THE SONGS OF A NIGHTINGAIL

So we left off last week with my great grandfather and his traveling companions reaching the foothills town of Murphy’s where they spent the night at the Sperry & Perry Hotel, prepared to arise early the next morning and head for the celebrated Big Trees in the Calaveras Grove. Continuing on, then . . .           After breakfast, we left at 6:30 for Bickers -15 miles.  Saw many objects of interest.  The drive was beautiful.  Arrived at 10:20 AM.  On the route I saw the first snow plant.  I think they are the prettiest plant I ever saw.  They are a parasite as large as a man's wrist – a red and pink color with a beautiful cluster-like cup or flower.  They must be seen to be appreciated.           Went through the Grove.  Clambered over snow five or six feet deep and saw trees 30 feet in diameter and 300 feet high.  Took dinner at the hotel kept by Mr. Perry who died ...

  No cars.  Just trains, carriages, horses, & mules. Over the next few weeks I’m going to be sharing my great grandfather, John Kinsey Smedley’s story of his trip to Yosemite in 1874.  He kept a journal of the trip of which his daughter, my paternal grandmother, Harriet (Hattie) Bell Smedley Bradley, made a handwritten copy. Funny thing about that – in his journal, my great grandfather said certain things I guess my grandmother did not feel was proper for her father to have mentioned – such as swear words or the fact that he liked talking with women.  They were neither married nor engaged at the time – though they did later marry – but her father was in a serious relationship with the woman who would become my grandmother’s mother, so not cozying to the idea of her father swearing or liking to talk to other women, my grandmother made no mention of any of that in her handwritten copy of his journal. J Having only read grandmother’s version of great grandfathe...

  San Francisco’s side-by-side homes on a steep street – and yes, some of S.F.’s streets really are this steep.  When you walk up them your fingertips graze the sidewalk and your knees nearly hit your chin – I kid you not! The beautiful “Painted Ladies” of San Francisco, also known as “Postcard Row” or “The Seven Sisters” is a row of colorful Victorian houses numbering from 710-720 on Steiner Street across from Alamo Square Park in San Francisco. I have a story to tell about that tall dark building in the background which I will relate at the end of my post. J In 1992 I was back east chaperoning a high school history trip and saw these handsome row houses in Old Town Alexandria. I found these two row houses surrounded completely by tall buildings in Washington D.C.   I wonder if people still live in them, or perhaps they became offices? Also in Washington D.C. I saw this line of attractive row houses except they weren’t row houses people lived in.  They had v...