pacific coast – Simply Out and About

Alcatraz

No trip to San Francisco would be complete without a trip to Alcatraz. So I ordered tickets online and got us an early time to get on the Alcatraz boat. I assumed we would be able to take the ferry into the city again but I found out that the ferry didn’t run early enough for us to make it in time to catch the boat to Alcatraz. So, we had to ride the bus into the city. This wasn’t that big of a deal because the bus stop was closer to the campground than the ferry and we would be going over the Golden Gate Bridge.

One of us was very eager so early in the morning. We only waited about 5 minutes and our bus arrived.

Here it is…..We got on, paid our fare and away we went.

It was a great ride and we all got to enjoy the sights.

There is the city. Then before I knew it we were at the Golden Gate Bridge.

This is the only picture I got from the bus……

Haha! It all happened so fast and before I knew it we were off.

I hope to be able to explore the bridge more the next time we go. Anyway, our bus stop was close to the Ferry Building and the Alcatraz building is just a short walk from there.

Ta-da….it took us about 5 minutes to walk to the building and after we showed our tickets we boarded the Alcatraz Flyer.

The ride out was gorgeous! The day was beautiful and we were excited to explore.

Leaving San Fran….

passing the Golden Gate….

and arriving at Alcatraz. We got off the boat and there was lady telling us about the different parts of the island and when Micheal heard there was a movie that’s the first place we went. Micheal loves to watch historical movies…..and youtube…Haha.

Along the way to the first building we saw signs welcoming the Indians.

I didn’t understand this until we watched the film and during the 1970’s someone came up with the bright idea to let the Indians live on the island. It didn’t last long because duh…..The buildings were all ready showing signs of wear which is why they moved the prisoners out about 10-15 years earlier. Another interesting fact was that families lived on the island with the inmates…..

One woman who grew up on the island said she never saw any of the prisoners, but would occasionally hear them if they got riled up.

When we finished the film, we headed towards the prison. We were quite surprised to find so many stairs and hills to climb.

Once we made it to the top of the stairs, we were treated to an amazing view.

There is a society that keeps the grounds up and there are several species of birds living on the island.

We made our way into the prison and got our headsets for the audio tour. This is included in the price of the ticket and we were excited to hear more about this place.

First place is the shower room. Yikes!

Then, we headed into the cell halls and the audio told us to head down Michigan Avenue. All the halls are labeled so it made it very easy to get around.

The only problem with an audio tour was we kept losing Micheal. Mike and I would stop to talk about some of the things we were hearing and the next thing you know Micheal would be gone. Lost in his own audio world.

We came across the poster of the famous inmates.

Maybe Al Capone thought he was going to an island resort. He looked very happy in his mugshot.

Another interesting fact we learned was that the inmates kept themselves very busy by crocheting, knitting, and drawing. Several inmates were allowed instruments and would play into the night entertaining the other inmates.

The inmates could also hear the New Year’s Eve celebrations from across the bay. This was the view from a window that the prisoners could look out of.

We learned of two incidents in the prison. First, was a hostile takeover. This incident was so bad that the military showed up and had to cut holes in the ceiling where the prisoners were holding some of the guards hostage……

This room was gated all around….

and at the very top was the hole.

Grenades were dropped from the ceiling and landed on the floor all around the prisoners….

The white spots are where the grenades went off…..this is very exciting stuff for Micheal!

Then there was the time four inmates used a spoon to dig a hole through the wall. These men made paper mache heads and attached real hair from their haircuts to the fake heads. They put these dummies in the beds and fooled the guards. This is like MacGyver!

We didn’t get to see the real heads used for the escape but we did see a remake of one. This was one of the actual cells.

I could see how this worked for the men.

Here is another hole that had been dug out. Once they got through the hole they were able to climb in between the walls and out of the building. After that nobody knows what happened to them. One theory is that one of the men who had been learning Spanish possibly made it to South America.

As we headed out of the cell house….

we came to the kitchen and cafeteria.

You can see the knife silhouettes were painted on the wall. The inmates would help in the kitchen and this was how the cooks knew that all the knives had been replaced. We also got to see where the inmates had there dental exams….

and their surgeries, if needed. I don’t think they gave out free tooth brushes and stickers here!

