One year we went to Santa Fe and drove by and saw the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). If you don’t know about the “Very Large Array,” it is a radio telescope system situated on the plains of San Agustin near Socorro, New Mexico — in effect — a single telescope many miles across. It was amazing.

 Both of us are big history buffs, so our visit to Santa Fe was filled with tours around the city and its historic churches. Another year we rode the Verde Canyon Train, located in Clarkdale, Arizona, which she wrote about for this magazine — “Riding the Verde Canyon Railroad.” We also rode the train from Williams to the Grand Canyon as wel as the train from Durango to Silverton, Colorado. Our last trip took us down the Pacific coast and then trans-country to North Carolina. I loved traveling with my mom — her only stipulation was that if nature called, I’d stop.

 In the summer of 2019, we spent three days in Napa and Sonoma with my brother Jeff, and my sister-in-law Denise, and we checked out some of mom’s favorite wineries — her favorite being Cline Cellars Winery located in the Carneros wine appellation of Sonoma County. The highlight, however, was our visit to Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, a California state park located in Sonoma County north of Guerneville. It was established in 1934 to preserve 805 acres of coastal redwoods. As a first-timer, the enormity of these trees blew me away. I am a tree lover and there is a lot of tree to love in the redwood. The tallest individual tree is the Parson Jones Tree at 310 feet in height and the oldest is the Colonel Armstrong Tree, estimated to be over 1,400 years old. 

 On our last morning in Napa, we ate breakfast with Jeff and and Denise and then my mom and I headed toward the coast. We headed south of San Francisco to the Lighthouse Lodge and Cottages in Pacific Cove located on the edge of the tip of Monterey Bay’s coast and next to the historical Point Pinos Lighthouse. The views were breathtaking. We stayed in a nautical-themed room on the edge of a large deck that featured long rectangle gas fireplaces and cushy seating surrounded by cedar-shingled siding. We ate dinner and an amazing breakfast in a separate dining hall located just across the deck from our room — all included in the price. The next morning we packed up and started our long drive down the coast on State Route 1, from Monterey Bay. The scenery was amazing. Once we hit Big Sur, we stopped at a Ranger station built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and bought souvenirs and then ate lunch at the Whale Watcher’s Cafe. The name of the restaurant instilled hope as we sat on benches and ate on a raised counter that overlooked the Pacific Ocean but we were not fortunate enough to see any whales. We did, however, meet some guys from England that flew over just to travel the Pacific Coast.

 One of my favorite stops was the Piedras Blancas Rookery, an elephant seal rookery located seven miles north of San Simeon. The seals were basking on the shores below the viewing area. In peak times, there are up to 17,000 animals on the San Simeon Shores. There are three peak times of the year that have large populations of seals - January, April, and October. Adult males will fight for mating rights from December through January. Elephant seal bulls can reach 16 feet in length and weigh up to 5,000 pounds. According to the brochure I found there, watching these enormous animals fight for dominance is quite a spectacle. It was August, and there were seals, maybe not 17,000 and no fighting bulls but it was still pretty amazing.

 Our drive through Los Angeles wasn’t very fun for me or for my mom either. I’m not a fan of city driving and the “City of Angels” is tougher than most. We stopped in Ventura for a bite to eat and to set up navigation through Siri. It’s here I learned that Siri gets pretty sensitive when I use choice words to get her to navigate and she cut me off completely. Siri, it seems, got mad at me. So, I had to drive through Los Angeles “unaccompanied.” What did we do before GPS? Thank goodness my sister-in-law had lived there for years and told me the highways to take and my mom kept telling me “you’re doing great, we’re almost there!” even though it felt like an eternity. We made it through the city and stayed in Huntington Beach that night.

 The next morning we packed up again and headed to Laguna Beach — both of us love Laguna. It is an artist’s haven with tons of shops, restaurants and galleries but our first stop was to a Sees Candy store for some “Milk California Brittle” and then to our favorite — Anastasia Cafe for breakfast. Laguna is a very busy town in the summer so we had to park up on a hill just above the restaurant. At 83 my mom was pretty darn healthy except for a bum knee so we hauled her wheel chair with us so she wouldn’t have to walk very far. After parking, we set up her wheel chair and started toward the restaurant. If you’re familiar with Laguna Beach, you know it is famous for its hills — and we had a doozy to maneuver down. We started out pretty good until it got really steep and I didn’t think I could hold onto her. Noticing the danger ahead, she jumped up and said, “I can walk!!” 

 

 After Laguna, we headed inland toward home to get another issue of the Outdoors SW Magazine out. See, with a long history of journalism and business editing in her past, from the first issue to her last my mom was the editor of this magazine (and every magazine I ever published). 

 After deadline, billing and deliveries, we jumped back in the truck, with a step-stool in tow (so my mom could make it into the passenger seat of my new Ford Ranger) and headed toward the east coast.

 We lost Carol, our editor, our mom, last month just a few days after putting the January issue “to bed.” She was 84. It was unexpected. For some reason I had felt the urge to make what would be our last journey one of our longest adventures. I asked her to drive across the entire country with me and she said she would — on one condition — if nature called, I’d stop. 

It was the best adventure we ever had.

To be continued….