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Russian Orthodox “Old Believers” in Alaska

1831 map of North America cropped to show Russian Alaska. Original map bought from Dee Longenbaugh, ‘The Observatory Antiquarian Books, Maps and Prints,’ Juneau, Alaska (Please click on it)

A few months ago, Eva and I visited South Central Alaska. I have lived in Anchorage and Homer during two separate periods for a total of eight winters. Eva, however, had never been in Alaska.

One of the many things about Alaska I wanted Eva to experience was Alaska’s Russian heritage. After all, Alaska was once the major part of Russian America, along with the coastal regions of North America to the south.

There are a great many place names in Alaska recognizable as Russian. In Sitka, the former capital of Russian Alaska, an annual celebration includes the symbolic changing of the Russian imperial flag for that of the USA. Sitka is on Baranoff Island, named after Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, chief manager for the Russian-American Company.

More to the point of this article is the presence of at least 25 Russian Orthodox churches in Alaska, all named after St. Nicholas.

Interior of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, Eklutna, Alaska, 2010

[Eva and I had earlier visited St. Nicholas Church and cemetery in Eklunta, Alaska, where we took several pictures, all of which can be seen here]

We didn’t have time enough to visit the Old Believer village of Nikolaevsk on the Kenai Peninsula, but I was able to point out to Eva a few Old Believers in the City of Homer, about 20 miles further south on the Sterling Highway. They are distinctive, primarily, because of their traditional dress.

These Old Believers in several settlements on the Kenai Peninsula did not arrive directly from Russia, or the Soviet Union. Theirs is a history linked with many other groups of Old Believers who have been leaving Russia and the Soviet Union for more than 200 years, due to a schism in the Russian Orthodox Church.

About 300 Old Believers left Siberia in 1945 to take up residence in Manchuria, China. When that country fell to communism, the group sought a new home. Several South American countries took in the Old Believers. In Brazil, the government did not interfere with their religion, but many of the families found it difficult to make a living. Next, they came to the United States, establishing themselves primarily in Woodburn, Oregon in the early 1960s.

As several years passed by, young people in the community were beginning to fall away from the old ways. A few community elders began considering other more isolated locations for their parishes. One of them discovered that government land was available in the Kenai Peninsula area of Alaska, where the fishing was reputed to be outstanding. The first Old Believer settlers on the Kenai Peninsula received a grant from the Tolstoy Foundation in New York and purchased 640 acres on the peninsula in 1967. Initially, five families moved to Alaska and began building a community there in the summer of 1968. Ten adults, twelve children, eight cows and four calves started Nikolaevsk.

This community of expatriate Russians is descended from ancestors who refused to conform to changes in their traditional Orthodox religion. After almost 16 generations of seeking places to live where they could preserve their culture, they started anew, and called their settlement Nikolaevsk in honor of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of the town’s church.

Old Believer Dress (http://www.sras.org/)

Old Believer Dress (http://www.sras.org/)

Russian Old Believers from China, Brazil, Iran, Turkey, Australia and other parts of the United States moved to Nikolaevsk. By the second year, homes had running water and electricity. When the growing season in the Alaskan summers proved too short for the production of various favorite vegetables, the Old Believers built greenhouses with wood-fueled stoves in them to extend the season.

On June 19, 1975, fifty-nine Old Believers successfully obtained American citizenship. A ceremony for their naturalization took place in the Anchor Point School gymnasium. In 1979 a second group of Old Believers took the oath of citizenship and became American citizens. Since then, religious and cultural concerns prompted some families to fight against assimilation and leave Nikolaevsk to form new communities.

The initial settlers tried to limit their interaction with outsiders so they could better keep the old rites, even using separate dishes for outsiders who dined with them. They erected a sign that stood at the end of the dirt road: “Village of Nikolaevsk. Private Property. Road Closed.”

