CA April 2014 Adventure

Sunsets in San Luis Obispo, Elephant Seals
on the Beach and Bridal Vail Falls at Yosemite.
On April 1st Mike and I set out to celebrate our birthdays with a trip to California.  Our original thought was to settle in one place in San Diego and make day trips from there to see friends, family and a PRT Play … We ended up deciding to travel from San Diego, Temecula, Seal Beach, Venice Beach, Tujunga, San Luis Obispo, Yosemite, Burbank and back to San Diego for our flight home.  Turns out we covered 1500 miles in our California sojourn.

Upon landing late (weather diverted our direct flight through Chicago and made our flying time 6 hours instead of 5) we headed to see our friend Kay who is a Panda Narrator at the San Diego Zoo.  Not only spent time talking with Kay but seeing the animals as well.  The Pandas were awake though munching on their bamboo and the Malaysian Tiger decided after a lot of pacing to come down and join as at the window for some close up pictures.  Unfortunately the glass reflected off the pink jackets of the two little girls next to me so I dumped several of the pictures.  The hippo had just had her baby so the area was a quiet zone but I understand it passed away a few days later.  We didn’t get to see her as Mother had her hidden quite well.  Several circuits around the zoo got us to many of the other animals including the koalas which rank up there with the Pandas and Tigers.

Supper was at the Pt. Loma Seafood Market.  Boy have they done some renovation there compared to what we saw in 2009.  Food was just as good but not the “fishing restaurant” it was originally.  Our hotel was sort of in Poway and kind of in Scripps Ranch where we had a two night stay with a fitness room I put to good use.  On Wednesday we headed over to spend a lot of time with Maxine and Jack and picked up like we have not been separated at all.  Good friends and wonderful people to be with.

We missed catching up with our friends Diane and Rich as Rich had just recently had surgery to remove a brain tumor and Diane couldn’t leave him.  Next time around.  Thursday after errands we headed north to Temecula to have a dinner and visit with my cousin Pam and her family along with Uncle Howie.  It was a great time to get together and we enjoyed it.  After dinner we continued on to Seal Beach for one night there.  We were picked up the next day by Susan and Hal for lunch and again spent a great time with friends we don’t get to see often enough.

Friday Night we met Frank and Laura at a restaurant in Santa Monica and had a wonderful dinner to celebrate our birthdays.  (Turns out I left my sunglasses in the restaurant but didn’t realize it until the next morning). Should have left my sneakers on for the walk around the area but instead put on my brand new dress shoes.. MISTAKE!  From Santa Monica we headed over to the Pacific Resident Theatre to see Henry V playing in their little black box theatre.  A stage without props and talented actors put on an outstanding play that has been getting rave reviews.  We missed the other play that had just opened next door called Broken but got in long enough to say hello to the cast over there….  After the play we headed to Frank and Laura’s for a good night’s sleep and were off mid morning on Saturday.  Went past the route to Santa Monica and decided to call the restaurant about my sunglasses and lo and behold they had them..  An hour roundtrip out of our way and my sunglasses were retrieved.

Saturday afternoon we ended up in San Luis Obispo with Reggie and his wife Mary.  It was a great visit with two spectacular sunsets and wonderful dinners prepared by Mary!  What a great cook.  Met young Reggie as well.  Mike and I took a trip up to see the Elephant Seals which covered the beach.  Mary said that was nothing compared to other times of the year when you couldn’t even see the sand there were so many of them.  We caught two sunsets at the beach and they were gorgeous.

Monday morning we headed out to Yosemite.  Managed to get their with enough time to get into the Valley before dinner and took in Yosemite Falls and Bridal Veil Falls.  We took a side trip on Yosemite Falls beside the run off over downed trees, around boulders, over roots, and small stones (sort of small).  We were able to get out on the rocks and someone very kindly took pictures of us in front of lower Yosemite Falls.

From there we went to Bridal Veil and enjoyed the vista there and by that time dinner and sleep were calling us and we had a long drive out of the valley to our hotel in Oakhurst.  The next morning we were back in the Valley for our trek up to Vernal Falls and our favorite spot above the bridge which we call Table Rock … It’s just short of starting up the Mist Trail (where you get soaked) and a perfect place for pictures.  It was about a mile and a quarter up and 500 ft. in elevation.  Good thing I had the cane as I would not have made it all the way back down again (worse than going up).  A four hour round trip.

Wednesday morning we headed for Burbank as Gabe was running a 1600 and 3200 meter track race.  He won both in very good time.  It was great to see Frank again and get a few minutes with Gabe.

Then off to our hotel in Lake Forest for Wednesday night and down to San Diego Thursday morning in time to catch our flight home.  What a whirlwind time we had covering 1500 miles and seeing so much.  It was a great trip and one we will remember.

Family, Friends and Misc.

San Diego Zoo

San Luis Obispo

Yosemite National Park

 

 

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