Since visiting the Mount Diablo coal field last week I have been trying to decide if it would be plausible and worthwhile to bring my daughters to every historical marker in California. Working the math in my head the task seems silly. If I were to visit 100 sites a year - two each week - it would take more than nine years to complete this task.
At the same time, there are worse ways to spend one's time. This might develop into something cool, like a California travel guide. At the very least the girls and I are learning a lot about the history of our state and some of the people who have helped to develop it into the wonderful and eccentric place it is today.
In the off chance I wanted to take this task to heart and commit myself to the goal of reaching every historical marker in California, I checked the Internet for interesting sites near my dad's home in Fresno. (It helped that I spotted a sign along Highway 99 indicating that we were near historical marker 916 - The
Forestiere Underground Gardens.) Reading the description of the Forestiere Underground Gardens it sounded intriguing, and it didn't hurt that the site was located along the road home.
So for $12.00 Amelia, Diana and I took the 12:00 tour of the gardens. Both girls seemed really enthusiastic about the tour, though Diana said that she thought the place would be "scary" after standing in the shade of an overhang of grape vines. Maybe there was a little part of her that thought the journey into the ground would be like a tour of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.
As the tour coordinator described a list of "dos and don'ts" to our group, Amelia endeared herself to the crowd. Talking about the temperature differential between the underground tunnels and the surface and describing some of the features of the tour, our greeter paused just long enough for Amelia to step forward into the crowd and state, "And, it's going to be cool!" Many of us snickered at that one.
The tour was moderately interesting, and much of the site was closed off due to renovation or issues with water run-off (pretty odd in September). I wasn't sure the girls were getting much out of the visit, but the moment our tour was done both girls wanted to return to the beginning and visit the caves again.
For me, the most amazing thing was something that couldn't be seen in a tour and that was the drive that Mr. Forestiere clearly must have had to turn a rock-hard piece of presumably useless land into a garden. Trees that could not have grown in the shallow top soil have been thriving for, in some cases, 90 years underground growing though holes cut into the surface of the earth. Mr. Forestiere was even so innovative as to graph citrus trees together making the best of limited earth by producing single trees that gave multiple varieties of fruit. If it were possible, this would have been a great place to spend a longer stretch of time, with a much smaller pack of tourists. It would have been nice to sit still and absorb a bit of the ambiance of Mr. Forestiere's underground lair.
I still haven't made a commitment to visiting all of the historical markers in California, but the idea is a tempting one.
Lisa
P.S. Though this has nothing to do with today's post, I have to share one of Diana's funniest quotes with you. A few days ago as I was getting Diana out of the Big Red Car when I noticed a nasty and familiar smell. I asked Diana, "Did you poop?" and she replied, "I'm not poopie." I told her, "Well, I smell
something. What's that I smell?" Her response: "Maybe it's flowers."
Hilarious. I assure you that what I smelled was not flowers - unless it was those nasty smelling
society garlic plants we have in the back yard.
Monday morning I flew in from Detroit. I had fun in Michigan, and didn't do anything crazy or keep odd hours. Yet, I'm still worn out.
