Christi worked in the banking world from 1996 to 2007. In 2002, Christi became deeply troubled by the economic policies set by the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As time went on, she became more troubled as the policies she viewed unfavorably were expanded. She wanted to join in the San Francisco protest, particularly once they moved to the Federal Reserve Building. Unfortunately, the peaceful protesters were harassed by police from the beginning. Eric made Christi promise never to go into the protest area because it wasn’t safe for a pregnant woman, particularly one who wasn’t yet showing.

After we moved Kosmos to Oakland, we saw that there was an Occupy Oakland protest set up in the park in front of City Hall, in the heart of downtown. Since it was across the street from the BART (train) station, we passed it often. Eric never went over to that side of the street to get a closer look, but Christi did several times.

In keeping her promise to Eric, she never actually went into the park, but she lingered around the sidewalk nearby and talked to some of the people that worked in the shops adjoining the park. There were a few more times she intended to stop by the park that she didn’t, though, because there was police wearing riot gear surrounding the park.

The more Christi talked to the locals, the clearer it became that this movement was different from the other Occupy Movements around the country. Instead of expressing anger about federal policies that have exacerbated income inequality, Oakland was more focused on expressing anger at the perceived sins of the local Oakland government, particularly in regards to a young man who was shot by police in a BART station in 2009. This demonstration against the local government wasn’t anything new, though. As we mentioned in another post, tensions between the police/government of Oakland and residents has been an ongoing problem since World War II.

The protestors camping on the grass were peaceful, respectful of the law, organized and orderly. But there was a small dark element that hung around on the paved areas surrounding the grass, particularly on the benches and retaining wall. Armed gang bangers loitered around, as did homeless people. The homeless people often went to the bathroom on the ground instead of the port-a-potties. Some more rebellious types openly drank alcohol and smoked marijuana, both in blatant violation of the law. Sometimes bands would play, and many didn’t appreciate the style of music.

The campers on the grass clashed on what to do about the fringe element. Some believed they should police themselves and kick them out; others thought everyone should be welcome in the movement no matter what. Nothing was done by the campers, so the police stepped in. Because the problem causers on the fringe were clearly divided from the rest of the campers on the grass, the police could have easily dealt with the small group of problem causers without disrupting the encampment. But the police decided it was time for the encampment to go. Both sides were ready for an ugly fight.

In the early morning of October 25, 2011, the police evicted everyone from the park. The protesters re-grouped at another location and started marching in the streets. That evening, Christi was aboard Kosmos writing away when several helicopters started doing circles overhead. She knew something bad happened to attract so many helicopters. When Eric got off the BART on his way home from work, he found himself looking at a police barricade. They were dressed in riot gear and had closed off the streets near park; main roads that normally saw a lot of traffic. It was clear they expected the protesters to return to the park and would meet them with serious violence. Eric pushed past the blockade area and rushed home, not wanting to be anywhere near the looming violence. That night, we were glued to the Internet, watching the riots play out and hoping the violence didn’t make it the .6 miles down to Jack London Square.

After the riots started, there was an enormous public backlash against the city. People got hold of the officials personal phone numbers and called them all night, demanding the police back off. The next morning, the officials directed the police to retreat. The protesters re-took the park and were emboldened. Thanks to so much publicity, the Oakland Occupation Movement grew rapidly over the next few days and became more active, now loudly marching in the streets instead of simply camping quietly in the park. Unfortunately, a few unruly people in the group became violent and began vandalizing buildings. The Occupy group also tried to disrupt business at the Port of Oakland, bringing the action closer to Jack London Square than we would have preferred. While it was exciting to be in the middle of history being made, we didn’t feel it was the right place to be with a baby on the way. Tear gas, flash bomb smoke and rubber bullets from the police aren’t exactly good for an expectant mother. Neither are spray paint can fumes, breaking glass, and random objects hurled with intent for destruction from the protesters.

We had always planned to return to San Diego around the end of October. Eric had been keeping an eye on the weather for the previous couple weeks, looking for an ideal weather window. That window came on October 28th. There was a huge storm approaching from Alaska, but if we made a non-stop run we could make it to San Diego in mild weather. If we waited, we could be stuck in Oakland for several more weeks before another window opened. So at 0700 on October 28, we left Oakland, returning to San Diego on October 31.

This is part 10 of an 11 part series on our time in the San Francisco Bay area. Read part 9 here and part 11 here. 

The booths were so close to Kosmos that we could have stood on the bow and stolen produce from the stands! Here is a shot from the other direction:

Having the Farmer’s Market come to us made shopping easy! It was an especially good market, too. We knew we’d miss it when we were gone.

We did a little exploring of downtown Oakland in the month we had Kosmos there. Oakland was officially made a town in 1852, the same time the shipping industry began on Oakland’s shores.  Oakland was prosperous from the beginning. In addition to the shipping wharves, Oakland became the main staging post for passengers and cargo journeying between the Bay Area and the Sierra foothills during the California Gold Rush. In the 1860s a railroad hub was put into Oakland and the town boomed even more, with shipbuilders, automobile manufacturing, canneries and many more industries developing there. Oakland’s history is rich with fascinating information, but we’re not going to get into the details in this post.

