The Pacific Coast: California

We knew we had about a month from February 17th until about March 12th when we agreed we would return to Polly's in Murrieta and bring with us Sierra (Chris' daughter) from Ashland, OR, for spring break. The challenge was to set out a reasonable amount to try and see in a little less than a month, and also keep in mind the weather and trying to stay away from bad weather (i.e snow). So we decided to travel up the entire Pacific coast from San Diego to Seattle. We were pleased with how much weather we avoided .... read on!

A lot of our California coast adventure was intermixed with all the visits Julie wanted to make to old haunts and old friends. You've had a chance to have ALL THE DETAILS of that in the Roots post, and now we'll get back to letting you know in a chronological way just what we've been up to! This goes back to the time we left Gary's daughter Polly's home in Murrieta, and drove to Newport Beach and camped at Newport Dunes RV Park. It was nice, and very close to fabulous beach attractions and SHOPPING! But we didn't do too much!

Thursday, February 18

We've visited Los Angeles a number of times in the past, due to it being my girlhood home, but certain things we hadn't seen ..... so we did those today! We were so happy when we happened upon Palm Drive and could take that iconic LA shot:

Our first stop: the La Brea Tar Pits. This is a very interesting place right downtown LA where Rancho Los Angeles was established. For thousands and thousands of years asphalt, a really thick oil, has seeped up through the earth. Sometimes water covers it, and prehistoric animals would come to drink, and get stuck in the sticky stuff. Lots of really interesting bones have been found there. Here is a picture of a simulated elephant-like animal stuck in the mud, and then Liz with the statues of the saber-toothed tigers. It was fun, and interesting.

On our way out to Santa Monica, we stopped for lunch at Farmer's Market. It's not unlike our Farmer's Markets at home .... where local purveyors bring their delectables. You can get the best steaks, fresh fish, pastries, breads, deli foods at Farmer's Market off of Fairfax. I always remembered great corned beef sandwiches, so that's what I had. Liz and Gary had sushi, a newer delicacy compared to when I used to go with my parents in the 1960's.

From Farmer's Market we made our way out Wilshire Boulevard to Santa Monica, and then north briefly to the J. Paul Getty Villa. There is also a museum in Westwood, but this large Italian style villa was built about 10 to 15 years ago. One must have (free) tickets to enter, and we had obtained those online, and 2:30 was our appointed time. We were only 15 minutes late.

Mr. Getty was very wealthy, and loved ancient art. The villa is modeled after the Villa dei Papiri, a Roman country house in Herculaneum buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. In it is housed over 1,200 works of art ... Greek. Roman and Etruscan antiquities. I told Liz that this was what this enormously wealthy man chose to spend his money on ..... houses and art. I shared that I thought it was better that Bill and Melinda Gates are choosing to spend their money on eradicating childhood infectious diseases among children in Africa!

When we went into the hall labeled Mythological Heroes, I asked Liz if she knew what a myth was. I thought she defined it perfectly, with a touch of popular culture thrown in: "Something that could be true, but people don't really know if it's true or not .... I do watch MythBusters you know!" We also took a picture of our own classic beauty!

From the Getty we went to the Miramar in Santa Monica, and had our sentimental visit to my parents' honeymoon hotel which I described in Roots. It was a great LA day, and Liz declared: "When people ask me what my favorite place is from the trip, I'm saying LA!"

Friday, February 19

We all wanted to go to Catalina Island ... I did in particular, as in all my years in Southern California I had never been there! We took the ferry from Newport Beach and were over there in about an hour and a half. Liz clung to her new pet, Shasta, a dire wolf she had got at the La Brea Tar Pits. And then we saw a tribute to our dear Lori (my sister-in-law) and had to take a picture.

We walked down the pier and ordered omelette breakfasts which were delicious. We learned that we could see a lot of the island by taking a small bus tour up to the top of one of the hills where the airport was. We really did see a lot.

After the airport tour, we had time to connect for the submarine tour of the harbor. They put fish food in the torpedo tubes, and we could push a button, eject food, and watch the fish swarm by our windows. It was fun. The water was incredibly blue and there were many beautiful species of fish.

After our submarine cruise, we did what everyone does on Catalina: tooled around in a golf cart. It was probably 65 degrees, sunny and quite comfortable. Here's a sampling of the beautiful sites.

The Casino, home to one of the largest dance floors in the country.

Outside our favorite gift shop where we bought

a pretty ceramic tile picture of the Catalina harbor.

We really had a nice day, and an uneventful ferry trip back "26 miles across the sea." I downloaded The Four Preps singing "26 miles across the sea, Santa Catalina is awaitin' for me," to my iPhone and played it on the ferry ride over. Technology is amazing!

