Disneyland and Beyond!

Disneyland--Where Neil and Pamela Spent Over Twelve Hours on Wednesday

Hello again from Anaheim.  We have had several good days here in So Cal visiting family and enjoying pretty good weather.  The highlight of the several days was a long day at Disneyland with Neil's niece, Noreen.  In fact, Noreen got us passes to the park and showed us how to avoid the long lines at some of the attractions.

Disneyland--Notice the Christmas Tree "Hat"

Noreen met us at the Anaheim Village RV Park in the pouring rain around 0900 and we took the shuttle to the Magic Kingdom.  We took in several attractions, including some "kid time" in ToonTown where we wound up touring Minnie Mouse's house and Micky Mouse's house. We really enjoyed touring the houses and seeing the creativity of the designers in the details.

Pamela at Minnie Mouse's Fridge

We wound up in a line that we weren't sure what it was for, and stayed in line for pictures with Micky Mouse

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Pamela, Mickie, Noreen and Neil at Disneyland

In the afternoon, the rain let up and we took in Pirates of the Carribean (Yo Ho!), Indiana Jones, and some other attractions.  We migrated with everyone else to Main Street for the parade, which included one of the bands playing in the Rose Parade.  It was a great Christmas Parade and we are glad that we saw the park this time of the year.

Neill, Noreen and Pamela on Main Street Waiting for Parade

Wooden Soldiers Marching Band

Dancing Reindeer Were a Hit at the Christmas Parade

Pamela had earlier made late reservations for dinner at Blue Bayou in New Orleans, and had a wonderful dinner before taking in the Phantasmic Light Show on the lake.  They used the sailing ship Columbia, the sternwheeler Mark Twain, and even the Tom Sawyer rafts as part of the show.  It was a great end to a very long but enjoyable day. 

On Thursday we spent with Neil's brother Bruce and Sandi, did some shopping, laundry and other important things.  Today (Friday--New Years Eve) we spent finishing laundry, washing the truck, checking the air pressure in the tires, and some computer work.  We came back to the Fiver to barbeque and watch a DVD and some of the countdown to New Year shows on TV.  We took a break at 8:40 PM to watch the fireworks show from Disneyland, which is just a few blocks away.

Castle Lights at Disneyland

New Year's Day we will take in a gastronomic celebration at Sandi Hagadorn's parents in Westminster.  They have a feast of food and visits by friends and family.  Pamela and I have not been for many years, so it will be good to see Mike and Betty Tereda again.  

For Sam and Dave--How Micky Mounts His Fish

We decided to stay here in Anaheim for an extra day and so will be heading towards Palm Desert on Tuesday.  We hope that you all have a healthy and happy New Year.  Thanks for visiting.

Neil and Pamela

We Made It to Disneyland RV Park

A very short post tonight as we are pretty tired from the trip down from Buellton to Anaheim and this darn LA traffic.  Actually, it wasn't too bad and we got to the Anaheim RV resort in mid afternoon.  We got set up, had a late lunch and then stopped at a Home Depot for some repair fasteners.

We hit a BIG pothole on US 101 that rocked the truck and trailer.  We got through it fine, but when we opened up the Fiver, the clothes rod in the closet had busted loose.  It was being held with some small brads that couldn't take that kind of abuse, so it failed.  Neil found some screws, plates and bolts to repair it such that it won't come down again.

We went over to have dinner with Neil's brother Bruce and Sandi and to pick up the mail and other stuff that has been sent there.  We had a good visit and came back to the Fiver to make the closet repairs.  All is well.  We will be here until January 3rd when we head East for Arizona.

Thanks for visiting,

Neil and Pamela

Christmas Plus One in Santa Barbara

Another sunny day--yay!  We don't know how long it will take before we quit celebrating sunny days, but after years in Juneau, it may take a while.  We had another breakfast of Danish pancakes, and a quick stop in Solvang to see their big gingerbread house before heading "down the hill" to Santa Barbara.

Pamela Getting Ready to Attack Gingerbread House

We had a nice drive down to Santa Barbara, only to find out that it was one of the busiest shopping days of the year.  Yes, all of the stores on State Street were having their after-Christmas sales, so the sidewalks were jam packed.  It was bearable because of the sunny, 65-degree, weather, and Pamela found some books on sale at a Borders that was going out of business.  We also found a Whole Foods and found some wonderful things for dinner, including buffalo tri-tip steak.