As we walked around downtown Oakland, we noticed that most of the buildings looked to be from the late 1800s to early 1900s. It was clear from the architecture, the quality of construction and the appointments that this was once a very wealthy city, and that it was beautiful in its heyday. Here are a couple of examples:

Oakland continued to flourish until World War II. During the war, an influx of poor laborers were brought in to work at the ship yards, and they were recruited mostly from the Deep South. Long standing Oakland residents complained that the new Southern arrivals “tended towards public disorder” and didn’t care for the  racist attitude that the Southerners — both the blacks and whites — carried. Racial tensions and segregation followed. Many affluent locals moved out of Oakland.

After the war ended, things got worse. With the disappearance of Oakland’s shipbuilding industry and the decline of its automobile industry, jobs became scarce. The extensive public transit lines were mostly dismantled, replaced with freeways that partitioned off neighborhoods. The police force was now full of white Southerners who persecuted the blacks, and racial tensions became out of control. 100,000 of Oakland’s more affluent community members fled to surrounding towns.

During the 1960s, the Hell’s Angels took over the neighborhood. During the 1970s, drug kingpin Felix Mitchell created the nation’s first large-scale gang-controlled  heroin and cocaine dealing operation. Needless to say, crime and murder were a big problem — with rates twice of most major cities.

In the 1990s, the redevelopment projects began. Oakland has been slowly but surely been getting nicer since then. These days, in the downtown area, most of the old buildings have been renovated, though there are still a few dilapidated buildings dotting the neighborhoods. This block of Victorian houses is a perfect example. The middle two are in great shape, the one on the left is in fairly good condition, and the one on the right has been seriously neglected.

The less well kept commercial buildings also tend to house seedy venues like Adult Bookstores. In and amongst the old buildings there are quite a few new, modern buildings, as well, and most are higher end.

There was no denying downtown Oakland has a lot of character. As you walk down any given street, you’ll pass an odd variety of things — for example in a one block stretch near Jack London Square there is an old, kind of scary looking shipping warehouse next door to  brand new luxury condo complex, then a dilapidated porn shop, a charming coffee shop that has been around for 50 years, a chic high end restaurant in a gorgeously renovated historic building, a blocky government building with several homeless people sleeping on the steps, and a medical marijuana facility. All on the same block.

For the most part we felt safe, but there were a few small areas, like near the freeways, that were a little scary. We walked around freely during the day, but after dark we tended to use public transit even if we were only going a few blocks.

Another benefit to being here is that we’ve been treated to amazing sunsets most nights, as well:

However, we didn’t love the marina. We were on an end tie, and it was a long walk to the boat from the gate — we estimate a full quarter mile. One of our friends commented that at night the dock was eerie — that it looked like the hallway from “The Shining.”

Our slip was exposed to the bay and very rocky — so much so that Christi had to leave the boat every afternoon when the wind picked up because she couldn’t take the rocking! There was no wireless Internet (well, technically there was but it was broken and the marina staff had no interest in fixing it), which made it tougher for Christi to write when she was onboard. The parking options were limited and ungodly expensive, making it challenging to have friends and family come over to visit. Laundry was also a problem. Because we were at the end, the electricity voltage was too low to run our washing machine. The marina’s washing machine had the hot and cold water set backwards, and of course, all cycles had a cold water final rinse, so all our delicate clothes took horrible beatings in the very hot rinse water. The marina staff seemed uninterested in fixing that problem, too, despite the fact it could have been resolved in literally five minutes.

After a month of spending every afternoon in Internet cafes unsuccessfully trying to work on the book (Christi is easily distracted by things going on around her; she really needs to write in isolation), Christi put her foot down and demanded that we move to another marina. Eric didn’t want to move, but realizing that it was useless to argue with a pregnant woman, he relented. With help and advice from our friends in the Bay area, we re-visited our options and decided Jack London Square Marina in Oakland was the best bet for Eric since it was close to both the ferry and the BART (train). Miraculously, they had space available.

On the morning of September 28, we untied the lines and headed east across the bay to the relatively narrow channel that separates Alameda Island from Oakland on the main land. The channel was a natural estuary that was widened and deepened in 1852 so that wharves could be built on the Oakland waterfront. In 1874, the channel was further dredged to make Oakland a deep water port. Over the years, they continued to deepen and widen the channel. In In 1962, Oakland became the first major port on the US Pacific Coast to have container ship terminals. Today the Port of Oakland is the fifth busiest container port in the United States.

We passed the container port. Though much smaller than many of the other container ports we’ve seen around the world (ie Singapore and Oman), it was still imposing. Jack London Square was not far beyond. We pulled into the small basin and were shocked to see the marina was virtually empty, with only a handful of boats. When we checked into the office we were told that a boat show had just ended two days prior. All the tenants had been kicked out for the show and most had not yet returned.

Right away, we were happy with the marina. Our slip was steps away from shore. The marina was protected from the main bay, and while the marina did get some occasional big rolls from the ferries and ships, it was relatively calm overall. Oakland is generally sunnier, warmer, and less windy than San Francisco, and we reveled in the warm afternoon sun as we tied up the lines.

