We started this day with a bang - breakfast at Panera: bear claw, bagels and coffee. How could we have started it any better? We then headed down the road a bit to the Temecula Museum. A friend told me about this little museum whose size belies its excellence and she was spot on. We turned down the road to the museum parking lot right into a traffic jam. Some going to, some coming from the Temecula Farmers’ Market and many just circling and looking for a parking place. People carrying bags of oranges, potted plants, bunches of spinach, baby asparagus, strawberries fresh from the fields. How could we resist? 45 minutes later, we had our treasures (asparagus, jam, lettuce, some heirloom tomatoes and these luscious looking fruits),
walked over to the museum, asked them if we could leave our bags there and began to look around.
What an excellent museum - a 180 degrees from the museum we were at yesterday. Whereas the museum yesterday had a plethora of artifacts but little explanation or unreadable explanation, this museum had been very thoughtfully laid out, had explanation plaques that were easy to read, there were timelines to connect all the facts they were covering, some summary about why each section was important and - a plethora of artifacts. It was chronologically laid out and there were plaques linking each section. Wow.
The story of Temecula is the story of lands throughout the southwest: Native Americans, Spanish Missionaries and soldiers, American Ranchers and finally pioneers settling on the land. As per usual, guess who got left out in the cold, after being evicted from their land, ‘asked’ to ‘help’ build the missions and killed off by small pox and other diseases. If you guessed anyone but the Native Americans, you win a set of American History books. I guess in the end they might have the last laugh: they own the Pechanga Casino, just a little ways up the hill.
This museum covered each of these groups well. There was a nice section devoted to the original inhabitants, called the Luiseños, with quite a few artifacts. Of course, they did not call themselves the Luiseños, that was a name given to them because they lived in the territory around the San Luis Rey Mission. Here are some baskets made by Juanita Neto Lopez who was well known for her finely crafted baskets. (My favorite is the hat.)
Here is a portable stone mortar. Somehow, I don’t think of stone as portable. But every cook has her or his favorite tool.
There were also sections devoted to the mission period, the ranch period and a section on how various methods of transportation affected the growth of the region.
They had a neat section upstairs for kids - and adults who were alone in the museum and wanted to be kids. Here the motto was ‘Touch’ not ‘Don’t Touch.’ How cool is that? They had a retail store there with items from the past: a butter churn, a coffee grinder, a rug beater and other items. Kids can churn, grind and beat. Then they have a trunk of clothing that ‘kids’ can put on and see what they might have looked like as a pioneer. I’m not thinking this is our best look. My hat’s too big and Gary’s is too small.
Also upstairs was a room devoted to Erle Stanley Gardner who was not just the well-known author of the Perry Mason series but was a court reformer as well. He was passionate about justice and seeing that all had equal access to it. He also touted such reforms as having an official, trained medical examiner determine the cause of death. Obviously a new concept in the 1950’s but accepted nationally today. He also wrote 151 books altogether that sold 325 million copies. His best selling works, however, were his 82 Perry Mason novels and the hit TV series based upon his books which had 271 episodes and ran from 1957 to 1966. The first actor considered for the role of Perry Mason was Fred McMurray but when Gardner saw Raymond Burr try out for the role of DA Hamilton Burger, he knew he had found his Perry Mason. One of his favorite magazines as a youth was The Youth’s Companion’ published by the Perry Mason Company of Boston, MA.
They had a section about the cover art on his books. One artist, Robert McGinnis, drew many covers for Gardner’s books, and always with an image of a woman in a provocative pose. Here the first one he did.
We were quite taken with his method of travel throughout the Southwest and into Mexico. He had his own RV and they traveled with a group of 3. He is dressed like he’s going to a formal dinner. I hope those shoes are polished.
Here, among lots of photos from his life is also a reproduction of his office in Temecula.
We really enjoyed this small museum since it covered so much so well.
Finally, we headed on over to the Mall to see what might be the trouble with Gary’s computer. While Gary was in there at the Genius bar, I headed out into the mall to see what I could find. I found a Variety Club group selling spots on the drive for charity. Kids, parents, adults - all were enjoying the opportunity to paint the town up all for a good cause.
I found a fireplace with a fire going strong in it. Only in CA would they have a lit fireplace in an outdoor mall.
Back at Apple, Gary learned that his hard drive was ‘fried, deader than a doornail. kaput.’ Now what; buy a new computer @ $1700 or install a new hard drive @ $70 in his 6-yr old computer? Hey, while we’re thinking, how about a Caesar salad at Costco across the street? By this time it is 3:00, we’ve had only a bagel or a bear claw for breakfast and our stomachs are rumbling so much that heads in Apple are turning. Their Caesar salads are excellent and Gary crunched the numbers while we ate. New computer: $1700 or new hard drive: $70? He ran some tests and determined that it was really just the hard drive and not the computer that had failed so it seems that a new hard drive is just the ticket.
Ah, a stop at Best Buy and we’re on our way home. It’s been a long day: from 8 am to 7 pm. Our third long day in a row. I’m thinkin’ we relax tomorrow since we move on Monday. Yeah, right. I’ll tell you right now that on Sunday I washed and waxed the RV while Gary made some repairs and did some other maintenance before he unhooked our utilities in preparation for our move. Are we Type A’s or what?
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