Our busy day was capped by our wonderful dinner and evening with Sherry and Marty Wieler, described in the previous post.

Saturday, February 20

This was supposed to be the Glendale (the city I grew up in) day, and it really was after we got started. Sherry and Marty Wieler wanted to actually see Buster, so Sherry drove up to Newport Dunes and spent part of the morning with us. Their gorgeous Country Coach doesn't have slide outs, so it was fun for her to see how big our rig can be when it's all expanded (for the interested, the living space is 12 feet across with both front slides out; it really feels pretty comfortable). Marty was on call (he's a radiologist) and so he could only manage a quick lunch with us at one of their favorite spots.

Then we headed up the 405 to Santa Monica where our plan was to connect with Jesica Baker (see Roots). She had a delay helping a neighbor, so we had some extra time on the Santa Monica pier. The Santa Monica pier is the western terminus of Route 66. There were a lot of vendors, and some rides on the pier, but most impressively there were artists. We were blown away by the skill of a 15 minute sculptor reproducing our Liz.

Even though our visit with Jesica was brief, she directed us to THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN. Of course, you can see if from many spots in LA, but it was great that she told us just where to go to be able to take our pictures. They turned out pretty good. Pointing the camera east from about the same spot gives you a great view of LA!

Sunday, February 21

This was the day we went to Palos Verdes and visited with the Longo's. We talked about it in Roots. After we returned to Buster in Newport Beach, we planned to go out to dinner, but everybody was ready for motorhome spaghetti and TV. So that was it. We needed to get to bed early as we were crossing the freeways of LA to go north in the morning!

Monday, February 22

We thought that if we waited until rush hour was over on a Monday morning before we headed out, that we should hopefully negotiate those 5 and 6 lane freeways, with seemingly very narrow lanes, as optimally as possible. We didn't connect the car, I followed quite closely in Bella, and we made it to US 101 North without incident. As we traveled through the San Fernando Valley toward Ventura, we passed Simi Valley. We had heard the Reagan Presidential Library was worth a visit and indeed it was. It is set up on a beautiful hill and the curving road up is lined with presidential banners showing pictures of all of our presidents. With all the rain in Southern California the hillsides were super green and gorgeous.

The museum is beautifully laid out, and has interesting exhibits and documents from the Reagan years. There is memorabilia from his Hollywood days, his days as California governor, and many items from his ranch near Ojai, which is nearby, including spurs, his saddle, etc. One of the most interesting things is Air Force One ... one of the actual 707's from the Reagan era. We could enter and see where his office (and Nancy's) was, where they would relax, the galley, the staff and press areas. It is much smaller than current Air Force One which is a 747, but it was really fun to be on the actual plane.

His gravesite is particularly moving. It is beautifully laid out, very simple and dignified, with one of his favorite quotes inscribed. And you can see it is set in a heavenly spot. On a clear day, one can see the ocean from this hilltop. We were glad we decided to visit.

As we drove away down the hill, we saw President Obama's banner. We wondered whether the placement of the left directional sign under his picture was coincidental or not!

We continued on up the coast through Oxnard and Ventura, to Santa Barbara. It is simply a beautiful drive to one of the most beautiful areas in the country. My father had talked about settling in Santa Barbara after he went through there on his way to the South Pacific in WWII, and I said I wanted to move there after Gary and I visited our financial advisors (Mercer Global Advisors) there about 5 years ago. But we were put off by the fact that there were only two houses listed for less than $700,000! You can see why.

Almost everyone who drives up US 101 stops at a couple of places along the way. Solvang, a village modeled after a quaint spot in Denmark with yummy bakeries, cuckoo-clock shops, and wooden shoes. I wanted to make sure Gary and Liz saw it, so we made a brief stop, mostly at the bakery. Fortunately I was able to stock up on a great memory from childhood: Onion Cheese Bread. I've been rationing it out for toast in the morning ever since!

The other stop is Anderson's Split Pea Soup Restaurant. When I was growing up there was an ad on TV showing Hap Pea and Pee Wee splitting peas. We stopped, bought a case of soup to heat up on the road (with the Onion Cheese bread!), and Gary took our pictures posing as the local heroes!

We had targeted Paso Robles and Wine Country RV Resort as our destination, and we reached it just at dusk. The Wielers had recommended this spot and it really was a great place to stop as we prepared for the next day's adventure: Hearst Castle.