Oakland is an area undergoing gentrification, and Jack London Square is one of the recently renovated areas. It is adorable! Once upon a time it was part of the industrial shipping area, but now it is a lively pedestrian area sporting a a variety of shops, restaurants, hotel and ferry terminal, along with the marina. Unfortunately, we didn’t take many photos of the square, but here are a couple shots.

The square is named after the famous American author Jack London, who grew up in Oakland near the waterfront and spent much of his youth working as a sailor and oyster pirate based out of what is now Jack London Square. London made notes for his books while sitting at Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon, built in 1883 from the timbers of a whaling ship. Heingold’s is still there, now a National Literary Landmark, that preserves the rustic character from the earlier era. It is an odd tiny wooden building with a few tables outside that stands out from the rest of the modern buildings surrounding it.

London eventually moved to Alaska. Interestingly enough, an adoring fan went to Alaska and found London’s log cabin. He had the cabin dismantled and brought back to California. The tiny cabin (the one here may only be a replica; the information about it is conflicting) sits in the middle of the square, next to Heingold’s bar.

This is part 7 of an 11 part series on our time in the San Francisco area. Read part 6 here and part 8 here. 

One of the fun tourist activities we did was to take Kosmos overnight to Angel Island State Park, located about a mile south of Tiburon, near the Golden Gate Bridge. We chose an unusually clear and warm day to go over there. Here is a shot of our nephew and his girlfriend on the bow of Kosmos with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Here is Kosmos moored in Ayala Cove, on the north side of the island. The moorings were different than any others we’ve seen before and were difficult to tie onto. Fortunately, the kind gentleman next to us hopped into his dinghy and helped us get tied up. The park requires boats to tie both front and back to the moorings, so it would have been double tough without his help! The fee to stay on the moorings was about $30 per night.

We took a bus tour of the island, where there was a fascinating narration on the history. Over the years, it has been used for an assortment of purposes. When the bay was originally “discovered” by the Spaniards in 1769, the island was inhabited by Native Americans, who had probably resided there for 3,000 years. As San Francisco grew and more whalers and trade ships pulled in, the timber on the island was stripped. After Mexico became an independent nation, in 1839 the Mexican governor granted the island to a private citizen who used it as a livestock ranch.

After the US government took control of the area, in 1850 the US courts gave the land to the American military. Angel Island was part of the “Bay Area Defense System” for one hundred years. Camp Reynolds was opened on the west side of the island and became a recruiting and processing depot, but it wasn’t well maintained. Here are a couple shots of the few remaining buildings from Camp Reynolds:

Fort McDowell was built on the southeast side of the island in 1900 to replace the crumbling Camp Reynolds.

From 1892 – 1946, Ayala Cove (north side) was used as a hospital cove. Incoming ships stopped here before entering the Port of San Francisco, where they underwent fumigation. Passengers suspected of being ill were quarantined on the island until it was clear they were healthy. Thanks to better sanitation and medical care in the early twentieth century, the need for a quarantine port waned and it was closed. Here are a couple shots of restored buildings from the quarantine camp:

In 1910, the government also opened an immigration station on the northeast side of the island. It kind of sounds like it was something of an internment camp, where immigrants of Asian original were essentially imprisoned for weeks, months, or even years before being allowed into the US. Here is a photo, though sadly, the buildings are obscured by the heavy fence that surrounds the camp.

The immigration station closed during World War II because Fort McDowell was expanded to cover the entire island (except the quarantine area, apparently). We can’t remember if this photo was of Fort McDowell or the Immigration Station, but since it is a cool old building, we’re posting it anyway.

After the last of the troops came home from the war in 1946, Fort McDowell closed. In 1954, another base was opened on the south side, this one housing missiles for the cold war. The base closed in 1962 and the island became a state park. It looks like there are also currently a couple small coast guard stations on the island, as well.

As you can see from the photos above, there are some incredible views of the Bay Area from the island. Here is a shot looking north of what we think is Belvedere Cove, with Belvedere on the left and Tiburon (one of the highest dollar neighborhoods in the country) on the right.

Here are Eric and Christi looking west with the Golden Gate Bridge behind them

Looking south at downtown San Francisco and the Bay Bridge

Looking east towards Oakland

This is part 5 of an 11 part series on our time in San Francisco. Read part 4 here and part 6 here. 

At 1000, the event started. A speaker explained the history of the event. The 1851 World Exposition was hosted by Queen Victoria in England. As part of the festivities, there was a sailing race around the Isle of Wight (a 53-nautical-mile course). 14 British ships and one American ship, named America, competed. America won. The prize was a silver trophy, now named after that ship, the America’s Cup. A few years later, the America crew donated the trophy into a trust to be used as a perpetual challenge trophy to promote friendly competition among nations.

Over the years, the rules changed and the racing event slowly evolved (there were even several court cases to help determine what were fair rules). In the last few years, the sport has changed dramatically. It used to be that, while all the boats had to fit certain parameters, each boat was different. Now all the boats are the same model of catamaran, so the competition is now truly about the skill of the crew versus the capacity of the various boat. Thanks to new technology, the cats can go three times faster than wind speed, topping out at over thirty knots!

