Angels Near the City

Kitty and Tony Schmitz, who were once our nearby neighbors in Costa Rica are now living in Manhattan Beach, Cal. We stayed a couple of days with them on the next-to-last leg of our journey. Kitty's mom, "Babs", bought this house ages ago and now the area is super exclusive.

Tony is your magnificent Cajun cook, and can whip up a Gumbo like you've never enjoyed!
They invited a bunch of old friends over including Lua and Andy DelCampo, whom we've known since they were little, from Costa Rica, a friend of Tony's from work (as an agricultural inspector for Immigration at the airport) and Nick and Emily Brown (we know Nick's parents also from Costa Rica days).
Later, Barbara Marino showed up after a long drive to join us for dinner. She's sitting next to Lua and me. It was great seeing all these people who we've been out of touch with for so many years.Kitty and Babs offered to take us into LA to see if we could trace Julie's old digs there. We didn't expect to find much after a forty year absence, but we were surprised! Here we're enjoying coffee and doughnuts on the way.We saw some famous landmarks: Julie was delighted to find the theater where she used to sell tickets as a teenager!And even her old Highschool was intact:She's a big girl now. Can't you just imagine her carrying her books to school?An even greater surprise for her was to discover that her old house in LA was still intact! The pretty front lawns have been paved over for parking and the trees gone, but it's the same house.
After Julie had her time of nostalgia, locating her girlfriend's place across the street, etc. we went out to a Mexican Food place for lunch. Right across the street was this pink building with a very cool T-Bird parked in front.On the way back home we wanted to stop by to see the LA Baha'i Center.Inside the Center we toured the theater area and offices and meeting halls and finally the library. We also met a Costa Rican fellow who is Gonzalo Moreno's brother. He's been there working as a maintenance person and handyman/guard for a number of years.

Last Northern Cal. Visit and Heading South

We were able to squeeze in a short visit with my dear friends, Anne and John Lewis, who live very near my sister Flinn's place. Anne is Susie Hunolt's sister and we've known each other since the 60's.

We got a kick out of the talking tree in their front yard!
Another favorite spot on the California Coast is Big Sur. We decided to continue driving down the Coast highway as far as Carmel in order to see where I lived when my father and mother were still married. I must have been about 5, but clearly remember the wonders of this area. Just above Big Sur we happened to see some sculpture that I recognized as being the work of Tom Hunolt's brother, Jim, so we stopped in at the studio. It turned out that this place just exhibits his stuff. He lives nearby, but wasn't at home, unfortunately.We were attracted by some wooden items there (not Jim's work...I'm not sure which things were his, except for a sculpture in marble outdoors). Check out this burl carving!And Julie loved this music box which had a very nice tone when struck with the stick.I had to snap a shot of a seal which someone had taken a picture of and framed:And here's a view of the Sur Coast. Every time I smell the kind of sage that grows here it brings back those early memories. We picked some sprigs of it and have dried it for the trip home.If you zoom in you can spot the seal lions on the rocks below......or, check them out by the hundreds on the beach which we came to later on! These guys have been protected for so many years that now they are abundant all up and down this part of the Coast.We stopped in Carmel-By-The-Sea to eat our packed snacks, and found this very nice sculpture on a bench nearby.

At Flinn and John's

At last we pulled into Novato, Cal. to visit my sister, Flinn, and husband, John. Flinn's great at organizing get-togethers, but we messed up a few with all our travel date changes. In spite of that she succeeded in rounding up a bunch of the Moores for dinner. Present was her daddy, Dick; brother, Tony with his daughter, Kirsten; brother Aaron and wife, Denise. Flinn and John's son, Dan, and his two children, Demetrius and Genevieve, were there in the afternoon hanging out.
Here's Kirsten with John.Dick Moore, is my step-daddy as well. Here with John checking out the ingredients of something that looks like salad lotion. OK then, dressing.Julie was going over some educational material with "Genebee" & "Demitri"
Here's Dan, her daddy.
He's a Yoga instructor who really gets a workout from his daughter!
We went out to the wetland marsh area for a walk with Flinn on a crisp morning....being very careful to avoid the Poison Oak!! (It was everywhere along the trail.)
Julie got another dose of fabulous flowers on this trip....and got to squeeze some Redwood bark. Such a delightful tree!Then, we had an afternoon to hang out with Daddy Dick at a retirement home, which is in much demand, called The Redwoods. (Hey, kids, you can send me there anytime--what a cool place!)

Actually, there's a huge waiting list to get in...

Duncan's Mills

After Stillwater, we drove along the Russian River to another of my childhood homes, Duncan's Mills. In the late 40's the population was 20. Interestingly, the old DeCarly's General Store is still the same as it was in those days! The only significant difference is that there used to be one of those old gravity-feed gas pumps out front. I remember how the gallons were indicated on the clear glass bottle at the top and you had to hand-pump it up with a long lever and then feed the hose to your car.

The little kids in town used to hang out in front of the store for the arrival of the Potato Chip truck (always hoping that the driver would find a broken bag which he would share with us all--amazingly, there was almost always a broken bag found inside the truck!).Even the inside of the store is pretty much the same, except they had large barrels of fruits, grains and a peanut butter bin. Check the old floor boards!
The original road wound around past an apple orchard where we lived. I used to catch grasshoppers and crawfish babies to sell to the passing fishermen for bait. Now the road is blocked off with a fence.
This is likely the house we used to live in!And this is definitely the one-room school I went to in the first grade. I even remember my teacher, Mrs. Wolfe, who I thought was very old since she had white hair, but she was very sweet and used to invite me on the weekend to her home in Jenner.

Stillwater Cove

After sadly leaving the Hunolts, we continued down my favorite part of the Coast, from Pt. Arena to Jenner-by-the Sea.

When I was about 11-12 years old I attended a ranch school called Stillwater Cove, which is very near the historic Russian Ft. Ross. The classes were held in small groups by grade, with 45 minutes on and 45 minutes off. During the off hours we had chores like stocking up on firewood for the large fireplaces, milking cows and tending to the horses, keeping the dorms clean, etc. On the weekends we were free to explore the large property or hike up the creek to fish for trout. It was truly a great place for a kid to grow up.

Now this property is operating as an Inn, apparently. We weren't able to find anyone to speak with, so we just wandered around the front and took photos. Here's what used to serve as the main bunkhouse and dining hall/kitchen building:On closer inspection I noticed that the peacocks we used to know are still around. They must have evolved into a huge family after all these years. They are wild and are all over the place. I'll never forget the loud calls they make during the day, plus the beautiful displays the males fan out for the females. We used to pick up dozens of feathers during molting season and decorated the rooms with them.Check it out on the video: