“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
-- Albert Einstein
It is now t-minus 25 days and counting until The Big San Francisco Vacation.
I am indeed, “passionately curious” as Einstein says, and so, I’ll be making some “day trips” while I’m out in the Bay Area. I’m planning trips to the Muir Woods and nearby Sausalito, Berkley and Oakland, the IndyCar race at Sonoma, and maybe I’ll drive about and explore some other nearby spots as well.
I’m only renting a car on each of the two weekends I’ll be there. The rest of the time I don’t need a car. I plan to hoof it, or take cabs when I’m in the City itself. This leads to a more intense experience of the surroundings in my opinion (and it eliminates the parking hassle and the valet fees at the hotel). :)
More about all that later. Today, I’m focusing on my trip to the Monterey/San Jose area. I’m a writer, so I’m doing some research for a novel while I’m out in San Francisco. Part of that research are the trips mentioned above; but, there are two other big parts of the research that I’m doing further south.
My writing hero is Mr. John Steinbeck, so I’m going to Monterey, Pacific Grove and Salinas to see where he grew up, lived and wrote for a large part of his career. At the end of his life, he lived near Sag Harbor in New York, but he’s buried in Salinas and I intend to go there and pay respects to my hero. I’m also going to visit the houses where he lived, and the National John Steinbeck Center in Salinas. **sigh** This will be a great writing pilgrimage for me.
Now, to the SPOOKY stuff. :D Part of my research will take me to San Jose on my way back up to San Fran (after The Big Steinbeck Pilgrimage). In San Jose there is this place built by Sarah Winchester, of Winchester rifle fame - she was the widow and heiress of that fortune. She moved out to San Jose and began to build this house, adding on to it in bits and pieces - and some pretty *strange* bits and pieces at that - halls that dead end and go nowhere - very weird stuff. They say the house is HAUNTED. You can read about it here at this site, The Winchester Mystery House(see the “Winchester Story” on that site). Also, you can see more about this spooky place here on Wikipedia!
Also check out all the tours they offer. I’m having the Grand Estate Tour, gardens, house, spookiest places in the house - I want the *whole spooky smash*!! Boooooeeeeeeyaahhhh!
This day trip is going to one fun-packed day! I’ll have to get up early (ugghhhh), get my COFFEE(!), and drive down the PCH to the Monterey area. Yeah, that’ll be rough - driving down the Pacific Coast Highway with that SPECTACULAR view! **sigh** Then I do my Steinbeck pilgrimage of the area. The final step of that will be for me to lay some flowers on the blessed man’s grave.
Then I’m off to San Jose! I’ll take the whole guided tour through Sarah’s spooky house. Then I’m back up the peninsula on the Bay side, on my way to San Francisco again. I have a lovely casual, but elegant dinner spot all picked out for that night. There I will sip wine in my reverie of my wonderful trip and all the sights, and sounds, and smells.
I’ll make sure to upload my photos and post some here on the blog. I’ll have a complete accounting of the day’s experiences. :)
Who knows, I may make some unplanned side trips along the way - that’s what that passionate curiosity will do for ya. ;)
Polla Filia,
J.F.
No comments:
Post a Comment