The leadership have also made a concerted effort to make the race more of a spectator sport. Thanks to the ability to sail in light winds, now races are scheduled in light wind venues, like protected bays, where spectators can watch from shore. Actually, these new cats can’t really do ocean racing anymore anyway because they flip so easily. They can’t handle anything bigger than 6 foot seas. In the past, when the races were in the ocean, the only way to see the races was to jump on a spectator boat, which limited the exposure the races could get. Now the courses are a loop close to shore so many fans can watch live. Now that any average person can easily see the races, they are expected to become more popular with the general public and attract more big sponsors. The races last approximately 40 minutes, ideal for a one hour TV slot.

It was explained that the real America’s Cup competition would be held in 2013, but that there are still a series of preliminary races scheduled all over the world for this year and next year so that the various teams can get used to racing in the new standardized boats.

After the history lesson, we went into a simulator where they showed video footage of one of the cats sailing. It looked like a cold, windy day and the water was choppy, however, they were in a bay and had no swells. The cat made several dramatic flips, sending some crew overboard while others barely clung on. While they were adept and righting the boat and getting back on course, it looked like it took some serious physical strength. The audience was splashed with water to help make the simulator effect all the more real. We suppose they were trying to make the spectators understand how much strength, power and skill it took to crew the temperamental vessels, but we kept thinking that Kosmos would have barely rocked in those same sea conditions (with the stabilizers on, of course). Man, were we thankful for our solid boat and stabilizers after that demo!

Then we went to another simulator, but this one was like a video game. Selected people got to pretend they were racing a real America’s Cup boat. Eric was one of the lucky contestants. He took second place, missing the video game championship by a mere 8 seconds. Here he is being coached by one of the official Oracle team crew:

Then it was time for the “On the Water Experience.” We were loaded into a replica of the original America ship and taken out into San Diego Bay.

It was unusually cold and windy for San Diego, which made the racing more exciting (but cold for us spectators!). Winds were 14 – 19 knots, averaging 16 – 17. First we watched time trials, which wasn’t all that interesting. When the race finally started, we were ready for some action! The race certainly was eventful. When the boats were near us, we could clearly see the action, and a few times it looked like a few of the cats were on the verge of flipping, but they were righted in time. There was also a minor collision. Of course, when the boats weren’t on the other side of the bay, we could see little more than who was in the lead.

After the race was over, we were taken back to the tents. One of the two teams representing America (which, incidentally, was made up mostly of foreigners) came to speak to our group. It was exciting to have them in the room answering questions.

We also got to see a couple of the boats being taken out of the water and put on the hard near the tent. Here is a shot of one of the American boats about to be set down:

All in all, it was a fun day and an interesting experience.

As much as we loved being in the city, we didn’t enjoy the slip we were in at the marina. There was no Internet, it was a long walk to shore and it was so rolly we felt like we were at sea, particularly in the afternoons when the wind picked up. Christi would find any and every excuse to get off the boat, so she didn’t get much work done on the books.

After a month, we moved across the bay to Jack London Square in Oakland.

We enjoyed our time in Oakland. Not only was the marina good, we were in a great location. We had easy access to the ferry and the subway, making it quick and easy to get to San Francisco. We could walk to all kinds of amenities. And it was a gentrification area with a lot of character and charm. We also were in Oakland when the first round of riots occurred, and it was interesting to be in the middle of the action. Once Eric had to walk past a police barricade on his way home from work.

We left Oakland on October 28th at 0700. The sun didn’t rise until 0730, so we got ready in the dark and untied just as light was starting to break on the horizon. It was an exceptionally clear and calm day in the bay, with smooth seas and no fog. The windows of the buildings in the city reflected the fiery red sunrise. We had a current pushing us through the bay at easily did 7 knots.

When we neared the Golden Gate Bridge, we were surprised to see it wasn’t enshrouded in fog in the morning, which is rare. The fog is so thick and persistent that most of the time it is impossible to see the mouth from the ocean — it took European explorers nearly 200 years of exploring the coast of California before they discovered the bay! The mouth of the bay was named the Golden Gate. The bridge passes over the top of the mouth.

As we started to pass under the bridge, the water got rough and our speed instantly dropped a knot. The water looked like it did in Manihi’s pass, like boiling water dotted with several whirlpools and overfalls. The auto pilot went a little nutty in the inconsistent waters. The roughness was caused in part by two currents colliding. By the time we had cleared the bridge, we were solidly in the waters of the outer bay. It was a rougher ride than we’d hoped for and we both turned a little green.

Out in the open ocean, we experienced 4 foot swells coming from the starboard aft corner. Really, not bad conditions at all, so we were both surprised that we were still green—probably a result of the corkscrew motion the boat makes in these kinds of waves. Eric took some drugs and felt a bit better. Christi, couldn’t take anything since she was pregnant, which was unfortunate. The corkscrew motion is the hardest for her to take.

As the day progressed, the conditions slowly worsened. By late afternoon, the wind was over 20 knots with the swells growing to six feet from the northwest. The wind more or less died during the night, but the conditions didn’t get any better. We had a small crescent moon that set early and we were in an area without many lights from shore, so the stars were vibrant.

