Carl Henning

Meandering up the Pacific coast, we spent a few days in Monterey. We were here in 2017 and you will want to go back to the post Coastal Critters for the jellyfish and anchovies videos from Monterey Bay Aquarium.

We passed the Hearst Castle a couple times (going to and from the elephant seals) before I concluded I would take the Grand Room Tour. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of William Randolph Hearst was “yellow journalism” which Wikipedia defines as “newspapers that present little or no legitimate well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales.” They never mentioned this during the tour probably because this type of journalism has gone extinct.

After Santa Barbara we picked up our GyPSy Guide for Big Sur at San Luis Obispo. He suggested leaving the Pacific Coast Highway to visit Moro Bay. We did and were rewarded with views of seals and a partial view of Moro Rock. Back on PCH we passed San Simeon and Hearst Castle to see the elephant seals.

The Spanish settled Alta California by building missions and accompanying presidios. Alta California included what is now California plus Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. Alta (Northern) California contrasts with Baja (Lower) California. Presidios were military fortresses. We’ve visited a fair number of missions across the west. Today was Old Mission Santa Barbara near the California coast.

I’m a huge baseball fan. I have a goal of visiting all the Major League Baseball stadiums. Today was number 13 (because I can’t count two of them that are no longer used (Cleveland Municipal and the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome). So 17 to go, but I’ll get one more this week.

No, not that Madrid (the one in Spain). This one is in New Mexico and it’s pronounced MAD-rid. Boomed on coal mining; busted when railroads switched to diesel. Became a ghost town. Then the hippies moved in. Then the artists. Now even some families. Current population: 225; down from multiple thousands. We tried to stop here a couple days ago, but the town was over capacity with the Fourth of July parade. Today we made it a destination.

The full sweep of New Mexico history is timelined in the New Mexico History Museum. From Ancestral Pueblans to pueblans to Spanish to Mexicans to Americans to the Atomic bomb – it’s all here. There was a nice section on the music of New Mexico (including Route 66 and some Western songs). I thought this would be represented in the gift shop, but, sadly, no.

We spent some time walking around Santa Fe and visiting the Georgia O’Keefe Museum. So it turns out I’m not a big fan of O’Keefe… or abstract… or abstract-ish paintings. There are over 240 art galleries in Santa Fe. Which is 240 more than I entered.

The Tinkertown Museum in Sandia Park is one of the ten best small museums… they say. It was funky museum number two today on the Turquoise Trail. This privately held museum features the work of the late Ross Ward: hand carved and painted minatures in various dioramas.