A Break from our trip - Christmas at Home - Happy Holidays!

December 19th

Made it home to Vancouver and spent the week running between Dr. Appointments, a hockey game and Hot Shots party for Sue, a nice dinner out and midnight madness shopping sprees to get it all done. Whew! Made it to Christmas day - so fun!!!!

December 25th

Spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on Passage Island with Sue's clan, and are heading to the sunshine coast on Boxing Day to see the Johnston gang. We are super glad to be home for the holidays....dreaming of sun, but hey, that can wait!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Hopefully we'll get the chance to see you all during our trip "home."

Warm wishes,
S&S

Day 64 - Reno to L.A. to San Francisco - California is Awesome!

Hello Dear Friends and Family!

We have taken a wee bit of a "blog break" because we've been on the road and also in an internet-free area of the globe (didn't realize there was such a thing these days)!  We have had an awesome time while on the road and beach-front RV'ing in California.

Goodbye Reno, Hello California!

We split our drive from Reno to California into two easy days cruising.  Easy, that is, if you consider driving in Los Angeles’ notoriously fast and furious traffic, easy!  On our way to find an RV Park in Anaheim, we arrived into LA traffic at 5pm Saturday, December 3rd.  We are ridiculously happy that we weren’t on the I5 highway, during the weekday rush hour with our 45’ trailer and wide "hips" pick-up truck.

 

 

Feeling a bit like shell-shocked Amish people arriving from a quiet desert town to the "Big City," we had a hell of a time keeping up with the SLOW LANE traffic at 60 miles per hour.  Actually, we were pretty certain that our prized possessions inside the trailer were being rattled into tiny bits and pieces and that the motorcycle on the hitch had long since shaken off the back and fireballed into the cars behind us.

We spent 2 days in the cheapest of 3 Anaheim area RV Parks (which wasn't cheap at all), and they fleeced us for a second spot to park the truck.  Unbelievable. 

We weren’t prepared to pay for 2 RV spots, so on Sunday we headed towards the beaches to look for a new, less-urban, more peaceful park.  And find one we did!

Huntington Beach – We'll Show You How We Roll

For those who have cruised the beaches of California before, we don’t need to tell you how beautiful they are……for those who haven’t experienced them….let us just let out an ethereal ahhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhh!  Yes, we were seeing, hearing and smelling the ocean again.  Home.

The state turns some of the beach parking areas into RV Parks during the winter months.  We spent 11 glorious days at the beach.  The downside – no internet or TV.  The upside – no internet or TV.  What did we do with our time, then, you ask???

Beach walks every day - coffee in the morning watching the surfers out front.  So cool.

Steve went body surfing on one of the days - a day with torrential rain and high wave activity.  December body surfing – way to go honey, so awesome.

Played Bocce Ball on the beach.  Both dogs kept stealing the balls, Loki jumped and took one square on the snout and ended up with a bloody lip, and Klio even dug a hole and buried one of the blue ones.  Imagine the torment for them – a game with 9 balls being thrown into the sand over and over again.  Ha!  They didn’t want to be left out of the fun.

Went to a Tuesday evening farmer’s market and bought 2 bags of fresh California produce for $7 and a dozen mini-donuts.  We even met Santa Claus at the market – he wouldn’t accept any form of payment for taking pictures with him as he didn’t want anyone to miss the photo opportunity just because they didn’t have the money.  This was his way of volunteering time during the holidays.  He wouldn’t even let us donate money to the troubled teens group for which he represented.  Santa asked Steve and I to sit and take our photo with him, we explained that we walked up to the market without our camera.  Puzzled, Santa said, “well don’t you have an iPhone with you?”  Ha!  Chastised by Santa for not having our phone cameras with us – priceless.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Enjoyed the company of a wonderful guest – My sister Carrie came down for the weekend!  We surprised Carrie by taking her to Huntington Beach then telling her that we weren’t actually staying in Anaheim, but rather, our RV was actually ON THE BEACH!  We walked around HB for the afternoon, went to an outdoor market, caught an amazing sunset at the pier, BBQ’d at the RV, then enjoyed a beach fire in a sandy fire-pit (Steve and I had a total of 3 beach fires during our HB stay).  Such a fun day.

Then, Carrie & I went to Disneyland!   Pirates of the Caribbean was our favourite, of course, but enjoyed some nostalgia in Autopia, the Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain (Carrie was in the back of the log ride and was soaked – ha ha) and shopped the Main Street stores.  Disneyland was all decked out in Christmas decorations with snow on the castles and bobbles and lights all over.  Very pretty.  The surprise fun ride of the day was the Buzz Lightyear ride (new since my last visit 20 years ago – yikes)!  We zipped around the ride in our Buzz Lightyear car while shooting targets with our laser guns.  Carrie pre-warned me to shoot at everything as the game keeps our scores and we can compete against each other.  I took it very seriously, naturally, and smoked my sister!  I got a score of 95,000 and Carrie got 15,000 (sorry Sis).  But, alas, we were both deemed “Planetary Pilots” with our scores, but I was just shy of becoming a “Space Scout” by 5,001 points.  Next time!

Carrie makes a "mean" Pirate.  Arghhh!

Me in the sunglasses, Carrie behind me (about to get drenched).  Ahhhhh!

Christmas in California

The people living along the beach areas in southern California are extremely festive.  Never have we seen so many houses dressed for the holidays in amazingly bright and abundant lights.  Boats and houses were brilliantly lit and our nighttime drives with lattes were simply amazing.  We weren’t feeling particularly Christmassy when we arrived into sunny California, but once we were here, and took our drives around, the spirit of the holiday was obvious everywhere – Santas, Frostys,  trees, lights, boughs and music.  Everywhere.  So, we decorated a little pine tree in our RV, hung lights on one of the slides, listened to Christmas music on our iPod and drank eggnog.   

Now, we are ready to come home to cold Vancouver and celebrate Christmas with all our friends and family.  We miss you!  It was a tough decision whether to head further south to Mexico OR head north to Canada.  Because of YOU we decided to go north, but it was close!

Arriving at midnight, last night, we drove up to the San Francisco area.  Yes, I said WE!  I drove the rig – truck and trailer on the highway.  I offered to spell Steve off of driving for a bit and to my surprise (and horror) he said, “sure.”  Yikes……acting cool but feeling the hole in my stomach suddenly widening, I adjusted the driver’s seat and the towing mirrors, then pulled our 45’ rig onto the highway.  Yup, I did it.  Screamed the whole time.  Ha ha!  One more thing to tick off the ‘ol bucket list.

Again, we found a beach spot to stop for 2 nights near San Francisco.  We’re actually in “Half Moon Bay!”  Spent today downtown looking at internet sites and Christmas shopping at Macy’s.  Walked the beach again with the mutts and started to feel the temperature gradually declining.  We’re becoming a bit anxious about the cold.  I know, I know…..wimps, whiners, and worse…..we know what you’re thinking.  So, it’s onto Oregon tomorrow.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Love, S&S