7/20/10 - Mozart in the Mission

The mission sits on San Luis Creek in SLO.


















The mission.

































The interior of the mission. The orchestra sat in the nave.

This evening we heard Mozart's Divertimento in D major and his Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major. Time Fain was the violin soloist and he was incredible. The orchestra concluded with Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 4 in G major. What a wonderful way to conclude this great adventure.





The stenciling and faux painting in the Mission was astounding.

Ok, I have to conclude with one final history lesson.

Facts in brief:
The fifth California mission founded by Father Junipero Serra, Sept. 1, 1772.
Named after Saint Louis, Bishop of Toulouse, France.
Present building built 1793-1794.
Front portico added: 1794, torn down in 1877, restored in 1933.
Wooden siding added in the late 1870’s; removed between 1920 to 1934.


In 1769, Fr Serra, a member of the Order of Franciscan Minors (O.F.M.), received orders from Spain to bring the Catholic faith to the Natives of Alta California. Mission San Diego was the first mission founded in Alta California that same year.On September 7 - 8, 1769 Gaspar de Portola traveled through the San Luis Obispo area on his way to rediscover the Bay of Monterey. The expedition’s diarist, Padre Juan Crespi, O.F.M., recorded the name given to this area by the soldiers as llano de los Osos, or the level of the bears (Bear Plain) as this was an area with an abundance of bears.

Since then, various translations of the Crespi Diary have called this area La Canada de Los Osos (The Canyon of the Bears) which has been further mistranslated as the Valley of the Bears.
In 1770, Fr. Serra founded the second mission, San Carlos Borremeo, in Monterey which was moved to Carmel the following year. As supplies dwindled in 1772 at the then four missions, the people faced starvation. Remembering the Valley of the Bears, a hunting expedition was sent to bring back food in the summer of 1772. Over 25 mule loads of dried bear meat and seed was sent north to relieve the missionaries, soldiers, and neophytes (baptized Natives).

The Natives were impressed at the ease by which the Spaniards could take down the huge grizzles with their weapons. Some of the meat was traded with the local people in exchange for edible seed. It was after this that Fr. Serra decided that La Canada de Los Osos would be an ideal place for the fifth mission. The area had abundant supplies of food and water, the climate was also very mild, and the local Chumash were very friendly. With soldiers, muleteers, and pack animals carrying mission supplies, Fr. Serra set out on a journey to reach the Valley of the Bears.

On September 1, 1772, Fr. Serra celebrated the first Mass with a cross erected near San Luis Creek. The very next day, he departed for San Diego leaving Fr. Jose Cavaller, O.F.M., with the difficult task of building the mission. Fr. Cavaller, five solders and two neophytes began building what is today called Mission San Luis, Obispo de Tolosa.


Foundation Years: California as a Spanish Territory
After Fr. Serra left, the difficult task of actually building the mission remained. This was accomplished with the aid of the local Chumash Natives. Palisades were set up as temporary buildings, which were made simply from poles and tree boughs. However, due to fires in the first few years, adobe and tile structures were erected. The Church and Priest's residence, the convento wing, were built by 1794.

Many other structures made up the Mission in the early days: storerooms, residences for single women, soldiers barracks, and mills. The mission also had land for farming and raising livestock. The whole community of priests, Natives and soldiers needed to produce goods for their own livelihood.


Development and Troubles
When the Mexican War for Independence broke out in 1810, all California Missions were virtually self-sufficient. Receiving few funds from Spain, building proceeded for a few years due to the prosperity of the Mission. Between 1810-1820 Native cabins, mill wheels, and a granary were built, the quadrangle was finished, and the pillars on the priest's residence were changed from the original square adobe columns to the round shape.

After 1818, the Mission's prosperity began to decline and by the 1840's there was little left of the thriving community of earlier times. The buildings were crumbling and there were not sufficient funds to rebuild. In an "informe" (report to the Government written in 1830) Fr. Gil stated: "The hospital and portions of neophyte villages are in ruins and the rest of the village threatens to fall into ruins... the front of the Mission Church has to be taken down, because it threatened to tumble over". In his 1832 “informe” he was even more dismal: "Every day the Mission structures are decaying more and more for want of sufficient hands to renovate them... the belfry mentioned last year has been demolished by rains therefore we built another of masonry."

