Thursday,
November 10, 2016
Spending
a few weeks in Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Valley has been very agreeable and
relaxing. We enjoyed showing my sister Rose around and we also enjoyed some
nice visits with Terry’s cousins and families. We liked visiting Ethel M’s
Garden and Chocolatiers, Red Rocks Park and the west Las Vegas area. We also
had some good visits with Aunt Pat around North Las Vegas.
The
weather has been beautiful, with warm days and cool nights. We spent our first
week at Samstown RV Park, which was a good location for the Strip and Downtown.
It’s always fun to cruise the Strip and Downtown and discover what attractions
and amusements are taking place.
Our
next two weeks were at the Clark County Shooting Complex RV campground, where
we lived and worked the winter of 2014. This is situated on the north end of
the valley, on Sheep Mountain, overlooking Las Vegas. It’s a scenic location
with easy access to the North Las Vegas area. While here, we enjoyed some nice
visits, and dining with Aunt Pat and her family. Veronica hosted an outstanding
Birthday party for Aunt Pat and we all celebrated Aunt Pat’s birthday with
scrumptious food and pleasant fellowship.
11-12-16
Saturday
We
traveled from Las Vegas to La Quinta today. My favorite part was the Mojave
Desert, on California 247, from Barstow to Yucca Valley. Up and down the
mountains, across the Lucerne, Johnson, Yucca and Morongo Valleys, discovering
some incredible natural wonders. Astounding, are the boulder fields just
northwest of Yucca Valley. and skirting the north side of the San Bernardino
Mountains. San Bernardino, the largest county in the United States, is larger
than each of the nine smallest US states, and larger than the four smallest
states combined, and provides a lot of fine sight-seeing!
Some
California Historical Characters and memorials we plan to investigate;
Cabrillo
(1542) Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo became the first European to explore California,
landed at San Diego, discovered Catalina Islands, sites of San Pedro and Santa
Monica and Santa Barbara Channel Islands
Drake
(1579) Sir Francis Drake landed north of San Francisco Bay, claimed the
territory for England
(1669)
Gaspar de Portolb, governor of the Californias, led an expedition up the
Pacific coast, established California's first mission on San Diego Bay
Vizcaino
1593 Sebastián Vizcaíno cruised the California Coast and attempted to establish
a Spanish Colony at Santa Cruz.
Junipero
Serra in 1768 he founded nine of the 21 Missions of Alta California
Jose
de Galvez attributed as Spain’s motivator for expansion into Alta California
and also Spain’s reason for abandoning it.
1826
Jedediah Strong Smith and other trappers made the first US overland trip to
California.
California
has a very interesting history and we enjoy reading, exploring, and visiting
the respective monuments and markers.
A More
detailed California history timeline:
1542
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer employed by Spain, explored San
Diego Bay.
1579
Francis Drake, an English sea captain, sailed along the coast and claimed
California for England.
1602
Sebastián Vizcaíno named many landmarks along the coast, and urged that Spain
colonize California.
1697
The Spaniards began establishing missions and other settlements in Baja (Lower)
California.
1769
Captain Gaspar de Portolá, Governor of Baja California, led an expedition that
established the first presidio (military fort) at San Diego. Father Junípero
Serra established San Diego de Alcalá, the first mission in California.
1770
Gaspar established a presidio at Monterey.
1776
A group of Spanish settlers from New Spain (Mexico) reached the site of what is
now San Francisco.
1796
The Otter, the first American sailing vessel to reach the coast from the East,
appeared in California waters.
1812
Russian fur traders established Fort Ross on the northern California coast.
1821
New Spain won its independence from Spain.
1822
California became part of New Spain.
1826
Jedediah Strong Smith, a trapper, became the first American explorer to reach
California by land.
1841
The Bidwell-Bartleson party became the first organized group of American
settlers to travel to California by land.
1846
American rebels raised the "Bear" flag of the California Republic
over Sonoma. U.S. forces conquered California during the Mexican War.
1848
James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's mill. Mexico gave California to
the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
1849
The Gold Rush began.
1850,
September 9 California became the 31st state.
1869
The Central Pacific, the first railroad across the Sierra Nevada, was
completed.