After heading through the rest of the building we made it outside….and thats when I felt like this could have been a very peaceful place for these poor men.

I love how you can see the streets in perfect little lines.

I love all the sailboats. Here is a video I took….

WOW!! So we didn’t get to see everything at Alcatraz because it was getting late in the day and we wanted to see one more thing in San Francisco …Lombard Street. We got back on the boat, got back to San Fran and followed our google map to this famous street. Little did we realize we were headed straight up!

Once at the top of this first hill, we took a break.

We clearly weren’t done climbing.

Micheal told us that this street better be worth seeing after climbing all the streets…..

Just to give you an idea of what kind of crazy people we are. Yes we know there are cable cars but they were so packed we didn’t want to cram ourselves in. We finally made it!

I think someone is happy to see it! Micheal on the other hand was not as excited. Especially, after we told him we were climbing to the top of Lombard street so we could see the view up there.

Here is some video I shot. Traffic probably wouldn’t be so bad if the people didn’t stand in the middle of the road. But that’s just my own opinion.

He did walk up, with the promise of eating afterwards. I don’t know how the owners of the houses feel about all the foot traffic but we were happy to have the chance to explore the street. This was at the top of the street.

Once we got to the top, we saw the cable car. Haha, that’s when I had to confess to Micheal that we could have taken the cable car. I am pretty sure he won’t ever let me forget this afternoon.

After all this climbing we were hungry so we headed toward Ghirardelli Square to eat dinner. I thought the option for a chocolate sundae would be good after a long day. So down the hills we went.

Such a beautiful city and the views never disappointed us.

The square was filled with restaurants and shops. We chose to eat at The Pub for some BBQ.

It was pretty good. When we finished eating I was to full for ice cream…so sad. We were all pretty tired so we decided to head back to the ferry. No bus trip back for us. It was good but not as comfortable as the ferry.

Along the way we passed Fisherman’s Wharf.

There were shops and restaurants along this street. We did get to see the famous Boudin Bakery. They have been making sourdough bread since 1849 and they make delicious animal shaped bread.

I loved our visit to San Francisco! I hope to return and see more of this gorgeous city!

The Patricks take on Alcatraz 2015

Next up we start heading home..first stop, Nevada

San Francisco

We left Marina, CA and headed north to San Francisco.

Instead of going through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge, I decided to go around through Oakland. I should have researched the road a little bit better because once we got to the bridge in Oakland we came to a toll……$20.00 later we were able to cross. If we had come across the Golden Gate Bridge we would have paid nothing. But I wasn’t really in the mood to battle with traffic through San Fran with our house attached to us. So I feel the 20 dollars was well spent, plus the views from the bridge were amazing….

Now as far as campgrounds go, there aren’t to many to chose from that are close to the city but I found one that was close to the ferry and a Trader Joe’s. Ha! Welcome to Marin RV Park. I didn’t get many pictures of this campground but here is our campsite.

California weather is amazing! I guess we would stay at this campground again because of how easy it was to get to the city but laundry is expensive and the guy next to us made sure that we knew where his spot was……

So we wedged our truck in every time and just barely fit. Anyway, as I walked around a bit I realized we were close to San Quentin State Prison.

At first I felt uneasy about this but considering all the large homes that were built around the prison, I figured we would be fine. The prison sits right on the water and not that I am jealous of the prisoners but they have an amazing view!

We didn’t go into the city on Friday. Actually, we walked down the street to Trader Joe’s for groceries and then we had a family meeting. This is when Micheal told us he was ready to go home. He missed his friends, his home and his family. This kind of made me sad because Mike and I really have enjoyed this experience with him but we did understand. So we planned on sightseeing that weekend and I would make plans to get us home. Now that all that was settled we went to bed.

The next morning we got up and walked about 10 minutes to the Larkspur Ferry….

We purchased our tickets which were about 60.00 round trip ….ouch! We boarded the ferry and away we went!

Along the way we saw some houses…..which only had boat parking. I discovered the parking lot for these houses on a walk with Max on day. They had to walk down a pier and across the street to get to their cars. Pretty interesting!

We also passed San Quentin again…..

