G is for . . .

Gateway.

The eastern gateway to the Pinnacles National Park, that is. It's a not-to-well-known park (yet) about 30 miles south of Hollister. Formerly the Pinnacles National Monument, which was established in 1908, it was redesignated a national park in January 2013.

Once upon a time, millions of years ago, the park was part of a volcano that once stood in present-day Lancaster in Southern California. The beautiful, towering rock formations in the Pinnacles National Park are what it was named after. Those who hike the High Peaks Trail find themselves weaving among some of those majestic spires.

The park has various easy to strenuous trails for hikers. Visitors also have the opportunity to hike through talus caves when they are open. Rangers close the caves when the bats that live there are roosting. One cave houses a colony of Townsend's Big-eared Bats, while the other is home to a colony of Western Mastiff Bats.

Want a chance to see a California Condor flying free in the sky? Head for this park. It's the only one in the National Park Service that participates in the California Condor Recovery Program.  More than 30 condors, which were born and raised in zoos, have been released into the wilds of the Pinnacles over the last decade.

There are two gateways to the park. No road connects the two. The eastern entrance is via Hollister, while the western entrance is via Soledad. Each side is gorgeous. I'm partial, of course, and like to go through the eastern gateway.

For more information about the Pinnacles National Park, visit its website.

Click here to find other A to Z challenge participants.

F is for . . .

Festivals, fairs, and fiestas! Olé!

Come summer and fall, we can look forward to the various festivals, fairs, and fiestas that take place in Hollister and other parts of our county. These are just a few of the big ones. 

Annual Old Mission San Juan Bautista Fiesta

About seven miles to the west of Hollister is San Juan Bautista, named after Mission San Juan Bautista, which was established in 1797. For many decades, the mission city has held an annual fiesta to celebrate St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of the Old Mission. This year, the event will take place on Sunday, June 28. Admission is free.

The celebration starts with a procession from the mission through the city and back up to the olive grove next to the mission. For more details, check out this link.

Annual Downtown Hollister Street Festival, Car Show, and Swap Meet

On July 18, 2015, San Benito Street and the side streets, between Fourth and South Streets, close  for the 29th annual Downtown Hollister  Street Festival, Car Show, and Swap Meet.  The free event is sponsored by the Downtown Hollister Association. For more details about the free event, check out this link.

San Benito County Fair

Cowboy Boots & Local Roots is the theme of this year's San Benito County Fair at Bolado Park, about eight miles south of Hollister. Livestock exhibits. Live music. Flower, food, art, and quilt competitions. Business and nonprofit group displays. Carnival rides. Truck pulls. And much more. If you've never experienced an old-fashioned county fair, ours is the one to check out.

This year, the fair will be four days long, from Thursday, October 1 to Sunday, October 4, 2015. For more information, visit the fair's website.

San Benito Olive Festival

The third annual San Benito Olive Festival will take place on October 17, 2015. The location to be announced soon. This foodie fair celebrates the agricultural heritage and bounty, as well as the artisanal foodmakers, in our area. Some of the products from here are olive oils, chocolates, wines, Blenheim apricots,  cherries, lettuce, asparagus, greens, free-range chickens and eggs, free-range grass-fed beef, and more.

The San Benito Olive Festival, a nonprofit group, donates all of its net proceeds from the annual event back to other nonprofit groups in the community. For more details, visit its website.

Click here to find other A to Z challenge participants.

E is for. . .

Eric Tognazzini!

In his later years, Eric buzzed up and down the sidewalks of Downtown Hollister on an electric wheelchair. Before that, he rode his tricycle. Eric was constantly stopping to talk with friends and acquaintances, some of whom crossed the streets or popped out of the shops and restaurants to say hello and chat with him for awhile.

I never knew what Eric's physical disability was. I just knew that he did not stick to the shadows because of it. He had a charming personality that disarmed people so that they didn't feel uncomfortable being around him.

Eric died in May, 2011 at the age of 64. Immediately, his friends started a memorial fund to build a statue of Eric, so that we may all remember and be inspired by Eric's amazing joyful spirit. Last month, the statue was installed and unveiled in front of the Briggs Building on the corner of San Benito and Fourth Streets.