Today, the sign is gone, the road is paved and the village is more welcoming to outsiders. The town has modernized. Economically and politically, the residents are integrated. Socially, however, although polite and highly hospitable, they still maintain a sense of social separatism…

Old Believers are having to adapt their culture to their surroundings in order to survive. Many residents are employed in the Anchor Point and Homer areas. A majority of the Russian Old Believers depended on commercial fishing as an income while many of the women worked in the fish processing plants. Uncertainty in the fishing industry, however, with its feast-or-famine price fluctuations, has caused a growing number of Old Believers to seek other jobs, such as construction, and move to new communities outside their Russian village (source).

A more comprehensive history of the Old Believers can be found here.

For readers who have an interest in old maps, here is the full image of the map of which only part is seen at the beginning of this article:

Map of North America, 1831. You have permission to download and copy it if you give credit to me as http://pavellas.com

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Geologic Time and Human Time Intersect in California

 

Geologists measure time in ‘periods’ and ‘eras’ lasting millions of years. Our current period is The Quaternary Period that began somewhat less than 2 million years ago.

 

Assembling California by John McFee

Beginning in the Paleozoic Era (544 to 245 million years ago) and ending sometime in the Mesozoic Era (245 to 65 million years ago), the land mass we call California was pushed up from the sea during which time there formed what ultimately became the gold fields and mines of California.

California remains an unstable and malleable collection of smashed-together islands and micro-continents. From a book review by Stephen A. Haines (liberally edited):

California is a geologic highway accident where a string of vehicles reduce order to chaos. There is the likelihood of three island chains pranging the West Coast at different times. Each time, instead of being pushed aside by the mass of the North American Plate, they simply attached themselves like limpets. The extra pressure and mass pushed up the High Sierras and the Coast Range.

This view of California’s disorganization is reinforced by the many directions faults take around the state. San Andreas, for all its fame, is not a fault, but a melange of fault structures, due to those impinging island arcs.

Geologic time and human time intersect usually during great catastrophes such as volcanic eruptions, and when great discoveries are made from evidence found in the ancient earth.

I am focusing here on the years 1848 and 1989, when these two events occurred: the discovery of gold in Sutter’s Creek and the “Loma Prieta” earthquake of 1989.

These two events are mentioned in John McPhee’s book, Assembling California, and in a subsequent discussion of the book in a recorded conversation on YouTube between the Pulitzer-prize winning McPhee and geologist Eldridge Moores, Professor emeritus at the University of California at Davis. The two men collaborated on the writing of the book.

What brings me write about these things this is my recent hike in the Almaden Quicksilver County Park, located at the town of New Almaden, California, a rural part of greater San Jose. Without the vast amount of mercury that was mined and refined here, most of the gold ore dug out of California from the beginning of the Gold Rush in 1848 could not have been as easily and quickly processed into pure metal.

The ridge containing “Almaden Quicksilver County Park” and the former mercury mines of “New Almaden,” viewed from Coyote Peak, in both Santa Clara County and greater San Jose, California (2010)

Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but does not react with it. Gold is insoluble in nitric acid, which dissolves silver and base metals. This property is exploited in the gold refining technique known as “inquartation and parting”. (Source).

There is a museum at New Almaden where a writer, Kalpana Mohan, visited and recorded this for an article in the May 2004 issue of Bay Area Parent (quicksilver_mining, edited for brevity):

In 1845, the Ohlone Indians brought a Mexican cavalry officer to the source of the red ore in the undulating hills of New Almaden. Seeing the possibilities in this cinnabar, the officer obtained title to the mineral deposit. This paved the way for what would soon become one of the most famous and productive mine in America.

In its heydays, the Quicksilver Mine at New Almaden produced more than 220,000 pounds of quicksilver (mercury), making it the largest producer in the world and the most valuable single mine in California. Quicksilver proved to be a tremendous boon to the California Gold Rush since it could be used to separate gold from foreign matter.

Inside the museum, we saw the huge cauldron that miners used to extract and distill mercury from cinnabar ore. My son learned how miners used candles to light their way through bat-infested underground tunnels and how they faced rattlesnakes and grizzly bears above ground. We saw old pictures of the once flourishing, turn-of-the-century town of New Almaden (the name Almaden came from a mining town in Spain by the same name).

