POSTCARDS FROM ALONG THE COAST

 

My family made a trip up the Calif. coast in 1954 to see Fort Ross.  Not a whole lot to it, but it’s interesting.  I climbed up into this tower to see what I could see.  Mostly ocean.  Fort Ross was established as an agricultural and trading center to serve the native American, native Alaskan, Russian, Finn, and Swedish settlements in the area and did so from 1812 to 1841. 

The fort chapel.

An overview of the fort.  There are pictures of our visit, but unfortunately they’re in albums in my sister’s keeping at the moment.

I do have this one picture, however, of our picnic lunch along the way to the fort.  Dad found this nice little sandy roadside spot next to a little creek to have lunch.  We had a couple of friends with us on this trip.  That’s yours truly in the light-colored jacket, standing.  The little person next to me is my youngest sister.  The fellow in the plaid shirt is a friend with his wife next to him.  Beside her is my Mom, then my immediate younger sister in the coat, and beyond her is the friends’ son.  My Dad was taking the picture.  I don’t know where my brother was?  He was always wondering off somewhere.

The Russian River

I remember we came to the Russian River a couple of times.  It wasn’t as close to home as some of the other places we liked to go, and I can only remember actually being on the river once – perhaps in a quiet spot like this one with a small dock.  I remember pretending to dive off a small dock like this one.  Be fun if it was actually this one, but I don’t think so because the backgrounds don’t quite match. 

In any event, there I am on the Russian River in 1952 with one of my younger sisters, pretending to dive.  Before I was 17 I never dove or jumped into the water because I didn’t like getting water up my nose.  Once I learned how and loved to dive, however, it didn’t bother me so much anymore.  But I was still 12 here.  It might have had something to do with getting stuck upside down in an inner tube when I was younger and panicking when I couldn’t get myself turned upright.  Thankfully my Dad noticed the problem and rescued me but not before I’d gotten a lot of water up my nose!  It’s actually kind of amazing I turned out to love diving in later years.  

Mostly I remember being at the mouth of the Russian River to look through all the driftwood that collected there.  My Mom loved to look through driftwood for pieces she could do something artistic with.  I enjoyed doing that too.  Don’t know about my sisters and brother?  The girls, especially, were kind of young back then.  As I remember, they looked for driftwood pieces they could play with or make fun things out of.  Dad usually helped Mom look for stuff.

Stinson Beach.  In this view showing the long and open expanse of beach you can see why I’ve talked before about this beach being so windy.  We came here a few times and it was always windy – sometimes just a little, sometimes quite a bit like the time I’ve mentioned before in another post about packing up our picnic lunch and heading home to have it on a blanket spread out in front of a fire Dad built in the fireplace and calling it “Lunner” because it was now halfway between lunch and dinner time. J

The grasses at the top of the sand dunes behind the beach.

My family sitting behind those grasses.  You’ve seen this photo before of my family hunkering down behind the dunes from the wind trying to decide whether to brave a picnic lunch here, or head home?

On this particular trip it must not have been too windy because it looks like we stayed for lunch.  And look!  There’s driftwood!! 

 So naturally we all did a little beachcombing!

I was here with my family at least once when I was young.  I remember having a lot of fun in what was then called the “Fun House”.  I remember long polished wooden slides we flew down seated on gunny sacks; wooden sidewalks that jiggled back & forth & sideways with railings you could hang onto to keep your balance; and a large revolving concrete ‘tunnel’ that you tried to walk through without falling down.  There were other things, too, but I can’t remember the rest.  Sadly, the Fun House is gone now.  I came here with my church group and/or boyfriends when I was in my teens.  Back then I loved to ride the rollercoaster – sometimes several times in a row.  In later years, however, I couldn’t manage it.  I was here several years ago – like about 18 or 19 (!!!), with my own family when the grandkiddos were still young (they’re all but graduated from college now!) and they all rode the kiddie fun rides.

  

Granddaughters on the Dragon Ride.     

Beyond the rollercoaster you can see a long pier and out toward the end of it are buildings - one of which I believe is a restaurant one of my boyfriends took me to when we were here.  I love deep fried scallops so ordered some.  But instead of scallops – as I was used to seeing them, anyway, I was served deep fried flat patty-like things.  When I questioned the waitress she told me they were Eastern scallops.  Okay.  So I ate them and they were DELICIOUS!  Back home I told my Mom about it and she laughed saying “Sounds like they gave you deep fried abalone.”  I later learned abalone are more special than scallops and while I still love scallops – deep fried & otherwise, deep fried abalone is, as the expression goes, ‘to die for’!

A late 1800s or early 1900s photo of folks walking along Santa Cruz’s ‘boardwalk’.

Walking there these days.

The Wharf.

Having dinner at “Bubba Gumps” on the Wharf with my daughter, brother, and husband.

We were part of a whole group here to celebrate my brother’s wife who had passed away from cancer.  She wanted her ashes scattered across the ocean in the Monterey-Carmel area where she and my brother loved to go.  So before we had dinner at Bubba Gumps, we went out on the ocean in a boat like this one to scatter her ashes along with rose petals over the water.  Unfortunately it wasn’t a sunny afternoon like the one in the picture.  It was overcast, a bit on the cool side, windy, and the water was not all that smooth with sizeable waves beginning to roll in.  But her ashes were scattered beautifully with the rose petals and we made it safely back to shore. J

:->

La Nightingail