For some number of years, I’ve been going to Fanime in San Jose, and done some other things on the side. This year I went up to see Jack London State Historic Park and went to Fanime on the side. On my trip to Alaska last year I’d seen the half of the Jack London cabin that is in Dawson City, Yukon Territory. There I learned about the London Historic Park, and I was thinking of visiting it on the way home, but decided to head straight home on that trip.
Photos from the overall trip: http://ikemi.info/graphics/SanJose2009/index.html
In the past I’ve left on Thursday night , but this time I decided to leave on Friday night and stay out a little longer. Getting out of L.A turned out not to be that bad, except for a bottlenect where the I-5 and 405 join and the 14 splits off from the 5. Going over the Tejon Pass wasn’t too bad; the winds weren’t too bad, as I’ve experienced in some past years. However, on the flats after the Pass the winds were pretty severe. That night I stopped in Lost Hills instead of Buttonwillow as usual, but still in a Motel 6. Most hotels are discounted this year, but Motel 6 is actually more expensive. I guess they know that they have the upper hand in these trying economic times.
Saturday wasn’t too bad, but the winds were up again. When I passed the San Luis Reservoir, I could see white caps. I made fair time into San Jose, stopping at the McDonalds in Morgan Hill for a coffee. The San Jose Convention Center still has free motorcycle parking, which makes this convention (http://www.fanime.com/) tolerable. I’ll probably stop going if they get rid of that. Not too much of interest at the convention, with few panels that were of interest to me. The high points were probably seeing the anime version of the Diary of Anne Frank (actually shown Memorial Day morning at 8AM) and the live action Longest Night in Shanghai which starred the same actor who is in Departures. I wandered around San Jose and found the repertory theater where I bought a Sunday ticket for the musical Spelling Bee (http://www.sjrep.com/). The tickets there were even more expensive than the one in Redondo Beach. I went to the Tied House for lunch, and was disappointed when I found that it was out of business. I had to settle for Gordon Biersch. Fortunately I found that their beer had improved since the days when it always gave me a headache.
The event formerly known as the Masquerade was occasionally entertaining and afterwards I headed for my motel, the Fairfield. I found that this Fairfield’s historical significance was that it had been the first Howard Johnson, according to a monument in the courtyard. At recession and AAA rates, the room wasn’t too much more expensive than the Motel 6 of the night before.
Sunday I went to see Spelling Bee and then had a coffee and dessert at a sidewalk cafe. San Jose has greatly improved since the days I used to go there on business trips in the early 1990s. The pedestrian walkways between 1st and 2nd street are quite pleasant and weather was about right for wandering around. I hadn’t really sat in a sidewalk cafe since I’d been in Paris.
On Memorial Day after watching the anime version of the Diary on Anne Frank and a Lupan movie I decided to walk over to San Jose’s Veterans Memorial Park (http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2M51) where there is a wall with photos of soldiers and the text from letters home and other relevant narratives.
From the Convention Center I went up to Jack London Square (http://www.jacklondonsquare.com/) in Oakland in search of the other half of the Jack London cabin. I’d already seen the other half at the Jack London Center in Dawson Creek, Yukon Territory. Parking was easy to find and surprisingly free for some reason. After asking for directions the cabin was easy to find, somewhat incongruously situated under palm trees. I was a little disappointed that there was no interpretive center, just the bar that dates back to the days Jack London hung around there. The square was kind of empty but the Barnes and Noble was open and I enjoyed an iced coffee on their second story terrace. I put in a lot of cafe time on this trip, the most since my last motorcycle tour of the Alps.
Jack London Square photos: http://ikemi.info/graphics/JackLondon/index.html
Visiting Jack London Square was the first real test of my new Nuvi GPS. I didn’t believe in its directions at first, but I found that it was smarter than I was when it came to finding the correct on ramp for heading north. The obvious one that I first tried would have take me to San Francisco across the Bay instead. My feeling is that the Nuvi is kind of like Lyra’s Golden Compass; it requires a little bit of interpretation and faith sometimes.
I got a little chilled on the way to Petaluma which was my planned stop for dinner at Dempsey’s (http://www.dempseys.com/). a brewpub, of course. This time I relied completely on the Nuvi and didn’t try to second guess it, and almost got there without any trouble. The shopping center it was in was bigger than expected and the location in the back wasn’t obvious during the first or second orbit of the parking lot; I finally got off and found a mall directory. The mall wasn’t very promising, but Dempsey’s faces the canal(?) and has a very scenic veranda. The sampler of beers was excellent and the mahi mahi on top of corn cakes was fine. It’s seasoning might be too mild for most people, but these days I kind of like that. The stop that night was in Rohnert Park, just south of Santa Rosa.
The next day Santa Rosa had more attractions than I had counted on. My original goal was just to go up to Jack London Historic Park to see Wolf Lodge, but I found that I could also visit the Luther Burbank Gardens, The Pacific Coast Air Museum, and the Charles Schulz Museum all in or near the city. This is where the Nuvi really paid off, since it allowed me to get to all four destinations with a minimum of wasted time and effort.
