $6. I tried to pay with a debit card or credit card and the attendant says they used to take plastic but they don’t anymore. He gives me a ticket for $25 in addition to the $6 that I still owe.

Mistake #3. It is pouring buckets in SF.  We finally get to Union Square and shop. My daughter checks her phone to see how long it will take to get to Oakland airport and it says 30 minutes  with traffic. So we left Union Square at 3:00 pm on a rainy Monday afternoon to catch a 6:10 flight out of Oakland. I am thinking if we leave at 3:00 and it takes 30 minutes to get to the airport that will leave plenty of time to gas up the car, return it,  check our bag with the wine in it and get through security with NO stress. HAHA!

It is pouring so hard that the drains are overflowing and we are driving through gigantic puddles. Roads close downtown because of flooding so now the  open roads are PACKED. We get on First St. There are 4 lights that we have to get through to get on the Bay Bridge. It took an hour to go one block. The light would change 5 times before one car would get through the intersection. It is a four-lane,  one way street and I was in the third lane. The fourth lane on the far left was for buses and taxis only. Occasionally a bus or taxi would go by otherwise the lane was  empty while the other three lanes were packed like sardines. Once in a while a car would go up that lane and then dive into the intersection and clog it and make the traffic  going the other way mad. Horns would blare.

The clock ticked on. It is 4:00.

Then the gas light went on.

The clock ticked on. It is 4:30.

My daughter looks for the nearest gas station on her phone. It is at the top of the hill near the on-ramp. Thank goodness. She said it was on the left. I asked her if i could go up the  bus lane to the gas station. She said no because the far left lane is left turn only at the top of the hill. Plus, she said that lane is for buses and taxies only. Darn rule follower.

The gas gauge needle is at E.

The clocked ticked on. It is 5:00.

My daughter checked to see if there was a later flight. Thank goodness for iPhones. There is a Horizon flight that leaves at 6:45 with a stop in Portland.

The gas gauge needle is below E.

My BP is off the chart.

I told my daughter that we still have a chance to make the plane. If we run out of gas, we have lost that chance plus, we will make drivers mad as they try to get around us. I said I have to drive up that bus/taxi lane and get gas. So off we go up the empty bus lane. One light, two lights, three lights. Guess what? The gas station is not on the left side of the road, it is on right. We have to force our way through three lanes of backed up traffic to get to it. Some drivers were nice -  some weren’t. We got gas. Got on the Bay Bridge, which was going the speed limit.

Our hopes go back up, BP down. We get on 880 and the speed is 60 mph.  We will get on the plane. Oops, spoke too soon – we hit the backup.  It is slow, but not stopped. We have 10 miles to go. We return the car, catch the bus, get to the airport at 5:30. We run like OJ to Alaska’s counter. I tell the agent that we need to be on the Seattle flight.

He said,  ”Do you have any luggage to check.”

I said,  ”Yes – one bag because there is wine in it.”

He said he couldn’t check the luggage because we were too late. The flight is scheduled to leave in 40 minutes. I asked if we could get on the Horizon flight instead. He said it is oversold but he can put us on standby but there is no guarantee we would get  on. I asked if our one piece of luggage could go on a flight the next day and I would drive back to the airport to get it.

“No”, says the grumpy man.

I really wanted the 4 bottles of wine I had bought for my husband – (plus they cost me $250). But I wasn’t willing to spend the night in Oakland. So I open my suitcase, take out the four bottles, tell him Merry Christmas and grab my boarding pass.We rush through security where there is no one in line. The security guys are real nice and told us we don’t have to rush because our gate is at the top of the stairs real close and since the plane doesn’t leave for 25 minutes it is probably just starting to board. HA. We get up there as the agent is closing the jetway door. Everyone is on board. She opens it and lets us on. The flight departs 15 minutes early.

Moral: Don’t go to SF when it is pouring. or don’t be a rule follower - drive up the bus lane immediately so you get to the airport on time. or, don’t buy wine. or, do mail wine if you buy it.

Oh and lastly, keep $20 hidden in your wallet for emergencies – like bridge tolls.

The Monterey Bay Coastal Bike Trail is around 29 miles long stretching from Castroville to Pebble beach but the best stretch is along the bay near Cannery Row. This stretch is flat and only 2.3 miles long so it can make a great short ride or long walk. The people watching is good and so is the scenery.

2. Best street food – Walk-away shrimp cocktail from Fisherman’s wharf

Popular with tourists and locals alike, nothing beats shrimp with a spicy cocktail sauce as you walk through the restaurants, fishing trips and tacky tourist shops. Now some will argue for the clam chowder instead. Feel free to substitute the chowder if your tastes lean in that direction.

3. Best souvenir – fleece lined squall jacket

Inevitably it seems when I visit Fisherman’s wharf one of the shops will be having a closeout sale on a fleece lined squall jacket with a hood for $20 that is embroidered with Monterey. I have that jacket and my wife has its twin from Fisherman’s wharf in San Francisco. Many tourists come to Northern California thinking that California is one long beach with surfers and instead find a foggy Summer day. I suspect they sell a lot of jackets.

4. Best Place to stay – A Victorian Inn in Pacific Grove.

Pacific Grove, which is adjacent to Monterey, has more victorian houses per capita than any city in the United States according to the locals. Several of these have been turned into Inns. The places I want to stay are the 7 Gables Inn or Green Gables Inn which are along the shore in Pacific Grove but I usually opt for the lovely but less expensive Centrella Inn which is closer to downtown. The Centrella is also near my favorite restaurant which is Peppers Mexicali Cafe.

5. Best hike – Point Lobos

An argument can be made for Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park which is further down the coast and a great day trip from the Monterey Peninsula, but I would opt for Point Lobos State park which is just on the far side of Carmel from Monterey. The story is told locally that when Robert Louis Stevenson  wrote treasure island he took a map of this point, cut it off from the mainland in his imagination and filled it with pirates instead of whalers. You do need to get there early in the day as the small parking lots in the park can fill up.

6. Best Breakfast Experience – Latitudes at Lover’s Point

The breakfast was pretty good the last time I ate here but the real show is the number of weddings that take place on a Sunday morning at Lover’s Point. One day I counted 4 different couples who were married (independently from one another) on that spot over the course of my meal. All four couples then came into the restaurant for a reception.

7. Best Activity (I have yet to try) – Sea Kayaking

I have been sea kayaking in Curaçao but not in my own backyard at Monterey. But on a day when the water is calm it looks wonderful to frolic among the sea birds, sea lions and even the occasional otter.