(Excerpted from my book; OUR SUMMER IN CARMEL Amazon.com) When Portola returned to San Diego he found a deplorable situation. A third of his men had died, mostly from scurvy; six more had died from an Indian attack. With no provisions and no sign of the supply ship he was ready to scrap the entire project and return to Mexico. However, almost as in a Hollywood script, just as his self imposed time limit was approaching, the San Antonio sailed in with fresh supplies. With this encouragement, Portola was reenergized to continue his quest. Undaunted, they set forth again in April [View Full Entry]

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(Excerpted from my book Our Summer In Carmel. Amazon.com) It is difficult today to understand why it took Spain 160 years to follow-up on Vizcaino's groundbreaking exploration. It is true that Spain was preoccupied with European conflicts. They were also receiving a great amount of treasure from the possessions they already acquired in the new world. Even great nations can get complacent. Finally, it was no easy task for Spain to manage the already vast empire of New Spain, much less occupy a huge new territory such as Alta California that seemed to have little promise of yielding additiona [View Full Entry]

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(Excerpted from my book Our Summer in Estonia: Amazon.com) One of the delightful aspects of the lifestyle we espouse, going anywhere in the world each summer and renting for at least three months, in lieu of owning a second home, taking cruises or going on tours, is the accidental, spontaneous, occurrences that lead us to discoveries and people that otherwise are never experienced by the general tourist. Our coming home from Lahemaa National Park and deciding to detour north to the Baltic coast and the village of Viinistu is a classic example. A small guide book obtained at the Estonian nat [View Full Entry]

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(Excerpted from my book Our Summer in Australia and New Zealand, Amazon.com.) A highlight of our time in Albany was a visit to the whaling station, which now goes by the unfortunate name of Whale World. The station was the last such large commercial operation to close under pressure from the worldwide bans and restrictive treaties on many form of whaling enacted in the 1970s. The Albany station closed in 1978 and is much like it was then, thereby being a good representative of what the industry was like. For this modern operation, early in the morning a spotter plane would [View Full Entry]

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Excerpted from my book: Our Summer in Slovenia, Amazon.com More on Slovenia's position in the world on bee keeping. Even today there are more than 10,000 beekeepers in Slovenia second only to Argentina, which of course is much larger and with a greater population. During the 19th century Slovenia exported entire colonies of bees to the United States to propagate its agricultural expansion across the great plains and on into California and Oregon. The sliding box hive was invented in Slovenia allowing the transport of hives from field to field and the easy removal of honeycombs. This develop [View Full Entry]

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(Excerpted from my book Our Summer in Carmel Amazon.com) From Carbrillo's misadventures in 1542 more than fifty yeas would pass before Spain would pay any attention to his expedition. Events on a larger scale prodded Spain into action. By the close of the 16th Century, Spain was engaged in extended trading between Mexico and its outpost in the Philippines, Manila. But their treasure laden ships were exposed to attack, particularly by the English, and the likes of Sir Francis Drake. Drake had already landed not far north of present day San Francisco, and claimed the entire Pacific coast for [View Full Entry]

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(Excerpted from my book Our Summer In Estonia, Amazon.com) The first mention of the location Palmse dates to 1287 when it was mentioned in connection to properties belonging to Tallinn's St. Michael's Nunnery. The Cistercian monks traded their rights to the land to a Swedish family in 1510, and through marriage it devolved to the von der Phalen family in 1676. Palmse would remain in the Phalen family for 250 years, until the new Estonian Republic dissolved the Manor House system immediately following WWI, in 1919. Palmse (meaning palms) is an excellent example of one of the largest most [View Full Entry]

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(Excerpted from my book Our Summer in Australia and New Zealand, Amazon.com) The seaport town of Albany, located in the southwest portion of Western Australia,near where the great Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean, is about as far as one can get "to be far away" without falling off of the edge of the world. By the way, Australians pronounce the name AL as in the mans name and Beny. The city is notable as a former whaling port of some importance, the main point of departure for the WWI ANZAC Armada, a terminal for Australia's timber exports from its abundant [View Full Entry]

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(Excerpted from my book Our Summer in Slovenia Amazon.com) Not in my wildest imaginings, no matter how many hallucinogens I might have taken, would the idea of visiting a bee museum have occurred to me. At first, I thought it was a joke. A "sting" operation on gullible tourists. "Oh, you must not miss visiting the National Bee Museum" in Radovljica, a town of about 6,000 only a ten minute drive from Bled, we were told. "oh sure, The bee museum, wouldn't want to miss that" we replied. Well, you narrow-minded, pseudo-sophisticate, jaded world-weary traveler who thinks all that is worth [View Full Entry]

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(Excerpted from my book Our Summer in Carmel, Amazon.com) In what the Spanish called Alta California, there was not the relentless effort to colonize, proselytize and claim territory that there had been in Mexico, Peru and the Eastern coasts of the new world. But change was coming, none the less. Perhaps the first Spaniard to see the Monterey area was Juan Rodriguez Carbrillo. The records are sparse and historians are uncertain. Carbrllo had come to Mexico in 1519 as part of an expedition to reprimand Hernan Cortes for exceeding his authority in dealing with the Aztecs. Rather than reprimandi [View Full Entry]

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