San Francisco

On our way to San Francisco, we got back on the Pacific Coast Highway and pulled over for the night at a beautiful bluff overlooking the ocean, a little north of Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

The wind blew at 40mph all night, the temperature dropped into the 30’s, but we pretended we were getting prepared for crossing North Dakota in May.  As far as “campsites” go, it ranked near the top because of the view.

More wonderful ocean views awaited us, as you can see from the pictures below.

On to San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge where we stopped for picture taking.

We visited Fisherman's Wharf with all of the other tourists - here's some of the neat things we saw.  The gold and silver statues are real people, and Missy got in the picture too.

Then we chose to drive north on Route 1 to find Muir Woods National Monument.  Unfortunately, we chose the route that took us up and over Mount Tamalpais on another of those awful, winding roads. This photo is the beginning of the route - it got much worse.

But the scare was worth the view of the beautiful Redwoods in Muir Woods.  

Another route out took us back to San Francisco, around the bay, over a double decker bridge, through the junction of 4 different Interstates, past Berkeley and to Fremont for a visit with Marilyn and her family, friends of Caroles from James Madison University.  Four of us ladies went out for afternoon tea in Niles, CA.  Do you recognize anyone?

More Miscellany

Here is a collection of photos we thought you would like.

A 1953 Chevy, seen in Monterey.  Carole says “Kids, this is one like your father had when we were dating”.

A surfer off the coast at Malibu, and a shot of the coastline houses in Malibu.  Carley, sorry we couldn't bring one of them home for you.

Houseboats floating in the harbor at Sausalito, CA.  Carole wouldn’t mind living here for a short visit.

A street sign in San Francisco.

Santa Barbara and the Pacific Coast Highway

After leaving Malibu, we stopped to see Jesse in Goleta (north of Santa Barbara).  She was a good friend of my niece Deborah.  Jesse grows lots of vegetables and keeps chickens (no roosters) in the high hedge enclosed yard of her house in town, and she fixed some delicious meals with her freshly gathered provisions!

Here she is with one of her laying hens.

Up the Coast of California we went on scenic route #1 – the Pacific Coast Highway.  We could only go part way because of the mudslides from the recent rains that closed the road near Big Sur.  We did get to see Morro Rock at Morro Bay.

But we did make our way up past San Simeon and the Hearst Castle (didn’t tour it, no reservations, tours full), but enjoyed the gift store and the art work reproductions. 

By sheer luck, we stopped at a “pull out”, where you could see the elephant seals sunning themselves on the beach below

To detour from the Pacific coast highway, we drove another of those wild California mountain routes over to Highway 101, and continued up the Salinas valley, where most of the produce for the entire country is grown. 

Fields and fields of strawberries, romaine lettuce, kale, artichokes, mustard greens and butter lettuce.  Some of the farms had giant standup cutouts of the farmers and workers.

After getting chased out of the Walmart parking in Salinas (against city ordinance), we opted for another night at Motel 6, and then drove on to Monterey where Vera toured the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Wonderful!  Here are some photos of some of the special things she saw.

The next Blog will be ready tomorrow.  See 'ya.

California mountain roads and gorgeous houses

From Phoenix we traveled west on I-10 across the desert, (there are few useable surface roads that you can take) through Blythe to Indio CA where we spent the night at Walmart.  Across the San Grogonio Pass where thousands of tall windmills are working away – an amazing sight.  Look it up – I couldn't find any photos I could copy to the blog.

On into the LA area toward San Bernardino, where mountains line the horizon.  Unfortunately, we had to go up those mountains on a road that that been extended to three lanes by cantilevering the third outside lane out into space, which left Vera with white knuckles.  A phone call brought help from Julie and Pat who drove the van on to their house, nestled down in an arroyo – their little piece of heaven.  The community had been burned out in 2003 during the wildfires, and the rebuilt homes are of a great variety and beautiful.  We love you Julie and Pat, and thank you for a wonderful visit.

An afternoon drive on the LA freeways with all those crazy drivers brought us out to Malibu, where another mountain road awaited us.  Gail came down the mountain to Trancas Canyon on the Pacific Coast Highway, left her car, and drove the van up and up to the top to her gorgeous house (built by her and her late husband) with the most amazing views.  Gail and her friends Kitty and Austin entertained us with a Malibu style meal.  Thank you Gail, both for the hospitality and the views!!

photo by Gail

Monday, on to Santa Barbara with a lovely drive along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Tucson, Arizona

We left Mesa and drove down to Tucson.  Our first adventure was to view the DeGrazia studio/museum called Gallery in the  Sun, located in the Catalina foothills.  Ted Degrazia, a famous Arizona artist was a friend of Tim Paulett  (Carole’s son) while he lived in Tucson area. 

DeGrazia reminded Tim of his great-grandfather – another unique personality.  This was a great experience to visit the homestead, which was build by the artist, and to enjoy his beautiful artwork.  This unique artist was alleged to have burned his private collection of his own original paintings in 1978 rather than have his kids pay inheritance taxes to the IRS.

We spent the night at a campground north of Tucson, surrounded by gorgeous mountains and wonderful night noises.

The next day we visited the Biosphere2 – an incredible engineering project.  It is not used for human habitation now, but many experiments are being carried out on various ecological issues.  Really worth a visit.

Our final stop in Tucson was at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, but by the time we got there it was too hot for us to tour the cactus gardens.  

So, back to Phoenix for the night, to get ready for our push to California.

New Map

Miscellany

We have accumulated some small events and their photos on our way.  Today, we will share them with you.

At a rest stop in Texas, we found this “welcome” sign.  Some welcome!

In Phoenix we stayed with Luise and her “lapdog” Peaches – an English springer spaniel.  

Luise has a grassy backyard, which Maggie puppy loved.  Here is a picture of a tangerine tree - how about picking your breakfast this easily.

At a Catholic Mission church in New Mexico, there was this lovely statue of an Indian convert – Carole’s dog Missy is in the front.

Have Carole and Vera killed each other yet?  Here is a photo taken at the Tucson Desert Museum to prove we haven’t done so.