Soon after Mexico won her independence from Spain (1821), the Missions were secularized by the Mexican Government. This meant that the priests no longer managed the Missions. Often Mission lands were sold off. Governor Pio Pico sold the San Luis Obispo Mission to Capt. John Wilson for $510 in 1845. During this time, buildings were appropriated for any use deemed necessary by the civil authorities. The Mission convento wing housed a school as well as a jail and first county courthouse.


Recent Changes
After California became a part of the United States (1850), the first California bishop, Joseph Alemany, petitioned the Government to return some of the Mission lands back to the Church. Since that time, there have been considerable civic and political changes and the Mission has undergone dramatic structural changes. In the 1880’s the front portico/bell loft had to be removed as it was so weakened by an earthquake.

At this time an effort was made to "modernize" the structures. The colonnades along the front of the convento wing were razed and both the Church and the residence were covered with wooden clapboard. A New England style belfry was added as well. These changes did work to protect the structure from further decay, and in the 1930s during the pastorship of Fr John Harnett the buildings underwent extensive restoration to transform them back to early-mission style. In 1893, an annex had been added to the right of the sanctuary and was extended in 1948.


The Name behind the Mission “San Luis Obispo de Tolosa”
The patron saint of this mission is Saint Louis, Bishop of Toulouse, France. Louis, born in 1274, the second son of King Charles of Naples. After being defeated in a war with Spain, Louis and his brother were sent, as hostages, to Spain for the release of their father. The brothers spent seven years in Spain, being instructed by Franciscan friars. Having absorbed the training, Louis decided to join the Order. After his release, he renounced his claim to the crown of Naples, joined the Order of Friars Minor, and was consecrated Bishop of Toulouse. Due to poverty and disease in the city, he fell ill and passed away at the young age of 23. He has always been very dear to the Franciscan Friars.

7/20/10 - A Walk on the Beach

Well it is the last full day of this great adventure. This morning I went into SLO to pick up a few last minute things as to send a couple of packages home. For years Doug has wanted to have lunch at the SLO fish house so that's where we went.

We love this area so much that we wanted to explore a bit more in hopes of finding that perfect town with the perfect home as an affordable price (OK stop laughing). En route to Santa Maria we got off Hwy. 101 at Shell Beach Rd. which we found out is the northern Pismo Beach "suburbs" with ocean front gazillion dollar homes. I would be honored to live in the garage and even then would have trouble figuring out how to fill it up!

Here is a view from the bluffs walk looking north towards Avila Beach.











Here I have turned around 180 degrees and am looking towards the resort portion of Pismo Beach and the famous Oceano Dunes (off in the distance to the right. The dunes are 18 miles long. For you old movie buffs this is where they filmed the Ten Commandments. At the conclusion of filming the dismantled the sets and buried them in the sand so they could not be reused. Today they are located in a restricted conservation zones but every once in a while someone unearths a treasure or two. I found a treasure of my own...a complete sand dollar! Something that I had always hoped to find. OK, check that off the list.

This is a mustard plant. Legend has it that the friars tossed the seeds as they migrated along the El Camino Real trail so that they could find there way. They are beautiful and grow wild all along the roadways. For those of you who liked history I have included information about El Camino Real at the end of the post.






I am a sucker for the ocean and I loved standing listening to the surf.

Doug and I are going to the concert at the San Luis Obispo Mission tonight. If I get any decent photos I will post them, otherwise this is the end of the road my friends. It's been an incredible journey and I am delighted that you were along for the ride.



El Camino Real (Spanish for The Royal Road, also known as The King's Highway) and sometimes associated with Calle Real usually refers to the 600-mile (966-kilometer) California Mission Trail, connecting the former Alta California's 21 missions (along with a number of support sites), 4 presidios, and several pueblos, stretching from Mission San Diego de Alcalá in San Diego in the south to Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma in the north.

In fact, any road under the direct jurisdiction of the Spanish crown and its viceroys was a "camino real." Examples of such roads ran between principal settlements throughout Spain and its colonies such as New Spain. Most caminos reales had names apart from the appended "camino real". Once Mexico won its independence from Spain, no road in Mexico, including California, was a camino real. The name was rarely used after that and was only revived in the American period in connection with the boosterism associated with the Mission Revival movement of the early 20th century.

The route originated in Baja California Sur, Mexico, at the site of Misión San Bruno in San Bruno (the first mission established in Las Californias), though it was only maintained as far south as Loreto.