As soon as the sun rose and the wind picked up, the conditions again slowly but steadily worsened. The seas becoming confused, with lots of breaking whitecaps. Christi was green all day.

We each think we may have spotted whales on our watches, but weren’t sure. Christi saw something large pop up on the radar alarm nearby, then disappear. She looked at the spot and thought she saw several whale spouts, but admits they could have just been white caps. She watched for a long time and didn’t see any whales. While Eric was on watch, he thought he saw a whale jump up out of the corner of his eye, but when he looked, there was nothing there. He also watched for a while and didn’t see anything else.

By late afternoon, the seas were seriously confused, with 8 foot swells coming from multiple directions. We experienced some some fifteen degree rolls here and there. The active fin stabilizers were working hard, but even so, it was uncomfortable to walk around and Eric became green again, despite the drugs. We were concerned about how much worse it would get when we got to Point Conception.

Shortly after the sunset at 1815. The wind died shortly thereafter, but just like the night before, the conditions did not improve. The moonset at 2045, and we were mesmerized by the fact that it was red. We’ve only seen red moonsets a handful of times.

We made it to Point Conception shortly before 2200, and surprisingly, the seas were no worse than they had been. In fact, they may have been a touch better. We had a favorable current with us and cleared the point in about two hours.

After clearing the point, the sea conditions improved steadily, eventually becoming calm with swells at only three feet and wind waves at about a foot. Winds stayed light and the conditions remained the same for most of the afternoon. Even though the seas were nice, Christi never felt better.

Shortly after sunset, though, the wind picked up on the nose and we started to get some head seas. That didn’t last long, though. The wind died at 2300 and a thick fog rolled in, calming the seas.

At the still pitch black of 0600 am, as we were nearing San Diego Bay, we had a near collision. A boat doing about 10 knots popped up on radar that was approaching us from our port forward side. Per the regulations it was supposed to change course, but it did not. We know he could not see us, since the running lights were useless in this fog. We had to assume the didn’t have radar or was not paying attention to it. We had our fog horn blaring, but they probably couldn’t hear it over the roar of their engines. To our port side was lots of kelp. We tried to make some smaller adjustments to avoid a collision, but the other vessel seemed somewhat erratic. It started to get really close. Eric decided to avoid the kelp and just pull a u-turn to open up some distance between us and their vessel. This did the trick, but the other boat till got awfully close. We don’t think they ever even knew we were there. We just barely saw his running lights in the dense fog at our closest point of approach, probably less then 300 feet away.

Oddly enough, after rounded the corner of Point Loma into the entrance of San Diego Bay, the fog vanished. The sky was just beginning to lighten in the pre-dawn, so within five minutes we went from black and zero visibility to clear and good visibility.

Christi had hoped to finish writing the Recipe for Success: What My Cruising Will Cost Me workbook on the passage, as well as writing some blog posts about our time in the Bay Area. However, since she wasn’t feeling good, she didn’t get any writing done.

This is part 11 of an 11 part series on our time in the San Francisco Bay area. Read part 10 here. 

Many people have asked us why they should buy our book if they can read our blog for free. Just like Part 1, the book is very different from the blog. Here are a few of the differences between the two:

• Prologue: Picks up where the Prologue of Part 1 left off. It focuses primarily on the research we did as we planned for our journey and addresses the majority of the questions we were most frequently asked.
• Several new stories from the journey – And there are some really good ones!
• Many details have been added that were best left undisclosed while we were still on the journey (sometimes we didn’t want our parents worrying about us; sometimes we didn’t want to incriminate ourselves!)
• In Retrospect sections with great insights — so you can see the situation through the eyes of a newbie as we learn, while simultaneously seeing the same situation through the eyes of experience.
• Streamlined stories – some complained our posts were too long and detailed, the book is a condensed version they will enjoy more.
• Formatting is first person, through Christi’s eyes – Some complained they didn’t like the third person format, so they will enjoy the book more.
• Actual dates on each post. On the blog, the dates are not real time, which is a significant piece of information for anyone hoping to follow in our footsteps.
• All profits will go to our cruising fund. The more books we sell, the sooner you can start reading about our next journey! So, buy one and get all your friends to buy one, too!

People have also asked us why we broke the series up into four books instead of only three. We had very different experiences in each of the four world regions, so it was best for each region to have its own volume.

• In the South Pacific, Part 1, we spent most of our time in sparsely populated areas communing with nature. And we did a lot of rough sea time, learning about boating the hard way.
•  In Asia, Part 2, we were mostly in densely populated areas building cultural bridges. Our sea experiences were also different from the Pacific, with both our best and worst passages occurring in this region.

Christi got up with him and took him to the airport. She worked on blogs for a couple hours, took a bath, and otherwise puttered around until 0930. Sure that traffic must have cleared by then, she took the car to the town of Grasse, a mountain village north of Cannes that is the perfume capital of the world. Christi took the highway to the Cannes exit, but instead of heading south towards the beach, went north into the mountains.