The prisoners were enjoying some outside time.

I love a good windy ride on a boat!

Next we passed, Alcatraz! So cool!! We had tickets for Sunday so more on Alcatraz later.

and then…there it was! The Golden Gate Bridge!

Although it was a sunny day, there was a haze in the air. I can’t explain it but it is the best weather for city touring!

The ferry pulled into the Ferry Building. This was such a cool place.

The Ferry Building was filled with shops, restaurants and markets.

This one caught my attention…salted pig parts! Yum! Well not all the parts sound yummy.

Another food I like is cheese….

I was regretting that we had breakfast before we left……

After looking around some we headed out for Chinatown. Along the way we saw our first cable car.

What we found interesting about San Fran was the hills….. see the one beyond the cable car. I think we just didn’t realize that we would be walking up hill around town but we did.

We finally made it to Chinatown.

We love going to Chinatown in NYC and we enjoyed this one to. We made our way up the hill and into several souvenir shops.

One place I wanted to find was the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie company.

This is where google maps led us….to an alley and there it was.

It was very crowded inside so I was the only one that went in. I would love to show you pictures but they charge you to take pictures. I don’t know how that works for them but I wasn’t going to risk owing money for a picture. Anyway, there are bags of fortune cookies on a shelf that lines the wall and they were a couple of dollars for each bag. There were also women sitting at these machines, a flat cookie would come out, they would put the fortune in, and fold them up. I didn’t purchase any cookies because the craziness of the place but they did smell good.

After all the hill climbing, we were getting hungry. Micheal wanted pizza so we walked around looking for a good pizza place. Thats when we found these…

I believe a snack is always a good idea when walking around a city but we still need to find pizza.

Finally found a pizza place and funny enough it was named after one of our favorites….

We have a happy camper on our hands. We bought three pieces and went to a park that we saw down the block.

It was pretty good pizza and gave us just enough energy to finish out our sightseeing.

My sweet boys! After lunch we were ready for a little bit more sightseeing. We decided to head over to Pier 39. Along the way we passed…

Cost Tower. We also got some pretty awesome views of the bay.

This was one of my favorite parts of San Fran. You never knew what view you would get after each block. We finally made it to Pier 39

and we went straight to the sea lions.

It was neat to see them but not so much smelling them!

This one didn’t make it long by himself and swam back over for cuddling with the others.

This one wanted his picture taken. After standing for a while to watch sea lions lay around we decided to head back to the ferry. There was a lot more to see at Pier 39 so we decided to come back on Sunday and see the rest.

We walked along The Embarcadero, which is the street that follows along the bay and led us straight to the Ferry Building.

We found the building for Alcatraz Tours on this street.

That makes tomorrow somewhat easier….I will explain later. We got back on the ferry and headed back home. What a great way to end the day!

I don’t usually get my fingers in pictures, but it has been a long day of hill climbing.

Tomorrow is the day for Alcatraz and more city exploring which we all were pretty excited about. What a great day we had.

Next up…Alcatraz!

Big Sur…prises!

While visiting Marina, CA we decided to drive down the Pacific Coast through the Big Sur. I wasn’t sure if the scenery would live up to the hype, but boy were we surprised!

Not what you were expecting …right? Well, we drove through a wooded area and then got to a little neighborhood with great, big houses! We found our first little place to pull off and that’s when things got magical……See that road on the left….it’s actually someone’s driveway. You can’t see them but this family also has stairs that lead down into the water. I don’t know if I would get in that water but maybe they have a boat?

While we were staring at the water several really cute cars pulled in and I felt like there would possibly be a movie in the making….Not sure what kind of movie…maybe a romantic comedy. This is how dreamy I was feeling.

Anyways, we get back in the truck and continue down the road…..Once again back into the woods and then this happens……

I can’t even imagine that the sun shining would have made this better. Once again we get out and Mike finds a trail to the edge of the cliff. So down he goes….not into the water but down the trail.I love how small you can feel next to the sea. These are some of the photos Mike captured on the edge…Looking straight down…To his left….and to the right.

At this point we were trying to figure out how to live here..in the truck…on the coast:)

But we decided to continue on down the road and see if there was a better spot…..Haha.

