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.

2014 Old Mission San Juan Bautista Fiesta

The statue of John the Baptist was created by Sculptor Thomas Marsh.

Today, the Mission San Juan Bautista congregation is having its annual celebration to honor St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of the old mission, and its 202nd anniversary.

The fiesta runs from 11 AM to 5 PM. Admission is free to everyone.

The celebration begins with a procession led by the  Grupo Nauhcampa at 11 AM to the historic olive grove, on the north side of the Mission, where the fiesta is held. They lead another procession at 1 PM.

Live entertainment is provided by the Mariachi Juvenil Alma de Mexico and the Nu-Horizon Band. The traditional chicken barbecue lunch plate, with sides of chili beans, salad and French bread, is available for purchase at $8/plate.

For further details, check out the article by Ernest Franco in the Out and About Magazine.

The 2014 Hollister Rally

Are you ready for the 2014 Hollister Rally?

Come two weekends from now we will have thousands of visitors in our town and county, enjoying the annual biker festivities. The event will run from 9 AM to 9 PM on both Friday (July 4) and Saturday (July 5) and from 9 AM to 3 PM on Sunday (July 6).

To learn more about the schedule and vendors, head over to the Official Hollister Rally website. And, if you'd like to know how Hollister became known as the "Birthplace of the American Biker" and how this annual motorcycle rally came to be, check out this Take 25 to Hollister post written in 2008.