Since she had gotten up so early, she was starving at this point. Right off the exit, she found a boulangerie/patisserie  (bread/dessert bakery). She ordered an individual size goat cheese quiche. She wonders if she got the right one, since it was loaded with bacon but didn’t taste much like goat cheese. She also ordered a pain du chocolate (chocolate croissant) and a beignet (donut). She sat in the car and scarfed them down before heading up the mountain.

The road was narrow and somewhat windy. She had read there were flower fields surrounding the town of Grasse, so she was surprised to see that it was completely built up along the road, with no fields to be seen anywhere. The buildings were an odd mix. Some were old, as in Medieval, some fairly new, as in probably the last few years. Commercial and residential properties were mixed, with a mechanic shop next to a private mansion. She noticed signs for three different perfumeries along the way.

The heart of Grasse looked medieval. In the center of town, there was a parking garage. She turned off the main road and headed towards the garage, but she missed the entrance. She found herself on a scary one way road back down the mountain. It had dangerously sharp switchbacks, obviously originally a horse trail, not a car trail. At a couple points the road split, in both cases, she made the wrong turn. The first time, turning around was easy because she came to a roundabout, but the second time, the road dead ended and she had to make 30 point U-turn to get out of the tight little alley.

The road ended near the bottom of the mountain. Sigh. She noticed a sign for one of the perfumeries that said it was close by and decided to go there instead of back up the hill. One, she didn’t want to drive that scary road down again and two, she really liked the name of the perfumery, Fragonard, because there is a Rococo-era (early 1700s) painter by the same name whose works she particularly likes.

The facility was new and modern looking, probably built in the 1960s or later. They had old equipment on display in the parking lot.

Inside, the woman at the front desk told her it would be a few minutes before the English speaker would be available to give her a tour, and invited her to look around their reception area. It was filled with displays showing the different flowers, leaves, woods, fruits, grasses, and so forth that scents are extracted from. The displays also showed which were grown locally, which were imported, and where they were imported from. A few display cabinets showed assorted bottles and boxes the bottles came in.

A few minutes later, the guide came out. She explained that the Fragonard Perfumery was founded in a building in the heart of Grasse in 1926, but their operation has grown so much that they have had to open two more factories, one here at the bottom of the hill and one in Eze, near Monaco. The perfumery was named after the artist, who was a native of Grasse that moved to Paris to pursue his art career as a young adult. The perfumery also owns a museum in Grasse that features Jean-Honore Fragonard’s work, along with a couple other Grasse native artists, Marguerite Gerard and Jean-Baptiste Mallet.

Perfume making actually originated in Grasse. Leather tanning required a lot of water, and since Grasse had a plentiful water supply, their primary industry was leather tanning, with a specialty in glove making. The process smelled bad, so in the 16^th century, the local craftsmen started using local made essences from flowers to scent the leather. Perfume making took off, becoming an industry of its own. The oldest perfumeries in Grasse were also tanneries, as well.

Today, Grasse is the most important perfume making area in the world with over 40 perfumeries. Most of the local factories produce the scents for brand names; the factories themselves are unheard of but their products are world renowned. They also produce food flavorings and scents for commercial products like soaps, shampoos, lotions, cleaning agents and so forth.

Most perfumes are a blend of over 200 scents, and it usually takes about two years of work to formulate a new scent. Perfume makers have a naturally gifted sense of smell. To become a perfume maker, 2 years of specialized schooling and 7 years of apprenticeship are required. Behind a counter there were shelving units after shelving units filled with bottles of essential oils.

Most flowers are distilled in much the same way as alcohol. She can’t remember how many kilos of flowers it takes to produce one liter of essential oil, but it was an ungodly number. The flowers are put into a distilling pot, and the pot is filled with water, then boiled dry. The steam is trapped into a cooling vat where the oil and water separate. The staggering number of flowers needed is why perfume is so expensive.

Some flowers are too fragile to boil. In the old days, they “cold pressed” them. They smeared animal fat on a tray and put flowers on the fat. Every day they changed the flowers until the fat had absorbed enough smell to be used as perfume. Then somehow alcohol is used to get the scent from the fat (she was unclear on how). Nowadays they use chemicals to extract the scent.

The guide explained which flowers are locally grown and which are imported, then went on to say that sometimes it was cheaper to import flowers than to use the locally grown ones. The perfumes produced in this factory are hand blended and hand packed.

She also was taken to a room where she was shown how soap was molded. They buy soap corns and add scent and color to them. Then they put them in a molding machine, which makes long tubes of soap. The tubes are sliced. The slices are put into another machine that stamps the slice into the perfect shape and embeds a design. The leftover scraps go back into the vat of soap to be molded, so nothing is wasted.

Then it was down to the showroom to smell some of the scents. The guide explained there are four categories of scents: Naturals, which use scents like apple, ginger and lemon; Fruities, which use scents like grapefruit, freesia and hyacinth; Florals, which use scents like lily, honeysuckle and rose; and Orientals, which have rose, musk and sandalwood. She had Christi smell their most popular seller of each category, as well as their top selling perfume of all time, a hybrid Fruity/Floral that smelled like green apple.

Explained the difference between perfume, eau de perfume  and cologne. The essential oil mixtures are the same, it is the amount of essential oil versus alcohol that is different. Perfumes have the most essential oil, so a little goes a long way. Cologne only has a small amount of essential oil, so you need a lot more and it doesn’t last all that long.

