We're calling this trip north the Appetizer Tour. We're merely sampling bits from each of the towns we are traveling through. There have been many proclamations to return soon. We ended Day #1 in the adorable village of Ventura, at its County Museum.

I totally have a thing for Mid-Century Modernism, the design movement that shaped America’s booming post-war era as seen through a Southern California lens, which allowed me to step back in time to a cooler and more sophisticated era of design.
This new exhibit explores the popular design movement in interior & graphic design, architecture, and urban development from 1945 to 1965. The exhibit features architectural photography, (groovy) period interior furnishings, films, paintings and pottery.
I was enamored with this house, the Lukes Residence, by architect Fred Hummel. Built in 1961, its cost was $11.09 sq ft and made of custom concrete walls. It is currently on the market, for the first time, for $595 sq ft or  $1,900,000. An outstanding design feature is the use of native rocks set into the concrete panels. Mr. Hummel selected the rocks, which were placed by hand in pre-arranged patterns in the slabs. 
This exhibition examines an era in post-war Southern California when architecture, art, music and design merged to form a modern awareness based on living well. Inspired by European immigrant artists and architects and up and coming American designers, the “cool” aesthetic flourished in the Los Angeles landscape and climate that extended into Ventura County and up through the Central Coast.

Another artifact that made me smile was this aluminum Christmas tree, a type of artificial Christmas tree that was popular in the United States from 1958 until about the mid-1960s. As its name suggests, the tree is made of aluminum, featuring foil needles and illumination from below via a rotating color wheel. The aluminum Christmas tree was used as symbol of the commercialization of Christmas in the highly acclaimed and successful 1965 television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, which discredited its suitability as holiday decoration
The vintage ornaments, adorning the tree, brought back fond memories as these were the same ones I inherited when my parents passed away. Groovy indeed!


Malcolm Leland's Vessel cracked me up due to its prominence in a much remembered Star Trek episode. The work's goal is to "eliminate negative environmental impact completely through sensitive design." It is skillfully produced with clay, water and fire using proprietary techniques of the iconic Architectural Pottery (below).
California Cool looks at Ventura County’s contribution to the era focusing on the landmark homes and buildings and the birth of the local company, Architectural Fiberglass (began as pottery) in 1963, whose planters and benches graced many Ventura County shopping malls and commercial buildings.

"All of this informs an extraordinary exhibit that reflects not only a unique era in architecture and design, but also brings home the relevance and importance of this era on the Central Coast.”
We ended our first day on the road at a sidewalk Thai café. This was the perfect beginning for our northern adventure.