Week 10

Monday June 3, 2002

I left San Diego this morning and drove about 90 miles up Interstate 5 to Anaheim, California. I’m staying at the Orangeland RV Park which is about 5 miles from Disneyland. It is a very nice park with all the amenities, except that I have to go to the recreation building to use the internet. Phone hookups are not available for short time stays. The facilities here are excellent though, including free pool and a beautiful swimming pool and hot tub. The office, store and recreation building are top notch. After I settled in, I called my nephew Andre. He is a student here at University of California, and my brother suggested that I call him when I get into town. He is in Santa Monica which is 43 miles from here. We want to get together, but he was tied up tonight and tomorrow night, so we will try to meet on Wednesday night and maybe have dinner.

After I talked with him, I went back out for a drive. I drove over to Disneyland to check out the route and parking situation. Then I drove to a Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, then to a grocery store to get a few things to eat. Came back to the RV Park, and fixed the dinner that I bought, watched a little TV and turned in for a big day tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 4, 2002

I caught a city bus to Disneyland this morning. When you go through the gate, you have to choose between the original Disneyland and the new California Adventure. I chose California Adventure. It wasn’t very crowded, and I was glad to see that. First I passed under the replica of the Golden Gate Bridge, and then headed to Hollywood Pictures Backlot. I was heading for a ride called Superstar Limo, but it was closed. I did take in one show in that area and I was amused to see Mickey and Minnie coming out of an Airstream Trailer. Then I went to a section called Condor Flats. This is the home of one of the most popular attractions called, “Soarin’ over California”. This was a great motion simulator, in which you feel like you are flying all over the state. It was really good. Then it was off to a section called “Golden State”. This included a tour of a winery sponsored by Robert Mondavi wines. Very nice…. Then a tour of a bakery and a tortilla factory, and another large section devoted to California agriculture with gardens demonstrating production of many of California fruits and vegetables. Finally it was into the best part of this park, “Paradise Pier” This is home to the trademark roller coaster called, “California Screamin’” and a huge ferris wheel called the Sun Wheel. I saw a great show starring Whoppi Goldberg, called Golden Dreams. This was near the 6:00 closing time, so I went over to the Grand California Hotel, a beautiful hotel similar to the Wilderness Lodge at Disneyworld. From there I went to the new section called Downtown Disney. This is an open area full of unique stores and cool restaurants. I had Louisiana blackened Redfish at Ralph Brennan’s Jazz kitchen. By this time I was getting a little tired J so I walked the six blocks to the city bus that would take me back to the Orangeland RV Park.

Wednesday, June 5, 2002

Today I went to Knott’s Berry Farm. This is a large theme park near Disneyland. The park has a distinct western theme. The first thing I did was to go on their huge wooden roller coaster called the Ghostrider. It was a great ride. They had a lot of recreations of old western buildings and a lot of authentic memorabilia from the gold rush days. There was a fairly large museum with a lot of unusual old things that I had never seen before. They have a train that is actually a train from the 1880’s. Not a replica, but the actual train and it goes around the perimeter of the park. They also have a stage coach ride that runs around most of the park. I went on several other roller coasters including the Jaguar; Montezuma’s Revenge and the Boomerang. They have a brand new one called Xcellerator, but it wasn’t open yet. They were testing it with dummies. J I saw several shows there and enjoyed the day. At then end of the day I went to an exhibit there which was a full scale replica of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Very well done. I headed back to the campground. On Monday, I talked to my nephew, Andre. We agreed to meet on Wednesday night. I was expecting him to call me, but he didn’t call. Around 7:00, I called him and left a message, but I didn’t hear from him the rest of the night. I went to a restaurant near the campground in Orange. It is called King’s fish house. I had a great salmon dinner there. There was also a great shop in the same shopping center. It was called simply the garage. They sold reconditioned classic cars. They really had some great cars from the 50’s and before. They were all for sale. They had a 1930 Rolls Royce in perfect condition for $30,000. That was my favorite. They also had ’57 and ’60 T-birds; ’55 & ’57 Chevys; some old Mercedes and Porsche’s and lots more. I really enjoyed going through this place.

Thursday, June 6, 2002

I decided to forego theme parks today and I wanted to get to Long Beach and the Queen Mary at a decent time, so I decided to take the short trip to Garden Grove, CA. to see the Crystal Cathedral that I’ve heard so much about. It is not actually crystal, but glass, mirrors and stainless steel. It was a beautiful place with memorial walkways, a cemetery and several buildings, but the main thing is this huge church. It consists of more than 10,000 panes of mirrored glass and a tower that is 236 feet tall built with stainless steel. The church seats 3,000 people. The organ has 17,106 pipes. There is a pool in the middle of the church that consists of 12 fountains, one for each of the 12 apostles. There are many beautiful multi-colored statues and the many walkways were paved with memorials to people from all over the world. This church is the home of Reverend Donald Schuler. The memorials embedded in the sidewalks coast $2,500 each and there are hundreds of them. I took the 40 minute tour of the church and grounds and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I drove back to the campground and ate lunch there and changed clothes for the trip to Long Beach. It is about a 40 minute drive to Long Beach. I had no trouble finding the Queen Mary. After all it is 1000 feet long and has 12 decks. I took the complete self guided walking tour of the ship and finished with an excellent dinner at Sir Winston’s, the finest restaurant on the ship. The Queen Mary is permanently moored in Long Beach harbor and in addition to the many restaurants on the ship, it is also a hotel. I saw some of the rooms, and I wasn’t especially impressed, but the ship itself was very impressive. There was a World War II exhibit on the ship showing how it was converted from a luxury liner to a troop ship that carried up to 16,000 troops at a time during the war. She was known as the Grey Ghost. I enjoyed driving California’s freeways and took an alternate route back to the RV park. This was about 50 miles back.