I walked the trail that takes one through the remains of “English Camp” a once flourishing town with a school and church.

Old photograph of English Camp posted on site, along with historical information, showing the church on the right-hand slope of the ridge. The picture on the right (February 2010) shows the remains of the church.

I have hiked many times in this park. My great-grandfather, Asbury Harpending, Jr., owned and managed a few California gold mines, so I feel a personal connection to this ridge of hills that was once full of mercury mines and refineries.

The remains of what appears to be an ore-crushing facility (3 February 2010)

There is much more to say about this park, and many of the above links will lead you further, but I will close with the following piece of history involving Abraham Lincoln:

Plaque at the southern entrance to Almaden Quicksilver County Park, commemorating the Executive Order of President Lincoln putting the mines under federal control, which was shortly thereafter rescinded (please click on the image to read more clearly)

 

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Our Pals in Prague

Eva and I have just returned from touring Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic. It was our first visit. I hope we can return someday. This week’s offering is short and personal about our trip. [Please click on all images]

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A statue modeled after a surreal story by Franz Kafka (1883-1924).


Ron with the great Czech composer, Antonín Dvořák(1841-1904)


Ron with his pal Winston Churchill (1874-1965).


Eva with the great Bohemian composer, Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884).


Smetana is possibly most famous for that portion of his symphonic suite, Má Vlast (“My Country”), which is about the river flowing through Prague, Vltava, or in Smetana’s age, the German usage Moldau. Bohemia was then ruled by the Austrian Empire.

Here is a glimpse of the river from a tower overlooking the city:

It was a most pleasant stay in a friendly, beautiful (and musical) city.

 

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Upon Returning to a Former Scene

I was born in San Francisco, 1937. During my many and lengthy travels away from the city by the bay, I fondly remembered the murmurs, moans and whistles of foghorns in the morning, and the sight of the gently rounded pair of hills, Twin Peaks, in the middle of the city. In an apocryphal tale, possibly by Herb Caen, it is told that the Spanish settlers called them the breasts of the virgin.


After living and working in Los Angeles for four years I got a job in Modesto, in the Great Central Valley, less than two hours by car from San Francisco. I waited until my wife and I had settled in our new home before we made the first trip in some years to visit my home town; the year was 1975.

As we broached the final pass over the ranges of hills separating the Valley from the City, I eagerly scanned the horizon for the beloved hills. There they were, poised above the fog—but I was stricken with horror!

Dwarfing everything on the skyline was an immense steel structure standing tall, rigid and ugly on Mt. Sutro, next to Twin Peaks, its three towers standing far above the peaks of the hills. It interrupted and obliterated the contour of the gentle ridge, overpowering it and diminishing its hills into insignificance.

I was in a state of disbelief, then anger and anguish as I realized and was forced to accept that the Great God Television had commanded the city fathers and mothers to erect this excrescence without regard to the beauty it destroyed.

I fell out of love with San Francisco, my anchor in the physical world since I began traveling away, back, and away again since age nine.

I no longer vest my soul in any one geographical setting. It isn’t a particular hill or mountain, or forest or seashore I love, it is any of them I may visit.

The beach between Anchor Point and Homer, Alaska

But I have made an exception for that place named Alaska, where I have lived for eight winters. I have allowed myself to believe it is too vast and too harsh for man to destroy its primitive beauty, at least in my lifetime.

I return to find
The old place now imperfect.
What did I expect?

Hear the foghorn on the Golden Gate bridge

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From Stockholm to Riga and Back on Regina Baltica

 


NOTE: Please click on images for full viewing

It was a simple and enjoyable trip, and now I get to tell you, briefly, about:

Image Legend: The Livonian Confederation was a loosely organized confederation in present day Estonia and Latvia ruled by the Order of Teutonic Knights of Livonia and which existed from 1228 to the 1560s. It contained five small states: the Livonian Order, Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek, Archbishopric of Riga, Bishopric of Dorpat, and Bishopric of Courland.

