Newport Beach Harbor

This morning at 9 AM we boarded the Hornblower Cruise Yacht "ENTERTAINER" For a morning brunch cruise in Newport Beach Harbor. The harbor has 6 or 8 islands in it, Balboa Island being the largest. The shores are lined with houses ranging from 38 million and down. There are many yachts and sail boats as well. The house lower picture left was Gene Autreys house. It is now owned by the founder of Yahoo. Mark McGuire had purchased this house before the Yahoo owner but couldn't get voted in so never lived in it. It sets on the smallest island in the harbor. There are maybe a dozen houses on the Island and you have to be voted in to live there. The house just behind this on the north side of the island was owned by Clark Gable. The only way on to this island is by golf cart or boat. We saw Shirley Temples house as well as John Wayne's' House and Yacht. We also saw were Gilligan's Island was filmed. All of these multi million dollar houses and most of them only have a few feet of space between them.

Rose Parade float building

This morning we boarded the buses at 7:45 for the 1 hour ride to Pasadena where we toured a float building tent as well as one building where they were working on floats. They start designing these floats as soon as the parade theme is announced. They usually announce it soon after the parade is over. On Dec. 26th they are allowed to start gluing and attaching much of the plant material. They start with the flowers on the 29th. and all work must stop at noon on the 31st. All parts of the float are covered by plant material or flowers or seeds. The big majority of the work of covering the floats is done by volunteers. I would hate to guess how much glue is used or how many hours it takes to do just one of the floats. This evening we have an Hawaiian Luau here at the resort.

Chrystal Cathedral

Yesterday it was on the bus at 11 AM for the ride to Knotts Berry Farm to eat fried chicken with boysenberry pie for desert. After a couple of hours there it was back on the bus for the ride to the Chrystal Cathedral for the 4:30 showing of The Glory of Christmas. We arrived back here at Newport Dunes around 7 PM.
The Chrystal Cathedral is a huge complex consisting of the very large all glass main sanctuary, the memorial gardens, the bell tower smaller sanctuary building, the visitor center along with many memorial statue scenes. It is all beautiful manicured and very showy& glitzy. In the memorial gardens you can have your ashes placed in a crematory niche for $1650-$4500. There are 10 person family plots for $250000 as well as crypts priced somewhere in between.
The Glory of Christmas is staged in the main cathedral. It is a musical that uses live animals and approximately 250 people portraying the birth of Christ. There are several scenes that have up to 7 live angles flying over head. This is accomplished with with the use of cables and electric winches. At one time there were 5 horses on stage. At another there were probably 18 animals consisting of sheep, goats, a small calf, small camel , donkeys etc. They had 3 large camels on stage during the wise men scenes. They portrayed the manger where the Baby Jesus was born as being in a cave. I had always thought of the stable as a wooden or adobe structure but I guess it could also have been a cave.

Newport Beach, CA

Tonight finds us in Newport Beach for the Good Sams Rose Parade Samboree. We left Morgan Hill yesterday and drove to Valentia, CA for the night . This morning we drove the 80 miles through The LA metro area in about 90 min. This was a surprise to us a we had been told we could spend up to 4 hrs getting down here. We are Parked at the Newport Dunes RV Resort looking out our front window at the bay less than 100 ft. in front of us. The bay is decorated with Christmas tree floats. What a pretty night time sight. There are 74 RV's here for the Samboree. This evening we had our welcoming supper and were entertained by the Pasadena City College Band. They are the official band for the Rose Parade. There were about 100 band members that played (about 1/2 of the band). It was a very impressive performance. The pictures are from right in front of our motor home.

