Thursday – July 19, 2012
We had travelled as far south as we could because we had to be in San Francisco on Friday, July 20th. We had reservations at The Inn at Union Square and neither of us wanted a long driving day the reach the city which was about 250 miles north. So we packed up and left the small hotel community of San Simeon.
Along Route 46 Eastbound
First, we drove south to the town of Cambria (pronounced cam-bree-a) and stopped at The Corner French Bakery for pastries and good coffee. Then we drove further South on Highway 1 a few miles and picked up Route 46 going East. The road cut through brown-grassy hills with an occasional sign for someone’s “Ranch”.
Lettuce Fields Along Route 101
As we approached Route 101, we passed innumerable vineyards on both sides of the road. Then we continued North and passed more vineyards and orchards. We saw a sign announcing that this was the “National Salad Bowl”. We passed miles and miles and miles of lettuce fields. There were names of salad lettuce that I bought in New York!
Another Kind of Lettuce
I thought it would be fun to drive slowly along the different kinds of lettuce and salad makings. I also saw strawberry fields and grape tomatoes and cabbage plants.
Workers Picking Ripe Lettuce
It was interesting to see the workers in the fields. We forget about them and their hard back-breaking labor when we’re buying our salad makings 3000 miles away. It must be very labor intensive to grow crops. We also passed an exit marked Chavez Road and we both recalled the struggles of the migrant workers during the 1960’s. Was that really 50 years ago?!!
The First Awakenings – Salinas, CA
I had remembered a restaurant in a beautiful building in Salinas when we visited the John Steinbeck Center. We stopped there for a tasty and healthy late lunch. Then we continued driving until about 3:30 when we decided we were tired and I wanted time to do laundry before going to San Francisco.
Shadow on the Wall
We stumbled upon a Marriott Residence Inn tucked between several Silicon Valley office buildings in Sunnyvale just off Highway 101. We had reached the famous computer technology center of the universe! OK, maybe just the United States! This morning we left the legacy of William Randolph Hearst’s media wealth and power now we were among some of the most powerful and rich computer giants. Cupertino, the world headquarters of Apple, was just six miles away!