ROAD SCHOLAR AND THE REDWOODS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 2025
This fall we have a trip to Northern California planned around a Road Scholar tour of the National Parks in the Sierra Nevadas followed by our own road trip through the California state parks.
Saturday, September 20, 2025
This morning we were up early in order to finish packing before Denice’s sister Marijeanne was kind enough to drive us to the Milwaukee airport. Our 7:30 a.m. flight to Salt Lake City was on time and we were there by 9:45 a.m. Mountain Time. After a layover we were on our way to Fresno and arrived at 11:30 a.m. West Coast time.
We used Enterprise as our rental agency and got ourselves an Elantra for 24 hours in Fresno.
Our first tourist experience was a stop at the Forestiere Underground Gardens. This is a very unique experience as you get to go under Fresno where Sicilian immigrant Baldassare Forestiere turned dry above-ground farmland into a underground series of tunnels and courtyards with skylights to grow fruit trees. He also built his living quarters underground to beat the dry, hot California weather.
Using just the hard compacted soil, and working alone, he built this huge underground home and farm over forty years. Only five acres survives to be toured but it is the main complex so it make a pretty cool archaeological tour.
We decided to tour Old Clovis shopping district which has a zillion antique stores to explore. It was hard for me not to shop like a crazy assemblage artist but we are leaving tomorrow for our Road Scholar experience where we are restricted to the size and weight of our suitcases. We were reluctant to ship and have a box on our porch for weeks so I restricted myself to a little tin box in which I could put a key, button and fabric that will easily fit into my suitcase. Even worse, tomorrow is Old Clovis annual huge 100 dealer outdoor flea market but for me it has to be a no fly zone.
Dinner was in Old Clovis at an Italian restaurant before we headed over to our home for the night, the Best Western Plus Fresno Airport Hotel.
Sunday, September 21, 2025
Today we decided to have breakfast at the Fresno Breakfast House which turned out to be an elegant place to have a meal. We ate indoors but the place was so airy that it felt like we were outdoors anyway.
Our first stop of the day was the Clovis Botanical Garden. Although it was a hot day and this is the fall dry season, we still enjoyed our visit.
Next we went to the Fresno Museum of Art. The first gallery we went into had the impressive Stone Sculpture of Zimbabwe.
Up next was the recreation of the cemetery of the artist’s relatives called Jo Hanson’s Crab Orchard Cemetery.
The next gallery featured Linda Lomahaftewa, Hopi/Choctaw Artist, and her Paintings 1965 through 1972
and Recent Works 2008 through 2024.
We next enjoyed The Fruit of Life: New Paintings by Eliana Saucedo.
The last gallery we went into was the art of Mesoamerica.
Sometimes in an art museum you can find cool things in unexpected places.
Then way in the back gallery, this little gem with a signed letter of provenance.
After the art museum we had time to run back to Old Town Clovis to walk the streets of their outdoor flea market. A few things were purchased but only stuff that could fit into our small suitcase.
After dropping off the rental car we waited at the airport for our Episcopal Conference Center, Oakhurst, shuttle. The ride up to the center took about one and one-half hours with one stop for supplies. For some that meant beer and wine but for us it more pedestrian.
The Episcopal Conference Center, Oakhurst, is the facility rented by Road Scholar for the first two days of our tour featuring Yosemite. We picked up our packets at the conference center and had just a few minutes to unpack before heading back at 5:30 p.m. for a meet and greet with snacks and wine. We met our guys for the week: Chris and Rosemay Crawford.
Dinner was at 6:30 p.m. followed by an orientation and a Ken Burns documentary on Yosemite. Then it was back to our cabin to prep for tomorrow and hit the hay early.
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