Tuesday, February 23

These days it really helps travelers to have advance intelligence before you visit someplace like Hearst Castle. I had reviewed their website and learned that there are about 5 different tours you can go on, and that, by the description, we had been on the first one in 1998 (an early trip Gary and I took to California before we were married). So I bought tickets at a convenient time (10:30) for Tour 2: the main house, pools, and private quarters of J. Randolph Hearst. I had never driven to San Simeon from Paso Robles, which is further north on Hwy 101 than the usual turn off further south which goes through Morro Bay. We took the less traveled CA Hwy 46, and it was just stunning. In fact, I loved that drive so much that I chose the picture from the road as the headliner for the California coast post. More about that later.

J. Randolph Hearst was a newspaper publisher from San Francisco. I believe the Hearst Publishing empire was ultimately a national enterprise. He was highly influential, particularly in California, and one of the wealthiest men in America. His parents had bought the property above the Pacific along the central California coast, but had never built anything on it. They camped there. But when their son Randolph inherited it, he had the image of a castle on the hill. The most spectacular home in California was built there, with a huge number of bedrooms and guest suites, all focused on entertaining. His wife, from whom he was separated, never visited the hillside paradise. But his paramour, Marion Davies, a Hollywood actress (and apparently his intellectual equal) was his hostess and partner. The tour is full of interesting details and stories about life at San Simeon. It is something to see.

Right by the Visitor Center were some beautiful examples of the California state flower:

the poppy.

From the Visitor Center at the base of the hill one rides a bus up the winding drive to La Casa Grande. I've always thought the most beautiful thing are the pools, both the outdoor and indoor pool. On this tour, we learned that one can "book" the Atlantis (I think it's called) pool for two hours for $2,500. I told Gary that I would love to book it for the "ultimate pool party" for my 65th birthday celebration, and celebrate with my twin brother, Jim. We presented the idea to him later in the week, and he's all for it. We'll have to see if we can really make it happen! You can see why anyone would love it!

There are so many gorgeous views and rooms. Here's a mini-sampling followed by Mr. Hearst's library, and the tower guest suite. Cary Grant never liked to stay there, though. He thought it was too cold and dark.

We loved seeing Gary at the beer tap in the huge, very well-equipped kitchen, and then there was the Neptune/indoor pool. It really is all out of this world!

We really enjoyed our visit, and got some great souvenirs, among them grass fed beef steaks from the cattle raised on the hillsides of Hearst Castle. We've had a couple of them, and they are really quite good.

We had a good lunch in the little town south of San Simeon, Cambria, where they had a very pretty cactus garden including a very pretty agave.

Our drive back to Paso Robles on Hwy 46 once again impressed upon us how gorgeous these coastal hills were as a result of all the rain. When we got back to Wine Country RV, we picked up a real estate brochure, and saw a picture just like the one you see above. I called the agent, and learned that there are 46 acres for sale there, only two of which are buildable, but you would have "Hearst Castle views" for a little rambler of your own .... only $700,000. I immediately wanted to put everything we own up for sale, and make plans to move to this dream spot. Gary has tempered my impulsivity, but it remains the dreamiest!

Wednesday, February 24

Our goal for this day was to make it to Monterey Bay, and it was an easy drive of about 150 miles. We identified Marina Dunes RV park, and arrived so early that Gary and Liz had time to fly a kite on the dunes and beach. I really wanted to do the Pebble Beach 17 mile drive, so didn't get to share their fun or catch them with my camera. But I am able to share with you some very nice images of Pebble Beach:

It's always such a beautiful drive, and it didn't disappoint. I stopped at The Lodge at Pebble Beach and did a little shopping at the gift store. Got some good end of season bargains!

Thursday, February 25

We had made reservations for the Behind the Scenes Tour at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for Thursday morning. I had actually never taken a tour there but just walked around on our own. Our tour guide was very informative, and I was very interested in the founding story. The daughter of David Packard (one of the founders of Hewlitt Packard) and his wife was a marine biology major at, I think, Stanford. She and her pals (one of whom I believe became her husband) used to spend hours and hours in the Monterey Bay finding specimens and studying marine life. When they graduated, they were casting about regarding what to do with their expensive educations, and Mr. Packard told his daughter to bring him a business plan for an aquarium in Monterey. The plan called for about 100,000 visits the first year, but they got over 2 million visitors the first year and have plateaued at about 1.8 million visitors each year. It's been a tremendous business and ecological success. Mostly, you just need to see the beautiful specimens:

The aquarium had just opened an exhibit showing a little orphaned (about two month old) otter that had been rescued from the bay and the surrogate "mom" that was showing him the ropes. Here they are. She was really adopting him and it was so fun to see. Liz loved to try to catch a little touch of the rays in their pool.

The bay at the Aquarium

The orange things are called skates, and in the photo you see one of them in the embryonic stage.