In 1621 Riga and the outlying fortress of Daugavgriva came under the rule of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, who intervened in the Thirty Years’ War not only for political and economic gain but also in favor of German Lutheran Protestantism. During the Russo-Swedish War, 1656-1658, Riga withstood a siege by Russians. Riga remained the largest city in Sweden until 1710 during a period in which the city retained a great deal of self-government autonomy. In that year, in the course of Great Northern War, Russia under Tsar Peter the Great invaded Riga. Sweden’s northern dominance ended, and Russia’s emergence as the strongest Northern power was formalized through the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. Riga was annexed by Russia and became an industrialized port city of the Russian empire, where it remained until World War I. By 1900, Riga was the third largest city in Russia after Moscow and Saint Petersburg in terms of numbers of industrial workers. (SOURCE)

Image Legend: Swedish army bombarding the fortress of Dunamunde, a 17th-century etching. Daugavgrīva was a strong fortress commanding the mouth of the Daugava, hence its name. Since 1959, Daugavgrīva has been a district of Riga.

The Freedom Monument

The Freedom Monument is located on the eastern edge of “Old Town.” It honors soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence (1918-1920). It is an important symbol of the freedom, independence, and sovereignty of Latvia. Unveiled in 1935, the 42-metre (138 ft) high monument often serves as the focal point of public gatherings and official ceremonies in Riga. During World War II, Latvia was annexed by the Soviet Union. Soviet propaganda attempted to alter the symbolic meaning of the monument to better fit with Communist ideology, but it remained a symbol of national independence to the general public. On June 14, 1987 about 5,000 people gathered at the monument to commemorate the victims of the Soviet regime and to lay flowers. This rally renewed the national independence movement that culminating three years later in the re-establishment of Latvian sovereignty. (SOURCE)

Image Legend: Top of the Freedom Monument, a monolithic travertine column, topped by a copper figure of Liberty, in the form of a woman lifting three gilded stars, symbolizing the constitutional districts of Latvia: Vidzeme, Latgale and Courland.


Changing of the Guard at the base of the Monument (More pictures from my recent excursion may be seen here).

 

This memorial is so important to the people of Latvia that I will show more detail of it here (the inserted text is reproduced from the original source):

Main facets at the base: Four corners at the base: Large Panels: Here is the monument in its entirety (please click on the image for more detail):


And now for something a little different: AMBER

Dzintars is the Latvian word for amber. Latvian choral music is brought to audiences abroad by the Dzintars Choir, and dance is presented by the children’s dance ensemble Dzintariņš. The name of Latvia’s perfumery company is Dzintars; Latvians love to put Dzintars cheese spread on their bread at breakfast. Latvians all have somebody called Dzintars or Dzintra among their friends; the name is common among those who live at the shore of Dzintara jūra, the Amber Sea. There are many Latvian songs about amber and the sea that nurtures it. What is this sun-stone caressed by the currents of the Baltic Sea? (SOURCE)


Amber is formed, in its first stage, from resin that oozes from resinous trees. In the second stage, the resin rests up in the soil of an “amber forest”. In the dry, well-aerated sandy soil physical and chemical changes take place in the resin through the action of oxygen. The resin becomes harder and more durable. In the third stage, the resin-bearing deposits are washed out, transported and redeposited in a water-body. Amber is formed when the resin is washed by water rich in oxygen and alkaline sodium compounds. The action of these lead to the formation of succinic acid and its salts. Amber that has been excavated or washed up changes under the influence of oxygen, so unlike the inorganic minerals, amber is unstable and changeable.

In distant antiquity, the people living along the shore of the Baltic Sea not only collected amber for trade, but also made practical use of it as a decorative, curative and religious material. In the territory of present-day Latvia and Lithuania amber processing began in the 4th millennium BC. Amber was widely used as a magical material with curative properties and as a component of religious rituals among the neighboring ancient Slavic peoples in Kievan Rus and Poland. The source of local amber is on the seashore, and part of it is under the sea. The prevailing marine current transports lumps of amber from these sources, to be washed up on the shore of Lithuania and Latvia.

