I had a post about a historic California ghost town randomly pop up on my Facebook feed Tuesday morning, and the name sounded familiar to me — so I went into Chapman University’s archives and found this episode of California’s Gold, originally aired in August 2008. The town was named after the Rand Mountain gold strike, at the Yellow Aster, […]
I apologize in advance if today’s featured episode gets your stomach growling or wakes up your sweet tooth! This segment of Visiting originally aired in January 2001, but I thought it would be fun to take a look at it on Valentine’s Day. Fake food is certainly one way of avoiding unwanted calories, and this company is apparently still very […]
Whenever I think of Seal Beach the first thing that comes to mind is Leisure World, the huge retirement community based in this Southern California coastal town. That’s because I still recall a few visits my family had with a lovely older couple who lived there when I was quite young. I have at least one photo of Grandma Pat, […]
This week I have a handful of slide images from December 1981 that I’ve hesitated to share for awhile. Although I was present for at least some of them, my memories are very vague, and I wish I could remember more details. I actually kept a small journal but it provides only sparse information. My family was spending Christmas and […]
Today I’ve been so busy I still haven’t checked to see the groundhog’s weather prediction for the next six weeks — although locally we’ve been alternating between sunshine and rain. I did have a small surprise when I realized it was seven years ago today that I had my first and only experience with indoor skydiving at iFly Sacramento. I’m […]
Huell visits a massive archaeological site with millions of fossils dating from the Miocene Epoch, 15 million years ago. Kern County was once at the bottom of a huge sea filled with massive prehistoric sharks called megladons which were as big as city busses and fed on whales. Sharktooth Hill is literally covered with fossilized shark teeth. Huell also visits […]
If you’ve ever traveled over California’s Tehachapi range, heading either north or south along Interstate 5, you may have unknowingly passed the Tejon Ranch. As a kid, I always thought of these mountains as “The Grapevine,” without understanding or even questioning why! It meant that our trip to the Los Angeles region was nearly over — although occasionally the Tejon […]
Since I’ve been looking through my photos from last October when I visited the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg, I thought it would be nice to revisit this episode — it was my very first look at this beautiful spot in Mendocino County. This segment of California’s Golden Coast originally aired in September 2003, and I featured it here on the blog in October 2018: I’ve been a botanical garden fan ever since my visit to the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park in 2016. Before that, I had no idea how wonderful such places could be — perfect for photography, for wandering, or for just sitting to relax in the middle of nature’s beauty. Watching this episode of California’s Golden Coast is a great introduction to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, a unique and beautiful public garden near the small town of Fort Bragg; I was surprised to learn that this garden has been here since 1961. Now it looks like I have another spot to add to my must-visit list! The Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens is the only public garden in the continental United States located directly on the coast. Huell explores this rare jewel set within coastal pines and coastal bluffs in Fort Bragg. In addition to its diverse flora, there is a retail nursery and garden shop as well as workshops, classes and lectures so you may take a bit of the […]