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| Little Red & Winchester Mansion |
Sunday, August 5th at around 7:00 AM, the Queen (Wife) wakes all of us up from our deep sleep. The Best Western we stayed at provided us with a free breakfast. More like a breakfast brunch that consisted of ham, eggs, bacon, waffles, French toast and a beautiful coffee machine that had many, many different types of coffees available to choose from. I became addicted to the vanilla latte, very delicious.Today's mission is to take a tour of the Winchester Mansion and afterwards check out the Cannery Row in Monterey.
The Winchester Mansion is amazing and no, I didn’t run into any ghosts, spirits or ghouls. Just had a
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| Winchester Mansion |
very informative tour of the beautiful, crazily designed mansion. I say crazy because, there are doors and stairs to nowhere but, that is what gives the place its charm and makes it so interesting. In my opinion if it was done without the doors and stairs to nowhere, it would still be an amazing mansion. It is difficult for me to put into words, it is a place you must see for yourself. I wish I could remember our Tour Guides name but, she was Awesome! I could tell right away that she really enjoys her job. She was very knowledgeable and friendly. She also recommends that we come back for the Candlelight Tour during Halloween. My Family really want to do the Candlelight Tour. My favorite rooms are of course the kitchen, I wish my kitchen was that big, and the Grand Ballroom. The ballroom isn’t big but, our Tour Guide informed us it was named the Grand Ballroom due to the amount of money Mrs Winchester spent on it. It truly is Grand. I was able to stand in the center of the room by myself for a few minutes as the rest of the group we were with took off to the next room down some twisting hallways. It felt like they were really pushing us to see the movie, Winchester. From what our Tour Guide told us, they filmed three days in the mansion and the rest in Australia. I never knew there was a Winchester movie, it must have been an awful movie but, since parts were filmed in the mansion, I must see this movie. I don’t have a problem with watching an awful movie from time to time.
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| Fog and the Bay |
After our Tour, we hopped into Little Red to cruise onto our next adventure, The Cannery Row in Monterrey. As we are cruising along Hwy 1, and I started to have flashbacks of Fort Ord, that was an Army base many decades ago. I used to be stationed there and I longed to see it. I longed to see if my old barracks were still standing. I took the Queen (Wife) to my old haunts during the time I was stationed at Fort Ord about, 8 years ago or so, and my old barracks were still standing. Anyway, as we are heading down Hwy 1, I noticed Little Red needed fuel and the Kids needed snacks to tie us over until we arrived at Cannery Row to have our dinner. I am not kidding, the temperature outside was around 56 degrees F. While filling Little Red with fuel and the Queen (Wife) picking up snacks for the Kids, I took a picture of the fog. The picture didn't turn out as cool as it looked in real life. Anyway, with Little Red and the Kids fueled up, we continued with our journey until about mile from the gas station that we were at, Little Red’s alarms went off informing me there is an issue with the tires. At first, I thought I had a flat tire. Good news they are run flats, bad news they are run flats. Meaning I have no spare tire and I will need to find a tire place which something I really didn’t want to do during our Mini Vacation. The Queen (Wife) noticed the warning was for all 4 tires and they are showing that the tire pressure is low. Just need to find a place to add some air. I am thinking that since we went from one extreme temperature to another, maybe that caused the tires to lose some air. I could be wrong but, like I said in my previous post, I did check all systems before leaving for the weekend and Little Red was in good health.
While adding air to all four tires, I spotted a Walmart across the parking lot of the gas station we
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| Fort Ord |
stopped in. I thought to myself while freezing my butt off, I will find a cheap sweatshirt there I can purchase. I don’t need anything fancy, just something to keep me warm. My Son and I went on the hunt throughout the entire store and found three sweatshirts but, the problem is they were all 3XL. There is no way I was going to purchase a sweatshirt three times my size so, I passed. I will have to look elsewhere. I was very disappointed with this Walmart. Later, we arrived to where I believe my barracks used to be and is now replaced with a Smash Burger. There are still quite a few old, run down barracks still standing and I wonder how much longer before they are torn down and replaced with something else. I am very interested in what is being done with this area. I love what they have done so far. I stopped in the Target not far from the Smash Burger and did find a sweatshirt that fit and for only $20. After doing some driving around and taking pics of the old Fort Ord we left for Monterey.
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| Cannery Row Monterrey |
We arrived at Cannery Row by 4 pm, and immediately walked into the El Torrito near the Cannery Row. I don’t recall but, I believe this El Torrito had a different name back in the late 80’s. I do remember going to there when I was stationed at Fort Ord because, my Army Buddies and I love going there for the view. The building sits on a “cliff” that overlooks the ocean and there are rock formations that the seals and otters like to hang out at. I wanted my Family to experience a dinner at this restaurant. To get a window seat the wait was an hour so, while waiting for our table we walked up and down Cannery Row. I really wanted my Family to see the old Carousel that was inside the Edgewater Packing Company but, I couldn’t locate it and when I did a Google search it sounded like it was no longer around. We headed back to El Torrito to eat dinner and the Queen and I also enjoyed a Cadillac Margaritas.
After dinner was consumed, the time was about 6 pm and we were now determined to check out the
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| Little Red Mini Coopers |
Santa Cruz Boardwalk. The Boardwalk is another place we used to frequent when I was in the Army that I wanted to show my Family. By the time we arrived at the Boardwalk, finding a parking space was very frustrating. I was getting so frustrated that I decided to head back to our hotel in Milpitas. I gave up but, no sooner did I give up the Queen yells, “There! Parking!” Lo and behold a “legal” place to park right across the street from the Boardwalk was available and it was right behind another Little Red Mini Cooper that happened to be the same Generation (3rd) as mine. I just had to take a pic of the 2 Little Reds. One thing I hate about going to most beaches is trying to find a place to park. It is like looking for the Lost Arc or the Holy Grail. Anyway, I jokingly told my Kids, “We learned a valuable lesson today. When things seem impossible and you get frustrated, just give up and good things will become available to you.” They just laughed said, “Wow Dad!”
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| Caveman of Santa Cruz |
I was surprised to see they still have the Caveman mannequin on one of the Sky Glider carts. My Kids wanted to ride it while the Queen and I walked along the Boardwalk. We were amazed at how there are people swimming in the ocean because, to us Southern Californians we are freezing when the temps are down to the 50-60’s. I am so used to the Desert temps that I now freeze when it is at 70 degrees and I am from Wisconsin. After the Kids did The Vault Laser Maze, my Son and I were fascinated with the Fright Walk. The “haunted paintings” out front looked really cool, so I thought this attraction’s special effects had to be amazing. Well, it wasn’t what I was hoping it would be. I wanted to see better effects. By the time we were done with the Fright Walk, we were exhausted. It was a long day of driving and walking. We decided to go back to the hotel in Milpitas to get a good night’s sleep. The traffic back to the hotel was horrendous, it took us an hour or so to get back to the hotel. Instead falling asleep when we arrived at our room, I was wide a wake and got caught up into a Western movie on HBO, starring Ethan Hawke and John Travolta. I never heard of this film and I enjoyed it. Kind of reminded me of the old Spaghetti Westerns. To me it didn’t have the gritty feel of the old Clint Eastwood Westerns but, still pretty good. If you have seen the movie, let me know what you thought of it. Until next entry… Smoke ‘em if you got ’em.
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