There are amber sellers everywhere in old town, in street stalls and shops, some of the latter more like fine jewelry stores.

The Nativity of Christ Cathedral

The Nativity of Christ Cathedral was built in a Neo-Byzantine style between 1876 and 1883, during the period when the country was part of the Russian Empire. It is the largest Orthodox cathedral in the Baltic provinces built with a blessing of the Russian Tsar Alexander II. The Cathedral is renown for its icons. During the First World War German troops occupied Riga and turned the cathedral into a Lutheran church. In independent Latvia the Nativity of Christ Cathedral once again became an Orthodox cathedral in 1921, although the new government tried to force the change of the liturgy language into Latvian. In the early 1960s Soviet authorities closed down the cathedral and converted its building into a planetarium. The cathedral was restored after Latvia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. (SOURCE)

The Cable Bridge (Latvian: Vanšu tilts) in Riga

A cable-stayed bridge consists of one or more columns (towers or pylons), with cables supporting the bridge deck. The cable-stay design is the optimum bridge for a span length between that of cantilever bridges and suspension bridges. Key advantages of the cable-stayed form:

  • Much greater stiffness than the suspension bridge, so that deformations of the deck under live loads are reduced
  • Can be constructed by cantilevering out from the tower – the cables act both as temporary and permanent supports to the bridge deck
  • For a symmetrical bridge (i.e. spans on either side of the tower are the same), the horizontal forces balance and large ground anchorages are not requiredEmbassy of France in Latvia

    The tour bus passed by the French Embassy and, after we de-bused in Old Town, we returned to admire the exterior of building at more leisure, along with the nearby Freedom Monument and Orthodox Cathedral.


    As the Regina Baltica passed through the portion of the Daugava River leading from the Gulf of Riga to the City, I noticed very little activity in the many industrial installations and, indeed, some were falling into disrepair. There was at least one modern-looking operation that had a lot of activity. In looking at the current demographic statistics of Latvia, I discerned a reason for this: the economy is now mostly in the service sector.

    From the most recent information provided by the CIA World Factbook: Latvia’s economy experienced GDP growth of more than 10% per year during 2006-07. The majority of companies, banks, and real estate have been privatized, although the state still holds sizable stakes in a few large enterprises. Latvia officially joined the World Trade Organization in February 1999. EU membership, a top foreign policy goal, came in May 2004.

    Gross Domestic Product by sector:
    agriculture: 3.3%……….industry: 22%……….services: 74.7%

    Labor force, by occupation:
    agriculture: 13%………..industry: 19%………..services: 68%

    Here is a major excerpt from the CIA World Factbook to round out this look at the renewing country of Latvia:

    The name “Latvia” originates from the ancient Latgalians, one of four eastern Baltic tribes that formed the ethnic core of the Latvian people (ca. 8th-12th centuries A.D.). The region subsequently came under the control of Germans, Poles, Swedes, and finally, Russians. A Latvian republic emerged following World War I, but it was annexed by the USSR in 1940 – an action never recognized by the US and many other countries. Latvia reestablished its independence in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Although the last Russian troops left in 1994, the status of the Russian minority (some 30% of the population) remains of concern to Moscow. Latvia joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.

    Area: total: 64,589 sq km; land: 63,589 sq km; water: 1,000 sq km
    Border countries: Belarus 141 km, Estonia 343 km, Lithuania 588 km, Russia 276 km
    Coastline: 498 km
    Climate: maritime; wet, moderate winters
    Terrain: low plain

    Elevation extremes: lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m; highest point: Galzina Kalns 312 m
    Natural resources: peat, limestone, dolomite, amber, hydropower, wood, arable land
    Land use: arable land: 28.19%; permanent crops: 0.45%; other: 71.36% (2005)
    Irrigated land: 200 sq km. note: land in Latvia is often too wet, and in need of drainage, not irrigation; approximately 16,000 sq km or 85% of agricultural land has been improved by drainage (2003)

    Environment current issues: Latvia’s environment has benefited from a shift to service industries after the country regained independence; the main environmental priorities are improvement of drinking water quality and sewage system, household, and hazardous waste management, as well as reduction of air pollution; in 2001, Latvia closed the EU accession negotiation chapter on environment committing to full enforcement of EU environmental directives by 2010

    Population: 2,245,423 (July 2008 est.)
    Age structure: 0-14 years: 13.4% (male 154,077/female 146,825)
    15-64 years: 69.7% (male 760,976/female 803,106)
    65 years and over: 16.9% (male 124,658/female 255,781) (2008 est.)

