The adventure begins . . .

We are up in Northern California visiting Heather's parents in Stockton, and we are surrounded by California history. We thought this would be a great beginning to Libi's California Adventure, our attempt to visit nearly 1,100 California Historical Landmarks.

We began with a visit to the Lodi Arch in Lodi, CA. Lodi began as, and still is, one of the wine-making centers of California. While it doesn't get the same attention as the Napa Valley or Sonoma County, it still produces some great wines. Here is the archway that welcomed visitors to Lodi beginning in 1907.
Lodi Arch (CHL #931)

Libi's reflections on visiting her very first California Historical Landmark:

Here is the railroad that brought (and still brings) visitors to Lodi.

We had great luck with our very first landmark. Our next one was a little less accessible. This one is San Joaquin Valley College (CHL #520). The marker is located on a school campus, and today is Sunday, so the school is very closed. This was the closest we could get.

Our next stop was the historic Town of Woodbridge (CHL #358). We had even less luck with this site. No official California marker at all! We asked three different locals, and no one seemed to know where it is.

We'll have come back here and look a little harder, plus do a little online research. Nevertheless, we were there! In the photo below, Libi asks, "How much longer are we going to look for this thing?"

OK, there's a smile.

Site of Wood's Ferry and Wood's Bridge (CHL #163) was only accessible by private roads. Travelers have posted online that there is no historic marker anyway. We got close, though!

I learned today what a "plinth" is. A plinth is a platform built to support a monument or memorial. Here is the plinth that marks the location of two sites: Mokelumne City (CHL #162) and nearby Benson's Ferry (CHL #149). So, here we got a plinth, but no marker.

We began to lose heart, but things got better! We traveled into Sacramento County to seek out the Grave of Alexander Hamilton Willard (CHL #657), one of the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and we struck gold!

So, we looked near the west fence, and near the trees, we found the grave!

Well, 75 total miles of travel later, in total we visited (or got really close to) a total of SEVEN California Historical Landmarks today. We celebrated a great afternoon by visiting The Popcorn Store in Elk Grove. Delicious!

I think we're done with Northern California for now. Next it will be time for us to hit some sites a little closer to home.