Traveling is so magical. I have met so many wonderful people on this California rail adventure, and seen so many beautiful places. One of the most remarkable was the Forestiere Underground Gardens! I visited there with my new friend Jerri, whom I met via a previous travel friend/host, Janeece, who is based in the LA area but is visiting Croatia at the moment. I enjoyed connecting with Jerri and some of her family members, who came along with us.
I can’t remember all the details about the gardens, but I encourage you to click on the link above and learn more about this amazing place. In a nutshell, a Sicilian American man, Baldassare Forestiere, moved to Fresno in the early 20th century with a dream of planting a citrus grove, like the ones his family had back in Italy. Sadly, he found the soil on his new acreage not very hospitable for citrus growing, and he also found the summer heat (often 115 F/46 C) and chilly, damp winter weather nearly unbearable. Having spent his life savings of $80 for the acreage, though, he was forced to remain in that location.
So, he undertook a staggering project: building an underground house for himself—ultimately up to 63 rooms, on multiple levels—entirely by hand, with the significant help of two mules, Molly and Dolly. Together, over a number of years they excavated all the earth, and he slowly built a beautiful home, with skylights and Roman arches throughout. (He had had only a fourth-grade education, and no formal architectural or construction training. But he did all the design and masonry himself.)
He planted citrus and other trees inside, and eventually had a full home, with a kitchen, a summer bedroom, a winter bedroom, a chapel, and even two fish ponds, one with a skylight above and a glass bottom, and a viewing room underneath(!) for his guests to enjoy.
He never married. He lived in the house until his death from a hernia at age 67 in 1946. His younger brother and the brother’s adult children helped to keep the house intact, and eventually to seek historic-landmark status for it.
These are some of the photos I took. If you find yourself in Fresno, definitely make sure to visit!
Note: You may notice that my photos are becoming a bit blurry these days. Sadly, my ancient iPhone 8 camera seems to be nearing its end. I am looking to manifest a new phone with a better camera (iPhone 13 or newer) for as little cost as possible. If you happen to know of anyone with such a camera sitting around collecting dust, please feel free to put us in touch!
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After my last post, which turned out to be much longer than I had intended, I think now I’m going to do more frequent, shorter posts for the remainder of this California rail adventure.
I’ve been having an amazing time so far! The magic has really been flowing, especially since I arrived in Fresno. I’ve seen a lot of beautiful things, so in this post I’ll show you some of it.
First, the train ride from Emeryville was pleasant on the San Joaquins train. We started out with views of the San Francisco Bay, then turned inland.
Most of the scenery along the route was not particularly photogenic, but we passed miles and miles of fruit trees. I learned from one of my hosts that this area supplies 25% of the nation’s produce!
As I mentioned in my last post, our train was delayed by almost two hours. This turned out to be a blessing, because the mercury had hit 100 F (38 C) in Fresno during the day. By the time I arrived, around 7:30 pm, it had dropped to 88 F/31 C, and the full moon peeked out from behind the train as I disembarked.
When I arrived at my cat sit near Woodward Park, I met my two cuties, Cashmere and Magic. They kept me good company for the next four days.
During those next few days, I got out for several excursions, with too many photos to share in one post, so I’ll split them up. The ones here were from the bike path just a few blocks away from the house. The weather was mostly quite pleasant, and I loved the bucolic views.
I also met up for a short visit with my amazing soon-to-be-Servas-host, Carole, who took me on a river walk just north of where I was staying. Despite both of us being plagued by many prickly plant spikes that lodged into our socks, shoes, and clothes, the walk and scenery were very pleasant, with the water nearby especially refreshing since it was a bit hot out.
In my next post, I’ll share photos from the incredible Underground Gardens, a must-see if you visit Fresno!
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a free, no-strings one-hour phone or video call with me!
Want to be notified of future blog posts? Use the green “sign up” button to subscribe!
Want to support my vision financially? I am in a continual process of manifesting $50,000 per year in lieu of a “salary” for the unconventional work I do in the world. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons, contributors, and godfunders!)
Hey there, it’s been a while. I’m sorry I haven’t written anything yet about my California trip so far. The crushing dystopia of living in this era overwhelms me at times, and mingles with my executive dysfunction, and… well… time goes by.
I’m choosing to be gentle with myself (I hope you are with yourself, too) and just pick up when I can.
