AT THE EIGHTEENTH HOLE, DEL MONTE GOLF LINKS
Keeping to the main road, northerly, from Monterey the traveler soon enters the great Santa Clara valley, passing not far from the well preserved Mission San Juan Bautista, established 1797. Through the valley, fertile and fruitful, parks of live oak and the seed farms—thousands of acres of sweet peas, of marketable bulbs, vegetable and floral—form the noticeable features. And these live oaks of California are marvelous. They are ever green like those of Palestine. Here are oaks that may have served as roofs to Indian council halls, with closely-lapping leaves that shed the rain and hide the sun, with branches that spread so wide and bow so low that they seem like great sheltering arms that both caress and protect. And then come the prune orchards, for this is the great prune producing valley of California. In Santa Clara county alone are planted more than five million prune trees. In the center of this orchard valley is San Jose, one of the oldest and most attractive cities of California. Here are excellent tourist resorts, the Hotel Vendome and the St. James, and up the mountains to the east one may see the white dome that shelters the great Lick telescope on Mount Hamilton. San Jose is a wide-awake city, with smoothly paved streets, attractive parks, excellent schools and all advantages of a cultured up-to-date community, including electric railroads and libraries.
From San Jose the road continues through the Santa Clara valley, up the San Mateo and San Francisco peninsula, one of the most attractive sections of California. Here are more suburban residences, some with vineyards and orchards, all with superbly kept lawns. Palo Alto is the site of the Stanford University, a marvel among the colleges by reason of its rapid development, its wonderful endowment, aggregating $30,000,000, and its superb equipment of buildings and men. Burlingame, San Mateo and Redwood, fill for San Francisco much the place that Lenox or Brookline do for Boston with people of wealth and culture.
HERE IS A PICTURE OF HOTEL DEL MONTE AND ITS GROVES AND GARDENS AS THEY APPEAR AT CHRISTMAS TIME
LAGUNA DEL REY ONE OF THE CHARMS OF THE HOTEL DEL MONTE’S FAMOUS GROUNDS—HERE SWANS FLOAT WITH GRACEFUL DIGNITY AND CHARMING VISTAS AND REFLECTIONS MEET THE EYE IN EVERY DIRECTION
AN ANCIENT CYPRESS TREE ON THE PACIFIC GROVE PENINSULA
In San Francisco—righting itself rapidly since the great disaster of April 18-20, 1906—one may readily pass two weeks or more in diversified pleasure, entertainment and instruction. Here is a city of 500,000, eighth among the cities of the United States at the last census and in line for sixth place. Everywhere the demands of trade and of modern civilization are crowding the city. In its harbor the ships of war of all the nations of the world could float, with room and to spare. The climate welcomes the health-seeker and the man who would live out of doors all the year. The fast-growing city, with buildings going up everywhere to replace those lost in the big fire, is the heart of the state. Real estate sales and clearing-house figures, assessor’s valuations, all show the city’s present progress. Still westward across the Pacific to the Philippines, to Japan, to the Orient; southerly to Hawaii, to Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia; northerly to British Columbia, the Alaskan archipelago, Cape Nome, and the gold region of the Klondike, the advancing commercial movement tends. In the nine months following the disaster, to February 1907, building permits aggregated $40,128,753, while bank clearings have gained steadily, amounting for example to $204,512,323 for January, 1907, compared to $185,519,862 for January, 1906. Here most decidedly is a city of destiny. Here is the soft air and blue sky of Italy, the views of Naples, the hills of Rome, the winter climate of the Riviera, and people who, in the face of severest stress have shown themselves possessed of the combined attributes of New England energy and Oriental luxury.