Bird of Paradise in Bloom along State Street

We then took a walk down to the Santa Barbara pier and watched the boats and took the electric trolley back up to downtown Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara Harbor

On the drive back up the hill to Buellton, we saw the most wonderful sunset of the trip.  We got home safe to our Fiver and had a good dinner.  We will make the drive to Anaheim tomorrow, and will be staying at the Anaheim RV Village right across from Disneyland.  We hope that Santa Claus was kind to you all, and that you have a safe week.  Thanks for visiting,

Neil and Pamela

Christmas Eve and Christmas in Buellton and Solvang

Our Christmas Tree in the Fiver

We had a nice, sunny Christmas Eve here at the RV park and kept busy with things in the Fiver and some domestic chores.  In the late afternoon, we drove into Solvang to the Lutheran Church for a nice Christmas Eve service.  They had a model of a four-masted sailing ship hanging from the ceiling, and it was a very full and interesting service.

Sailing Ship Hung from Ceiling of Lutheran Church

Lutheran Church Altar

We then decided to have dinner out in Solvang and found a simple place called the Mustard Seed and had a good dinner.  Then back to the Fiver for a rousing game of scrabble and some champagne (Pamela won).

Christmas Day was even less exciting, as we stayed in for brunch and dinner and watched TV and worked kept current on the computer.  We only left the Fiver to get another bottle of champagne out of the storage bay, and to empty the trash.  We will be more ambitious tomorrow, with a trip into Santa Barbara and perhaps Solvang once again.  We plan to leave on Monday morning for the drive through the ant-hill called Los Angeles to the Disneyland RV Park for several days.

Merry Christmas to everyone,

Neil and Pamela

Pismo Sun, Drive to Buellton and Solvang

Sunshine!  Neil Finally Found the Sun

Wednesday dawned as sunny, so we decided to get out and about to see some things near Pismo Beach as it was our last day there.  We drove down to Grover Beach and watched the waves and sea birds before moving on to check out the Monarch butterfly grove in the nearby eucalyptus trees.  We took in a talk by a docent and learned more about the sex life of the Monarch butterfly than anyone but our friend Jim in Juneau would want to know.  It was pretty interesting and we did see a lot of butterflies clustered together in the trees.  The photos are hard to make out, but the clumps are actually butterflies.

Clumps of Butterflies near Pismo Beach

We then decided to splurge with a nice dinner at Steamers of Pismo where we had a great meal of Pismo clams, local wine samplers, and sea food for Pamela and a steak for Neil.  We had a wonderful meal with great service, and the price was reasonable as well.  It was a great end to a great day.

Steamers of Pismo - A Sailfish with Antlers for Christmas

Pismo Beach Sunset

On Thursday, we got up (sunshine again!) and had breakfast, Neil put on shorts (in late December, no less) and we hooked up for a short drive to Buellton, California and the Flying Flags RV Park.  We pulled in in the early afternoon, unhooked and drove a short distance into historic Solvang. 

Roadside Scene on US 101

 Solvang is a Danish community that began in 1911 and today has a large number of historic buildings and lots of interesting foods and gifts.  It is also the home of a large number of wineries.  

Historic Solvang California

We stopped and had lunch and walked through the Christmas decorations and shops along with many other holiday shoppers. We came back to the Fiver around sunset and had a good dinner and evening of TV and keeping up on the computer.  By the way, our Verizon MiFi router has been working great to get us on the internet when the RV parks WiFi connection is weak, as it is here.

More adventures tomorrow--Christmas Eve!

Neil and Pamela

A Quiet (and DRY) Day in Pismo

The Pismo Clam/Reindeer Had His Antlers Removed for the Wind Storm

Last night the rain tapered off and we even saw some sun this morning.  We are in between bands of rain that are coming in from Hawaii, and heavy rain is expected again tonight.  That should be the last of the rain from this system, and that is fine with us.  While it has been fairly warm, we were expecting less rain than in Juneau!

We decided to not take any trips outside the RV park and get some things done inside and outside the RV.  We took a walk around the park and over the dunes to Pismo Beach where we saw some kites flying and lots of waterfowl.  Since we had a break in the weather, Neil organized the storage bays, and did some minor maintenance on the truck.  It seems like things keep expanding and taking up space every time we stop for a day or more.  I am sure we will get better organized as time goes on.