Since I’m into gardening these days, I really enjoyed my trip to the Burbank Gardens. It opened earliest so It was my first stop, and it turned out to have a tie-in with Jack London. It’s a very nice and quick stop, although I got there too early for the gift shop, but I got to talk to some volunteers. I was surprised that Burbank was responsible for for so many of the flowers and vegetables we take for granted these days. Worth a stop if you’re in Santa Rosa. They tried to recruit me as a volunteer, but the commute would have been a little long.
Burbank Gardens photos: http://ikemi.info/graphics/SantaRosa2009/index.html
I had some time before the Schulz Museum opened at 11AM, so I went out to the Schulz Airport to visit the Pacific Coast Air Museum (http://www.pacificcoastairmuseum.org/), which mainly features planes from the jet era. It was pretty typical of small air museums located on a former World War II training field. It had a small indoor exhibit with the planes outdoors on a grass field. Most of the planes had descriptive plaques. The most interesting planes for me were a Russian prop transport and a late model F-86 with the 20mm cannons.
The Schulz Musuem (he didn’t like the name Peanuts, http://www.schulzmuseum.org/) is small but informative and worth the stop if you are a fan, and who isn’t. There is a reproduction of the studio and numerous displays of the artwork and a theater that plays videos. If you didn’t already know, you can learn that there was really a little red-headed girl. Across the street was the skating rink Schulz built-he was an ice hockey fanatic. It’s adorned with various Peanuts related sculptures. I had lunch at the Warm Puppy Cafe, ordering a tuna sandwich which was Schulz’s standard because of his health problems. However, I opted for the iced coffee instead of the tea that Schulz ordered. His table is still marked reserved by the window.
Finally it was time to go up to the Jack London State Historic Park (http://www.jacklondonpark.com/). Good thing I went when I did since I don’t knowif it’ll survive the upcoming California budget crunch. The Nuvi saved me again and I blindly followed it into the parking lot. I started wtih the lower parking lot which is near the park museum which is in the house London’s widow built. Lodon’s mansion burned down before they moved in, so I take it that most of their possessions were safe and preserved. The museum does have informative displays on London’s life and career. I took the walk to the ruins of the mansion about a half mile away. This would normally have been an easy walk, but with my bad knee it was a trial. The ruins of the mansion were impressive since it had incorporated a lot of stone work and would have been something to see if it had survived.
I moved to the upper parking lot because of the bad knee. The upper lot serves as the jumping off point for the ranch house where London did some of his writing and the pond they used for swimming. There is also access to the farm’s silos and “pig palace. Informative displays inform one that London was trying to introduce farming methods he had learned in China and Japan to the notoriously poor farm and ranch lands. He attempted to use terracing to prevent soil erosion and nutrient run-off along with all natural fertilizers. It must have worked since the area is full of vineyards now. The 1 mile walk to the pond was challenging for me although I had my walking stick. The pond is covered with green now and is in need of restoration, but the changing cabin is still standing. On the way back I stopped at the pig palace which was intended to allow low labor pig breeding. It’s pretty impressive.
I also walked back through the ruins of the bunk house which was used for guests since the ranch house was pretty small. It burned down in 1965.
From Glen Ellen I zoomed down to my old stomping grounds of Monterey. With the recession I could find and afford a motel room in the Carmel hotel row, but first I stopped near Cannery Row at a brewpub (http://www.monterey.com/mc5/mc5apb.html). This one was mediocre but not bad. The sand dabs would have been okay without the too heavy sauce. If you lived in the area this brewpub would be okay to stop at, but is not a destination.
The last day of my excursion I headed down Highway 1, but it was pretty well socked in with fog for most of the way, so I missed a lot of the scenery. I stopped at the Big Sur park headquarters and found that the trails I had hiked last year were still closed from the fire. Good thing I did it when I could since there is not any access and I am no longer physically able to hike those trails.
I had one stop at Lucia for coffee and apple cake. All the times I had ridden or driven this road I’d never stopped there. They have a verandah down a flight of steps which would have given an nice view of the sea if there hadn’t been any fog. Still, another nice cafe stop on this trip.
At 46 I headed inland to start the wine tasting segment of the trip. Between the Paso Robles area and the Edna Valley, I visited five tasting rooms and they were all good, a big change from the early days when I first started wine tasting in the area. The first winery I stopped at was the farthest west and highest that I know of, and a new one for me. I talked to the proprietor who turned out to be a Vietnam vet and had lived in the South Bay where I’d also spent a lot of time. When wine tasting I’m very careful to make sure I’m really tasting and the excess of the samples goes into the bucket. Strangely, there was a shortage of Zinfandel available for tasting.
The last stop before going home was to visit friends in Santa Paula. I dropped off one bottle of wind there which reduced my load to 8 bottles of wine in my Mags Bag.
In general it was a pretty good ride with good weather for most of the time. I benefitted from the plentiful and bargain priced lodging. I saw a good performance of a musical, visited two brewpubs and five wine tasting rooms, saw all of my sights and more, and did a lot of cafe racing. The bike ran well, but the Multitech helmet was a little noisy.
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