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

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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.

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A is for . . .

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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.

Wildflowers on the Anza Trail

Yesterday, the Husband and I walked a bit of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail (pshew, that's a mouthful) in San Juan Bautista.  Butterflies and grasshoppers escorted us throughout the walk, bees serenaded us, and wildflowers greeted us as well. The flowers showed up in all sorts of places along the trail.