Between 1683 and 1834, Spanish missionaries established a series of religious outposts throughout the present-day U.S. State of California and the present-day Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. To facilitate overland travel, mission settlements were approximately 30 miles (48 kilometers) apart, so that they were separated by one long day's ride on horseback along the 600-mile (966-kilometer) long El Camino Real (Spanish for "The Royal Highway," though often referred to in the later embellished English translation, "The King's Highway"), and also known as the California Mission Trail. Heavy freight movement was practical only via water. Tradition has it that the padres sprinkled mustard seeds along the trail in order to mark it with bright yellow flowers.

In 1912, the State of California began paving a section of the historic route in San Mateo County. Construction of a two-lane concrete highway began in front of the historic Uncle Tom's Cabin, an inn in San Bruno that was built in 1849 and demolished exactly 100 years later. There was little traffic initially and children used the pavement for roller skating until traffic increased. By the late 1920s, the State of California began the first of numerous widening projects of what later became part of U.S. Route 101. Today the route through San Mateo and Santa Clara counties is designated as State Route 82.[1]

An unpaved portion of the original Spanish road has been preserved just east of Mission San Juan Bautista in San Juan Bautista, California.

7/19/10 - Family First

With travel comes the need to be flexible. Late last week Doug's brother-in-law, Rusty, was readmitted to the hospital in Burbank. Tina returned home on Saturday. Today we drove down to LA to visit Rusty and check out their home in Altadena. Their daughter, Laura, made a great pasta dinner using the vegetables from their garden. We also had the opportunity to meet Rusty's daughter, Amy, and her husband, Steve.

I also got to do something that was not on my bucket list...to drive in LA. Been there...done that!

I really felt like I was in LA because we drove on Bob Hope Dr. and got to see the huge NBC complex that was across the street from the hospital and next to Johnny Carson Park. It had it's own entrance for the Tonight Show studio. When life hands you lemons make lemonade!

7/18/10 - Avila Beach

Downtown Avila Beach faces the Pacific Ocean and is lined with many shops and eateries.

The name Avila commemorates Miguel Ávila, who was granted Rancho San Miguelito in 1842.[1] The town was established in the latter half of the 19th century, when it served as the main shipping port for San Luis Obispo. Although Avila Beach still has a working commercial fishing pier and the inland areas have extensive apple orchards, tourism is now the main industry. There are few historical structures remaining; among the oldest is the Point San Luis Lighthouse, built in 1890 after a series of shipping accidents.


The Old Port House is at the end of the public fishing pier and has a nice restaurant facing the ocean.

Avila Beach has three piers: Avila Beach Pier, 1,685 feet long, intended for tourist strolling and recreational fishing, Harford Pier, for commercial fishing boats to offload their wares, and the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly SLO) Pier, part of the university's marine research program and not publicly accessible.
Diablo Canyon Power Plant, one of the two nuclear power plants in California is located in a remote part of the Avila Beach unincorporated area, about 6 miles northwest of the beach itself.

In the 1990s, Unocal oil storage facilities leaked, causing a massive oil spill under the town. As described by Economist and Crisis Consultant Randall Bell in his book Strategy 360, "...the company pumped oil products through the pipeline, but only a portion made it to the tankers. Obviously, this meant that there was a leak in the pipeline, but nothing was done. This situation continued until hundreds of thousands of gallons had leaked under the town. What would have been a relatively small issue to initially correct became California's largest contamination case." [2] After years of negotiation, Unocal agreed to a thirty million dollar settlement, which has been used to rebuild the town. The contaminated soil was excavated and replaced with clean fill. Many of the town's homes and businesses were demolished in the cleanup process.


There are a multitude of sea lions and seals that entertain you with their barking and swimming antics. Beware...they bite.

A view of Avila Rock.

The beach itself is less than 0.5 miles (0.8 km) long and sheltered in San Luis Bay, which is formed by Point San Luis on the west and Fossil Point on the east. Avila Beach faces south and is protected from the prevailing northwesterly winds by Point San Luis. It is therefore usually warmer than the other beaches on the Central Coast. Most of Avila Beach is undeveloped, except for a few blocks adjacent to the beach with homes, hotels, and small businesses, and a few recently built upscale housing developments inland, near a golf course. Avila Beach is also known for its hot springs, which are used for resort spas.

After a beautiful day of music, sunshine and ocean breezes we returned to SLO and had dinner at Chow, a fantastic asian inspired restaurant. We dined on calamari, duck, asparagus, rice and washed it down with what else but a refreshing bottle of California chardonnay.