After our really nice visit to the aquarium, we drove once again up Highway 1, which above Monterey travels with Hwy 101. We didn't think we should take Buster up Hwy 1 by Big Sur south of Monterey but above Monterey through Santa Cruz the road was passable for a big rig. It is a really interesting drive past Watsonville's artichoke farms and other agricultural enterprises. We were headed toward San Francisco past Half Moon Bay, and Gary had always remembered how agricultural it was along the coast there. The road was closed part way due to slide risk and a major construction project was cutting through a mountain to detour away from the coast on a stretch which has been closed due to slides for over a year. We ended up in Pacifica at San Francisco RV park. Gary had had his heart set on staying at a park with a view over-looking the ocean, and this place fit the bill. Liz also found a new friend there, and they shared a movie night outside.

The next day would begin our long anticipated visit with the James Abbott's!

Friday, February 26

I had wanted to attend a conference put on by UC San Francisco held at their conference center in downtown SF: Summit on Obesity. With this "epidemic" of obesity, there is lots spoken about and written on the topic. This conference focused on some food industry and availability issues which I think are quite interesting. It only took about 20 minutes to drive from Pacifica to the conference center, and Liz came along with me. We had agreed that Lori (my sister-in-law) would come to the conference center, pick-up Liz, and they would shop. One item on the shopping list was a junior bridesmaid dress for Liz. She will be a bridesmaid for her very dear Heather Hatzenbihler (former nanny) on July 10 in Rochester. As a junior bridesmaid, she may wear the accent color, coral, and so may have a unique dress.

We met for lunch at the rotunda in Neiman Marcus. You can see those two charming shoppers snuggling up together, and then Liz with her mom. They reported that they had walked into Bloomingdale's and Liz had skipped as though she was moving down the Yellow Brick Road! She had only heard about this shopping mecca and hadn't actually been in a Bloomie's before. Laurie said they arrived on the pre-teen/young woman floor, and within a minute Liz had spotted the only possible dress that could work for the wedding. I think I'm in trouble! She ended up getting the dress (fortunately on sale), and some Ralph Lauren "skinny jeans" which she had learned about from the kids in Polly's southern Cal neighborhood!

We had the usual dread of heading onto the northbound freeway over the Golden Gate Bridge at rush hour. But we had unbelievable traffic karma and drove straight up to Santa Rosa without stopping even though we left the city at 5 pm! Yeah for us!

Gary had driven Buster up during the middle of the day during a more predictable light traffic time, and arrived in time to go to lunch with my brother Jim. Jim is an endodontist (root canals) and has Fridays off. So that also had a great (guy) time. Later in the afternoon Jim worked his culinary magic and prepared us a simply scumptious dinner. He has a great beef short ribs recipe (which fortunately he has shared and we make often), and he had a delicious alternative to mashed potatoes: mashed parsnips! I believe it is a Weight Watchers recipe and Jim should know: he has lost 70 pounds at Weight Watchers over the last several months, and looks simply tremendous! We, as twins, have both struggled with weight over the years, and currently he is fighting the good fight and winning! He is inspirational, and I am SO proud of him!

Saturday, February 27

I had asked Lori to help me with a hair appointment. I had gotten a hair cut in Murrieta, but it wasn't really working for me, so Lori's stylist Marta shaped me up. It's worked out well ever since. We had decided we would all go down to San Francisco for Chinese New Year's, so Jim, Lori, my fabulous 15 1/2 year old nephew Chase, Liz, Gary and I piled into their Yukon and headed to the city. Here's the view of the city as we approach the Golden Gate Bridge, and then actually ON the bridge. It is always fabulous!

I (nor do I believe any of the Minnesota contingent) had any idea what it meant to "eat dim sum." We went to a restaurant named Yank Sing, and I joined the others at the table about 3 minutes after they were seated. THEY WERE ALREADY EATING! Servers swarm the table as soon as you sit down, pour you tea, and start offering you plates of delicious Chinese food. You say, "Yes, to the beef pea pods, the cocoanut shrimp, the sea bass," etc., etc., and pretty soon you have a table full of delicious food and you once again experience the phenomenon of "your eyes are bigger than your stomach." We really had fun there, and it put us right in the festive mood for the Chinese New Year's celebration. But first, of course, we had to drive down the most crooked street in San Francisco (Lombard Street), and have our picture taken there.

We had passed what looked to be a yummy specialty cupcake bakery, so after we got parked for the parade, we found the shop. You can see Liz loved her red velvet chocolate cupcake!

