Dear Jasper and Kestrel,
While I was in Salinas last week , Liza and I got to have one of our favorite adventures. We woke up early, packed some snacks, and headed off to Hartnell College. We usually have a long chat and visit with the Panther, who is carved from black stone and has been in the same spot since 1932. But today, he was wrapped in protective plastic and we couldn’t get near him!
The whole center of the Hartnell campus is being torn up to get ready for what looks like a new building. I will need to research more to find out what. But for today we could only wave at the Panther and head for Central Park, across the street.
While we were there, Liza and I played that she was running a restaurant and she served me our snack,then shared it with me. Then we found the play fire truck and rescued a kitten and saved a lady whose house was on fire. It was very exciting.
We walked through the neighborhood and finally found Mr. Steinbeck’s Museum! We got there just as they were opening, and the lady explained that in honor of Dia de Los Muertos, there was a Scavenger Hunt. We found really handsome skeletons made of paper mache all through the museum.
We also had a familiar game of inviting the children from the “Grapes of Wrath” labor camp to come to the “Sweet Thursday” pipe house for a party. Then we took the “Sea of Cortez” boat out fishing, caught fish for the party, cleaned it, and cooked it over the paper mache ‘fire’ .
It was a REALLY lovely party with pretend food and pretend friends.
We managed to find all the items on our Scavenger Hunt and have a great time, as usual. Grandpa Nelson came and took us to our next adventure, which I will tell you about tomorrow.
Love,
Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 