SPIRIT of Flight: Destination Watsonville
By Denise DeGregoire
Skydivers dropping in for a landing
It’s once again time to spread our wings and rediscover a hidden destination spot between Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. Watsonville, California, is a lovely coastal treasure where you can explore many sites or sit quietly on the sand dunes at Sunset State Beach, watch the local surfers take on big waves, or if you are lucky catch a glimpse of sea life along the California Coast as you relax on the warm sand and take in a beautiful sunset as the day comes to an end.
Mark & Gail Hoover Integrity Wines
Watsonville is a coastal city rich in art, history, wine, activities, education, and lavish agriculture including apples, fresh flowers, cauliflower, broccoli, artichokes, and strawberries! Many will tell you that Watsonville is the “Strawberry Capital of the World!’’
I visited Watsonville a few times this Spring and enjoyed the coastal views while driving along Highway One. Flying in is even more spectacular as you can peer down at the rugged terrain and farms below. Upon arriving at the Watsonville Municipal Airport, I could not help but recall the first time I flew in with my friend and pilot, Ana Ruiz. We flew in for A Pilot’s Day Trip which included an early morning flight over Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay before following the coastline south to the Watsonville Municipal Airport where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch with some friends at Ella’s at the Airport. On my current trip to Ella’s, I ordered one of their famous Panini sandwiches while watching aircraft activity and catching a glimpse of colorful parachutes as skydivers dropped in for a landing at nearby Skydive SurfCity.
Memory lane flooded back once again as I watched the skydivers with excitement and anticipation as they seem to magically appear out of the sky. Many years ago, I jumped out of an airplane and loved it! I look forward to the day that I will be able to enjoy the experience of a tandem jump at a much higher elevation with the folks at Skydive SurfCity. Until then, I will continue to have fun watching and taking photos from the ground!
Skydive SurfCity is a tandem skydiving operation with a strong emphasis on safety, transparency, and extreme customer care, as well as a spectacular view of the entire Monterey Bay, Aptos, Capitola Beach, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and even Half Moon Bay. They are known to have the most amazing ocean views in all of California.
Naomi H. Quinonez, PhD Poetry Reading
Following your jump enjoy lunch at Ella’s at the Airport, after which I suggest making your way across the street to Integrity Wines. I was impressed with the warm and welcoming tasting room filled with charm and an industrial beauty that opened to the winery in back. The wine selection at Integrity Wines is simply delightful. My favorite was the 2019 Late Harvest Riesling from the Santa Lucia Highlands which is Medium-bodied, semi-sweet, with aromas of caramel and citrus, and bursting flavors of apricot and honey, with an essence of ginger and rosemary.
Integrity Wines’ Winemaker and co-owner, Mark Hoover and his wife Gail have backgrounds in printmaking and graphic design respectively. Mark had been making wine for more than 30 years and was already producing high-quality wines. About seven years ago, Mark and his wife were on a wine tasting trip in the town of Murphys, California. After tasting several wines that fell short of their personal standards, Mark looked at his wife and said, “We can do this!” Well, they did, and are producing high quality wines since.
Upon entering the tasting room, which opened in 2018, I noticed their unique label. It caught my eye. A thumbprint! I asked Gail whose thumbprint it was, and she replied, “Yours!” Stating that it was not whole or complete until you drank it, and upon drinking it you would place your own thumbprint on the bottle. Outstanding!
A couple years after they opened their tasting room, Covid hit, and like many others in the industry, their beautiful tasting room was closed to visitors. Falling back on their graphic design and printing skills, they were able to quickly shift gears and began bottling their library of wines in small bottles to send to their wine club members for “Virtual Barrel Tastings,” which became a great success and helped them through the Covid shutdown. Thus began their “More Than Virtual/In-Home Tasting Series,” that Mark held weekly to wine members all over the world.
Integrity Wines is an establishment that I enjoy talking about. I like their unique story of wine, and perseverance. Integrity Wines stands for sincerity and truth. They carefully source all the ingredients, handcraft wines in small batches which means better wine and control over quality. Integrity is not just about the wine itself. It's about everyone who helped create this wine experience. It's complete when we add you. That's integrity.
Another hidden treasure to be discovered while visiting Watsonville is the Pajaro Valley Art (PVA). PVA is a non-profit visual arts gallery founded to promote and foster home grown cultural arts. PVA has a beautiful mission, “Bringing the community together through arts.” They have been successfully carrying out their mission for more than 35 years with stunning and thought-provoking exhibits in partnership with many guest curators, schools, city government and local organizations. PVA encourages a community connection believing that everyone deserves to have access to the arts. This remarkable gallery is housed in one of Watsonville’s premier historic dwellings, a 116-year-old structure tucked into a residential neighborhood that has been graciously provided by the City of Watsonville, which encourages public participation to work in collaboration with the community that promotes and fosters cultural events in the Pajaro Valley with rotating visual exhibits within the gallery and at off-site locations. PVA offers seven to eight exhibits each year with an array of virtual and off-site locations to choose from.
As the sun begins to set on the coast, I close with remarks from the curators, as I had the privilege of arriving to PVA on the final day of Alma Sagrada, Cultivating Natural Rhythms exhibit in which I listened to poetry readings in the garden and shared in reflecting and reimagining our relations with ourselves, our ancestors, each other, and all life systems in the natural world.
Fly well, Denise