It looks like you will be back in the hills when all of a sudden this happens…..
See the cow? That is the luckiest cow ever. I was surprised to see cows living on the coast.

Beyond the cow is a bridge……We pull in for a quick photo. This is the famous Bixby Bridge.

(side note…we did a lot of staring at the water)
This is the view that memorized Mike.
Gorgeous!

The Bixby Bridge was named after Charles Henry Bixby. Residents would have to travel 11 miles out of the way during the winter to cross the creek and when you are traveling by horse and buggy that could mean an extra few days. So a bridge was built.
We have seen a lot of “old” building and structures on this trip but it still is amazing to me that man was able to build such amazing things with no heavy equipment or iPhones.
This bridge is in a lot movies and commercials. Oh look, there he goes again. This time I decide to follow him because I had the camera. Once down there it smelled like a dirty bathroom so I quickly came back up. Gross.

I know that it looks like we have been on this road all by ourselves but I assure you there were lots of other people stopping and taking pictures. There is always plenty of parking along parts of the road.

Look how happy he is to climb and explore….I am happy to not have lost him into the sea. Once he made his way back up we decided we need to get to our next destination.Winding our way up the mountain…..But not without another stop to take another picture of the bridge.

There are several places to see in the Big Sur…. We didn’t have a definite plan on where we wanted to go so we just drove….

That’s when we came to this little place on the side of the road…This was the only place we saw that had gas but we stopped mainly to pick up a souvenir. Here is the general store that made homemade burritos in the back and sold granola in the front. Camping is a big deal here. Well not like our camping but lots of tents and cabins to stay in.

There was a restaurant and a small hotel that hosted weddings and while we were there a bride and groom where getting there ideas together…..

This is one of the more cozier spots…..There were some very artsy shops as well…..this place had a real hippie vibe.

We got our Christmas ornament and kept on down the road.That’s when we happened upon this State Park….

When we pulled into this wooded area we were met with……these two cuties….this is the only wildlife we saw on our entire trip! Pretty exciting!

We made our way around to the LodgeWhich is a hotel with a restaurant. It’s a little nicer than the last place we left but it didn’t have that beautiful creek in the back. The Big Sur Lodge has these….Finally!!! This is one thing I wanted to see……I know these aren’t the biggest trees in California but still amazing!

The bark is so different…..After looking at the trees I wanted to go see Pfeiffer Beach. I thought it was here at the state park but after driving to the guard house,(and almost paying 20 dollars to get in) the ranger told us we needed to get back on Hwy 1 drive another few miles down the road.

Now if you ever get to drive through Big Sur just know this, there is no sign on the street for the beach. I almost passed it but my trusty co-pilot found it just in time.

This was the sign we saw. Well no biggie..we didn’t bring either of these…right???

We turn the sharp turn and see this….At least we know we are on the right track…..

Remember that narrow road sign? They weren’t kidding!

This was just wide enough for our big truck.

Mike was a nervous wreck…..and I was glad to be driving.Now remember from the sign, we have 2 miles.

It would have been nice to not have passed anybody but that’s not fun!

There were several times I would have to stop and back up to one of the side pulloffs to let someone go around.

Hehe…..It was kind of scary but we finally made it.You pay 10 dollars at the gate and then park.

There was probably about 20 parking spots and we came on a good day.

We walked down the path to the beachI was very excited because we have seen a lot of beaches here and they have all been so different….this one did not disappoint.I love that we have the white sandy beaches here and the beauty of mountains flowing into the sea out west. Thank you God for such a creative landscape!

There were some waves coming in but nothing to big. Here he is….beach ready…on a cold day.

One of the views to see here is the rock formation with the water flowing in and out. When the sun is out and setting, it will shine through the hole.

I encourage you to google a picture of it.

Please enjoy these pictures of the water flowing through the arch.

You can see the power of the water coming and going. I wouldn’t want to be in there! After a little more walking around and photo taking, we decide to go….we are hungry!

Love being with these two on this adventure!

Our trip down the narrow road was just as fun as going in This time I had some help from these folks. Now I knew when another car was coming. Mike still didn’t like it…Haha.

Further on down the road is the Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park and then the Hearst Castle. I hate we missed them but when boys get hungry, they need to be fed.