    Median age: total: 39.9 years; male: 36.9 years; female: 43 years (2008 est.)

    Population growth rate: -0.629% (2008 est.)
    Birth rate: 9.62 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)
    Death rate: 13.63 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
    Net migration rate: -2.29 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2008 est.)
    Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female; under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female; 15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female; 65 years and over: 0.49 male(s)/female; total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2008 est.)

    Infant mortality rate: total: 8.96 deaths/1,000 live births; male: 10.85 deaths/1,000 live births; female: 6.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2008 est.)
    Life expectancy at birth: total population: 71.88 years; male: 66.68 years; female: 77.35 years (2008 est.)
    Total fertility rate: 1.29 children born/woman (2008 est.)

    Ethnic groups: Latvian 57.7%, Russian 29.6%, Belarusian 4.1%, Ukrainian 2.7%, Polish 2.5%, Lithuanian 1.4%, other 2% (2002)

    Religions: Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox
    Languages: Latvian (official) 58.2%, Russian 37.5%, Lithuanian and other 4.3% (2000 census)

    —————-

    The demographic that seems most troublesome is the decline in population due both to out-migration and low birth rate. The out-migration could possibly be due to ethnic Russians leaving the country, but this is a guess. On the other hand, to replace the population, and assuming no net increase or decrease due to migration, the annual fertility rate should be 2.1 or more children born per woman, on the average. It is now only 1.29.

    It was a good trip. Eva and I recommend it to you.

 

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California Travelin’, Part 2

 

If you missed the first installment of this imaginary trip from San Diego to San Francisco, go to Part 1, published 22 October 2008.

→Please always click on images and links←

We have arrived in Morro Bay, a quaint town that is at the southern end of a two-hour journey (unless you stop to visit along the way) where time seems to disappear—along California’s central coastline (source of map).

We are now on our way to the fabled Hearst Castle at the settlement of San Simeon. You should take the opportunity to go on at least one of the three tours offered when the castle is open for viewing. This castle (or its Hollywood reproduction) was featured in the great, perhaps the greatest, film, Citizen Kane, with Orson Welles playing the fictionalized William Randolph Hearst.

Upon leaving San Simeon, Highway 1 becomes relatively uncivilized, except for a few cafés and petrol stops, until you reach the Big Sur area. The area extends along the coast in the cliffs and mountains above the ocean, generally, until the Big Sur River empties into the Pacific.

 

From here northward you will touch several lovely cities and places. When you get to Carmel-by-the-Sea (film actor-producer-director Clint Eastwood was Mayor for a while), turn left off Highway 1 through the center of the town to find 17 Mile Drive. This will get you back to the coast. Continue driving by the Pebble Beach golf course and through Asilomar State Beach to Pacific Grove, where author John Steinbeck lived and where the monarch butterflies congregate each year. A few more miles through Pacific Grove along the coast and you will enter the City of Monterey, once the capital of California. I recommend you go to the magnificent Monterey Aquariumbefore continuing to the harbor area.

