May is Asian Pacific/American Heritage Month in the US, so it seemed appropriate to take a look at this episode of California’s Gold which originally aired on May 8, 2008. I’ve never visited the Pacific Asia Museum, but it definitely looks and sounds like a wonderful place to explore! The Pacific Asia Museum is one of only four institutions in […]
I’ve heard it said you should never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach — and perhaps I also shouldn’t browse through the Huell Howser Archives on an empty stomach! Huell definitely loved to do segments involving food, and many of his segments involved going in search of various types of food, where he was always very happy to do […]
Well, it’s not quite summer, although around here we may feel like it is when the temperatures get up into the 80 degree (F) range this week. Maybe that’s part of the reason I chose this particular subject to feature today! Yet another double episode, this segment first aired as part of the Visiting series in 1999, and later appeared […]
This Classic episode of California’s Gold inevitably brings back memories from my childhood of traveling south along Highway 99/Interstate 5 toward the Tehachapi Mountains and seeing acres and acres of pumps working away in the fields on both sides of the road. As the years passed, the number of pumps visible from the highway grew ever smaller. And indeed, oil […]
When I chose to feature this hour-long episode of Visiting (original air date April 1998) I had no idea that, in addition to the two segments described below, it actually contained a surprise at the end — a couple of extra hidden gems from Huell’s 1998 Videolog series. I especially enjoyed seeing the hike into the San Gabriel Mountains near […]
This week Huell presents a somewhat bittersweet tale of two fireboats — old Fireboat #2, also known as the Ralph J. Scott, serving with pride for 78 years; and her replacement, the shiny new Warner Lawrence, which took over the job in 2003. The episode combines two half-hour segments of Visiting; the first aired in June 1996, and the update […]
Back in the 1990s the Big Guy and I briefly considered relocating from the Sacramento Valley to the area around Clear Lake, and the city of Ukiah (on U.S. 101, about a 30-minute drive from the lake’s north shore) looked to me like an attractive option. We never actually moved, and I never even managed to visit Ukiah — until […]
Last Monday, March 20, those of us in the Northern Hemisphere celebrated the first day of spring, also known as the vernal equinox — even though it may not feel a whole lot like spring, depending on where you are! The vernal equinox also marks the start of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. The first event of this annual celebration […]
Do you know the difference between a Victory ship and a Liberty ship? I didn’t, even though I’ve actually visited a Liberty ship — the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, currently docked at Pier 35 in San Francisco. Victory ships were larger than their Liberty ship predecessors and were powered by steam turbines for faster speed, as opposed to the earlier steam […]