Heading Home

After almost 5 weeks and over 2800 miles (Al did them all!) we are heading home to Seattle.  It has been a super trip with quite a variety of weather, activities, family visits and special times with "old" friends.  We both agreed that we can't wait to take off again on another road trip but next time maybe we can stay more nights in one place.  We both enjoyed getting unpacked and settled in to several stops, most especially the ones where we could cook our own meals and not have to search for restaurants.   It was a GREAT Trip!

Big tree! Redwoods National Park

304' high
21.6' diameter
1500 years old!

Redwoods National Park

Driving along it is very hard to take a picture which gives justice to these wonderful giants most of whom are over 1000 years old.   We also hiked the Lady Bird Johnson Grove trail which gave us a close up and personal view of these amazing trees.

Next Will Smith Movie

Not a great pictur but gives you an idea of the commotion on a tiny road accessing the Rockfeller Founder's Grove at the Redwoods National Forest.   We had heard that this was a "must see" and tried at two access points to gain access!  Turns out a movie crew had cordoned off the whole area for the filming of a new Will Smith Movie!  The night before we'd tried to get accomodations in Eureka!  Eureka!   There was hardly a room to be found.   We settle for a VERY expensive room at a Best Western Plus (nothing plus about it!)  At breakfast the following day we read in the local paper that the production company was expected to spend over 1/2 million dollars in housing alone over the 8-10 days of filming!  The director of this film is N. Night Shyamalan of "The Sixth Sense"!   Anyone heard of him?  Eureka sure needs the business so good for them.   We did find a super restaurant highly rated by Wine Spectator and most enjoyable so that made up for the rest of our marginal Eureka visit.

Humboldt Redwoods State Park

Fern canyon trail

This turned out to be a lovely trail which was part of the Van Damnn CA State Park.   We both enjoyed it very much.  It was well established but lightly treaded and we could see lots of native Rhodies just blooming, native huckleberry getting ready to bloom, plenty of ferns, many many triliums, and a beatutiful oxalis ground cover throughout with lovely pink blooms. 

Burned out Redwood

View Hiking Mendocino Headland

It was very, very windy when we hiked the Mendocino Headland.  As you can see it was a glorious day and not all that cold so we enjoyed it very much.  The whole coast of northern CA is very beautiful.  We drove along Rte#1 and for much of the drive it was fairly treacherous!  Afterwards Al said, "Been there....Done that!"

Whale Watching at Bodega Bay

Crossing Golden Gate in FOG

Needless to say it was NOT a glorious morning when we crossed the Golden Gate Bride.  On the north side the overlook was filled with tourist buses and very disappointed tourists as they attempted to view the bridge in fairly dense fog!  Thank goodness this wasn't our first and hopefully not our last view!

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, Seal Cove CA

Overlooking the Reserve

Checking our the Tide Pools

Harbor Seals and their Pups

Seal Cove Inn



Entrance to Seal Cove Inn



Coffee + Cookies in the Garden



View of the Mavericks, Moss Beach

Exploring Pillar Point

Wish we had a place to cook some!



We found a place to eat Crab!



Lots of Crab For Sale on the Docks

Visit with Pinny and Tom

We spent Monday Thursday night with Pinny and Tom at their home in Arroyo Grande. Pinny insisted on having dinner at home which was a treat for us since we had been eating out a lot on the trip. Margie and Pinny had a great time catching up as they have not seen each other for some time. Tom was able to drive over early from China Lake where he has been working so we got to see him as well. Right now Jessica and Lawrence and the twins are living with them until they figure out their future, but they were out of town when we visited.

Wine Tasting along the Foxen Canyon Road

On the way from Santa Barbara to Arroyo Grande, we drove through the Santa Ynez wine country. The area is between Solvang (a Danish theme community) and Santa Maria.  This is beautiful country with rolling hills dotted with trees, occasional wineries with their fields of grape vines, and relatively few houses. We stopped at a small estate winery, Koehler, which specialized in white wines and distributes its wine locally to restaurants, buyers and wine club members.  We of course had to purchase several bottles of white wine, Margie's favorite.  Then on to Fes Parker Winery, a much larger operation specializing in red wines. Their tasting room was more sophistocated and crowded. Again had to buy several bottles  of their red wines that were only available at the winery. FP grows much of their own grapes but also purchases grapes from other vinyards in the valley. This wine country is  not as developed at Napa but had a lot more charm..

Al Tasting at Koehler Winery



A few samples from the Koehler Winery!



And a few more from Fess Parker!!!



 .

Mission Santa Barbara



Mission Santa Barbara



Santa Barbara Mission sits at the foot of the mountains overlooking the city of SB and the ocean. It was originally constructed in 1786. The current building is not the original but quite old and with subsequent additions.  The mission serves today as a parish church, a Franciscan monestary, a conference center, and a tourist attraction. We went on a very organized self guided tour. There were some very lovely gardens in the court yard and the cemetary.  Certainly, an impressive alive historical building.