We head back to Monterey and stopped at Hula’s for a delicious Ahi Tuna Sandwich…..This time we got to sit in a Tiki hut!I would say this was one of my most favorite parts of our road trip. To be able to see the creations that God has given us and see them with my husband and son….I will never be able to thank God enough!

Next up…a little golf outing on the beach.

Pancakes and Wine in a Sunny Field

The time had come to say goodbye to Anaheim, CA. We were really going to miss the weather and the fireworks but we were pretty excited about seeing more of the California coast. Originally, I had planned to go from Anaheim to Monterry but that was a really long drive so I started to look at a half way point and found Solvang.

Solvang, which means sunny field, is just a bit northwest from Santa Barbara and was settled by the Dutch back in 1911. The city is full of bakeries, restaurants and wineries. Of course after reading about this small Danish town I knew we had to go. My first choice in campgrounds was full so I called Ocean Mesa at El Capitan State Park and they had us a spot. You couldn’t beat the location of this campground. We got registered and found our spot.We like to call this “between the hedges”. It was tight but the views were pretty amazing.See the ocean? I just turned around from the camp site and this was our view. Now, when we get to a campground we like to wonder around and check out the park.This was the pool area and you can see there are more sites below us.

We were told that we could walk to the State Beach and see creatures in the tide pools. Neat, but first Max has to go check out his area.Once we got to the dog area, Max was taunted by prairie dogs. It was the funniest thing to see them pop up out of their holes and squeak at him. He really was confused!Here he is sniffing out a hole. Those little boogers were so quick I couldn’t get a picture of them, but I can promise Max won’t forget them!

We got Max settled back in the camper and headed down to the beach. We walked about 1/2 mile through a couple of trails and finally came to the beach.We saw the rocks on the beach and headed over to them to find some creatures.First one on the rocks is…….Haha…..Mike loves to climb and explore. Micheal and I were a bit more cautious about stepping on the rocks but we made it out there too. We looked all around and the only thing we saw was this.It probably isn’t anything but it looked squishy. This was a really pretty beach.It was very different than the Gulf Coast but still had it’s own beauty. Once we were done, we made the hike back up to the campground and just spent a relaxing evening looking at the stars. I didn’t get a good picture but this was the most beautiful nighttime sky! It was almost as if we were sitting in an Imax theater full of stars. It was absolutely amazing!

The next morning we get up and head to Solvang. I found a place that served Swedish pancakes and I couldn’t wait to try them. The drive to the city was gorgeous!We had the ocean to our left and the mountains in front of us.

We got to Solvang in about 30 mins and went straight for breakfast. Micheal has to have breakfast every morning…..even if its lunch before he gets up.

Welcome to Paula’s Pancake house. We waited about 20 minutes and got a seat inside. It kind of reminded us of a grandmother’s house with its pink flowered wall paper and mismatched chairs. The pancake, however, was amazing.It is a little bit thicker than a crepe and was so sweet I didn’t even eat my syrup with it. Plus I hate when the powdered sugar gets washed away! I don’t know what the guys got, I was to busy eating my breakfast and yes I ate the whole thing!

After we finished eating we began to wonder around town.Just like I read, this place is full of wineries, bakeries, and some restaurants. The wineries were little shop fronts that offered tastings and some even had club memberships. We did go into one for a tasting but it wasn’t that good and I didn’t even get a picture of it.

Now we did get our souvenir ornament from this gorgeous Christmas Shoppe.Then we walked down to the town square where the Hans Christian Anderson museum was.The museum was free and on the second story of a coffee shop. It really wasn’t a museum, it was more like a room with some pictures and a few facts.Micheal was not impressed….At least it was free.

Down the street was a replica of the Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen.And of course no Dutch town would be complete without…….a windmill. This was really a fun town to explore and if I hadn’t eaten that big pancake I would have had some sweet treats to share with you.

After a few hours we decide to head back home. I was hoping to stop in at a couple of vineyards on the way out but sadly everything closed early that day. Oh well, I guess it gives me a reason to go back. We really took our time going back to the campground. This was the street that took us into Solvang. It was lined with grapevines on either side. I guess I was really enjoying the view because I didn’t get any pictures of the wineries or the vineyards.