Monterey Bay, rotated westerly from true north to fit the page. Note that the City of Monterey is at the lower right and the City of Santa Cruz is at the lower left. [Click on the image]

After visiting the pier at the harbor area of Monterey, continue driving on Del Monte Avenue North until it intersects with Highway 1, also called the Cabrillo Highway. Take the north on-ramp and the freeway continues through large sand dunes at Sand City. When the wind blows from Monterey Bay, which is often, the strands of sand shift over the highway. You are now headed around the edge of Monterey Bay toward Castroville, the “artichoke capital of the world.” But before you turn left as Highway 1 and Highway 156 diverge, be sure to get your fresh artichokes from Pezzini Farms roadside stand by turning right, briefly, off the highway at Nashua Road. There are plenty of other fresh and dried delicacies and accompaniments at this large, open “stand”.After you return to the highway from Pezzini’s, you will pass by the artichoke fields on both sides of Castroville and beyond. The road will curve around as you espy the large smoke stacks from the PG&E Power Plant next to Elkhorn Slough, over which you travel via a wooden bridge (if memory serves) to Moss Landing, a good place to stop and look at the rocky shore and its sea life.

Granddaughters at Capitola, May 2005

 

The highway continues to parallel the curve of Monterey Bay, but at some distance from the shore as you pass near or through the towns and cities of Watsonville, Freedom, Aptos, Soquel and Capitola, the latter town a good place to appreciate the waters of the Bay.

Capitola beach at the lower right and Santa Cruz Fun Zone and Boardwalk at the lower left (between the pier and the river)

It’s a lovely drive along the cliffs above the sea from Capitola to Santa Cruz. Take the streets in yellow (see map, above), alternating between E. Cliff Drive, Portola Drive and others. The boardwalk and the roller-coaster will become visible as you turn a sharp corner. Before you depart Santa Cruz, you must make one of three choices:

 

  • Continue on highway 1 along the coast directly into San Francisco at its western border with the Pacific Ocean. You can navigate the western and northern edges of the city by scenic overlooks, parks, museums and the Golden Gate Bridge until you reach downtown.
  • Take Highway 17 over the Santa Cruz mountains to Los Gatos and San Jose, then turn left (north) on Interstate 280 (the “World’s Most Beautiful Freeway”) to San Francisco through Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Peninsula. The highway ends at the eastern edge of the city near the SF Giants Baseball stadium and the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge.
  • Take State Route 9 through a few small towns and lots of trees into (unincorporated) Boulder Creek, where State Route 236 departs from SR 9 to provide access to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. SR 236 later rejoins SR 9. Stay on SR 9 until it meets SR 35, Skyline Boulevard, near Castle Rock State Park. Take SR 35 north all the way to Daly City where it joins Highway 1, just south of San Francisco. (See the first choice, above, for the route through San Francisco. SR 35 will merge with Interstate 280 for a while, but get back on it after the Trousdale Drive offramp, near the City of Burlingame).

 

June 2007: Stepdaughter Liv on the grounds of The Palace of the Legion of Honor, overlooking the Golden Gate strait and the famous bridge linking San Francisco and Marin counties.

 

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California Travelin’, Part 1

 

I was born in the City and County of San Francisco and have lived and worked in many cities and towns in the State of California. If I include my 12 weeks in Navy Boot Camp, I have also lived in San Diego County in addition to these counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Fresno, Los Angeles, Stanislaus, and Ventura. I have driven almost everywhere in the state, many times over in some cases, except to the large counties in the northeast corner.

So what? you may be asking. Well, people in Sweden who plan to travel by car in California (including some born in the States) have occasionally asked me for ideas on what routes to take and what to see. For those who plan a trip along any part of the coast, I recommend state highway number 1. For one of my friends, originally from the USA‘s east coast, I suggested an itinerary from San Diego to San Francisco which I now share with you, much expanded. First here are a couple of places to visit after you have arrived in San Diego:

  • Hotel Del Coronado, one of the few surviving examples of an American architectural genre: the wooden Victorian beach resort. The Del was completed in 1888 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977.
  • San Diego Zoo: world class & world famous.

