Pinnacles National Monument

We had a great weekend in Soledad, California with Luby.  We drove down there Friday night after work and Eli was not too impressed with the slow traffic.  I ended up sitting in the back singing 'If you're happy and you know it clap your hands' a million times and doing fake sneezes because his favourite book is 'Pigs Make Me Sneeze'!  Soledad is smack in the middle of vegetable farming land ('The Salad Bowl' as it is fondly known) and from what we could tell the population in primarily Mexican.  Needless to say we ate some of the best Mexican food we've ever had so that was a nice bonus.  On a side note, and no guesses as to who provided this information, Soledad was also the town in which 'Of Mice and Men' was set.  The reason that we met there was to visit Pinnacles National Monument; a great state park which is famous for it's rocky ridges and caves.  It was formed by movement in the San Andreas fault line a bazillion years ago.

                                          A Stellar Jay

We also visited the restored Soledad Mission.  We were inside the chapel and there was a full sized manequin up on the wall at the front who was Mary.  Eli stared at her for quite a while and then finally waved and called out 'Hi'!