After tour, she walked over to the Bar and Snack next door for lunch. When she walked in, the waitress asked her if she wanted food or drinks. Christi replied food. The waitress then said “salad or sandwich?” Christi said salad. A few minutes later, out came the salad. It had no lettuce, but lots of hearts of palm, canned tuna chunks, ham, hard boiled eggs, tomato? It really wasn’t all that great, but it was large and inexpensive.

After lunch she decided to head back up to Grasse. She really wanted to see the world’s only perfume museum and the Fragonard art museum, and she thought it would be fun to explore the historic old town. She drove up the hill to the town center, ready to turn into the garage. However, before she made the turn, she saw a sign saying “garage full.” Still on the main road, she continued on, sure there would be another parking garage or some place to park on the street. There wasn’t.

She exited town. She started looking for places to turn around, but turning around was impossible on such a narrow, winding mountain road. She went on for many miles before finally getting to a suitable turn around spot. She knew she was well on her way back to Nice via the mountain road. She decided not to turn back. Parking was going to be a problem and she was feeling tired from being up so early.

The drive back was lovely. For a long, long way out of Grasse, the road was completely built up, looking similar to the road up to Grasse, an odd mix of eras and uses. But eventually, the construction thinned out and it became apparent when she was passing from one town to another. Even deeper into the trip, the towns seemed to go away altogether, replaced by large country estates barely visible from the road. Overall, it was a beautiful and pleasant drive, and she enjoyed the lovely forest.

She made it all the way back to Saint Laurent du Var with no problems, but got lost trying to find the hotel. She drove around town for a good twenty minutes, seeing parts of town she’d never seen before. Some were darling.

For dinner, she went to a place on the boardwalk called Le Bayside, which had an enticing prix-fixe menu. The first course was assiette d’antipasti du pays, which was a green salad topped with some fresh cheese slices, some parma ham slices, and an assortment of grilled vegetables: artichoke, bell pepper (capsicum) eggplant (aka aubergine, which was marinaded in vinegar and yummy) and garlic. It had an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. The main was two fillets of grilled loup fish (a light, flaky white fish), served with a creamy lemon-butter sauce and accompanied with rice and asparagus. For dessert, she had a  lemon meringue pie. All the food was excellent, particularly the salad.

Christi left the hotel around 1000 and caught the 217 bus to Nice. This time, she went three stops farther before exiting the bus, which dropped off even deeper into the historic district than she had gone yesterday. She followed the windy roads up the hill until she arrived at the Lou Casteu park’s gate. In the hilly area, the buildings looked even older than in the flatter parts she had visited the other day. This is a shot of the streets of old town from the gate.

From what Christi can tell from the spotted history she has read, the Nice area has been inhabited for 400,000 years. The Celtic Ligurians built a fortress on this hill probably back around 1500 – 500 BC. The fortress was conquered by the Greeks around 350 BC and they built the town of Nikaia along the hill underneath the fortress. Nikaia became a flourishing trading port and was eventually conquered by Rome. When Rome collapsed, Nikaia/Nice became part of an assortment of feudal states. Eventually, Nice was permanently acquired by France.

It sounds like the top of this hill was continually a fortress and/or castle until French King Louis XIV ordered the fortress and castle  to be razed in 1706. They were never rebuilt, and the site was eventually converted into a park.

From the park’s gate, she followed a road farther up the hill. Once upon a time, she would have mistaken the stone wall built along the mountainside for an elaborate retaining wall, but we’ve seen enough castles and fortresses now to know the difference between fortress walls and retaining walls. Fortress walls have tiny, evenly spaced holes eye level. The holes were installed so that soldiers could watch for enemies and shoot at them from tunnels on the other side of the walls.

The road led to a large church, a couple of cemeteries, and a parking lot. There were several walking trails to choose from that all led up. She followed one. It looked like it may have been the original footpaths from the fortress. The trail meandered up for a lot longer than she would have expected, at times becoming steep, sometimes so steep that it turned into a staircase for a short way.

Between the trees, there were glimpses of the ocean and city below. Along the way, here and there were signs pointing out various ruins. This is a Roman sign. Sadly, the picture is probably too small for you to see what it says.

She also passed a man made waterfall, but it was dry. Eventually she made it to the top. There was a large park, with a soccer field, children’s playground, and a shaded area with benches.

There was also a small area with some ancient Roman ruins and a couple of cafes.

The sidewalks were inlaid with mosaics. She wondered if they were original from the Roman era or if they were reproductions of what the walkways around the castle once looked like.

On the way up, she had only been able to see one side of the city, from the top, there were 360 degree spectacular views.

As she was getting ready to head back down, there was a loud explosion; it sounded like cannon fire. She jumped and looked around. No one else seemed fazed. Then she heard sirens. But still, no one seemed fazed. She headed down via a different path than she took up.

There were several more interesting sites on the way down: The Devil’s Well, built in the early 16th century, that went down 85 yards to supply fresh water to the hill top. At the time, it was a remarkable work.

A cool looking old tower with lots of plants growing on the wall:

And the Tour Bellanda, built in 1826 in the precise location of another tower, St. Elme, that was razed in 1706.