7/18/10 - See Canyon Fruit Ranch

Today we are at See Canyon Fruit Ranch in Avila Beach for the Fringe Series. The fringe series is an annual concert performed by classically trained musicians who have chosen alternative music formats for their careers. Today's group is Ensemble Galilei and include Hanneke Cassel (fiddle), Ryan McKasson (viola/fiddle), Kathryn Montoya (oboe/recorder/penny whistle). Sue Richards (harp) and Carolyn Anderson Surrick (Viola da Gamba). I spoke with Hanneke at intermission and she actually know my nephew, Elliott, who is quite the fiddler himself at age 11. It's a small world.

The See Canyon Fruit Ranch, whose lovely grounds today attract such a variety of visitors (apple lovers, Sunday drivers, wedding guests), has a long local history. The original owner, James Brown, fought for the Union during the Civil Ware against the Confederate army that included his own brother. Afterward, he moved to New Mexico where his wife gave birth to a daughter, Rose.

Some years later he and his family headed for California, picking up two Colorado farm hands on the way. One of these hands, George Mann, was eventually to marry Rose.First, however, James Brown purchased the See Canyon property on July 6, 1894 from W.C. Rutan and named it the See Canyon Fruit Ranch.

The ranch remained in the family for one hundred years before it was finally sold in 1994 by his great grand-daughter, Margaret. Over time, the family tried growing many different crops, finally concluding that the canyon was too cold for strawberries. Walnuts and peaches did better, but the land proved best suited for apples grown from old original trees and other heirloom varieties which he and his descendants planted. They also raised bees and harvested honey, and in fact the original "honey hut," now a small house, still stands on the property.

In time Rose and her husband George inherited the land from James Brown. They had two daughters but lost one of them, Gertrude, when she was still quite a young woman. The other, Mabel, married Roy Sherlock. In 1921, the ranch was passed on to this new young couple, who owned it until 1936. Like her grandfather before her, Mabel had but a single daughter, Margaret.

During those years, Roy worked his fields of peaches and strawberries with horses and a plow. His team, however, finally got too old for such heavy labor and he decided to replace them with a tractor. He found one for sale in San Luis Obispo and took his daughter Margaret with him to see it. There, Margaret met her future husband, tractor-owner Tom DeVaul, for the first time. Tom personally delivered the tractor to the ranch and their courtship began shortly thereafter. The tractor that launched the romance is now displayed prominently at the entrance to the old apple barn.

See Canyon Fruit Ranch visitors can presently purchase many of the original apple varieties planted by James Brown's descendants. For example, the Ranch sells Golden Delicious, Winter Banana and the Pearmain. Perhaps best of all, visitors can simply sit on a bench with a cup of fresh cider and take time to enjoy the years of handiwork that went into the building of this peaceful family homestead.

The concert venue as viewed from the entrance.

An alternative to the chairs and lawn seating was under some old growth trees.

7/17/10 - Chapel Hill, Shandon CA

Tonight's concert was the Best of the Baroque with the Festival Chamber Orchestra at Chapel Hill. We didn't think anything could top the Hearst Castle but we were terribly wrong. What a special place this is. The history of it will be at the end of the post.

This shot was taken from the parking lot and does not do justice to the structure. It was a very steep long walk so we opted for the shuttle which turned out to be a very good idea.

The program was Handel's Concerto Grosso in F major, Bach's Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Corelli'a Concerto Grosso in G minor "Chirstmas Concerto" and Vivaldi's Concerto for Four Violins in B minor. It was EXCELLENT!






A view of the vineyards and glowing hillsides.












I meant to include another photograph but erroneously selected this one. It is taking from the chapel looking down the path between the vineyards. I hope you enjoy it.
















A large portion of the audience who sat outside on the piazza. It was amazing.











The chapel's interior with the chamber orchestra seated in the nave.

Now for your history lesson.

On a spring day in 1988, William P. Clark--known by friends and associates as "The Judge"--taxied into position on the dirt landing strip of his thousand-acre ranch near Paso Robles, the heart of California's Central Coast wine country. At age fifty-six, he was substantially finished with government service and looking forward to life at the ranch, working cattle, planting olive trees, and developing a vineyard. Both orchard and vineyard would complement a Spanish mission-style chapel--at this point no more than a dream, yet to be designed. Judge Clark, whose request to be called Bill goes mostly unheeded, had left the Reagan administration three years earlier.