1906
An earthquake and fire destroyed much of San Francisco.
1907
The first commercial film made in California, The Count of Monte Cristo, was
completed near Los Angeles.
1915
International expositions at San Diego and San Francisco marked the opening of
the Panama Canal.
1945
The United Nations charter was adopted at the San Francisco Conference.
1960
The legislature provided funds for a project to distribute excess water from
the northern mountains to coastal cities and southern California.
1963
California became the state with the largest population in the United States.
1964
The nation's first major college demonstration occurred at the University of
California, Berkeley.
1965
Rioting broke out in the Watts section of Los Angeles.
1971
An earthquake shook Los Angeles area, killing 64 people and causing more than
$500 million worth of damage.
We
plan to drive over to San Diego for a visit, and these are some of the sights
and attractions that we have planned. Some are revisits and some are new to us.
Any
suggestions?
San
Diego points of interest:
Old
Town
Balboa
Park
USS
Midway
Seaport
Village
Cabrillo
National Monument
Mission
San Diego de Alcala
Presidio
Park
Point
Loma Lighthouse
Hotel
Del Coronado
Star
of India
Embarcadero
Dana
Point
Sunday
12-4-16
San
Diego trip:
We
decided to take a five-day trip to San Diego and visit the sights, do some
dining, and shopping. Traveling from La Quinta to San Diego, we missed the
Moreno Valley Freeway (my mistake), so we continued on the I-10 San Bernardino
Freeway to the 215 and south to the I-15, experiencing heavy traffic,
especially for a Sunday morning. (I’m no longer allowed to question the GPS or
Terry’s navigation directions!)
We
consistently stayed right with our long rig and just watched the races in the
left lanes!
Making
our way on down to Lakeside, we took our RV site at the Rancho Los Coches
Resort RV Park, a very nice resort, tucked into a small canyon, with beautiful
facilities, landscaping, and surroundings, and providing easy access to
downtown San Diego via I-8. The canyon was first occupied by Conejos, Native
Americans who left behind metates and manos, still seen in the rocks along the
creek. Rancho Los Coches Resort RV Park is situated on the old Mission San
Diego land grant and a subsequent Mexican land grant, the smallest Mexican land
grant made by Governor Manuel Micheltorena . Artifacts and structures from this
small Apolinaria Lorenzana land grant still remain. Later on, Jesse Wilber
Ames, a seaman from New England came around the Horn and established a grist
mill here, a site that later became a stage station on the Butterfield Stage
Route.
Lakeside
is now a “cowboy town” with a large rodeo arena at the foot of El Cajon
Mountain. We highly recommend the RV Park and Lakeside for a quiet, scenic haven,
when visiting San Diego.
The
San Diego Trolley Tour was terrific, with an outstanding guide and loads of
sights. Some revisited places and some new places, all with very interesting
and entertaining opportunities AND fantastic weather. It was a good "overview"
tour and it was so accommodating and relaxing. Parking is free in "Old
Town" and an excellent location to pass some time before and after the
Trolley Tour. Now, we have some ride-up(light rail), drive-up, and walk-up
sights to visit in the next few days. Lov'in San Diego, the people, places, and
things!
Friar
Junípero Serra, the Spanish priest and friar of the Franciscan Order, who
founded a (1769) mission in Baja California and the first nine of 21 Spanish
missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco, had an outstanding
success in California. I had a posthumous visit with Father Serra and his most
important advice was; "don't believe any government promises"! The
joke, of course, was, after all the land-grant Missions developed California, it
all got taken away (the secularization ("disestablishment")) by the
Mexican government.
We
saw the home of the San Diego Padres and the San Diego Chargers. The Padres,
Petco Park was our favorite, a beautiful ball park. The Chargers, Qualcomm
Stadium is a huge concrete bowl on the outside, but it’s a well-designed interior
and has its own light rail station. The current argument concerns a possible
Chargers move to L A.
It’s
somehow strange to me, when an NFL team moves to another city.
We
had a (lunch) (Filippi's Pizza Grotto) pizza
from a stone, wood-fired oven. Half Margarita, half "works", OH so
good! Jim Simmons, they had a huge sausage offering, a whole case of all sorts
of Italian sausages. Check it out at San Diego's "Little Italy"!
