On Monday we participated in a Monterey tradition -- the Memorial Day concert on the lawn of the historic Del Monte Hotel, now part of the Naval Postgraduate School. There are two apparently competing symphony orchestras in the area, but for this concert members from both created a Monterey Bay Pops Orchestra for the occasion. The Spanish-born conductor of one of the orchestras said as a boy in Spain he had dreamed of conducting the "Stars and Stripes Forever," and today he got to do it, right up there under that tent.
Beautiful day, big crowd, with lawn chairs and picnic lunches. One concert highlight was Patrick Bell, "Baritone and Magician," doing opera while extricating himself from a straitjacket, Houdini-style. I didn't know opera could make you laugh.
Update: Music-wise, I wanted to add that our Memorial Day celebration was really launched by our church pianist, Darryl, who played Chopin's "Military Polonaise" on Sunday. Very dramatic. I tell people that I stopped taking piano lessons long ago when they got serious about the left hand. Well, this piece has some very serious left-hand in it.
Before the concert we took a Del Monte tour. I think I've told some of this story earlier, but I got a lot more facts on this tour. The Del Monte was built by Charles Crocker, one of the RR men responsible for building the trans-continental RR. He was bothered by the fact that the so-called trans-continental RR ended in Sacramento, so he extended the RR to Monterey and to make it a destination he built the DM to be the "Most Elegant Seaside Resort in the World." There are some pictures of the original, which opened in 1880, at this site.
Well, it burned down in 1887, but was rebuilt -- a main building and two wings. This time in the rebuilding explosives were planted in the tunnels connecting the two wings to the main building so that in case of fire, they could be set off and isolate the wings from the fire -- assuming the explosion didn't spread the fire, I guess. They worked as planned in 1924 when another fire claimed the main building. It was rebuilt Spanish style -- concrete, plaster, red-tile roofs, and the wings' exteriors were stuccoed over to give the beautiful buildings now gracing the campus.
Here's a view of one wing, behind the trees, and some of the gardens on the grounds. Really has a feel of majesty.
Anyhow, the property was falling on hard times in the early 1900s until it was purchased by Samuel Morse, a grandson of the Morse code guy, former Yale quarterback, and a vigorous sportsman. He bought the whole DM property, about 20,000 acres, which included what is now is Pebble Beach, and developed in into a 'sports empire.' He introduced golf to the area, with profound effect, and built car and horse racing tracks, tennis courts, swimming pools, polo fields, etc. The 17-Mile Drive was built and popularized, the 17 miles starting at the DM's entrance and making a RT to the iconic "lone cyprus" in Pebble Beach. Bing Crosby, forever linked to Pebble Beach and golf, said of Morse, "... Without him ... it would all be Coney Island."
Backing up, the 1906 earthquake, which obliterated so much of San Francisco was also felt in Monterey. In fact, a DM tower collapsed on a room and killed a newlywed couple. It is claimed that their ghosts can still be seen and felt on the premises.
After the quake Crocker invited SF artists, and provided support, to set up shop in Monterey and thus began the Peninsula art colony.
In the hotel there are some large paintings set into the lobby's walls. One is a map of the Peninsula showing "Monte Rey," Carmel, and other locales in the area, with one exception. The story is that the artist, relaxing after work in the dry town of Pacific Grove (launched as a Methodist retreat), was arrested for being drunk and he spent the night in jail. Next day, back at work he painted over "Pacific Grove" and painted in "Moss Beach" (there's no such thing) to get even.
The guest list over the years sounded like the La Posada in Winslow, AZ (one of our favorite historic hotels): Mary Pickford, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Amelia Earhardt, Charles Lindbergh, etcetera, etcetera.
At any rate, Morse sold the hotel to the Navy in 1951 and then concentrated on Pebble Beach. I asked our guide if it was true, as I had been told, that the smell from the nearby fish canneries, which I think had their heyday in the 1930s and 40s, depressed business at the hotel/resort. He said he hadn't heard that one.
The Naval Postgraduate School has existed almost 100 years, but for the first half of that period it was in Annapolis. The Air Force has a similar school Dayton, Ohio.
Some statistics on NPS: Enrollment is about 2200. In 2007 there were 1219 Masters and 15 PhD degreees granted. The student body is 40% Navy, about 8% each from Army, AF, and Marines, then 26% civilian and 11% international. The graduation rate is 91% and the average time to degree is 20 months. They carry heavy loads and are pushed through pretty quickly. My students will be going back to submarine duty, flying helicopters and airplanes, serving on ships, etc., but somewhere down the line they will get to apply their Operations Research (and statistical!) skills gained here.
I've mentioned that there are a large number of international military officers here. One recognition of their presence is this international flag garden adjoining the Del Monte (aka Herrmann Hall). Each quarter they set out a flag for each country represented in the student body.
Incidentally, my student from Bahrain just won an award as the outstanding student graduating student from the "surface navy." Sure hope he can pass my final exam -- just kidding.
Well, after the concert, we treated ourselves to an early dinner in Pacific Grove at a restaurant we'd been wanting to try adjacent to Lovers Point. We'll leave you with some holiday scenes from there.
Cheers,
Rob and Susie
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