A Great View of the Parade

I had the best seat ever to watch the parade that opened the 2014 San Benito County Saddle Horse and Rodeo. This old lady is just not used to sitting on the curb. Next time, I'll remember to bring my beach chair, which, now that I think about it, was in my car trunk. Oh well.

If you didn't have a chance to get down to the parade or want to re-live it, I have an album of photos at Facebook that you're welcome to view. Please click here.

Blenheim Apricots

When I was a kid many years ago, Hollister was full of orchards of California Blenheim apricots, the most tastiest apricot around. Today, nearly all of those apricot orchards are gone and only a few local farmers continue to grow Blenheim apricots and produce  dried apricots, apricot jam, apricot syrup, and other artisanal products.

If you're searching for fresh Blenheim apricots, you might contact one of these businesses in Hollister. But, act quickly, the harvest season is almost over.

• Apricot King
• Bertuccio's Market–The Farm
• B&R Farms
• Casa de Fruta

 

Here Comes the Parade!

Tomorrow evening (Thursday, June 26, 2014) at around 6:15 PM, the 81st San Benito County Saddle Horse Show and Rodeo begins with its annual parade down San Benito Street.

For details about the three-day event (Friday through Sunday), head over to the San Benito County Saddle Horse Show and Rodeo website.

A Hollister Hills Walk

The Husband and I finally checked out the nature area of the Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area. It's one of two places in the park where you can hike or ride mountain bikes without running into dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles, and other off-road vehicles on the trail.

The nature area is a beautiful place. As we walked on the first bridge over Bird Creek, we thought how even more gorgeous the area must look in the Spring after a rain. A few feet from the bridge, we were greeted by quails, which rushed terrified into the bushes by us, humans.

The trails aren't marked so we guessed where we were from the map.  Reminder for next time: The area is not as big as it looks on the map. I say that because we came to the end of the trail, which had merged into a dirt road, sooner than we expected. But, then, the Husband thinks that was not the end of the trail shown on the map. Confused? Yeah, us, too.

We came upon a sign that stated

This Property is Owned 

by The University of Calif. Berkley 

Seismographic Stations

Sensitive Experiment in Progress

No Trespassing Please! 

Being law-abiding citizens, the Husband and I turned back.  I discovered later that the San Andreas Fault runs through the park. The Husband found out that we had not completely reached the farthest edge of the nature area.

As we were backtracking, we took what looked like a trail going up the hillside. A bit of zig and zag brought us up to another jeep road and to a sign that pointed us to locations that we thought we'd already been. Ha!

All in all, we enjoyed our meandering about in the Hollister Hills SRVA nature area. It just made me wish again there were more accessible hiking trails in Cienega Valley and other parts of San Benito County.

The Procession

Yesterday, the Old Mission San Juan Bautista Fiesta began with a procession from the church to the historic olive grounds next to the mission. This year, it was lead by the the  Grupo Nauhcampa, a conchero dance group from Gilroy.

At the end of the mass, the dancers lined the center aisle and, dancing backwards, moved their way down the aisle and out the church. They danced to the statue of St. John the Baptist in front of the church where they performed a ceremonial blessing to the four directions. From there, the dancers, Father Jim, and some parishioners weaved their way around the plaza and down to Third Street and through part of San Juan Bautista and up to the olive grounds.

To see  photos of the procession and the fiesta, head over to  this Take 25 to Hollister album on Facebook.