A View North from Pismo Beach

The weather was actually good enough that Neil barbecued some of the sockeye salmon that we brought with us.  It was mighty tasty along with a California Gewürztraminer wine (thank heavens for spell check on that one!).  Tomorrow is our last day in this refuge, and we will probably treat ourselves to a dinner out and maybe even another movie.  We head down the coast just fifty miles on Thursday to Flying Flags RV Park in Buellton--north of Santa Barbara.  It is close to the Danish community of Solvang, which has some Christmas celebrations.

Pismo Coast Village RV Resort

The SUN!  We Really Saw the Sun Today!

Well, the rain has started again, so the weather forecasters are probably right about lots of rain coming tonight.  Actually, we are not at ground zero for the rain any more as the storm track has moved down to Southern California to entertain our Neil's family in Anaheim and Norco.

Thanks for visiting,

Neil and Pamela

Pismo Beach Puddles

Wow!  Leave it to us to pick the wettest place on the West Coast for the last fifty years!  The Pineapple Express    is bringing about 2000 miles of rain right into this part of the California coast.  It poured last night, today for our drive down to Pismo Beach.  Checking the weather on the way down, we found that it was raining between a quarter and one inch an hour.

We checked in to the Pismo Coast Village RV Resort, where it rained 3.75 inches today.  They closed the road just south of here due to flooding, but we are backed in and safely hooked up.  Depending on the weather, we will see some things here in Pismo Beach.  Rain and wind is forecast for the next several days, so we may decide to postpone the trip up the coast to San Simeon and Hearst Castle for another trip.  One forecast was for heavy rains and winds of up to 70 mph on the coast, so there is no sense in driving an hour up for heavy rains and winds.

We will be here for four nights and by the time we drive down to Buellton north of Santa Barbara, the weather should improve.

Keep dry!

Neil and Pamela

Safely Out of SF and Into San Juan Bautista

Today was another rainy day, but we had a successful exit of the Bay Area, across the Golden Gate Bridge, through the Presidio, into Golden Gate Park and on south to US 101 and into San Juan Bautista.  We were a little worried about the route, but being a weekend helped with traffic.  Some web sites suggested diverting to the east, but several recommended the route we took, including the KOA campground folks in Petaluma.

Our Route thru the Bay Area--in the Rain

We had a short drag down US 101 with a stop at a Campers World along the way and got set up quickly in the KOA campground and drove the pickup into San Juan Bautista for lunch and a look at the mission there.  The first thing that we saw in the campground was Santa with a new sleigh!

Santa Claus Has an RV This Year

Father Junipero Sierra

San Juan Bautista is one of the 31 Franciscan missions along the El Camino Real (the Royal Highway), and this one is located right on that old road and in fact there is a portion of it preserved right beside the mission church.  This one was one of many established by Father Junipero Sierra in the 1700's.  We took a tour of the mission and church before returning to the KOA before dark.

Mission San Juan Bautista

Tomorrow, we have a short drag down to Pismo Beach, where we will be spending several days and taking a trip up the coast in the pickup to tour San Simeon State Park and perhaps visit another mission at San Luis Obispo.

Oranges in December at the Mission!

Our "Little Fiver" 

Hope you are having a good weekend--we are!

Neil and Pamela

Night and Day (Sun and Rain)

The weather yesterday versus today has been like night and day.  On Thursday, we took a long anticipated trip over to the Sonoma Coast and up the coast to Fort Ross--the site of a Russian America outpost when Sitka, Alaska was  a busy trading post for the Russians.

Map of the California Sonoma Coast

Sounds like a good idea since the weather forecast was good--right?  Well.....another lesson learned here in that we did not check the website and drove all the way over on a very winding highway only to find that Fort Ross Historical Site was closed.  What a bummer!  We will have to come back when we are traveling in a sports car designed for curvy roads and crazy California drivers who want to take 15 mph curves at 35 mph or more.  Maybe if we had a Jaguar instead of a GMC truck we would understand the other drivers better.

This is What We Would Have Seen at Fort Ross

Friday was predicted to be a very wet day (and it was).  There is a big weather system (Pineapple Express or Pipeline) that is bringing lots of rain right into San Francisco.  So--we are leaving for points south tomorrow (Saturday) and will be taking the Fiver across the Golden Gate Bridge and then down to highway 280 and eventually back to connect to 101 South in San Jose.  We did have a chance today to visit with fellow Forest Service retiree, Carl who took us to a nice eatery in Petaluma.  We had a good visit and caught up some.  They are "really into wine", so we will try to stop on our way north for some vintage education.

