Birthdays and Idyllwild

With Fran returning on Monday evening, Marty and I had a couple days to hangout.  A couple of the adventures we did include Queen Califia's Magical Circle.  It is only open when docents are available on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month.

Located within Kit Carson Park in Escondido.  It is fun to see the artist interpretation of the legendary queen that California is named after.  This is Queen Califia on her eagle.

The underside of the eagle represents the universe.

I did a more complete blog on Queen Califia’s Magical Circle HERE.

We turned our outing into a long loop with a stop to visit the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory  Once inside there are another 70 steps to the viewing area.

We continued over Mt Palomar and past Lake Henshaw.

With a brief stop at Dudley’s, we made our way to Edwards Vineyards, my favorite local fermenter.  We'll test the 'Original 2017 Syrah' (old vine) against the '2017 New Syrah' (new vine), and a 2017 Cab ... just because.

Victor Edwards died of cancer last December and his widow Beth Edwards is now making a go of it on her own.  I’ll certainly visit again and check out her releases. 

We celebrated both Marty’s and Fran’s birthdays in Idyllwild near Mt San Jacinto. 

The Manzanita Cantina easily has the best Margarita on the hill. 

And they offer FREE birthday shots!

Fran skipped the tequila shot, but enjoyed Happy Birthday sung in Spanish.

Tahquitz Peak is the signature photo of the area.  There certainly is no shortage of granite boulders in the area.

Strolling the shops at The Fort is an easy way to see some of the tourist traps.

There are over 50 whimsical deer sculptures around the town, but I only saw this one unicorn.

The small Farmer’s Market had a nice selection of veggies and citrus, but little else.  These are brought up from the farm in Riverside, providing fresh to the locals.

Marty and Juanita taking a break in town

At 11 weeks post-surgery ... finally my FIRST hike.

OK it was just the 1 mile Nature Trail, but with my boots on and a hiking stick it indeed counts!  Our favorite hike up here is the Earnie Maxwell Scenic Trail.

But the reason for this trip, was not just the birthdays … We wanted to do the Idyllwild Home Tour supporting their Historical Society.

The Southern California AAA Westways magazine did an article on the tour that most of SoCal must have seen.  It was a huge turnout.

My favorite was a 1928 cabin that retains the charm and period furnishing of that era.

The 500 sq ft cabin was used in the 1962 filming of Kid Galahad staring Elvis Presley.  The cabin has been in the same family since its construction, thus home to nearly a century of memories.

The most unique home was the Donaldson Futuro House.

The link details the restoration and moving of the house from San Diego to its present location on a granite outcropping.  It is on the California Register of Historic Places.

Relaxing by a campfire is often the best part of camping.

The blog of a previous visit to Idyllwild offers more information on the town and the Ernie Maxwell Trail can be found HERE.  As mentioned in that link we hike the trail up to Heber Park and return.  There is also a link to John and Sharon's hike 'backwards'.

And of course fish tacos:

The Naming of California - fact or fiction

The doc says 4 more weeks of RICE treatment for my meniscus tear. So this week a bit of history … how did California get it’s name?

I’d bet everybody who reads my blog has been to California, but I’d be surprised if any know (or even think about) where the name California came from.  On early maps the boundaries of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific were not explored and California was shown as an island.



Maybe Christopher Columbus had it right in the journal of his first voyage “a place of women without men”. 

And history seems to follow Christopher Columbus, California was named after Queen Califia, a Black Amazon warrior Queen that Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, wrote about in his 1500, Las sergas de Esplandián.  The book was part of a popular series of Spanish romance stories.  Where the novel described an island, very close to the Garden of Eden, full of gold, which was ruled by strong and beautiful black women. The name of this magical island of Queen Califia was California.  Personally I consider it the lure of this earthly paradise, that it was named for a romanticized paradise.

No matter, in 1533 Diego de Becerra applied the name California to the region:
“Know that, on the right hand of the Indies, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise, there is an island called California, which was peopled with black women, without any men among them. because they were accustomed to live after the fashion of Amazons . . . In this island called California are many Griffins, on account of the great savageness of the country and the immense quantity of the wild game there . . .  .” gotta love those ‘California Girls’!

and the name has stuck, making California one of the 5 oldest European names in the Western Hemisphere.  Where it remains today as the name of the US state of California, the two Mexican states of Baja California Norte and Sur of Baja California Peninsula and the Gulf of California.

La Jolla artist Niki de Saint Phalle has her sculptures displayed along the Prado in Balboa Park,  along the water font in San Diego, on the UCSD campus and her whimsical colorful works at Queen Califia’s Magical Circle Garden, which is open every Tuesday and Thursday 9-Noon and on the second Saturday of each month in Kit Carson Park Escondido.


Located at the 17th hole of the disc golf course is a sign providing directions up a short path to the entrance.


The only entrance into the garden is past 2 of 8 snakes that define the Magical Circle.  The snakes are covered in ceramic, various stones and petrified wood



Once past the snakes continue into the garden via a maze made of black and white ceramic tile pieces inlaid with mirrors.  The center piece of the garden is Queen Califia standing atop her 5-legged eagle throne.



Underneath the eagle is a temple sanctuary with golden fountain egg in the center


The 8 totems that surround Queen Califia portray images of the creatures and crests that have played important roles in the history of California.




The debate continued if California was an island or peninsula for more than 2 centuries.  The dispute was finally settled when the expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza traveled between Sonora and Borrego Springs, then on to the west coast of California between 1774–1776.  Establishing once and for all that California was part of the mainland.