To Eric!

Click here to find other A to Z challenge participants.

D is for . . .

Looking North on San Benito Street

Drag. As in the main drag.

In Hollister, that's the main street which is called San Benito Street. I was an adult before it dawned on me that the main street in Downtown Hollister was not called Main Street.

Looking south on San Benito Street

D is also for dragging. As in cruising the main drag.

Remember the movie American Graffiti? Teenagers in a small town dragged the main street all night long in their cars or their parents' cars. That was Hollister way back when. After school and on weekends, teenagers slowly dragged the main street from one end to the other, and back again. I recall a guy sitting in a nice comfy chair on a corner of the main street, as if he was king of all the cruisers.

Today, Hollister's main drag gets closed for the Farmers Market every Wednesday afternoon, between May and September.

In July, it's shut down for the Hollister Motorcycle Rally around July 4th, and then again for the Downtown Hollister Street Festival and Car Show later in the month.

And, let me not forget that the street also closes for the various annual parades that take place throughout the year, such as the San Benito County Saddle Horse Show & Rodeo Parade, Veterans Day Parade, and Lights on Celebration Parade.

Click here to find other A to Z challenge participants.

C is for. . .

County seat.

Hollister is the county seat of San Benito County, which is part of the California Central Coast. Wait, now. Don't jump to the conclusion that my city is the one being blasted on the expensive tee-shirts people buy in that big box store I shall not name. The tee-shirt is all about a fictional beach town in Southern California. This Hollister, the real city, is about a 40 minute, more or less, drive away from the coast.

When California was established as a state in 1850, Monterey County ruled the area. Due to political this's and that's, a big interior chunk of Monterey became San Benito County in 1874. Hollister was made the county seat, rather than San Juan Bautista, which was a bustling mission town and had been for many years back then. Hollister was only incorporated in 1869. No doubt it helped that the Southern Pacific Railroad built a station there.

The former courthouse that now houses many county offices.

The new county courthouse

The county library

Click here to check out other A to Z participants.

B is for . . .

Buildings. Historic commercial buildings.

Many of the buildings on Hollister's main street are part of the Downtown Hollister Historic District, which is in the National Register of Historic Places. Here are just a few of the historic buildings. To see more, check out this link.

The two Italianate style buildings were erected in the late 1800s.

The Masonic Lodge built in 1908

This commercial building went up in 1915.

The once-upon-a-time Bank of America building,
constructed around 1930.

The old Elks Lodge built in the early 1920s.

Click here to find other A to Z challenge participants.

A is for . . .

Click here to find other A to Z Challenge participants.

Air.

Airplane.

Airshow.

The Hollister Airshow, to be precise. And, it will be happening June 20 – 21, 2015.

Prepping for the April A to Z Blogging Challenge

"Wednesday starts the April ABC blogging challenge," I said to the Husband late last night. "I've run out of juice. I have no ideas at all."

"What letter are you on?" he asked.

"A."

Silence. 

We both laughed at the same time.

Since 2010, the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge  has been an annual event in blogland. Every day, except Sunday, participants post something about a subject beginning with the letter of the day. April 1, naturally, would be any subject beginning with A.  

I did the challenge in 2013, entering both Take 25 to Hollister and my other blog. It was fun, but tough, so last year I decided to just enter The View from the Top of the Ladder. This year, since my goal is to post every day on the two blogs, I've entered both of them in the blogathon.

Each blog has a theme. I'm going simple with Take 25 to Hollister. The theme is Hollister. Go ahead and laugh. It's not as easy as I thought it would be. Think about it. I can't write about the Pinnacles, Fremont's Peak,  or other things outside of the city limits, unless I tie it into Hollister somehow. That's the challenge I've given myself. Of course, being that I'm the boss here, I can change my rules. Maybe then I can come up with a subject for the letter A.

For those curious, food is my theme for The View from Top of the Ladder. You're welcome to check me out there, too. I pretty much have a line-up of tales ready to go. As for Take 25 to Hollister. . . stay tuned for tomorrow, dear readers.