We walked up to Union Square, but it was pretty crowded by then, so we walked down Geary Street to Grant Street and the crowd thinned a little bit. Gary tried to help by putting Liz up on his shoulders.

On the way home, we stopped at the view spot across the Golden Gate Bridge looking back at the city. It was at this spot that Gary proposed to me at dusk on December 4, 1998 (with many Japanese tourists looking on!). He sweetly reprised the scene and, not unexpectedly, Liz wanted a share of the action. We ARE the threesome! (note romantic full, tiny, moon)

Sunday, February 28

My niece, Darlene Abbott Ortner also lives in Santa Rosa, and we made a date on Sunday morning to meet at the Hillside Cafe in Santa Rosa. Her husband Jere and son Jeremy were able to join us as well, and we had a delicious breakfast and caught up on all the news. Dar is the younger daughter of my brother Kenneth and works in Pediatrics at Kaiser Health Care in Santa Rosa. Jere drives a school bus, and Jeremy is a very bright and active young teen. It was so nice to get a brief visit with them.

The rest of the day we just hung out with the Abbotts. It is wonderful being their guests .... they have a beautiful guest house out by their pool, all set up with provisions (in a little kitchen), books, music and flat screen. In the big house we watched the Olympic US Hockey game ... it brought back those great memories from Lake Placid. We went out for dinner with Celeste and Francois deTessan (see Roots post).

We loved our visit with Jim and his family. We love them, and will be back as soon as we can!

Monday, March 1

Gary also has family in Santa Rosa .... his cousin Jan Corbett and her husband Jim. Also in the area are his cousins Deborah Colvard and Jean Kelly. We weren't able to connect with Jean, but Jan invited us to park Buster in front of her house in Sebastapol. We pulled in on Monday morning, and she made us some absolutely delicious tea: Republic of Tea's apricot honey tea with blue agave sweetner and a little half and half ..... absolutely yummy! Liz had some fun on their tree swing, and also with Jim as he helped her a bit with her piano. Jim is Mr. Music and works a lot with music for children in the schools. He has been awarded as a honored citizen in Sebastapol for this work, and other work with many volunteer organizations.

Jan had planned a delicious dinner for us that evening, but she had everything all prepped, and so took off with us in the car to drive over roads near and dear to Gary's heart. Gary had spent a year with Jan and her family, working with her father, his Uncle Jim, on his chicken farm. He attended Santa Rosa Junior College working up a good college record to transfer to his first choice college: Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He has wonderful memories of that year, and one of is favorite spots is the drive over Coleman Valley Road, through Occidental, out to the coast. We took that drive (see left), and then stopped at School House Beach, a beach where the James' Ebert family often went for family outings and picnics. Then we made our way down to Bodega Bay and had lunch overlooking the bay at The Tides Restaurant. After lunch we drove down Tomales Bay almost to Point Reyes .... it was a beautiful afternoon .... a little overcast but we escaped the rain.

Coleman Valley Road School House Beach Jan & Liz at the Tides

Deborah arrived early for dinner, about 5, so we had a long time to visit. She was very interested in stories about Gary's mom and the family about which Gary has a good recollection and knows a lot of stories. They had a wonderful time .... and we all so enjoyed Jan's wonderful dinner of mandarin chicken with mushrooms, raisins and almonds and rice. It was a lovely evening.

Gary and his cousin Jan

Tuesday, March 2

We needed to say our good-byes on Tuesday morning, in order to continue our Pacific Coast adventure and have a chance of making it all the way to Washington and back down by the 12th. Jim made us a great scrambled egg breakfast, and we started back up US Hwy 101. For a couple of days we had debated whether or not we should try to get back on Hwy 1, right along the coast, knowing that through Mendocino it was very narrow and curvy, similar to south of Monterey in the Big Sur area. We decided that since it was overcast, and it would probably be foggy along the coast, we might as well stay on the straighter and faster 101. But, just as we were entering Cloverdale the blue sky appeared, and it looked even clearer to the west, so we decided to turn off on Hwy 128 heading northeast from Cloverdale to Albion.

It was thrilling to see evidence of spring and, again the green hills and these with vineyards. The redwoods were so lovely, but it was difficult to get a good picture while we were driving. But I had to try!

We stayed on 101 from Albion to Legget, with unbelievably skilled driving by Gary. It probably took 6 hours to drive less than 200 miles, but it was beautiful, and we made it safely. We were thrilled when north of Legget we encountered divided road most of the rest of the way to Eureka where we stopped for the night. The next morning we would drive up to Crescent City, and then turn away from the coast as we entered Oregon to begin that phase of our Pacific Coast adventure. We were especially happy the weather was largely being cooperative.

I love California!

Julie, Gary and Liz