Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, CA.

Today we visited the Mare Island Shipyard and their museum in Vallejo, California.  California became a state in 1852 and Mare Island was founded in 1854 as a port to do business with the Orient and Far West.  Admiral David Farragut was put in charge and construction began.  The port grew and during WWII, the workers at Mare Island built 392 ships and 16 submarines.  They also repaired 4000 damaged vessels.  During WWII, 44,000 people were employed at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. We visit the oldest Naval chapel west of Annapolis, Maryland, St. Peters.  It had the most beautiful stained glass windows that we ever saw.  We also visited the home that was built for the Admiral in charge of the base.  The base was closed in 1970, but the property now houses lots of businesses, including Lennar Homes which is developing the property with new homes.

       

A repair drydock

One of two slides where ships were christened and set sail

The Admiral's Home

St. Peter's Chapel

The Alter

The rear stained glass windows

Put Debbie to work!

                                                                                  

The Sacramento River Cats Minor League Baseball

We decided to take in a baseball game at the Sacramento River Cats, the Class A Minor League team for the Oakland A's.  Many of their team's players are former major league players, one step away from getting back to the big leagues.  The River Cats beat the Tucson Padres 11-3.

   

Dinger the Mascot

Raley Field (Rally is a large grocery chain)

                                                                            

                                                                                           

Reiff's Garage, Woodland, Ca.

While in Sacramento, we stopped by Reiff's Garage.  It is Mr. Reiff's house that he turned into a combination home, gas station, diner, garage, and patio bar.  We also got invited into his home, which is also filled with gas station memorabilia, but I did not take photos in the house.  You'll love this.

Mr. Reiff outside the front of the house

The diner, to the left of the front of the house

A '55 Oldsmobile in the side of the house & a plane in the roof

The backyard bar

An amazed Debbie looks out at the backyard

The backyard

Four of over 50 restored gas pumps

The garage and Mr. Reiff's Corvette

A very rare restored sign

                                                                               

Scottish Games and Festival - Woodlands, CA.

We are in Antioch, California for a week at the Antioch Fairgrounds.  We will visit San Francisco again from here as well as Sacramento, Vallejo, and Pittsburg, Ca.  Saturday we drove to Citrus Heights and visited one of Debbie's former co-workers, Peggy Reid. Peggy was born in Scotland and goes back every year, so she was all for accompanying us to the Scottish Games.  We saw the opening ceremonies, the judging of the drum majors, saw highland dancers and listened to Scottish music and bagpipes.  We also saw some of the games, such as the caber toss, weight over bar, hammer throw and other sports.  It was a great day.  Please see some of the movies I took.

                                                           Opening Ceremonies

                                                                              

                                                            Over the bar-46 lb weight
              

                                                          Caber Toss-105 lb. pole

                                                                      
                                                                     Shot putt

                                                                      Hammer throw

                                                               Debbie and Peggy Reid

Whale Watch-Monterey, California

Today was a special day.  We left early and drove to Monterey to go on a whale watching cruise at 9 a.m.  It was 56 degrees when we left and the wind on the water made it feel at times like 20 degrees.  It was well worth it.  We got some great shots of humpback whales.  We also saw a few dolphins and lots of sea lions.  The video below is of a humpback whale, upside down, either knocking barnacles off it's tail or sending a message to other whales.  Researchers are not sure, but seagulls dove in and picked up debris.

                                                             Click to view the video

The humpback whale jumps out of the sea

The Humpback glides by

Slapping it's fluke

                                                                            

Sea lions on a buoy

Sea lions on a dock

Sea Wolf II

Debbie enjoying the ride back to the wharf

                                                                      

Roaring Camp Railroad, Fenton, California

After our sawmill tour, we headed to Roaring Camp Railroad for an hour and a half tour of the local redwood forest.  The old steam engine chugged up some grades between 8.5 and 9.25 degrees.  The steam and smoke poured out of the steam engine that runs on used motor oil and used cooking oil. It was a great ride through the forests.  We used several switchbacks, saw old railroad bridges, burned during a 1985 forest fire, and even caught a glimpse of the native banana slugs.

                                                                               

All Aboard!

                                                                                

                                                                              

         

                                                                                                              

The old burned trestle

The redwoods reaching for the sky

                                                                                                                        

Big Creek Sawmill Tour, Davenport, CA.

Debbie had worked for lumber companies for most of her career, 13 years at Handy City and nearly 24 years at Tibbett's Lumber.  Debbie also had a short stints with William's Brothers and Double Branch Lumber before retiring.  Although she learned just about every phase of the lumber business, she never had the opportunity to see a sawmill in action.  Well, I found a sawmill in Davenport, California that would give us a tour.  This event really made her day. (you can tell by the look on her face in the first photo)  We had a tour at Big Creek Lumber, with Kristin Lovett.  Big Creek only works with coastal redwood.

Smiling Debbie at Big Creek Lumber

Debbie and Kristin

Bringing in the redwood logs

The redwood heads to the giant band saw

Cutting out the bad spots and cutting the rest to size

Sorting lumber and directing the wood outside

Sorting lumber by size and grade

More sorting

Moving the sorted lumber

The big blades get sharpened and changed every 4-5 hours

Debbie-Manny-Kristen (Manny gave Debbie a dvd about sharpening blades)

Big Creek Lumber overlooks the Pacific Ocean, what a view!

                                                                              

Carmel-By-the-Sea

We went to Carmel to visit the Carmel Mission and the burial site of Father Juniper Sierra.  After visiting the mission we stopped for some pizza and did some shopping in ritzy Carmel-By-The-Sea and then down to the oceanfront for a walk on the beach.

Debbie and me near the mission entrance

The outside courtyard

Debbie relaxing after the tour

The sanctuary

The Alter

Father Sierra's room

A painting of Father Sierra

The beach at Carmel-By-The-Bay

Relaxing by the beach