Monday, November 5, 2012

Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Carmel...

After our visit to the Winchester house, we drove over to the coast to visit Monterrey.  Santa Cruz, Monterrey and Carmel all blend into each other, but the entire area is beautiful!

Monterrey

The Marina

Cannery Row


Every time I see a Sea Gull, I think of "Finding Nemo"!  In our family, these birds are called "Mine" birds!

Crabbing boat heading out to Sea.

Pelicans

 Monterrey beach area...




The coast... I think this was outside of Santa Cruz...

Yes, those are my toes...



Heading to Carmel...


Just a little video of the waves coming in... Ahhhh!

I always love going to the coast!
T.

The Winchester Mystery House...

There are so many fun and interesting things to do in this area.  There are so many options for day trips!  Between visiting little coastal towns to historic Gold Country, it's hard to choose!

One day we saw a commercial for tours to the infamous Winchester House in San Jose.  We had heard about this place years ago, so we decided to take a day trip to San Jose.  It's been a few years- Sept. 07.

Here's a little history about the House (for those of you who don't already know).

 A photo of the house...  Sorry, I didn't get a good photo from outdoors.  My bad!

Another photo...
This Clip of information was taken from the Winchester Mystery House website:  
http://winchestermysteryhouse.com/sarahwinchester.cfm  Please visit the site, It's really very interesting!

In 1862, Sarah married William Wirt Winchester, son of Oliver Fisher Winchester, Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut and manufacturer of the famous Winchester repeating rifle. The couple’s life together was happy, and they moved in the best New England society. However, in 1866, disaster struck when their infant daughter, Annie, died of then mysterious childhood disease marasmus. Mrs. Winchester fell into a deep depression from which she never fully recovered. Fifteen years later, in March 1881, her husband’s premature death from tuberculosis added to Mrs. Winchester’s distress. It is said, she ultimately sought help from a spiritualist. 


The spiritualist told Sarah that her family and fortune were being haunted by all the people who were killed by the Winchester revolving rifle and the deaths of her daughter and husband were caused by these spirits.  The spiritualist told Sarah that she could appease the spirits if she moved west and build a great house for them and as long as she continued building her life was not in danger... And long story short, that's how the house came to be.  If you visit the website above you can read the story in it's entirety- It's fascinating!

On to more pics...

Doors of all shapes & sizes.

Stairs that lead to no where.  The house is said to be haunted by Sarah and the spirits.  We didn't see any ghosts, but there were lots of orbs in many of the photos.

Bedroom

Study


Sarah's bedroom


Our tour guide.




Indoors looking out into the courtyard- You could see other wings of the house.





Another view of the courtyard

Bathtub

Great room- It was so dark in there it was hard to get a good pic.

That's the end of my tour.  

T.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Where I come from...

As I mentioned before, we moved from Texas to California...

I thought I would share a few photos from where I come from.  A placed called Amarillo.  It's mentioned in many country songs... Amarillo by morning-George Strait, Amarillo Sky-Big & Rich,  Fly over states-Jason Aldean, Amarillo-Alan Jackson... and that's just to name a few.

The photos below are of Cadillac Ranch created by an eccentric millionaire (who apparently had nothing better to do with his time or money)  but it is kinda cool.

An actual tornado touched down in this area about an hour after these photos were taken...

    Amarillo Sky...

    Cadillac Ranch









 This one is pretty cool... You get a good view of the wall cloud...





The following photos I CANNOT TAKE CREDIT FOR... I simply did a google search of photos of Amarillo and these will be replaced with photos of my own... As soon as I can find them...

   American Quarter Horse Association-Amarillo
 
    The famous "Big Texan Steak House"  It's famous for their 72oz. Steak.  Yes, we have eaten there, but         there, and yes it's good (did not try the 72 oz. steak. (but it's free if you can eat the whole thing with all the trimmings (good luck).  You should stop by it you ever drive through Amarillo.  Here's the web address of the restaurant.  www.bigtexan.com
 
    Sunrise outside of Amarillo- And a view of a few Oil derek's
   Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the US.  Second only the Grand Canyon... Located    just outside of Canyon, Texas- Just West of Amarillo.

   Palo Duro Canyon... just copied a pic from the website...
   http://palodurocanyon.com Photo taken by Earl Nottingham, TPWD Chief Photographer
   
   You should take a look at the site, there are some really beautiful photos there!
    This is another view of the Canyon taken from:  http://www.americansouthwest.net/texas/palo-duro-canyon/paloduro1_l.html
    

    A view of down town Amarillo
If you're interested, here is another website that will tell you all about places to visit in and around Amarillo:  http://www.route66amarillo.com


Enjoy,
T.