Then once we were back on Hwy 1 we got the ocean view again. I saw a few cars parked on the side of the road, so we stopped (mostly because I am nosey) and we saw a trail that took you to the water.This is looking toward where we parked. We had to cross over train tracks and then down this path. Sometimes Micheal needs a little push to do new things and that’s why we were taking so long to catch up to Mike. We eventually made it to the edge of the cliff.You could never get tired of a view like that!

Mike found a trail that took you down to the water, so naturally he went.Once he got down, he realized there wasn’t much beach.Here I am making sure I don’t have to call 911 for Mike. This was looking to the right. It almost doesn’t seem like the same coastline, but it is.I would have liked to stay until sundown, but the boys got hungry.I did get Micheal to do something daring. Well for him anyways.

We had a another great starry night that night and then hooked up the next morning. We got out of our tight campsite and headed to Monterrey, CA.

If you ever find yourself stuck between L.A. and San Fran, I suggest stopping off for some pancakes and wine!

Everything’s just beachy.

We said goodbye to Las Vegas and headed to Los Angeles!

We stopped at the rest area (for a photo of course)

and decided that the snake warnings were just a natural thing out west. (There was one in Arizona and Nevada too).

Even Max was happy about making it all the way across the country. (This is his California Dreamin face). We get back into the truck, head down the road a bit and see a sign that states we would be stopped for inspection. Did we leave America? Nope!

So we get in line to be inspected……(Notice the other campers and motor homes) For some reason these fine folks in front of us just got waved on through, but not us. Maybe it was the Alabama tag on the front that did it. Anyway, we get stopped and we were asked if we had brought any apples, peaches or pecans from Alabama. Mike told the guy we had been traveling for 6 weeks and all our fruits were from Nevada. The inspector then looked us both and said, “Are you sure, you are from Alabama because you don’t look like it.” Mike and I looked at each other and laughed.

Once we got the third degree about our fruits and our non-southern looks, we headed on to Anaheim. We chose to stay in that part of town because surprisingly there are no campgrounds in Beverly Hills.

We went from a nice drive through the mountains, with wide lanes…..

to overcrowded interstate with transfer trucks on one side and tour buses on the other.

Yes, I took this picture while driving. Don't be a photographer and drive! — Yes, I took this picture while driving but we were coming to a stop.

We finally got to Anaheim Rv Resort, alive and without any bumps! Yay!! I didn’t get any pictures of our site or the campground, sadly, but let me tell you we were very pleased. I took Max to the dog walk and there was grass!!! I know he was so happy and had it not been a dog walk I would have taken my shoes off just to have my toes in it. One of the reasons we chose this park was because of it’s closeness to Disneyland and on their website they said we could see the Disneyland fireworks from the campground. So, every night at 9:30 we watched the fireworks, it was amazing!

This is not our camper. We are standing in front of ours.

What an end to our first night in Cali. It made up for the horrible, terrifying driving experience.

The next morning we decided to go into L.A. to take in the sites. First on the list was the Hollywood sign. Before we left on this trip we asked Micheal what he wanted to see and this was the only thing he could think of. So, I typed Hollywood sign into the GPS and little did we know that she was taking us on an adventure. I trust google maps a little to much. As we are headed into L.A. the traffic is stop and go, stop and go, stop and go, and stop and go. It took forever to get downtown! Once we got closer, we realized we were headed to the Griffith Park Observatory. Mike is a little nervous because he thought we were going to a little park below the sign but our sweet google maps was trying to take us to the sign. Once we got into the park area I told Mike to just drive as high as we could and we would find a parking spot. We climbed up this mountain and finally found a place to pull into and park. We got out of the truck and walked back down the hill a bit and boy, was it beautiful! One thing about L.A. is the smog is always thick!

Then my sweet Sugarboog got to see the Hollywood sign…….After about 5 minutes the boys were ready to go. So we get back into the truck, did a u-turn on the mountain and headed into downtown L.A.

We didn’t actually stop and park in L.A. so all of my pictures are from the passenger side. This wasn’t one of the towns we wanted to explore but it was cool to see some of the sights in person.

The famous Capitol Records building.