Our next stop is San Juan Bautista south of Monterey, which will break up our run down to Pismo Beach for several days.  We hope that the weather improves some as we get down there.  San Juan Bautista has a Franciscan mission and we are looking forward to exploring this area.

Our View North along the Sonoma Coast Before Heading Back Inland

We have really enjoyed our stay here in Petaluma and appreciate the advice of family on the ferry trip into San Francisco.  Thanks for visiting,

Neil and Pamela

San Francisco Day Tripping

Today was forecast (and turned out to be) a mostly sunny day, so drove to the Larkspur Ferry Landing on the North Shore and took the fast ferry Mendocino across San Francisco bay to the downtown ferry terminal.  It started out a little foggy, but burned off to be a very nice day.

Fast Ferry Mendocino Cruises at Forty MPH

Fog as We Left the North Bay Terminal at Larkspur

On the way across the bay, we got some great views of Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge before we got to the San Francisco side.  Once there, we splurged on lunch at Alioto's at Fishermen's Wharf.

Alcatraz Island on the Way Across the Bay

 Since the weather was good, we decided to take a bus tour of the city and we rode in the top of an open double decker bus around the city and to the Golden Gate Park.  We got off there and took in the Garden Railway in the Conservatory of Flowers there.  We had no idea that Golden Gate Park was even bigger than New York's Central Park.

Our Ride Around SFO Today

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge from the South

One of the highlights of the ride was crossing the Golden Gate Bridge from North to South and back again.  It was a bit chilly, but well worth the cold.  By the time the tour was over, it was getting dark, so we decided to get off the tour in the financial district and then walked down to the ferry terminal for our trip back to the North Shore.  All in all, it was a great day.

SF Skyline from the Ferry

Tomorrow may be the last nice day for the rest of the week, and we may be meeting Forest Service friends from this area for lunch and then take care of some things around the Fiver.  It has been a relaxing and enjoyable stay here in Petaluma so far.  Here are a couple of other photos to close this posting--of Victorian homes from the tour and of the San Francisco ferry landing at night.

"Painted Ladies" Victorian Homes from Our Tour

Pamela Took This from the Del Norte Ferry Tonight

Thanks for visiting, 

Neil and Pamela

Parked in Petaluma

Today was a very relaxed day that started late and ended up with an International flavor as we ventured out and about near Petaluma.  Since we were up late working on computers last night, we slept in and worked inside as the weather was pretty rainy today.  By afternoon, we were getting a little bit of "cabin fever" so Pamela found an REI and Trader Joe's close by so off we went.

First stop was REI where we bought each other Christmas gifts of walking sticks and picked up a few other "must haves".  Then over to World Market for Belgian chocolate and Scottish shortbread before we went to Bed Bath and Beyond for some organization accessories for the Fiver.  Then as luck would have it, right next door to Trader Joe's was a Hawaiian BBQ place where we had dinner.

All in all, it was a good relaxed day.  Tomorrow, we plan to drive to the ferry on the North Bay and take it across to the Embarcadero for the day.  We will wait for rush hour to get over, but Seth and Cathy Finney have done it and said it was a good way to get a across and scenic as well.

Thanks for visiting,

Neil and Pamela

Paused in Petaluma

How ironic it was to talk about chainsaws in the blog on Sunday and to be awakened by the sound of chain saws dropping trees near the trailer on Monday morning.  The park we were in at Willits had a bunch of old oak trees, one of which had broken off in a storm and speared through a trailer a couple of weeks earlier.

So the park had hired a crew to drop the remaining hazard trees and they started Monday morning.  Of course, we were not told about this when we checked in.  Long story short; we talked to the tree fallers and determined that we should move the trailer, and fast.  So did our fastest hook-up and decided to leave a day early.  It was a pleasant drive, and we stopped in Ukaih for breakfast.

We arrived to a very nice KOA in Petaluma, California and we will be here for several days as we visit Fort Ross on the Coast and take a ferry across the bay to San Francisco.  It was a quiet night and nice morning here in Petaluma--no chainsaws!

Since we moved ahead a day, we decided to break up our very long day from Petaluma to Pismo Beach with a stop south of San Jose.  Two 150 mile days sounds better than a three hundred mile day to us.

