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California Vacation 2009
This is the time of year we always fly out to visit with my sister, Andrea, and her husband, Jim. We revisited several places we have gone before. We have such a lovely time together.

This year, we stayed at Baywood Inn again at our favorite place, sort of a bed and breakfast.  

We didn't get to karaoke at the little bar there which was a bit disappoiinting, but hey!  There were awesome costumes, and mostly we just sat, had drinks and observed, and maybe sometimes gawked. Maybe nothing! We GAWKED! It was so much fun.

We can't go without visiting the elephant seals.

Due to the lack of water, it was sad to see where once there were crops, there were only brown fields.

One of the fun things we did in Fresno was to visit the world-renowned Underground Gardens of Artist-Builder Baldassare Forestiere. If you haven't been, you simply wouldn't believe what one man did.

For 40 years, Forestiere labored in his spare time, chipping and carving away at the unforgiving earth.  With only his farmer’s tools—picks, shovels,wheelbarrows, and a scraper pulled by his two mules, Dolly and Molly. No dynamite or modern mechanical methods were used.

Forestiere hand-carved in his spare time, a work unlike any this country had ever seen.

http://www.undergroundgardens.com/amazingfacts.html

http://www.forestiere-historicalcenter.com/Forestierebio.html

"To make something with lots of money, that is easy.  But to make something out of nothing -- that now, is something!"
            Baldassare Forestiere
Date(s): October 28  November 4,  2009. Album by Jacqueline. 37 - 54 of 256 Total. 7140 Visits.
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Enlarge photo 37
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Scott. Fishing off a barge somewhere in Mexico City.
He is a beautiful child.


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We all know what this is.
Back then, if you had been married before, you couldn't wear white.
It was a lovely wedding, and I believe the whole thing cost about $250.


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Cathy, Scott, sister Rebecca and brother Stephens.

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Our Cathy.  Maybe about four.

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Me and Stephanie, September 1976.

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Our wedding photo.
Back row: David's brother, Richard, Brother Stone, Kenneth Dooley, Karen, Me, David, brother, David.


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Brother Stephens, excorting my pretty mama at David's and my  wedding.

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David and sister, Sharon.

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The entrance to Baldassare Forestiere's Underground Gardens.
Since David and I hadn't been there before, we had no idea the treat we were in for.


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"A 40-year labor of love . . Originally 10 acres underground . . Patterned after the ancient catacombs . ."

Forestiere built three  underground levels; the first level is about 10 feet deep, the second is about 22 feet deep, and the third is around 25 feet deep. The lower levels also act as the main drainage point for most of
the underground rooms and passageways.


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"Fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface . .
Three levels . . A rustic underground oasis of a by-gone era"


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Entryway.  I simply don't know how one person did all this.

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To the ballroom.

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To the ballroom.

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The ballroom. Baldassare hadn't completed this room before he died, and his brother completed it.

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This is where those that come for the tour sit during the introduction.  It's at one end of the ballroom.

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In the ballroom.

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These are all the tools that Baldassare used to dig his gardens. Nothing else.

 Continued ...
  
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