He had served Ronald Reagan for more than twenty years, beginning when Reagan ran for governor of California. During his two years as Reagan's national security advisor, Clark was--next to the President--probably the most powerful man in America, and thus among the most powerful men in the world. Though no longer a regular presence at Reagan's side, Clark continued to serve his country from the background and to advance causes he had been unable to address during his public life.

On this day, as he prepared his tandem-seat Super Cub for takeoff, his public career was mostly behind him. The night before, Clark had returned from a trip to Europe. He felt jet-lagged, not especially sharp, but his desk at the office in town was piled high with work.

Early into takeoff, the plane got caught in a crosswind. "I knew right away that I was in trouble", says Clark. "I lost control." At about sixty miles per hour, the plane veered into a supply building to the right of the runway, missing the above-ground fuel tanks outside the building. Clark slumped unconscious in a mangled mess of smoking metal. Ribs broken, shoulder separated, skull fractured, and soaked in blood and fuel, he was alive but hardly out of danger. The engine, simmering hot, was pushed back against his legs, while fuel from the fractured wing tank sprayed onto the unconscious pilot. For some reason, the plane failed to burst into flames. "It should have lit up", Clark says, pausing. "Statistically, it should have lit up--but it didn't."

A briefcase on the seat next to Clark contained a Dictaphone somehow activated in the course of the crash. The audiotape still survives; Clark and his sons have listened to it, but wife Joan refuses. On the recording, listeners can hear the unconscious Clark groaning and calling for help. Clark's only coherent plea, "God, please help me!" is followed by the sound of ripping metal.

Jésus Muñoz, longtime ranch hand and friend, had happened upon the crash and yanked the door from its hinges. Clark's feet were entangled in the two rudder panels, jammed beneath the engine. As Muñoz struggled to pull Clark free, fuel spilled over both men. Finally, pulling with all of his strength, Muñoz tugged Clark from the wreckage.

Clark remained unconscious for an hour-and-a-half before waking in the intensive care unit at a hospital forty-five minutes from the scene. While his sons watched, he cautiously moved his legs and feet, rotated his fingers and arms, and winced at the sharp pain in his shoulder and head. He offered thanks to God that he had survived, that he had been alone on the flight, and then he made a decision: He would no longer delay building the chapel.

That brush with death, said Clark, was "a little wake-up call in my life.... God's wake-up call." [1] "Look," he says, "I'm no Saint Paul, but the incident helped me decide to go ahead and build the chapel." Within a few years, the chapel, financed solely by Clark, was completed on top of a grassy hill at the entrance to his ranch. Incorporating a surplus ceiling and stone remnants from the William Randolph Hearst collection at nearby San Simeon and containing sacred art collected by Bill and Joan from fourteenth- to seventeenth-century European monasteries, the chapel hosts a number of religious services and cultural events throughout the year.

"Chapel Hill", as it is known locally, is open to those of all faiths and is the pride of the local community, to which Clark has donated it.

7/16/10 - Hearst Castle

In honor of the festival's 40th anniversary they held a concert at the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. We had strict instructions to arrive by 6:30 to catch the bus which would shuttle us up the mountain. Randolph Hearst was famous for his cattle. Today they still roam the ranch and are overseen by his great grandson.







A view of the castle on the drive up the mountain.












We arrived and were escorted to the famous Neptune Pool. We were treated to gourmet appetizers and tasty wines provided by the Tablas Creek Vineyard. There were only 100 tickets sold so we truly felt as though we were personally invited guests of Mr. Hearst himself. Some of the people dressed in vintage clothing which added to the festive air.




This is one of the guest cottages. Couldn't you just imagine Cary Grant sauntering out the door in his tuxedo? Well, I could.











Sunset over the Pacific Ocean although the ocean itself is obscured by the rolling fog.

The music program was held in Mr. Hearst's screening theater. It was a majestic room ornately decorated. The program was Dvorak's Quintet in G major and Brahms Sextet No. 2 in G Major. Tina wore a stunning blue gown and looked absolutely beautiful. The music was exquisite and a lovely evening was had by all.

We exited via the recently restored indoor pool. The lighting was minimal so no photographs of any real value were produced. Our cheerful shuttle bus driver expertly drove us down the tortuous mountain road and were headed south with memories on a wonderful evening swirling in our heads.