Off
the beaten path, on a beaten path! From Point Loma, along the well-worn trails,
we get a view of the Pacific Ocean on the west, a view of Point Loma Submarine
Base/Naval Air Station and San Diego on the east, and north the Rosecrans
National Cemetery and the San Diego River, with south the Cabrillo National
Monument and Point Loma Lighthouse, with nothing but the sound of wind, waves
and barking Sea Lions and Seals. Point Loma is where Cabrillo landed, and
California began.
It’s
all laid out before us, on a beautiful day, in a silent-state, from this
awesome overlook! Gottta love San Diego!
Wed.
Spent
today using the San Diego light-rail. It goes most everywhere and it's fast and
cheap. No parking fees, no traffic jams. The rail lines traverse the inland
canyons and hills, connecting to downtown San Diego. We enjoyed seeing the
neighborhoods and communities along the routes. It was cool but sunny today.
Casa Guadalajara in Old Town is really good Mexican.
At
Seaport Village my favorites were the USS Midway and the Star of India. Also,
two really cool Chinese ships were in port.
We
have done more than most in the last several days but San Diego has a lot more
to do and see, next time!
We
decided to make a circuitous route on our San Diego trip, so we returned via I-8
east, over to El Centro, in the Imperial Valley. This portion of I-8 has very
interesting scenery, geography, and geology. Traversing the Cuyamaca Mountains,
the routes ups and downs, cross four, 4000-foot-plus summits and some
spectacular, towering bridges, three Indian Reservations and then plunges 4,000
feet, over 11 miles, into the Imperial Valley.
After
lunch at El Centro, we headed up to La Quinta on CA 86, past Speckels Sugar,
Salton Sea, and the Mecca Medjool Date farms.
At
Spreckels Sugar, in Brawley, we see a mountain of raw sugar piled high,
outside, next to the plant, reminding us of the Spreckles cultural
contributions in San Diego. . This Imperial Valley plant is one of the
worldwide sugar operations of the Spreckles company.
John
Diedrich Spreckels (August 16, 1853 – June 7, 1926), the son of German-American
industrialist Claus Spreckels, founded a transportation and real estate empire
in San Diego, California, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The
entrepreneur's many business ventures included the Hotel del Coronado and the
San Diego and Arizona Railway, both of which are credited with helping San
Diego develop into a major commercial center.
Spreckels
contributed to the cultural life of the city by building the Spreckels Theatre,
the first modern commercial playhouse west of the Mississippi. He gave
generously to the fund to build the 1915 Panama-California Exposition and,
together with his brother Adolph B. Spreckels, donated the Spreckels Organ
Pavilion in Balboa Park to the people of San Diego just before the opening of
the Exposition. Spreckels paid the salaries of a resident organ tuner and of
the organist for many years, providing free daily organ concerts.
Spreckels
died in San Diego on June 7, 1926. His biographer, Austin Adams, called him
"one of America's few great Empire Builders who invested millions to turn
a struggling, bankrupt village into the beautiful and cosmopolitan city San
Diego is today."
The
Salton Sea, a 15X39-mile, below- sea-level Lake, is a beautiful blue gem in the
desert valley, but rapidly becoming a polluted salt lake, due to evaporation
and agricultural run-off. In the 1960’s the lake was a playground for boaters
and swimmers from L A and surrounding areas but it slowly lost its appeal.
Currently the lake is more salty than the Pacific Ocean but less salty than the
Great Salt Lake. Its shores remain a winter destination for people seeking the
warm, sunny winter weather, they just don’t swim anymore.
On
the north end of the lake, huge acreages of dates are seen, growing in the sun,
watered by drip-irrigation water, from the Colorado River, via a 132-mile
canal. My favorite is the tender, sweet Medjool, a large. dark fruit, with
chewy consistency.
Entering
the Coachella Valley and Lake Cahuilla in late afternoon, as the sun is
setting, and the Little San Bernardino Mountains are purple with shadows, we
return to our site at the lake, glad we made our San Diego trip.