So, right now I’m writing from Fresno, but I think I’ll include my time here in my next post. For this post, I will just focus on my last bit of time in Portland, the train trip to Emeryville, and my time in the Bay Area.
Many of my posts are sort of a life log/travel log, and my photos of nature parks and cats always lend themselves to that. But during these extra-disturbing times for those of us in the US (and many others around the world, for so many reasons, of course) I also want to ground into my spiritual practice, which is to focus on “rainbow-network” type magic and serendipities. And celebrating little sparks of joy and connection as they appear.
First, though, I will interject some political activism, because it’s really important. I hope you are all resisting our current regime in whatever ways you can, whether it be contacting your representatives, protesting in the streets, and/or any other methods at your disposal. I have been attending the 50501 protests, in various cities, and have found them to be very heartening and moving events. It feels so gratifying and energizing to be in a joyful crowd of people coming together for a purpose, and to also feel the positive energy coming from people witnessing or driving by the protest. The most recent event I attended was in Happy Valley, Oregon on April 19th. Happy Valley is one of Portland’s more conservative suburbs, but several hundred of us were amassed on the freeway overpass above I-205, right next to the Clackamas Town Center mall, and in the hour I spent out there, I witnessed only two negative reactions from people driving past. On the contrary, I estimate that at least 25% of the passing cars honked and/or waved or yelled their support to us. It literally brought me to tears at one point. If you haven’t yet taken part in any of these actions, I heartily enourage you to do so.
Also, contacting our elected representatives is vital. I’ve been using two tools for this. One is Resistbot. You sign up, and then you receive action alerts by text, roughly once a day, on urgent pieces of legislation. You press a few buttons in order to sign petitions to your Congressional representatives. Also, closer to home, my sister has started a simple mailing list called Good News and Good Actions. In each email, there is one link to a feel-good news story and one call to action, usually a petition or call to an elected representative. If you’d like to subscribe, message me and I’ll give you the address.
OK! Now onto my travels:
My last Portland cat sit was for two absolute sweeties, Rocket (black) and Einstein (black & white floof.) You may recall these two from last spring and summer. I was so happy to be able to spend three weeks with them this time, while their human was in Europe. The house contained a room with flickering electronic candles and several ticking antique grandfather clocks. I found that it made a lovely meditation space with the kitties at the end of the day. I would log off from English tutoring on Cambly at about 11 pm, feed the cats a “bedtime snack,” and then go sit on the couch in that room, inviting them to join me. Generally, Rocket would loaf on my lap, and Einstein would sprawl on the back of the sofa next to me. It was a wonderfully calming ritual before bed each night.
The picture I shared above from the protest was down the street from the house.
Also in that neighborhood, I found a true secret gem: Hidden Falls Nature Park. Tucked right into a suburban development, it is a beautiful short nature trail that ends in a surprisingly large waterfall. The day I visited was gently warm and sunny, and I basked on a bench near the falls for a good long while. Nature is so restorative for me as well.
Then, on May 4th, I boarded the Coast Starlight train to Emeryville!
The pic from the train window with the snow was in southern Oregon. I loved the juxtaposition of golden-hour light with the wintry surrounds, seen from the warm comfort of the sightseer lounge car. We actually got stopped for about an hour, behind a disabled freight train, and it was so delightful to just chat with a fellow passenger in the lounge while we waited. No one was in a hurry; we were just all enjoying the ride and the pre-sunset light on the twinkling snow.
At dinner, in the dining car, I was seated with three other interesting passengers, one of whom ended the meal by thanking us all very sincerely for our conversation, saying she had been feeling lonely in her train experience up until that point, but that our conversation at dinner had completely turned her mood around, and now she was feeling socially fulfilled. This is what I love about the train!
Another of the dining companions at our table was an artsy-looking older woman wearing a beret, who introduced herself as Eleanor. She had a charming New York accent, and indicated that she was heading from her home in a small Oregon Coast town to San Francisco for a few days, to revisit the city where she had lived for some years. I wished I could have talked with her more over the meal, but since there were four of us, our interaction was limited. Such is train travel, but I enjoyed the experience of encountering her. I love interesting folks like that!
When I arrived in Emeryville the next morning, I had only a brief bike ride to my cat sit, which was in an apartment building right on the Emeryville Marina. The views of San Francisco across the water were beautiful in the spring sunshine.
