People don’t go to Riverside, California from Los Angeles
unless they have a reason to. Same with me…in good traffic, it’s less than an
hour’s drive. Heck, I’ve worked in downtown Riverside off and on for the last
ten years periodically. I know what’s
there…don’t I? I don’t need to go there on a vacation …do I?
Watch the Video!
Apparently, I don’t know as much as I thought. A recent
weekend in the city had us begging to come back for more.
Originally, this was supposed to be a trip to Scottsdale.
The peg for the trip was to see the Mavericks…one of our favorite bands…who
have recently reunited with singer Raul Malo.
They were playing at the Arizona State Fair this week and it made for a
convenient excuse to go.
Recently, however, the band added a couple of shows closer
to home. Even though the prices are more expensive here in California, our
recent spate of $5-per-gallon gas prices had us re-evaluating. It was also
enticing that we’d be able to see our concert in a 1,600 seat theater from the
9th row rather than an 18,000 seat arena.
I’m saving a ton of money by going local for two nights
instead of four nights in Arizona. Works
out about the same time to do things when you factor in that we don’t have to
have two all day drives to get there and back. Riverside is less than an hour.
Since I am saving so much money on gas, food, and hotel, I’m
able to splurge on a suite at the historic and beautiful Mission Inn Hotel and
Spa, where I’m able to book their “Fall Back in Time” promotion which includes
a $50 resort credit and free valet parking.
Before check-in, though, we exit at Holt off of the 60
freeway. The roofs of warehouses stretch out for a mile in front of us. Hard to
imagine anything worth stopping here for.
A quick right turn leads us onto a bumpy and rutted road,
filled with eighteen wheelers. A dusty and dilapidated auction on the right, a
Costco warehouse on the left, and then the road I’m looking for , Wineville.
It’s a stop back in time at the Galleano Winery in Mira
Loma, a few acres of farm that time forgot wedged here between the freeways,
factories, and warehouses. Although it’s
been here longer than any of them, it seems wildly out of place.
Some tastes of their award-winning varieties, buying up some
of their great and cheap Chianti and old vine zinfandel, and we’re back on our
way. (You can see and read more about the incredible Galleano and Fillipi Wineries
in our report, “California’s Hidden Wine Country”)
With a little time to kill once we get to our destination,
we head to the corner of Magnolia and Arlington for a historic and easily
overlooked landmark. There are three citrus trees fenced in a tiny little grove
here, a grapefruit tree and two navel orange trees.
While I don’t know what the significance is of the
grapefruit tree or the smaller orange tree, the larger of the navel trees has a
bit history behind it. This is the Parent Navel Orange Tree.
Navel oranges are famously seedless, therefore you can’t
propagate them sexually. Instead, they must be cloned by cuttings or grafting.
The old tree, brought here in 1870 from Bahia, Brazil, is the tree that spawned
all of the other navel orange trees in California, creating a huge industry.
Somehow, it still survives after all these years, although a
second tree transplanted to the Mission Inn by President Teddy Roosevelt didn’t
live long after that misbegotten attempt to create a tourist attraction.
Speaking of the Mission Inn, we are now driving under the
arched entrance to the valet parking area. A tall, dapper man in a crisply
pressed suit opens our door and asks the purpose of our visit. We tell him
we’re staying there the next few nights and he says “welcome home!”
As we exit the van, Troy…the man who greeted us…needles Tim
about is St. Louis Cardinals shirt because they’re contending against the
Giants for the National League pennant while we’re there.
Check-in’s a breeze and soon we’re off to the second floor
to see our room.
Junior Suite doesn’t mean the same thing here as it does at
other hotels. I’m used to it meaning a small barrier between the bed and couch
and “suite” being more a term of wishful thinking than anything else. Here,
it’s an actual suite with a big bedroom completely separated from the living
room area by two doors.
The room also features a large, queen size sofabed, a
walk-in closet, two large flat screen TVs (that don’t have HD channels,
unfortunately), decent bathroom with high end toiletries, and a semi private
patio.
The hotel is enough of a historic landmark that a highlight
is just exploring the many passageways, nooks and crannies, and hidden
surprises around each corner such as 800 year old bells, a 6-story colonnaded
rotunda, chapel with original Tiffany stained glass windows, and more.
It’s like spending the night in the Winchester House except
without the ghosts.
For a late lunch, we head around the corner to La Cascada,
with provides us a decent Mexican lunch.
We come back to do a little more exploring…finding the
rooftop garden, the California history themed glockenspiel, hidden patios next
to rooms that have housed presidents.
The sparkling swimming pool, in a bougainvillea shrouded
patio at the front of the hotel, is inviting on this warm day but we didn’t
bring our swim suits. We do notice, however, that there is a lift so that
disabled people can get in easily too.
We’ll remember this for next time. For now, it’s time to
relax a little bit and get ready for tomorrow where we’ll climb a mountain, run
into hordes of zombies, and go to our concert.
Part two is coming soon…
Darryl
Copyright 2012 – Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved
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