Grumman’s Chinese Theater…….and then we rolled into Beverly Hills!

I kept looking for the hillbillies but they must have been busy…..I never really saw any big mansions, I guess those are on private roads.

Anyways, we were in search for Rodeo Drive and after a few wrong turns, we found it.See the sign? It’s above the you may walk now man.It is a very narrow street with the loveliest palm trees! At first it just looked like any other street until……..I see the yellow Rolls Royce and in front of us…….a really pretty Bentley. There are of course stores on this street.and…..this person’s store…..(I didn’t know most of them)…andMr. Vuitton’s. I really wanted to walk around and have that Pretty Woman moment but sadly there was no parking for the F350.

At the end of Rodeo Drive is…The Beverly Wilshire Hotel. This was cool!

Now after driving around we decided to go to Santa Monica. It was gorgeous! We parked at a bank (for 10.00) and walked straight to the pier. Well sort of to the pier. This is taken from the street in the picture above. You really can’t believe the beauty in mountains that meet the ocean. Simply breathtaking.

The street that runs along these houses is the Pacific Coast Hwy or Hwy 1. ( We have more adventures on Hwy 1 that will show how neat of a road it is)This is Santa Monica Pier. It was very busy!!! We opted to just look at it from afar. We did however walk down to the beach.It was a great day to fly a kite…..obviously.He has officially been from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean just like me when I was younger. Now the sand on this beach was not like the white sand on the Gulf. It was like a gritty play sand. It wasn’t my favorite but the folks hanging on the beach don’t know the difference…..poor things!It was a beautiful day at the beach!This is the bike trail that runs all the way to Venice Beach from Santa Monica. Next time we will bring our bikes and ride down that way. In California, you should just take your bike every where you go.

Well we have walked so much, according to Micheal, that it is now time to eat. I didn’t have anything researched so we went to the first place we came to. The Water Grille. It is the restaurant with the black facade. Sorry, this was all I had of the front, but once inside…..wow!This was the view from our table. Now lets get to the food.Mike ordered a fish and some cole slaw. Yummy, but my mouth is still watering over my…..drumroll please…..Buttery lobster roll…..see the butter oozing from the bread. I would brave all the traffic in L.A. just to eat this again.

Moving on…..as we walked back to the truck we came up on a shopping area that was fun. There was a lady that would read your fortune to an amish looking man singing Van Morrison and Michael Buble songs.

I have video of the amish man but once again I can’t load it. We have decided to do a Youtube page to load our videos but that is a work in progress.

As we headed back to the camper I told Mike that I had to ride my bike on one of the many bike trails. So , that what’s we will do tomorrow, after some research of course.

So I read about a place called Seal Beach. It is a quit little seaside town off Hwy 1 that didn’t require us to travel on any major interstate. Down from Seal Beach was a small state park with a bike trail that went to Huntington Beach. So we head down to the Pacific Coast Hwy in search of the bike trail.Along the way we passed an old naval base with gorgeous views.We get to the park unload our bikes and see a sign that says we are 8 miles from Huntington Beach. No biggie! We just don’t tell Micheal. He isn’t to thrilled with a long bike ride.Yes it was just chilly enough to have on a sweatshirt. One thing we noticed were all the oil rigs that you could see from the shore. It sort of took away from the wonder of the ocean but there was beauty elsewhere.The landscape changes so much in California.Here is the happy boy! Taking a break. In all honesty his bike is not fun to ride on, how do I know? Well on the way back we switched bikes. I didn’t make him go on long bike rides after that!

So we get into Huntington Beach and there is a dog beach with so many dogs running around, I wouldn’t be able to remove my shoes to walk in the sand. That’s just me getting grossed out about stuff but the dogs were loving it. I am not sure what was going on here but it seems very popular. People were renting those big bikes and geez it got crazy trying to dodge them but luckily no one got hurt.Surf lessons and food. Look at the pay phone…..that is awesome. We didn’t stay long but we saw enough to make us want to visit again. Next time by car so we could walk around the shops.

Once back at the camper we had dinner and you guessed it….fireworks at 9:30.This was from inside our camper….it makes me happy.

Tomorrow we celebrate my birthday…at Disneyland.