Up the Californian Coast to L.A. and home.

22 September

Well this will be our last blog before heading home. It all seems to have gone so fast! We had a lazy pack up including publishing the last blog and Val doing a laundry run. We left the camp and stopped at the park outside the camp for lunch and a sit before heading north along the Historic 101 up the coast. The northern coastal suburbs of San Diego are really nice and it was a slow but enjoyable drive in the Sunday traffic thru some great little coastal towns. We are only about 35 miles north and in a great State Park right on the coast at Sth Carlsbad Beach. The camp goes for miles and is only sites either side of an access road. We are up on a clay cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. After finding our site we walked down the nearest access steps to the beach. The water is clear and warm and the sand is white. The temperatures are around 24C so what more could you ask for! We will stay at least 2 nights here.

23 September.

After paying for another night we went back to the beach for a pre lunch swim. The news of the Americas Cup is not good. The only way we can get news is by texting the kids. It has absolutely no profile or interest here which is a bit surprising as San Diego was the home of the Americas Cup not so long ago. After a lunch and a relax in the shade we headed back to the beach for swims and sunbathing.

24 September

We have decided to stay another night but had to change sites as our one was booked. Today as been an exact repeat of yesterday. Very enjoyable. Because we are on the west coast, the sunsets are spectacular over the ocean. It is much cooler at night and for the first time there is dew. We are having to put the chairs away.

25 September

While I was dumping “Ernie’s” tanks Val found a bag with 6 levelling chocks (lego style) in rubbish tin. She will have a supermarket trolley shortly! Any how it was a great find and will save us having to buy more levelling chocks which we had planned to do. We drove a short distance inland to the Carlsbad Outlet Centre. This was a bit like the “Dress for Less” thing at Hornby, but in a great series of plazas. We shopped for 2 ½ hours (a world record for us!) and bought some great stuff including new hiking boots. We had lunch in the carpark before heading north on the I-5 to Dana Point where we are in another state park. We walked to the beach but it has been overcast today and the water was not inviting.

We settled for a long walk to the harbour and marina.



26 September

We left the I-5 and are back on the old 101 following the coast thru some lovely towns and beaches. This area is Southern Californian beaches at their best. San Diego and Los Angeles are not far apart (120 miles) so our trips have been short but slow. We are in yet another state park right on the beach at Bolsa Chica on Huntington Beach. This is a long stretch of golden sand beach with the high rise buildings of L.A in the background.

The temperatures are cool with a strong on shore wind and the surf was dumping in so again no swimming. All these state parks charge extra for the sites on the beach. We chose the inland sites!

27 September

Walked down to the beach where the wind had dropped and we sat and watched the surfers with a school of dolphins. It was a very short drive thru the southern part of greater Los Angeles to our RV park at Anaheim. We were allowed to choose a site where “Ernie” will be able to stay until Nicola and family arrive in December. It will also stay on this site until we come back next year. The only down side of this park is that it has no internet so after lunch we walked to a handy Starbucks. We continued on to a mall called the “Outlets of Orange” where there were many outlets shops, a picture theatre and a few restaurants all within 15 minutes walk. There is a great pool at the RV park which we enjoyed. A planning session to work out what we need to do before leaving on Thursday.

28 September

Off to Jiffy Lube for a well deserved service for “Ernie” then Camping World for some tyre covers. Our next stop was Wal-Mart for our last shop. Back at the RV park we started the cleaning before another hour in the pool. This park seems a nice safe place to store “Ernie”.

29 September

As it is Sunday we ventured onto the I-5 and the I-10 thru Los Angeles to Santa Monica. The metropolitan area is huge. It was 45 miles on mostly 8 lane freeways passed the downtown L.A. We even saw the Hollywood sign. (miles away however).

At Santa Monica we found a park for $10 and then discovered RVs were $40! As it was a Pay and Display and were only taking up one space we paid $10 and risked it. We off loaded the bikes and cycled for about 1 ½ hour on the great cycleway along the Santa Monica and Venice beaches. Some great sites with hundreds of people cycling, walking, skateboarding and rollerblading. We returned to “Ernie” and decided not to push our luck any longer and drove the 1 hour return trip to our RV park. As there was no one around we borrowed a ladder and gave the whole outside, including the roof of “Ernie” a wash. Back to the pool for a well deserved swim and rest.

30 September

 We were going to go to Disneyland today but have decided to go there next year mainly as we have not done enough research and we can get tickets much cheaper over the net. We walked to Starbucks but were frustrated as we could not get onto the internet. Back at “Ernie” we phoned and booked a shuttle to take us to the airport on Thursday. After some more cleaning we cycled to the Railway Station and booked tickets into the centre of L.A. for tomorrow. Another relaxing session at the pool.

1 October

This is the day the government services have closed down as the Congress and the Senate could not come to an agreement on a budget. (all to do with a health insurance!). We do not think it will affect us as air traffic control and border security seem to be exempt. Would not like to be planning a trip to a National park however! We biked to the local railway station and locked our bikes in the bike stands in full view.

This will all become relative later. We caught the 10:30am Amtrak train to L.A downtown that we had booked yesterday. A great smooth 45min ride into the city ($25 return each). This is the only practical way of visiting the centre as the roads and parking are chaotic. We walked from Union Station around part of the CBD before catching the Metro underground railway to Hollywood. We followed the 2 mile “walk of fame” down Hollywood Boulevard. It is a great experience with 2000 stars featured all the way. The atmosphere is great but we did not see Julia Roberts or Nicole Kidman or for that matter any other star that we knew.

At the Chinese theatre the stars have left their foot and hand prints in the concrete. Back on the Metro to the CBD and a walk passed the Walt Disney Theatre and the L.A. Cathedral, both spectular architecturally.

We caught the 4:10pm Amtrak train back to Anaheim Station and to our dismay discovered that some low life had stolen the back wheel of Val’s bike. I had to wheel/carry it the 2 miles back to “Ernie” fuming all the way.

It’s a bloody nuisance as we will have to try and replace it tomorrow. After a drink I have calmed down and realised that this has been our only problem in 6 months so we have been pretty lucky!

2 October

Val got on the phone to try a sort out the bike issue of yesterday. The bad news is that it will cost more to replace the rim, tube, and tyre that the cost of the bike. Bugger! We even tried walking around the RV Park to see if anyone had an old bike they wanted to sell. Our only hope was a bike shop that said they might have a wheel that would fit. We drove there (not far) but they did not have a wheel. They offered us a really good bike for slightly more then the Wal-Mart bike with the missing wheel. Val is stoked as she has a great second hand Diamond Back bike. We returned to the RV Park and spent some time cleaning etc. We had our last swim in the pool and walked to the “Outlets at Orange” mall where there are many restaurants and after a walk around chose the liveliest place. We had a great meal in a great atmosphere.

3 October

This is the day that you wish they had invented a quicker way of travel! The travel will never put us off but it would be great just to blink, and be home. We spent the morning cleaning and preparing “Ernie” for his long wait until Nicola and family join him. We have decided to store the bikes inside after our experience of the last few days. We have spoken to lots of the people in this RV Park who are all here for a long stay and they will keep an eye on “Ernie”. We have travelled 8900 miles in the 6 months we have been away. It has been a great trip but 6 months is enough in one hit and it will be good to come home to see the kids, grandkids and enjoy the NZ summer. We will return next year some time in April to continue what we hope will be a 5 summer exploration of the USA. We thought we would publish this at either the L.A. or Auckland Koru Clubs but could not get decent internet. We had great flights home and were greeted at the airport by our girls and the grandkids.