Mostly Pictures

The bottom of the tree tilted, and a power saw was needed to successfully center it.

Not Jedi knights, but bathrobe recipients. (The bunny slippers were from last year.)

E checks out his new D.S. music synthesizer and completes his 3D T-Rex puzzle, which took a while.

G mans call-center Tibia.

On our way back from Sonoma we stopped by the newly redone Academy of Sciences. Our car navigator, programmed 2 years ago, directed us to the now obsolete temporary location in the center of San Francisco so, since we had to redirect it to Golden Gate Park, we managed an unintended tour of the city.

Once in line, a friendly fellow waitee offered to take our picture. We haven't had such a good family portrait taken in years.

While approaching the Academy doesn't look especially innovative.

We had read about long lines so we came on Christmas Eve figuring people would have other things to do, but we still waited nearly 20 minutes. The drizzle probably kept people from coming, so it could have been worse.

Initial impressions aside, the interior is stunning.

The old exhibits have been redone so we visited favorites, including those on island life and evolution, the pendulum demonstrating the earth's rotation, big bugs (cockroaches), and the room on Africa.

And of course we had to gawk at the Tyrannosaurus replica. This time we traded picture taking with another family. (If you are wondering, the white skeleton in the upper left is from a blue whale.)

When we first visited the Academy G was 2. The T-rex skeleton used to have its own room and, going in, 2 year old G was as excited as I've ever seen.

View from the 3rd floor.

The center of the Academy houses a 4 story rain forest exhibit, but we didn't visit. The wait to enter was at least as long as the one to get into the building.

Instead we went out onto the roof which is covered with plants and sky lights.

The building was designed to be as self-heating, self-lighting, and energy-efficient as possible.

From the Mission we tried walking to Vallejo's house, but turned back for better directions when the first set turned out to be wrong. By the time we pulled into the parking lot it was growing close to closing.

By today's standards the house seems modest though it's larger than it first appears. There's not much room for privacy, which is probably why there are several other smaller detached living quarters nearby.

By the time Vallejo erected this house, he had parlayed his military career into that of large estate owner. Note there is nothing "Spanish" about this house's appearance, though adobe bricks were used inside the walls, unseen, for insulation.

Keeping this place clean and running smoothly would have been a full time job for several people.

Below is the tiny "Delirio," used as a retreat, for privacy lacking in the bigger house.

Below is a view of both the cook's house and the main house, from the back.

There is a spring somewhere nearby, though it wasn't clear to us whether it was close to the pond or house.

The cabin on the hill was built for Vallejo's teenage son.

The so-called Swiss Chalet is the most imposing and extravagant building on the site, dwarfing the main house in size. According the the State Historic Park site, "The original timbers were cut and numbered in Europe and shipped to California during the Gold Rush. The bricks came around the Horn as ballast in sailing ships."

I had to put this picture in for K. I'd never seen such a perfect grapefruit tree - tiny in size but loaded with grapefruit.

In California, every 4th grade student completes a set of written and oral presentations on a particular California Mission. Mrs. B assigned the Mission San Francisco Solano to E, which is the northernmost mission now in the city of Sonoma. So faster than you could say "family trip," we packed a suitcase, hopped into a car, and headed north. Our plan was to see the Mission, stay overnight in Santa Rosa, then stop at the rearchitected and rebuilt San Francisco Academy of Science on the way home.

Below the kids take a seat after walking through the Mission Museum, the collocated Sonoma Barracks Museum, and on a hunt for General Vallejo's house, which we found later.

The palm branch, found next to the bench, makes a good prop.

The plaque, which is a little hard to read, states: "On July 4, 1823, Padre Jose Altimira founded this northernmost of California's Franciscan Missons, the only one established under independent Mexico<..instead of Spain..>. In 1834 secularization orders were carried out by military Commandant Mariano G. Vallejo. San Francisco Solano became a parish church serving the pueblo and Sonoma Valley until sold in 1881...," followed by information about the organization that posted the plaque.

Apparently Spain and the Catholic Church suffered delusions common for faraway, myopic administrations. The grand plan was for the Church to take a 10 year period to complete each self-sustaining mission, while converting the California natives to Catholicism and teaching them to farm, thus creating instant towns of devoted Spanish citizens. Next, mission accomplished (pun intended), the Church intended to disband the then unnecessary missions while handing over the founded pueblo (town) to the newly minted Spaniards or, in this case, Mexicans.

The watercolor above (the photo was taken without using a flash) was painted by Chris Jorgensen in approximately 1904, while the photo below shows the same area today. Both the painting and the present day picture show the Mission in an incomplete state, though the painting was completed before partial restoration started in 1909.

Everyone knows that Mission walls were built from baked mud bricks (adobe) slathered with plaster, and that the roofs were topped with ceramic tile. But looking up under the eaves I had not expected to see bundles of twigs.

Behind the museum is a courtyard with a burbling stone fountain, olive trees, a couple of lemon trees, a rosemary hedge and, out of view, a "wall" of prickly pear cactuses.

The picture below was taken from behind the Barracks. The Mission Chapel is off to the left.

Sleeping quarters for soldiers. A nearby plaque explains that while the Spanish soldiers were paid a regular salary they were also docked, by the quartermaster, for both uniforms and their upkeep, and that out of the remaining money came the quartermaster's salary. This arrangement pretty much guaranteed poorly paid soldiers.

In the next room hangs a copy of one of the first California Republic flags. Mainly it's interesting because it was so hurriedly hand sewn. (It looked like this.) Within weeks of its creation, by American soldiers acting as settlers, other American troops landed at Monterey, declaring California for the United States.

A small, mobile cannon.

Below is the layout of the Mission in 1832, nine years after the Mission was established. The large church, on the right, was too large, hardly used, and after settlers in the 1830s removed the roof tiles for other buildings, suffered rain damage. The smaller chapel, on the left, was rebuilt on the site of the original mission church and eventually became the parish church.

A model of present day buildings.

To see a readable version, click on the picture below.

Like the outside, the inside of the chapel is long and thin.

Note that the pulpit is not part of the altar area, below, but is high along the right wall, above, so everyone in the church would be able to see and hear the priest during a sermon. (This would also mean that it wasn't considered as important for everyone to see the priest or hear words in Latin, which few could understand anyway, during the service.)

E, E, and J wait in the classroom for their turn to perform.

The 4th grade performs last, so they have time for a game or two.

The CD player quit working during the performance before theirs, so they sang a cappella. Everyone remembered the words, harmonies, and gestures for the songs -- They did a great job. (E is on the far right, in the white shirt.)

At the beginning of June in Paonia, remaining snow was melting from the peaks. Now it's everywhere, in a thick blanket.

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