Neil took part of Monday night to upgrade the HP Netbook to Windows 7 thanks to the image file that Skyler Finney created for him while we were in Molalla.  It looks like it is going to be a great operating system on the Netbook, which he uses for all of the blog and internet work so far.  It will take some time for him to get all of the programs reloaded, but he was able to use it for this posting, so he is making progress.  We have heard good things about Windows 7, so we got a multi user upgrade that will allow us to upgrade the laptop and the desktop at home next spring.

We have been using Safeway stores for most of our shopping and getting ten cent off gas credits as a result.  We have also been getting gas at Costco when Safeways are not available.

Thanks for visiting,

Neil and Pamela

Winding to Mendocino and Coast (and Back)

Morning Bunny, but Not Dinner

First thing this morning, we had some wildlife visit our trailer here at the Willits, California KOA.  Since it was sitting right where the BBQ was set up, Neil immediately thought of grilled rabbit, but Pamela wasn't going for it.  I am not certain that our fellow campers would have appreciated it either, so Bugs got a free pass.

Today was a short "road trip" day since the weather is pretty good.  We checked out Mendocino on the internet and found a Sunday Brunch at the historic Mendocino Hotel, which sounded pretty good to us.  So off we went down highway 20 west to the California Coast.

Mendocino Hotel

It was a very scenic drive through some redwood, fir and pine forests on what is one of the most winding roads we have ever been on, and it is a good thing that we didn't take the trailer over this road.  It had hairpin turns at 15 mph, and most of the road was about 35 mph, without many turnouts.  The truck handled it fine, and we got to the Mendocino Hotel around noon.  It turned out that the hotel website was not up to date and there was no Sunday Brunch, but we had a good lunch anyway and then walked around historic Mendocino. It turns out that this area was settled by New England folks in the 1880's, so many of the homes have that New England Victorian look.  While browsing in a bookstore, we saw a book that our friends Sam and Dave would enjoy:

A Book for Sam and Dave in Alaska

On the way back up the coast, we took a hike down to the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse and took a look at this turn of the Century original lighthouse.  We toured the light and keepers quarters and then drove into the town of Fort Bragg before heading back up the winding road to our campground near Willits.

Point Cabrillo Lighthouse on the Mendocino Coast

Tomorrow is a wine country day as we travel down US 101 to the Ukiah area and check out some wineries. We will then move down the coast to spend several days in Petaluma, north of San Francisco.

Neil and Pamela

Where the Heck is Willits, California

It is in fact, south of Eureka on US 101 at the southern end of the Redwood Highway.  We arrived here around 1430 on Saturday after a leisurely and very scenic 150 mile drive south from Eureka.  It was a good drive with four lane highway most of the way and only short stretches of two lane and winding highway. It has a Safeway with cheap gas, and a Starbucks for Pamela, so what else is needed?

For those of you wondering how we are doing towing this big rig, the GMC truck seems to handle the weight just fine, but we really slow down for the hills.  We are going about the same speed as the big semi trucks on the long grades.  We have had some big motorhomes towing cars pass us as we were in the slow lane.  Gas mileage right now is averaging about 8.3 mpg overall.  Mileage goes up to a whopping 11 or 12 mpg when we have the Fiver un-hitched.

We have checked in to the KOA at Willits, which is on the Fort Bragg highway to the California Coast.  That is our plan for tomorrow, to spend the day going over to the Mendicino Coast and seeing the sights.  The town of Mendicino is where the Murder, She Wrote television series was filmed.  Downeast Maine filmed on the California Coast--go figure,.

Pamela with "Slide Stick"

We got an idea from Pamela's brother Seth to use a yard stick to measure how far out the Fiver slides jut out into the camp space.  We used it at the KOA here in Willits, as Pamela shows above.  She is also wearing a fashionable yellow FRS radio around her neck which we use to talk to each other as we park our Fiver.

The weather hit around 62 degrees today, which is trending in the right direction.  We are looking forward to weather in the 70's as we head south.  Since we arrived at our campground before dark, and it was not raining, we had our first barbecue on our new Coleman grill.  We grilled lamb shanks with mustard sauce and they were great!  We also polished off a bottle of champagne before and with dinner.  Did we mention that we are traveling with a case of Italian champagne?  Well we are.

Grilled Lamb on the BBQ

Tomorrow is supposed to be partly sunny, so we are looking forward to our trip to the California Coast.  Thank you to all who have left comments or sent messages--it is good to know that someone out there is reading this stuff.

Neil and Pamela