To be continued tomorrow…

She left the hotel at the same time as Eric, at 0845. The streets were completely deserted, with few pedestrians or cars. Two things were evident: this isn’t a business district and school must be out of session for the winter break. Arizona State University is located here in Tempe, and Tempe is considered to be primarily a college town.

It was a beautiful day—clear, sunny and warmer than it has been in San Diego, so she was happy to be out walking around. She took Mill Street, the main drag, north a few blocks to the Tempe Town Lake and Beach Park. Near the lake there is an old abandoned mill, which she is assuming the street’s name came from.

At the park entrance was a sign she found surprising. She knew the local river had been dammed about ten years ago to make the lake, so she expected the park to be ten years old. It actually was formed in 1931. It is 25 acres, and is long and skinny. It once had grass, but currently all the grass is dead. Christi was most amused to see a small water park for children. It is closed for the winter, but there are water slides and a waterfall that they can run underneath. She wondered if swimming was allowed in the lake. The was also a ballpark and an event pavilion.

The lake is not what she expected. For some reason she expected it to be large and round. It is actually two miles long and only 800 – 1200 feet wide. The “marina” consists of a half dozen floating slips, and it was empty. She read a sign that explained that rather than one traditional dam, it has eight 40 ton inflatable dam bladders. If the river starts to flood, the bladders can all be deflated within 45 minutes, leaving the river to run naturally. In this picture you can see the north side of the lake (remember that the park is only on the south side), a bridge on each side of the lake, and in the foreground is one of the docks in the “marina”.

She followed the footpath paralleling the river west to the Tempe Center for the Arts, which is just beyond the west edge of the park. The building is very modern and mostly glass, and the views of the river from inside the building are lovely. Most of the space is used as a theater, but there are a couple small galleries, as well. Both galleries were featuring an exhibit on faces. The art forms included photographs, paintings and sculpture, and the styles varied dramatically, ranging from traditional Native American to post modern. But every one was a face full of expression. One room featured pieces done by local high school students, the other by professional artists.

She was impressed with the work in the professional artist room. Most of the pieces were absolutely beautiful, and some were quite creative and imaginative. While she could happily write about every one, she’ll just mention a few pieces stood out to her in particular. She was amused by this series of skull paintings by Henry Stinson, painted as if they were portraits of your average American from assorted parts of the country, but with a twist.

Another one she liked was a sculpture by John Tuomisto-Bell with dozens of small metal plates that were arranged in an interesting design. Each plate has a face.

The photo of her favorite one didn’t come out, but it was a painting depicting a man looking in the mirror as he tried to paint a self-portrait. You could see the man was struggling—trying to stay perfectly still in his pose, but needing to move around in order to paint properly. She thought the clear frustration he was facing was absolutely brilliantly illustrated.

In the next picture, all the work was done by Zarco Guerrero, but as you can see, the styles vary. The series of small wooden masks with the animated expressions reminded her of the ancient Carthagian art we saw while in Tunisia. The orange demon-looking characters with long horns reminded her of the art we saw in Bali, Indonesia. Oddly, we never posted any clear photos of the demon art from Bali on our blog, so we don’t have a link to send you to for compare/contrast. So, we have included a photo taken in Bali underneath so you can see the similarities in the styles.

From there, she took Ash Street (one block west of Mill St.) back south into downtown, and passed an old style train station and a handful of old style cinder block and brick houses along the way. All had been renovated and are used as offices and restaurants. She is guessing this is the “historic” district.

She headed east a half block and came to the Hackett House, which was built in the late 1800’s and is the oldest fired brick building in the town. Christi was surprised to see it was actually two houses on one lot. Originally, it was built as a bakery, with one building acting as the kitchen and the one the store. In 1905, the property was turned into a private residence. In 1974, the city acquired the property and restored it to how it looked in 1912. Today, its primary function is a gift shop, though it is rented out for special events. Here is an interior shot:

She went back over to Mill Street and continued south a few more blocks to the Arizona State University Art Museum. The architectural style is kind of a modern/southwestern.

The museum is three stories. The theme for the middle floor was devoted to “Art of the Americas” and she was under the impression that all the work was done by ASU students. The art was incredibly varied, both in terms of style, mediums, themes, etc, and were grouped together by theme. She was surprised to see that in one of the exhibition areas there was a display on faces. Déjà vu!

The top floor seemed to feature only art work done by students, and the theme seemed to be climate change/destroying nature topics. While the styles varied, the majority of the work was modern. Several pieces were made out of un-recyclable materials that would normally wind up in a dump. One creation that got her attention was a completely functional looking patio table and chairs covered by a sun umbrella. It looked like something you’d see on the balcony in an upscale apartment, not like it belonged in a museum.

On the bottom floor, one of the exhibition rooms had a student-made vampire movie playing, which she didn’t watch. The rest of the art work on the floor seemed to be done by professional artists, and the pieces were grouped together by artist. All the art was modern and all seemed to touch on climate change and/or destroying nature. Christi found most of the artwork to be just flat out weird.

After the museum, she met Eric for dinner and we had a quiet night at the hotel, with Eric working late.