Friday, November 14, 2003: I drive from North Hollywood to Berkeley via U.S. 101, taking a detour between San Luis Obispo and Monterey along California 1, the Pacific Coast Highway.
The Pacific Ocean on a gloomy autumn day.
Saturday, November 15, 2003: Aaron Odland and I drive up to the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa.
They don't allow picture taking inside the museum itself, but there's a courtyard in the back with some sculptures, including Charlie Brown under construction, shipped from St. Paul, Minnesota, after he and a bunch of others were around town in the summer of 2001.
And there's "Lucy's Cap," which is atop "Woodstock's Birdbath." The birdbath is apparently supposed to have some sort of hologram display above it, but it didn't seem to be turned on.
And there is, of course, a kite-eating tree.
Next door to the museum is an older building, the Redwood Empire Ice Arena, which Charles Schulz had built in 1969...
...and there's a plaque to prove it. By the way, there's a vacant lot across the street from the rink. Aaron suggested it would be a good place to put a "Garfield" museum, or a museum for some other comic strip.
The ice rink itself, which was busy, given that it was Saturday afternoon. Aaron and I poked our heads inside to have a look around, and the Zamboni was going around, which seemed significant. Snoopy was not driving it, unfortunately. (I wasn't sure how they felt about taking pictures in that building, so I didn't take any.)
Aaron and I had lunch at the ice rink coffee shop, which is called The Warm Puppy, and where there's still a table reserved for Charles Schulz near the entrance. They don't serve jelly-bread sandwiches folded over, and they don't serve root beer in frosty mugs, but if you order the Snoopy Special (a hamburger and fries), this is how they serve it.
Aaron gets ready to chow down. He somehow managed to refrain from dancing around and singing "It's suppertime! It's suppertime! The very best time of day!" Well, it was only lunchtime. Near Aaron, by the way, you can see an example of one of the famous skaters who have left their names in cement in front of the ice rink.
Time to go, but time enough for one last photo.
Sunday, November 16, 2003: I drive to Sacramento, not to say goodbye to Gray Davis on his last full day as governor, but to visit the California State Railroad Museum. They have a lot of stuff, including the Southern Pacific Railroad's first locomotive...
...one of the Southern Pacific's last steam locomotives, which is of a bizarre design with the engineer's cab right at the front and is much too big to all get in one picture from any of the angles available...
...a Western Pacific diesel locomotive of the kind I really like, the Electro-Motive "E" series (this one is, in fact, an E7)...
...and even model trains. Also, it's right next to the main rail line through Sacramento, so one can hear freight and passenger trains going by, although they didn't seem to have thought of having an official museum viewing area. Well, the Amtrak station is just a couple blocks away.
The museum also has its own short line railroad, but it only operates regularly between April and October.
  After leaving the museum, I drive straight back to North Hollywood, on Interstate 5. No pictures, because it was kind of a boring drive. But that's the price one pays for it being a lot faster than the 101-and-1 combination on Friday.
Back to Travel Narratives page
Back to home page
Page Last Updated: November 17, 2003