Al sitting besides Father Juniper Sera











Encounter with Surviver Winner!

Bob Crowley
Winner Survivor Gabon!

We took a walk along the beach and to the end of the pier.   A very nice man offered to take our picture.   We started talking and found they were from Maine!   A long way from home and we asked them what brought them to the west coast.   Turns out that the nice man is Bob Crowley, winner Survivor Gabon 2008.  They were in LA for a Survivor reunion event.   Later we looked him up on Wikipedia and found that he had won 1M$ and is the oldest winner of Survivor!   He told us that in childhood his family had a cabin quite a ways off the coast of Portland and as a child they  spent all summer there.  He learned to be very self-reliant, later improving the cabin with materials he scrounged, teaching high school in the winter and lobstering in the summer.   He and his wife were very friendly and we enjoyed meeting them both!

Add caption

Dessert and coffee with view

Santa Barbara Farmers Matket

Liz and Woody

Visit with Jessica, Lawrence and Twins

We had planned to visit niece Jessica and her family in Arroyo Grande but it turned out that they were vacationing at the Newport Coast Marriott which was right on our route north!   Most especially we were able to see 16 month old Eloise and her twin brother Andersen!   Cute, busy, busy babes! 

Opening Day San Diego Yacht Club

  Opening Day traditionally signals the start of the boating season.   We found that Opening Day at the San Diego Yacht Club is a quite different from what we are accustomed to at SYC.   We met the Lees for a delicious Brunch and then gathered with lots of others under a tent for the Opening Day Ceremony.   A Marine Band played the song of each branch of the military and those who had served in that branch stood to be recognized.  This was followed by introductions and lots of awards including special categories for boat inspections.   Afterwards these boats were open to visit!  At the end of the ceremonies a giant American Flag was unfurled joined by a huge SDYC Burgee.  And a big party touring many of the boats began.  It was a lot of fun and we so appreciated the Lee's invitation to join us for these super festitivities.


Just had to include this picture of Skipper Al sporting his new Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club hat!



Barbara and Harry Lee

By the time we met our friends and hosts, Barbara and Harry Lee on Saturday afternoon the weather had much improved.  We took a walk along the shore in Point Lomas and joined them for dinner.  The SDYC is in the background.   What a small world.....of interest to you Episcopalians......Barbara is the daughter of John Vruwink,  Rector of St. Thomas Medina for many years. 

Beach in front of Del Coronado Hotel

Saturday afternoon we ventured over to Coronado where we had not been in many years.   We found a very tiny but interesting local museum which told about the early days of the Hotel del Coronado which is now over 100 years old.   We walked around the inside of the "Del" and found it little changed and as grand as ever.   As you can see from the palms in the picture we couldn't walk on the beach as it was much too windy.  It was a beautiful day but no one person on the beach!

Visit the Freeman's

Saturday morning we had a fun breakfast with Cailin, Terrance and 14 month old Malia Freeman.  (Cailin is the daughter of our wonderful neighbors Jill and Dave Reeder)  We met them in the Mission Beach district which is an area where at not been before.  Still pretty cold and windy so we weren't able to walk on the beach!

Marina view from our room on a cold stormy morning in San Diego!

 We arrived in San Diego to attend Opening Day Festivities at the San Diego Yacht Club as guests of Seattle Yacht Club friends, Barbara and Harry Lee!

It's supposed to be warm and sunny....instead the weather man sent a cold front which brought rain, temps in the 40's and high winds.   We are hoping the weather clears for tomorrow for Opening Day!   In the meantime I snapped a picture of Al in his Gortex which we had to dig out of the suitcase full of NW weather gear!  Thank goodness we had it along!

La Jolla Visit with Reese and David Shaw

After leaving Dana Point we headed for San Diego stopping in La Jolla overnite to visit with "old" friends Reese and David Shaw.   Dave and Reese both grew up in Baltimore and we met them when Al and Dave were Osler interns together at Hopkins.  We lived in the 550 Building across from the hospital.  Reese was expecting their first son Michael when she invited us to dinner.  After Michael was born I'd sometimes babysit him if by chance David got time off for a few minutes away from the hospital.   It's been fun to keep in touch with them over the years.  Dave still practices cardiology at UCSD and Reese is Directior of an exciting new museum in Encinitas, LUX, which we were able to visit the next day.

Dana Point

We had never really explored Dana Point on previous visits so it was fun to have the time to do it this time.  We stayed at the lovely Marriott Laguna Cliffs Resort which overlooks Lantern Bay Park, a very large marina and the hills to the south in San Clemente where Barbara and Dad live.

View from Dana Point

Throwing Hides~!

We took long walks along the point and saw some wonderful views of the bay, distant hillside and marina. Also on one walk we encountered the following statue which depicts a man throwing cowhides over the Dana Point Cliff to ships waiting below.   This occurred between 1830 and 1840 when the nearby Mission San Juan Capistrano sold these hides and transferred them to the buyers by tossing the hides to the ships waiting below!