The Pastures of Heaven
Julie posing in front of a large map showing the journey of John Steinbeck which later became the basis of one of his last books – Travels with Charlie
In 1932 a young American author by the name of John Steinbeck wrote a book featuring a series of inter-related short stories about a valley near his home town of Salinas in central California. In these stories he described the beautiful green fields, stately old oaks, towering hills on all sides and a creek that ran down the middle of this hidden valley. Steinbeck called the book The Pastures of Heaven and the book was part of what launched Steinbeck on his path to fame and a Nobel Prize. And as it happens, the Pastures of Heaven is where I grew up.
Home sweet home – it is always great to come back to my family home and spend time in this familiar setting
The first stage of our extended adventure – that of packing up the house and leaving all our friends and family – was behind us and the next stage promised to be more fun. The plan was to stay at my parents house, nestled deep within the pastures of heaven on a quiet country road, while we took care of a few administrative issues, bought some camping and travel gear that we needed and waited for our camper to be completed.
A panoramic view of some of the area John Steinbeck called the Pastures of Heaven – now a popular place to live
We had some free time to do a couple of walks – including across lush green fields courtesy of all the recent rain
As this stage stretched out a bit longer than we had hoped we at least got the chance to explore local areas again, do a couple of bush walks and take in some local sights. And all from the comfort of my family home where we spent a lot of great time with my parents and caught up with various family members.
One day we visited the historic San Juan Bautista Mission, established in 1797 as the 15th of 21 missions built along the California coast by Franciscan priests who wanted to convert local indigenous tribes to Catholicism and the Spanish way of life. This was a fascinating look into the history of European settlement of the west coast of America and Julie and I spent hours there going through the mission and the accompanying stables, hotel, support buildings and collection of historic items.
The beautiful mission at San Juan Bautista in central California – established in 1797
The church in the mission had an warm inviting feeling with his graceful arches and high ceiling
The gardens of the mission had many different types of cacti and was fun to explore
Julie and I in the garden of the mission
The bar in the hotel near the mission is said to have featured cowboys riding up to the bar on their horses and ordering drinks – that would have been good to see!
On another day of blue skies and light breezes we followed a long section of the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail along the coastline of the town of Pacific Grove from near the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium to Asilomar State Beach. This spectacular coastline features beautiful little sandy beaches, sharp rocky points which catch the crashing waves and protected little tide pools to explore marine life up close. The smell of the ocean and picturesque scenes were a great antidote to the stress of leaving home and the long flights which we endured to get here The day was made even better by spotting a number of sea otters wallowing in the shallows, diving down to fish for food and then sharing it with their babies. Great stuff.
The dramatic coastline of the town of Pacific Grove was a beautiful place to spend the afternoon
Standing on Lovers Point of the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail
We don’t have seaweed like this in Australia!
Colourful plants, blue skies, sparkling ocean and rocky coastline made for great viewing
A sea otter and her baby play in the surf near a rocky outcrop
This guy looks like he’s asleep on the beach
Dinner by candlelight – three nights of no power and no water meant the extended family had to be creative and patient. Photo: Matthew
But our time in the pastures of heaven was not all heaven. California was hit by a number of violent storms, one of which hit the area near where we lived and caused local flooding and power outages. The family home was without power or water for over 60 hours which caused a lot of problems on these wet and cold winter days but did bring the extended family together for communal meals by candlelight.
Amongst our local shopping chores and other duties we also spent a day up near the town of Santa Cruz on the northern edge of Monterey Bay. We drove up the winding roads into the Santa Cruz Mountains to Big Basin State Park, home to an extended forest of beautiful California Coastal Redwoods. These trees are the tallest in the world at over 300 feet and some of them have lived for over 2,000 years. It was a special treat to walk amongst them, as we did on two slightly soggy bush walks while we were there, and marvel at their majestic size. Very special stuff.
Walking amongst giants – these beautiful graceful trees make you feel good but also a bit insignificant
Dizzy stuff looking straight up in the middle of a grove of California Redwoods
At one stage of the walk we came to a section where a very recent landslide had caused up to 50 giant trees to fall, completely blocking our path
We had to scramble over the fallen logs to find a way through – here Julie is standing under a giant tree snapped like a match stick, such was the force of this crashing forest
Dont slip off – using fallen trees to help us cross the area devastated by all these giants crashing into each other and creating an almost impassable barrier to our walk
What a big tree you have – Julie dwarfed by a monster conifer
We loved walking amongst these 2,000 year old giants and hopefully will get the chance to do some more
One day we also went to the John Steinbeck Museum in my home town of Salinas and had a great afternoon learning more about the town’s most famous son and his fascinating life writing books such as Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row.
John Steinbeck took a camper and drove around America – the truck and his route are strikingly similar to what we plan to do
John Steinbeck and I catch up on a comfy lounge, pity I’m about 50 years late for a meaningful conversation
On other excursions we drove down the famous California coast to enjoy the views and also explored the nearby town of Carmel which is a famous little town nestled amongst giant cypress trees and Monterey pines.
Julie and my sister Diane enjoying the windswept views of the California coast with our restaurant in the background
Views of Marina Beach on Monterey Bay on a clear winter’s afternoon
The locals sometimes have their own language to guide you
These giant statues in the fields near Salinas celebrate the field workers who help make the valley such a prosperous agricultural area
But all of these great activities were only the preamble to our main focus which was to take delivery of our camper from the manufacturer in the small mountain town of Grass Valley in Northern California. Unfortunately there continued to be delays in completing the camper and and the couple of days we had to wait for it turned into a couple of weeks without any certainty of when it would be completed and when we could drive away in our new home.
Julie and I with Marc, whose company is building our camper – as you can see…still not ready
I remember exploring these amazing areas with your family. Such a special places. Loving reading you updates and seeing the pictures. Travel safe, Sahx
Loved reading this… looking forward to the next installment!
Enjoying your blog Bill and trying to imagine I’m there too. Sorry your camper holding you up. hope all flooding over when you do get going. Love Margaret