Anniversary

After spending the night at the Navy base at Point Mugu, we meandered down the Pacific Coast Highway towards Los Angeles, where we spent our last night before catching the flight home on the 8th. As it happened it was our 41st anniversary so we decided to take a detour into the city to see.....the LaBrea Tar Pits! (who says I'm not a romantic at heart?).

Actually it was fun. It was a place we had both heard and read about and, surprisingly, I had never been there even though I lived in LA for many years - just never made it up here (the beach was in the other direction). So, when we noticed it on the map and realized how close we were going to pass by we decided to go for it.

The place is actually a quaint little county park located smack in the middle of the Miracle Mile section of Wilshire Blvd. in the heart of the city. In fact I noticed that the corporate headquarters for Variety - the show business weekly - was located in one of the high rises just across the street. That's the thing about the tar pits - they bubble up in the virtual center of one of the busiest and most exclusive parts of LA. Hollywood is just a few blocks away. Guess the place has been oozing for thousands of years, and trapping a variety of animals for millenia, including now extinct species like saber tooth cats, giant sloths and mammoths. Apparently they're still pulling bones out of the tar from several archeological digs, and there appears to be enough stuff to keep the folks who do this sort of thing busy for a few hundred years.

There were a few school groups on day trips but we worked around them pretty easily and actually spent a pretty nice afternoon wandering around the pits - which are now fenced off to keep the tourists from falling in I guess - and the museum, where they have some great displays of reconstructed skeletons and the like. The tar comes up thru cracks in the earth from miles below the surface - remember that the San Andreas fault runs right thru here - and you can see little puddles of the stuff all around the area. Guess it even spurts up around the cracks in the sidewalks in this part of town on hot summer days. We came across several spots about as big as the lid of a trash can as we walked around - gave the whole place an air of accidental discovery.

Anyway, here are a few photos:

One section of the pits with the museum in the background.


The displays of reconstructed creatures are really quite interesting since in most cases they had virtually the entire skeletons to work with.


After a late lunch we rejoined the crush of LA traffic and drove over to the airport hotel. Had time the next morning to work out at the gym, have a leisurely breakfast on the club floor, and then catch the hotel shuttle to the United terminal. Checking in and getting thru security weren't too much of an ordeal, and the flight passed quickly (thank goodness for I-pods).

Arrived in Portland around 3:15 where it was ....(drum roll please)....raining! Oh, well, at least we were home - having spent a couple of really enjoyable weeks getting our batteries recharged in the Southern California sun, seeing some old friends, and eating way too much good Mexican food. Looks like we can put the sunscreen away for a while as we get back to our exercise routines and generally try to lose all the weight we gained on the trip.

Next excursion will be July 9 when we fly down to Valdosta to spend 10 days with the kids & grand kids.

Up the California Coast

San Simeon

After leaving Laguna Beach we drove up thru Los Angeles along the I-5 corridor before cutting over to the coast near Bakersfield. Lots of traffic passing thru LA (which is always a treat) and not much pretty scenery during the 5 hour drive until we hit the Pacific Coast Highway near the little town of Cambria...just south of San Simeon which was our destination for a couple of nights. We really lucked out with sunny, warm days and some truly spectacular scenery along the coast as you can see from the first couple of photos below. Took an exploratory drive around the back roads in the area and just generally enjoyed the place.




Our coastal walk the second day



The purpose of the visit was to see Hearst Castle - formerly the residence of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst back in the 20's and 30's and now a California State Historical site. I'd never been up here despite living in the LA area for many years.

We thought it was very well done. The tours were enjoyable & informative and made for a pleasant interlude on a gorgeous day. As Kevin & Mike know, Hearst was the model for the title character in the Orson Wells movie Citizen Kane - one of the all time greats. Was interesting to see the real Xanadu as portrayed in the film. Say what you will about the man, he did spend a few bucks on this estate as you can see.


The Casa del Sol...one of the "minor" apartments next to the main house.



The pool would make a Roman emperor blush. One of the perks of the job for the local tour guides is that they're allowed to come up here for a dip in the evening after the last tours have departed. Not a bad deal. The sunset views must be other-worldly from up here.



And this is the main house...La Casa Grande. Hearst's private living area was the floor marked by the balcony above.



The indoor pool...located just below the tennis courts (of course).