After visiting San Diego, get back to →…

…and off to a great adventure northward. Of course you will stop anywhere that suits your fancy, but I wil recommend some places along the way:

 

  • Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, at La Jolla—one of the wildest stretches of land on the Southern California coast. There is a rather long distance before you will reach the next places listed below, which included along the border of Camp Pendleton Marine Corp Base and then near the town of San Clemente where President Nixon had his “Western White House.”
  • San Juan Capistrano: The famous cliff swallows of San Juan Capistrano, that leave town every year in a swirling mass near the Day of San Juan (October 23), return from their winter vacation spot 6,000 miles south in Goya, Corrientes, Argentina. They land at the mission in San Juan Capistrano, California, on or around St. Joseph’s Day, March 19, to the ringing bells of the old church and a crowd of visitors from all over the world who are in town awaiting their arrival and celebrating with a huge fiesta as well as a parade.

 

From this point you have a choice to continue the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) or to take Interstate Highway 5 toward Anaheim/Disneyland and, eventually Los Angeles. If you take PCH here are some of the towns you will pass through until you reach LA: Continuing on the Pacific Coast Highway (State Highway 1):

 

  • Laguna Beach City and area, and Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. Make sure to visit the artists and artisans on and near the highway.
  • City of Newport Beach: My Aunt Bee’s husband, uncle Tommy Thomas, was the general manager and, eventually, part owner of the fish cannery that was the main employer in town for many years before the fish were depleted and the Hollywood crowd invaded. It’s a restaurant now, with many of the old cannery artifacts remaining. We celebrated Aunt Bee’s surprise 85th birthday there 10 years ago. She’s still around, but Uncle Tommy died long ago of a broken heart because the cannery could not succeed despite all his heroic efforts.

 

You’ll pass through other beach cities and at Long Beach the PCH will go inland for a while. After crossing the bridge over the Los Ageles River you will skirt the base of the hilly Palos Verdes Peninsula, through the City of Torrance and other beach cities between it and LA. I was Acting Administrator of Torrance Memorial Hospital for nine months in 1974-5.

 

 

Then it gets more industrial as you head toward Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). You will pass underneath one of the runways and under a flight path as you travel north toward Santa Monica and Venice. You can detour from the PCH here for a visit, eastward, to Hollywood. Take Santa Monica Boulevard.

Please click on the image. Note that highway 1 (the PCH) is at the lower left. Santa Monica Blvd begins here as highway number 2. It goes diagonally to the upper right toward Hollywood

Back to the Pacific Coast Highway, then along the coast to Malibuand beyond, toward Ventura County:

Please click on the image. Note that Santa Monica is at the lower right; Ventura is at the extreme top left

In Ventura County:

 

 

As you leave the City of Ventura on the highway that is now both Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) and state highway 101, you will see a sign for state highway 33 toward the City of Ojai. I recommend you to have made arrangements to stay overnight in this magical town. You may wish to spend part of an evening or an early morning at Meditation Mount. Various intellectual and spiritual endeavors find their respective ways to Ojai:

 

 

I was the CEO of the local community hospital in 1990 and 1991. I hiked all through the surrounding hills and mountains. I love this place.

Please clink on the image of a small portion of Ojai Valley

After you have had your fill of Ojai, take Highway 150 West, running through the center of town, back to the coast highway at Carpinteria, then north again for a short and lovely drive into Santa Barbara. You may wish to wander State Street and the municipal pier jutting into the Pacific Ocean at its western end. Continue on the Highway north to Gaviota Beach where the highway goes inland for a while, through Gaviota Pass.

You are not far from the Danish town of Solvang, so follow the signs. You have to leave the main highway to go through Solvang, but the signs (north) out of town will lead you easily back (turn left/west on State Highway 154). Highway 101/PCH continues inland, through Santa Maria as a freeway, then over the Santa Maria River into San Luis Obispo County, until you return to the coast at the “Five Cities” area, centered around Pismo Beach.

I recommend you spend a little time at Shell Beach, very slightly north of Pismo Beach. You are now a short highway distance, again traveling inland, from San Luis Obispo City, where “Cal Poly” is located. Here you have a choice to continue inland on Highway 101, or take Highway 1 (PCH) which here diverges from it; Highway 101 runs inland and. roughly, parallel to PCH.

We will continue to take Highway 1 on this journey. Part 2 will be presented in a future journal entry, taking us from Morro Bayto San Francisco.

Morro Rock at Morro Bay, California