Eureka, I have found it!

Spaniards were the first to dub the lands on the western side of the North American continent California. Supposedly, the name came from the popular 1510 fictional story of Queen Calafia’s queendom said to be a remote land rich in gold and pearls, inhabited by beautiful black women who wore gold armor and lived like Amazons, as well as griffins and other strange beasts. Zoom forward 440 years, past 1804 when Alta California became part of New Spain, and then Mexico in 1821, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848 and California became the 31st state in 1850. California has long captured the hopes and dreams of many over the centuries. However, my personal journey to California was somewhat less direct.

Sometime in the late 1950’s when I was 3 or 4 years old, we did a family driving trip with our Shasta trailer from Monahans, Texas, to California. I don’t remember much about the trip except Yosemite, with giant sequoias, a deer and even a brown bear. I wouldn’t return to California until 1979 when at a job fair in Houston that summer I was offered an interview at a company based in San Jose. Until that point, I never even considered as a possibility living and working in California. What little I knew about California came from music, movies, TV and the news. To me there were many different California’s that didn’t quite seem to fit together. There were the dream factories of Hollywood in the 1930 and 1940s. The 50’s and 60’s Alfred Hitchcock sci-fi thrillers Psycho, Vertigo, and The Birds which somehow tied in with TV shows like the Twilight Zone, The Beverly Hillbillies and of course, The Wonderful World of Disney. By the late 60s, California seemed to dominate the news with Vietnam protests, hippies, and a lot more music. And by the late 1970s there was gay liberation, the drought, smog, Johnny Carson, Jerry Brown (Governor Moonbeam), and the Moscone and Harvey Milk shooting. 

When arriving in California for my interview, I had goosebumps leaving the San Jose airport and entering Highway 101 where there were two big signs – “San Francisco” and  “Los Angeles”.  I thought this might be the place for me. If that weren’t enough, there were redwoods growing along the freeway.  The interview was followed by a job offer and I started to seriously consider moving to California. I bought a map of California and found myself pouring over all the national forests, parks, mountains, deserts. beaches and lakes and dreaming of car trips and hiking.

And so, at age 25 I packed up my few belongings and moved to Santa Clara where I would live the next very fast paced 4 years.

My little bit of vacation time was used with visiting guests that I would show around the Bay Area. On the Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends, I’d make the long drive to Southern California, usually to Laguna Beach, but stopping at Central California towns along the way. I assumed I would likely live the rest of my life in the Bay Area, but like so many others, the pace of working Silicon Valley and cost of homes led me to San Diego in 1983 where I bought a house in Encinitas.  I only planned to live there a few years, but ended up staying until 1998.

In 1988 I went with a friend to a local bike shop to help a him buy a bike.  I ended up buying a used Cannondale Bike and picked up cycling as a hobby. I’ve been a frequent cyclist ever since. In 1990 I did a 10 day bike ride from San Francisco to Encinitas.

California has always been an adventure to me. Even though I’ve lived here 40 years, I continually learn something new about this unique state. Having traveled to many other places in the U.S. and the world, I can say in terms of climate, scenery, plants, and culture, there are none more varied and diverse than the Golden State.

So, in 2020 and my 65th year around the sun begins a yearlong adventure. I plan to spend the year visiting iconic locations of the state. Many I’ve visited before, but also many are new ones. I plan to visit as many as possible of the 36 National Parks, Monuments, Preserves, Seashores, and Recreation areas in the state. Along the way, I’ll visit our large cities and small towns, as well as many of our wonderful state parks. I’ll spend some time in the Bay Area, far Northern California, our deserts and the Sierras. And of course, I’ll visit as many gardens and wildflower spots as possible. I’ll post photos regularly on Facebook and write blog posts whenever possible. Stay tuned, the adventure begins with a visit to the Los Angeles metropolitan area in early January.

Other places I hope to revisit in 2020