Monterey aquarium

On Wed. of this week we drove to Monterey to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium located on Cannery Row on the bay. Cannery Row at one time was the location of up to 14 sardine canneries and a half dozen fish canneries. It has now been restored is and is a tourist area consisting of shops, restaurants and nite life spots as well as the aquarium. The aquarium focuses on the deep sea kelp forest and the Monterey Bay habitat. They also have an intersting exhibit featuring sea otters and fresh water otters. There is an extensive exhibit of many different kinds of jelly fish that are located around the kelp forests. The jelly fish are one of the most beautiful sea creatures I have ever seen. They have no bones and consist of a jelly like substance. You will find more pictures of them on my web album.

On the way to Monterey on US1 and US101 we passed by many fields of artichokes some fields of straw berries and many many fields that were just now being prepared for planting. The farming in this area is very labor intensive.

We also stopped at Moss Landing to watch the surfers. The temperature was around 50 degree's. It was interesting to see that a few now have someone on a jet ski pull them out to catch the waves. I guess that lets them catch a lot more waves in an outing as it doesn't take near as long as swimming out takes.

Morgan Hill, CA

We are still in Morgan Hill and still trying to adjust to the cool weather. I don't think that is going to happen as mid 50 degree days and low 30 degree nights just aren't our cup of tea any more. It is raining today and is supposed to for the next few days. We have not seen a lot of things lately due to the rainy weather. It doesn't look like we will see much more as we will be leaving after Christmas for the Rose Parade Samboree. Hopefully it will be somewhat warmer in the LA area and in Arizona when we arrive there after the first of the year.

Streets Of Bethlehem Salias, CA

Sun. evening Chris, Nancy & I drove to Salinas, CA to see the Streets of Bethlehem Christmas display put on by the First Baptist Church. It was in the parking lot surrounding the church and requires about 300 people to put it on and it is free. They take you through in groups of 300. The first area you enter portrays the King and the tax collector. They do a little skit about the arrogance of the King and his wife and about collecting the taxes. We then went past a lot of merchants as well as animals in pens etc. You could eat some bread that was typical of the time and see bracelets being made as well as many other things. The next section portrayed the inn. The skit there was of the inn keepers wife & son talking of getting the stable ready for use as the Inn was full. Joseph then entered with Mary on a donkey. The Inn keeper wanted to charge then to stay in the stable but the wife and son pleaded with him to let them stay for free. The next section we went into portrayed the Sheppard's on the hill side. The angel then appeared and the Sheppard's rushed over to that hill. After they went back to the hillside a group of young ladies appeared as angels below the first angel that announced the birth of the babe in the manger. Then the scene shifted the manger scene showing Joseph, Mary & the baby Jesus surrounded by angels with a large live angel in the sky overhead. After leaving there we went past the 3 crosses that that represented Jesus & the two robbers hanging on the cross. Also they had a large pen of sheep & goats for the children to interact with. To add to the authenticity of the whole thing the entire area was covered with straw.

Mission San Juan Bautista

Wed. of this week found us at San Juan Bautista, CA site of Mission San Juan Bautista established in1797. The original mission consisted of an adobe church, granary, barracks, monastery and some adobe houses all built by friendly people that inhabited the area. Construction on the present church began in 1803 with dedication in 1812. It had 3 aisles and thus was the widest church of all the mission churches built through California. The cemetery on the east side of the church contain the remains of over 4000 Christain Native Americans and Europeans.

In 1835 the Mexican government seized much of the mission property. In 1855 the present mission buildings and 55 acres were returned to the church by federal decree. The San Andeas fault runs along the base of the hill below the cemetery. As a result of the 1906 earth quake the side walls collapsed and were restored in 1976.
What is now the historic Plaza Hotel was originally a one story adobe building that housed 5 or 6 soldiers. It was purchased in 1856 by Angelo Zanetta. He then added a wooden second story and in 1859 it opened as a hotel that would become famous for its French & Italian cuisine. In 1870 a stable was built by John Comfort and Zanetta to accommodate the 11 stagecoaches that were arriving daily from Los Angeles or San Francisco. They also converted an adobe house that housed unmarried women and girls from the mission to be used as the courthouse. However Hollister became the county seat so Zanetta converted it to his private residence.