Archive for April, 2013

Happy, Happy, Happy!

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

Avila Beach, in case you didn’t know this is one of our favorite places.  We have been here many times and can’t wait for the next time.

That is us perched above the beach!

That is us perched above the beach!

The village of Avila, looking from our patio!

The village of Avila, looking from our patio!

A peaceful, friendly spot on the beach is all it is but it is spectacular.  Mornings are spent watching the sea lions play while you enjoy your coffee in a lawn chair in the sun.  The beaches are dog friendly so Duke gets to run and play as much as he wants in the soft sand – what a mess to clean up after!

Looking from our RV towards the pier

Looking from our RV towards the pier

The town is small, and the beach is full on the weekends but come Monday and we are the only ones on the beach!  $35.00 a night for our own private (very clean) beach!  You can not beat this place.

Near Avila is Pirates Cove where lots of locals go to enjoy a private, small beach.

Down a cliff a 1/2 mile and   you can let it all hang out!

Down a cliff a 1/2 mile and you can let it all hang out!

The view from above is really nice

The view from above is really nice

Fortunately today was quite chilly so we were not inclined to participate, nor were many others!  Half way down the trail, the trail splits.  To the right is the ocean thru a cave tube!  When you walk through the cave, the ocean is right there, watch your step!

 

Wow!

Wow!

 

 

The 5 to The 405 to The 10 to The 5!

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

What does that mean?  The route from San Diego to Simi Valley California.  People in other parts of the country would not know what you were talking about but being a native I know!  Paul thinks it is weird even after living here 30 years.

Although that was one choice on Google we chose the more direct route, The 5 all the way to The 118 west!  Everything was going well.  We chose noon to leave so we would miss most of the commute.  We traveled past Disneyland and were making great time.  Traveling in the second lane works really well in big cities so you don’t have to worry about merging however sometimes a big rig will pass on the right which makes things very narrow.

About 10 miles north of Disneyland we are traveling in the second lane when a large truck with a very large container on the trailer is pulling up on our passenger side and then there is this incredibly loud bang!  I stopped breathing!  Paul stopped breathing!  When we got our breath back we started looking around – nothing!  The truck that was coming up along side began to make his way to the shoulder.  No smoke from our rig so we kept moving!  We think he must have had a blow out!  That was scary!

No more excitement and we arrived at the Elks Lodge in Simi Valley where we will stay for a few days while Paul does a little work so we can buy fuel to keep us moving north!

Is there anything better than the California Coast?

Monday, April 15th, 2013

My favorite place, the California coast!  There are some really beautiful places and some that I love but nothing is like the beaches in California- I have not met one I did not love!  This week we chose to spend a few days in San Clemente which is between San Diego and Los Angeles.  The state park campground is not anything special other than its location, I can see the ocean from our site, obstructed however I can see it.  At $45 per night, that is pretty cool!  Beaches in Southern California are long and skinny compared to Northern California but so accessible.  A short walk down the cliffs and you are relaxing on the beach.

The view from the top of the cliff at San Clemente SB

The view from the top of the cliff at San Clemente SB

Amazing beach

Amazing beach

Saturday am the weather was not good for relaxing outside so we took a trip into the town of San Clemente.  It was cold so ice cream was out but being a coastal town they know coffee is required.  We enjoyed a cup of coffee and continued to walk about town.

This evening we stopped at the kiosk at the park and found out there is a beach where we can take Duke.  Duke loves the beach, the sand and the waves.  Sunday wasn’t very warm and it was threatening rain but we took off for the beach.

Duke & Denise's happy place!

Duke & Denise’s happy place!

We took the short hike down the cliffs and were enjoying the beach when the rain started!  Damn!  retreating up the cliff was not a quick event.  It was a good thing the rain was only a drizzle.  Duke got soaked and now the car smelled like wet dog!  The joys of pet ownership especially when we love the beach so much.  Did I mention Paul hates the sand?  He was not excited to be on the beach and then when the rain came he was really ready to retreat!

The cliffs we have to climb to get back to the car!

The cliffs we have to climb to get back to the car!

On our way back to the RV the rain began to  clear up so we thought we would look for a couple geocaches!  I think we are up to 15 now!  I was navigating to our second cache when I directed Paul to go straight instead of getting on the freeway and was met with a sign that said, show your ID!  And upon further observations we saw we were entering Camp Pendleton.

Camp Pendleton - enter please

Camp Pendleton – enter please

 

Paul decided to make a U-turn instead of entering and exiting!  Wrong!  Here comes the nice young man (about 20!) telling us “what are you doing?”  wasn’t it obvious?  we made a wrong turn and were trying to correct.  Well the right answer was to pull ahead and answer their silly questions!  Didn’t they realize we made an error and didn’t want to enter the military base~!  I guess they have their rules however it should have been clear we were old and did now want to tour the military base.  Maybe next time!

We move to Simi Valley tomorrow

 

 

 

Crazy windy

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

We are on the move again, heading back to Campbell for a couple of months.  First stop is Yuma AZ to visit my parents and take care of some business.  the weather has been amazing in AZ since the beginning of March.  Our first two days in Yuma were beautiful and then Mother Nature decided things were getting boring!  Monday morning the temps were down about 10 degrees to the high 70’s and about noon the wind started.  They said we had gusts up to 50 miles per hour but it felt like the constant wind was 50 with crazy gusts!  Being in the desert with wind comes blowing sand!  By about 4 pm you couldn’t see much further than across the street!  Everything is covered in a nice thick layer of desert dirt!  It is going to be awhile before we get it all cleaned out, oh well!