Adamson House
Adamson House in Malibu was our first stop. The house was build in the 1930's for Rhoda Rindge Adamson and her husband Merritt Adamson. The house and land it sits on is in the Malibu Lagoon State Beach park. The house itself is beautiful and has extensive decorative Malibu ceramic tiles throughout the house, pool and patios. The history of the house is not the most interesting part of the tale. Well it is interesting as it is beautiful but what we found of more interesting was Rhoda Adamson's family background. Rhoda is the daughter of Frederick Hastings Rindge and Rhoda May Knight Rindge who were the last owners of Malibu which was a very large parcel of property between the mountains and the ocean in Malibu. The Rindge's owned all of the land from Santa Monica to Oxynard (which is about 47 miles of winding ocean front) and inland 2 & 1/2 miles into the Malibu canyon. A very large ranch! Rhoda's father, Frederick bought the property for $10 an acre in 1892, and only 30 years later became the most valuable single real estate holding in the United States! Frederick referred to the Malibu coast as the "American Riviera". In 1905 when Frederick died at the tender age of 48, his wife May took over the running of the ranch. May had a continuous battle with the County to keep Malibu a private family estate and free of public roads. Finally after 20 years she lost the fight. The Roosevelt Highway (which is now known as the Pacific Coast Highway) opened in 1926.
When Frederick passed away he had left poor May, land rich but cash poor. She thought she may find oil on her property but instead she found buff and red clay which lead to the creation of Malibu Potteries. They produced Mayan, Moorish, Moroccan, Saracen and Persian designs (these are seen throughout the house and grounds). Malibu Potteries only lasted for 5 or 6 years.
May Rindge's outspoken ways in business and public affairs earned her status as one of California's history shaping women. This would have been in a time long before the women's liberation movement! She died in 1941 at 76 years old. In 1977 Adamson house was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The back of the house which faces the pool. Not a large house by today's standards in the Malibu area, but for the time it was built was considered large.
This is one of the patios
Beautiful tile work from Malibu Tiles!
Beautiful fountain!
Garden bench
Beautiful fountain!
This fountain overlooks the grounds to the beach
All of the tiles were made at Malibu Tiles, including the tiles on the roof of the bath house. They are 5 tiles deep with cement in-between each tile. No wind is going to blow that roof off!
Check out the old wooden diving board
The pool looks out onto the Beach. The pier in the background was built by the family and used for their private yacht
Serra Retreat
The Serra Retreat is a Franciscan Monastery in Malibu overlooking the beautiful Pacific ocean. They hold a number of interesting sounding retreats. One rather odd sounding retreat is the Women's Serenity Retreat (Las Vegas). Why it sounds odd to me is that I thought it was held in Las Vegas, so I am thinking there could be gambling involved!? I was thinking of a few of my friends who might want to go on a gambling retreat!! Woo Hoo!!! But it is actually held in the Serra Retreat House in Malibu on the grounds of the Monastery and it is a non-denominational, 12 step retreat open to all alcoholic women. An AA Retreat in beautiful Malibu! What a place to quit drinking!! I am not sure how Las Vegas fits in to the retreat name. As I said there are a number of other Retreats held here along with weddings and memorials.
The drive up to the grounds from the Pacific Coast Highway is a beautiful if somewhat winding narrow road. Once we reached the top we were met with the most serene place that I have seen. There are paths through the woods with white benches placed here and there. It was SOOO quiet! We wandered around outside some of the buildings and came upon this view.
Imagine a wedding here!!
We are on top of the hill and that is Malibu in the background
One of the buildings on the grounds
While wandering around the grounds I heard "cafeteria" chatter. You know the sounds of knives and forks clinking against plates and bowls. I could smell food... sort of like warm homemade soup smells and fresh baked bread (yeah and us not eating wheat!!!). I said to Ray, it looks like there may be a place to grab a bite to eat. So we headed in the direction of the noises and the smells. As we rounded a bend in the path we saw a large cafeteria will some people inside eating. We walked in and saw a buffet set up, with soups (yes I have a great sniffer!), other hot foods and a salad bar. We kind of looked around to see what the cost was but nothing was noted anywhere. We were basically ignored by everyone, but Ray did see a young fellow clearing dishes away so went and asked him how much the buffet was and did we seat ourselves. The young fellow disappeared for a couple of minutes and then came back to inform us that the buffet was for the people on the retreat. Damn!!! Ray said we could of had a bowl of soup and no one would have known that we were not on the retreat! But anyone who knows me very well, and being the stickler for rules, I would never have done that.
Paramount Ranch
Paramount Ranch is in the Agoura Hills area of Malibu Canyon and runs just east off of Mullholand Highway. It is the sight of countless Hollywood western moves and TV shows. Dr Quinn Medicine Women was filmed there. In the 1960's the site was used as Tombstone Arizona and Dodge City Kansas. It has even been used for the hills of Montana, Ozark Mountains, Albuquerque and Missouri. And that is just to name a few! Back in the hills of the property is the site of where M.A.S.H was filmed. You cannot drive your cars on the Ranch and it was quite a hike into the M.A.S.H site. It was way to hot for me to be walking in the dry, dusty area. There could have been a few rattle snakes hovering near by in the sage brush!!! It does not appear that anything is currently being filmed on the property as it is open to the public. All of the buildings that were used are still standing and are in great shape. As you can see from this photo there is a new sheriff in town!
We came across this hues old oak tree (or two joined tress) that was so big Ray couldn't climb up into the "V" of the tree!
A nice fellow on his lunch break offered to take our photo
Main Street USA
In October you can find the annual Calabasas Pumpkin Festival, which features 30 tones (yes tons!!!) of pumpkins, arts & craft booths, food, live entertainment and a petting zoo. Parking is free and so is admission! Can't get better then that in this day and time!
If you are ever in the area and feel like a nice hike, you should definitely stop in at the Paramount Ranch!
Mulholland Highway
Many of you may have watched Mulholland Drive the mystery movie in 2001. I personally have not, but have heard about it. But how many have you actually have been on Mulholland Highway? It is one of the most famous highways in Southern California. It runs from Calabasas through the Santa Monica Mountains down to the the beach on Pacific Coast Highway. The highway consists of many twists and turns but the most famous are known as "the snake". "The Snake" is a short section of road with 21 turns which ends at small restaurant called "The Rock Store". Any Saturday or Sunday the parking lots and roadways can be jammed packed with motorcycles of every kind. One year when we were visiting, we went riding through on Mulholland. I was on behind Derian and Ray was on behind Cia. Shortly after pulling into the Rock Store, Cia was approached by a film crew. They were doing a short film on riding on Mulholland and wondered if they could follow us and film her when we left. We still watch that "VHS" today. Cia riding her Sporty with her Dad on behind her. Pretty cool!
Mulholland Highway was named after William Mulholland. Mulholland was a civil engineer and was responsible for building the water infrastructure in Los Angeles. He supervised the building of the Los Angeles Aqueduct which is a 233 mile long system bringing water from Owens Valley to the San Fernando Valley.
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