August 7, Benicia and Martinez, California

Today we traveled NE of San Francisco, to the towns of Benicia and Martinez.  Named after the wife of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, one of its founders, Benicia boasts California's oldest standing capital building.  The city supported an army arsenal and barracks as well as the Pacific Mail Steamship Company before becoming the state's third capital in 1853.  Several well-preserved houses date back to those early days of statehood, and we took an extensive walking tour to find and photograph them.  Benicia  also boasts the oldest Masonic Temple in the state and St. Paul's Episcopal Church, one of the first Episcopal cathedrals in N California.  Scandinavian shipwrights who worked on the church created a ceiling that resembles an inverted ship's hull, a design similar to Norwegian stave churches. After perusing Main Street for a few hours, we had lunch in a restaurant that used to be a barber shop--Singler Barber Shop, built in 1894 and now a tearoom, completely restored in 1989.  We had quiche and a mini salad as well as lemonade before going back to the car and driving on to Martinez in the Alhambra Valley to see the John Muir National Historic Site.  We began with the Visitor Center, where we watched a 20-minute movie on his life and activity as a conservationist and a fruit farmer.  We then explored his house and orchards on our own, where no bicycles or motor vehicles are allowed.  There are paved pathways through the 9 acres of orchards which surround the Muir home.  Numbered wooden posts were located along the way, with explanatory passages which I read to myself and Maureen.  Their topics included John Muir in Martinez; transportation then and now; ranch labor; the American Indians in the East Bay, and the various plantings of grapes, quince, pear, apricot, peaches, apples, oranges, plums, redwoods and sequoias, and mourning cypresses, among others.  We also toured his house with a Park Ranger and saw his study where he had penned his conservation documents.  Also on the grounds of the Muir Site is the Martinez Adobe, located on the W edge of Muir's orchards.  The entire site was wonderful, but I had expected to see it cut off from traffic and  the eternal drone of cars, trucks, etc.  Unfortunately, the original 2600 acres have been so pared down that the traffic whizzes by and completely destroys the ambiance of the place.  Not until one goes further and explores the orchards and the Martinez Adobe does one feel the sense of serenity that must have pervaded such a peaceful spot.  On the grounds of the site are hills where John Muir hiked with his two daughters, Wanda and Helen.  He grew many types of fruit and nut trees on his 2600 acres, and those that fall to the ground may be picked up by visitors.  I simply wish the site had been larger and quieter, but such is the effect of time and neglect!  After the John Muir site, we traveled about 15 minutes away to Pleasant Hill, where we are spending the night at a hotel before going to Eugene O'Neill's home tomorrow.  No dinner plans as yet, but I suppose we should be thinking about that soon...