Part of the estate once included the biggest private zoo in North America. Most of the animals were donated to California state zoos long ago, but part of the original zebra herd still remains and can be seen grazing the foothills near Highway 1...not exactly the sort of thing you expect to see driving by.


Hearst inherited a fortune from his Father, who struck it rich in silver after coming out to California in 1850 for the Gold Rush. They bought the land the castle sits on from the original Spanish land grant holders in 1865...all 390 square miles of it. Hearst began building the house around 1919 and lived in it (off and on) until the late 40's. He, of course, expanded the family fortune through his publishing enterprises until into the 1950's.


Solvang

We then drove down the Coast Highway to the picturesque little town of Solvang...which is where the movie Sideways was filmed a few years ago. We explored the Santa Ynez valley, which is where all of the Santa Barbara vineyards are located, stopped to visit another of the old missions, and spent part of one day walking around the Danish-themed town. What a pretty place it was.

As luck would have it, we stayed in the same hotel where the movie was set - located just up the street from the Hitching Post Restaurant which also features prominently in the story.



The courtyard of Mission Santa Ynez



The clock tower in Solvang



Guess the town was founded by a group of people from Scandinavia - principally Denmark - and so the town goes out of its way to reflect that heritage.




A last look at the Campo Santo (graveyard) in the mission. The grounds provided a cool and tranquil place to walk and escape the bustle of the town on a Saturday afternoon.

We'll be spending the night at the Navy base in Point Mugu, then driving to LAX for a final night before we fly home to the drizzles of the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday. Not sure what we're going to do for our 41st wedding anniversary tomorrow, but it probably won't be quite as memorable as our visit to Mackinac Island last year for our 40th.

The trip has been a relaxing escape for both of us - just what the Doctor ordered. It'll be back to reality on Tuesday however.

Laguna Beach

We just spent a very enjoyable week in Laguna Beach, which is about an hour south of Los Angeles. I used to come here on surf and dive trips with some of my high school buddies many years ago and, remembering how pretty it was, decided to show Rita this stretch of Mediterranean-style California coastline. As you can see from the photos above & below it really is a world away from LA. Didn't hurt that the weather cooperated too...lots of sunshine for the holiday weekend.


On the cliff walk looking back up towards our rental villa



A view of the main beach at Laguna at the height of the holiday crush. It's not intimate but boy is it pretty on a sunny day.

We drove up to Disneyland the day after we arrived...about a 25 minute drive away, hoping to beat the crowds by going mid-week before the LA schools let out for the summer. Well, we almost timed it right. Wasn't too bad in the morning but it got really crowded by the time we bailed around 5 PM (it was open till 9 that night). It was a fun day, but the admission price of $72 a pop means we probably won't be going back any time soon. I can't imagine how a young family with a couple of kids can afford the place.

We were able to get together with a couple of old high school friends of mine and their wives - Frank and Maureen Davis and Dan and Joanne Ashbrook. I go back a long way with these two, and we spent very enjoyable evenings with each...relaxing, getting re-acquainted and generally enjoying each others company.

On Monday Dan's son John hosted all of us for a short cruise around Huntington Harbor to see how the rich folks live. The photo below is a glimpse of the expensive boats and homes that line the waterway.




On our last day we walked around the harbor at Dana Point...another pretty area just south of Laguna and just north of Doheny...names that our surfer sons should recognize quite well. Dana Point is named for Richard Henry Dana, who came here in 1835 and who later wrote about his experiences (and the area) in his book Two Years Before The Mast. Saw this little schooner beating back into the harbor to its berth at the local Maritime Museum and got a quick photo.




Later we drove a couple of miles inland and revisited the little town of San Juan Capistrano. Didn't go to the mission this time, but wandered around the old city which is historic in its own right. The "Los Rios" historic district down by the railroad station was a relaxing place to meander, so that's just what we did for a couple of hours. Many of the well-known California cities trace their origins to one of the missions that the Spanish established back in the 18th century. Pueblos grew up around them, and later cities. San Juan Capistrano is pretty typical in that regard. Only difference is that it retains its small-town, colonial charm while some of the larger cities have swallowed up most of the original settlement. Some have been preserved - Old Town San Diego comes to mind - but others have been sacrificed to progress and development.




The Rios adobe - the oldest continuously occupied home in California. Built in 1784, the current occupant represents the 10th generation of the same family to live here.

Leaving today for a drive up the coast to San Simeon...planning to visit Hearst Castle tomorrow.