Tomorrow, I leave here and start heading up the coast.

Friday, June 7, 2002

Today was supposed to be only a travel day. I returned the rental car first thing this morning and had the agency drive me back to Orangeland RV Park. I was out of there by 10:30. I couldn’t decide whether to go up US101 as AAA recommended, or go up California One. The driver from the rental car agency suggested CA1, so I decided to follow his suggestion. I was glad I did. I took I-5 up to I-10 and then I-10 West to its end in Santa Monica. From there I followed CA 1 through Malibu on up to Oxnard where it rejoined US101. The scenery was pretty good on both routes, but I was a little disappointed that I didn’t see many fabulous homes as I passed through Malibu. Guess the really nice ones are out of sight. I stopped for gas near Solvang. I had heard of Solvang before and since it was only 3 miles out of my way, I took the side trip. Solvang is a small town that is entirely Dutch architecture. It was really different with windmills and very unusual brick treatments on many of the buildings. I returned to US101 and continued on to my planned destination, Pismo Beach. I hadn’t made reservations at a campground there, and when I arrived, the Pismo Beach RV village was full, so I found another place right down the street called Holiday RV Park. After I parked, I took a long walk into town and out on a very long pier over the Pacific Ocean, watching surfers in the twilight. The town was really jumping and I enjoyed walking around in it. By the time I got back to the campground, I was pretty tired, so I called it a night.

Saturday, June 8, 2002

Today certainly has to rank as one of the best days since leaving Maryland. Although the weather was not as good as most that I’ve had, it sure was made up for by the things I saw. It was about an hour’s drive from Pismo Beach to San Simeon. To visit the Hearst Castle you have to take a bus from the visitor’s center to the top of the mountain. The trip is about 5 miles @ 20 MPH takes about 15 minutes. Hearst Castle is unbelievably spectacular. The tour that I took covered both the outdoor and indoor pools as well as one of the guest houses and most of the rooms on the first floor of the mansion. I’ve seen a lot of mansions of the rich and famous, including Biltmore, the Mansions of Newport, RI and a number of other Vanderbilt and Rockefeller homes, but none of them compared to this palace of William Randolph Hearst. I really enjoyed the visit. After leaving there, I proceeded up the Pacific Coast Highway, CA1. Many people have told me about this road, but words and pictures cannot begin to describe the beauty of this drive. Imagine driving along Skyline Drive in Virginia but being twice as high with the ocean surf pounding away thousands of feet below. This road is about 180 miles of continuous gorgeous scenery like this. There are hardly any homes or businesses along the way. It is unbelievable. I had intended to go to Santa Cruz tonight, but when I got to the campground at Big Sur, I couldn’t pass it up. So here I am typing this in the middle of a canyon in Big Sur State Park. I just had a delicious dinner in the Big Sur Lodge. No electricity tonight, so I will be turning in early. I do have my lights that will work off the battery and if it gets cold tonight, as I expect it will, the propane furnace will come on automatically and I will be snug as a bug in a rug.

Sunday, June 9, 2002

I had a little trouble with the RV last night. When I woke up this morning, I had no power. This meant 3 minor problems. No heat, no hot water and no refrigerator. None of these were major problems since it wasn’t very cold and the refrigerator was still cold from last night. The engine started ok, and once it was started, the generator started, and then everything else worked fine, but it was a little scary that this happened. I’ll have to keep an eye on it. Normally, I don’t camp without electricity, so this couldn’t happen when I am connected at night. I left Big Sur immediately since I was in what’s known as an overflow area. This is an area where they let you park, but you have no connections and you are supposed to leave by 9:00. So I left and continued on up CA1 the Pacific Highway with more spectacular scenery. After a short distance, I stopped at an overlook, ate breakfast and straightened up the RV and then continued on to Santa Cruz. It is only about 70 miles from Big Sur to Santa Cruz, so I had plenty of time. I stopped at the Seacliff State Park, but the park was full and I didn’t want to use the overflow area, so I called another campground called Smithwoods. They had a vacancy, so I reserved for the next two days. When I leave here, I will pass through San Francisco and on to Bodega Bay to see my brother Earl. Meanwhile, tomorrow I will spend the day at the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Today, before checking in, I drove through Santa Cruz. This is a nice place with lots of activity at the boardwalk including some good size roller coasters. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.