I arrived at the apartment to find a stunningly photogenic cat named Nalah. Sadly, Nalah was not as snuggly as I had hoped—it had been so hard to leave that lap cat Rocket in Happy Valley!—and I found her personality rather persnickety at times. But when a kitty lounges so adorably all around the home, it’s easy to forgive.
During my Bay time I met up with several friends. I took a walk on the pier with my friend Nora one day. Another day I took the train to San Jose, where I met up with my friend and former host Vikki, over a delightful meal from one of my favorite vegan Vietnamese restaurants, Tofoo Com Chay.
I also got to go back to Rosicrucian Park, one of my favorite meditative spaces. I sat for a while in front of the fountain, and also in front of the statue of Pythagoras.
Another day, I took a bike ride out around Cesar Chavez Park, on the Bay side of Berkeley. The trees were beautiful, and I even had a nice “conversation” with a squirrel while I rested on a bench.
The other friend I saw was my awesome friend Mimi, whom you may recall from several previous blog posts. It turned out that Nalah’s apartment was right next to the original outpost of the legendary Trader Vic’s! (And, apparently, one of only two locations left in the US—the other is in Atlanta.) Despite their prices being an arguably unjustifiable splurge given my current severe financial constraints, I could not pass up the opportunity for this experience. I knew Mimi would be up for it, so I reached out to her. It was fun to catch up over tropical drinks.
And then the next day—my last in the Bay Area—Mimi was hosting her 16th annual Vegan Waffle Party! Our mutual friend Dave Wheitner—who had initially introduced us when I was heading to the Bay during my year of travels in 2021—had originated the phenomenon that is the Global Vegan Waffle Party when he was living in Pittsburgh, many years ago. He later published a cookbook with numerous sweet and savory waffle recipes from the parties, and Mimi got a mention in the book for having been such a prolific host herself!
I was so excited that I happened to be in the area when she hosted her party. Sadly, the photo we took of the two of us with me holding my waffle on a plate was too blurry to share, but suffice it to say that the mac-and-cheeze waffle was delicious!
After the party, I biked my rig to the Emeryville train station in what I thought was the nick of time to catch my San Joaquins train to Fresno. Believing I had only ten minutes to prep my rig for boarding, I hurriedly began disassembling it, then thought to check the status of the train.
As it turned out, the train was delayed. It kept getting further and further delayed. By the time we departed—on a substitute train—two more hours had passed. (The good news? Amtrak compensated all passengers with a $25 voucher, which I used today on a trip of almost exactly that cost, from Fresno to Bakersfield the day after tomorrow. Magic!) I was very sad to have missed staying at the waffle party longer… but unbeknownst to me, more magic was on its way for me in that moment:
Almost immediately after I sat down in a wooden chair in the warm sunshine at the station, whom should I see walking past me on the platform but Eleanor, from the dining car five days earlier!
What were the odds? We had both disembarked at Emeryville at the same time (though I didn’t see her then) and now here we were, after our respective vacations in different cities in the Bay, arriving to the station at the same time! Even more remarkable was the fact that she was waiting to board the northbound Coast Starlight for her return trip… and it wasn’t due until 9 pm! It was now just after 1:30.
I flagged her down, and she sat and we had a nice long chat for an hour or two! (Unfortunately I’ve got the sunburn to prove it—oof—despite having applied sunscreen beforehand.) Eleanor has lived a very interesting life, and it sounds like she’s on the cusp of another interesting chapter. She lives (car free!) in the same coastal town as a good friend of mine, so I’m hoping I can put those two in touch. Meanwhile, she loved my Brompton, and took down the info about it to consider acquiring one herself!
She also mentioned having a lot of extra time before her train and being uncertain what to do, so I suggested a cocktail at Trader Vic’s! She loved the idea, and set off to catch the local “Emery Go-Round” bus for the short ride over to the pier.
This is the kind of magic I love in my travels. This is the kind of magic I love in my life.
There has been more of it here in Fresno, and I anticipate even more in Bakersfield! I’ll write more soon.
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a free, no-strings one-hour phone or video call with me!
Want to be notified of future blog posts? Use the green “sign up” button to subscribe!
Want to support my vision financially? I am in a continual process of manifesting $50,000 per year in lieu of a “salary” for the unconventional work I do in the world. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons, contributors, and godfunders!)
