all that remains of the first mission is enclosed within a wall, the new church and the flourishing new school standing next to the enclosure.in the middle of the valley is the city of san josé, an active, bustling town, full of life and business.we spent a pleasant day at the hotel vendome, an oldfashioned and delightful hostel, surrounded by a park of fine trees and flowering shrubs.the vendome is a good place in which to rest and bask in the sunshine.when we next motor through the santa clara valley, we shall visit the new almaden quicksilver mine, twelve miles from san josé, and commanding from its slopes a wondrous view of the valley and the garden city, as san josé is called.and there is the interesting trip from san josé to mt.hamilton and the lick observatory.one can motor by a good road to the summit of the mountain, 4,209 feet above sea level, and spend the night at the hotel below on the mountain slope.leaving san josé, we were more and more charmed with the valley as we drove along through orderly orchards and past tasteful bungalows.this was the california of laden orchards, of roses and climbing geraniums, of green hills rising beyond the valleys, of which we had read.as we approached the foot hills of the santa cruz mountains we looked back and saw the green valley with its ranks of trees unrolled below us.passing through the little town of los gatos (the cats), we began to climb.as we turned a curve on the winding mountain road, the green expanses of the happy valley were lost to view.we were coming now into the region of immense pine trees and of the coast redwoods, the sequoia sempervirens.the road was fair but very winding, requiring close attention.we crossed singing brooks and passed wayside farms high in the hills, with their little patches of orchard and grain.we saw a big signboard indicating the twomile road to the montezuma ranch school for boys, and shortly after were at the top of the grade.then came the descent, the road still winding in and out among the forests.at the hotel de redwood, a simple hostel for summer sojourners from the valleys, we saw a magnificent clump of redwoods, around which had been built a rustic seat.at the foot of the hill we turned left instead of right, thus omitting from our itinerary the town of santa cruz and the redwoods of the big basin.we hope to see this noble group of trees sometime in the future.we took luncheon in a little café at watsonville.when i asked the young german waiter for steamed clams he said, oh! you mean dem big fellers! from watsonville, a bright little town, we drove on toward salinas, making a detour which took us around the town instead of directly through it.we were crossing the green plains of the salinas valley, and before us rose the dark wooded heights of the famous monterey peninsula.on through the town of monterey to pacific grove, a mile beyond, and we were soon resting in an ideal bungalow watched over by two tall pines.what a memorable week we spent at woodwardia! a quarter of a mile to our right was the sea, whose sound came up to us plainly on still nights.less than a quarter of a mile to our left were the forest and the beginning of the seventeen mile drive.we took the drive once and again, paying the seventyfive cent entrance fee at the gate of the pacific improvement companys domain, thus becoming free to wander about in the great wooded territory of the peninsula.we took luncheon at the picturesque pebble lodge, where we had soup served in shining abalone shells, and where the electric lights were shaded by these shells.we halted in leisurely fashion along the drive to climb over the rocks and to scramble up the high dunes, with their riot of flowering beach peas.they were ideal places to sit and dream with the blue sea before one and the dark forest behind.we photographed the windswept cypress trees, beaten and twisted into witchlike shapes by the free pacific breezes.we watched the seals, lazily basking in the sun on the rocks off shore.we visited the picturesque village of carmel, where artists and writers consort.we selected, under the spell of all this beauty, numerous sites for bungalows on exquisite carmel bay, where one might enjoy forever and a day the fascination of the sea and the spell of the pine forests.we visited the carmel mission, now standing lonely and silent in the midst of green fields.a few of the old pear trees planted by the mission fathers still maintain a gnarled and aged existence in an orchard across the road from the church.the church is a simple structure with an outside flight of adobe steps, such as one sees in italian houses, running up against the wall to the bell tower.at the left of the altar are the graves of three priests, one being that of father junípero serra, the founder of many of the missions, the devoted spanish priest and statesman who more than once walked the entire length of six hundred miles along which his missions were planted.a wall pulpit stands out from the right wall of the church.the most touching thing in the empty, dusty, neglected little place is a partly obliterated spanish inscription on the wall of the small room to the left of the main body of the church.it is said to have been painted there by father serra himself, and reads, being translated: oh, heart of jesus, always shining and burning, illumine mine with thy warmth and light.a memorable excursion was to point lobos beyond carmel village, a rocky promontory running out like a wedgeshaped plateau into the sea.one approaches the sea across exquisite green, turfy spaces, shaded by pine trees, to find the point of the wedge far above the water, cut by rocky and awesome gashes into which the waves run with a long rush and against whose walls they boom continually.the quiet woods of point lobos do not prepare one for the magnificence of its outlook and the wonderful sight of its great rocks rising ruggedly and precipitously far above the water.i have seen the entire three hundred miles of the french and italian riviera, having motored all along that enchanting coast; and i am free to say that point lobos is as fine a bit of scenery as one will find, not only on the pacific coast but along the mediterranean shore.point lobos was purchased a number of years ago by a pacific grove gentleman who had an eye for its rare beauty and grandeur, and who has built for himself a modest home on a green meadow at the entrance to the promontory.a small admission fee is charged for the point, largely to exclude those who in former days, when the point was free to excursionists, abused this privilege.the owner has established on a little cove a short distance from his house an abalone canning factory.here the japanese and other divers bring their boat loads of this delicious shellfish