Dec 20-28

We arrived in Desert Hot Springs (DSH), shortly before 1 on Saturday. We left Mickey and Fantasyland far behind as we settled into our new resort for 9 days over Christmas, Sands Golf and RV Resort. It is a nice resort with plenty of Canadian’s mainly from BC and Alberta. It has close to 500 sites, but I would say only 250-300 are occupied. Our friends the Hilliers would like it as it has a nice 9 hole golf course (5-par 4; 4 par 3).

The park occupants are quite friendly, as you would expect Canadian’s to be. They have a great pool and two large hot tubs that we have enjoyed all week. They also have 3 dog parks which Jazz has thoroughly enjoyed getting to chase her ball and also getting a chance to “sniff” the neighbors as they sniff her.

We weren’t sure what the climate might be like here and we have experienced quite a variable week. Two things for sure, we have not seen a drop of rain and every day has had clear blue skies. The first couple of days we had mid 60’s weather dropping to low 50 at night. Monday the temp was up to 80 with Tuesday around 75 then it started to decline on Christmas Eve – still in mid 60’s. The last few days have been in the mid 50’s and last night as we went to bed it was 34 deg out! There was more snow visible on the distant mountains this today. Besides that, the area has several hundred wind turbines….nope we didn’t miss that experience either! On Christmas Eve, the winds started up and continued for about a day and half. Well at 3 am on Christmas Eve, we still had our awning out ½ way so Kathy and I ventured out to put it away. It’s a good thing we did, as about ½ hour later the winds really picked up. The seasonal neighbors say this is quite common and it can last for 5-6 days with constant 60 mph winds. Now we know why the turbines were installed here.

On Tuesday we biked into DHS to check out what they had. A K-Mart, a couple of grocery stores, some fast food and Walgreens. That was about it. DHS is on a bus line about 8-10 miles away from Palm Springs, so it must be a bedroom community for the workers in Palm Springs – resorts, restaurants, stores.

On Wednesday, it was time for me to hit the links to see if I could find some birdies. I used a few loaner clubs on Monday at the driving range and fared OK, so I was hopeful for a better set when a played a round.  As it turned out, Christmas Eve morning was not busy at all so I was out solo for 9 holes. Hit the ball fairly well. After 1 ½ hours I decided I may as well pay for another 9 since I already had the rented clubs and went out for another solo taking about 1 ¼ hours. I think I will be set when Bryn and Melissa get here next week. Bryn golfs a lot more than I do!

Christmas Day in the afternoon, we joined about 90 other park residents and had a pot luck dinner at 2 in the afternoon. It had quite a selection of food and we ended up sitting beside another couple that had a lot in common with us. They were from the San Francisco Bay area and had just retired in October, bought a Class C motor home similar to ours, sold their home and where going full time RV’ing for 2 years. They were maybe a couple of years older than us. We had lots of interesting discussion.

On Saturday we decided we needed to explore Palm Springs to see what all the fuss has been about with movie stars, directors, producers and other rich elite creating this posh haven for the past 70 years. We biked to DHS leaving at 9:30 and put our bikes on the front of the bus (new experience) and a dollar and 30 minutes later we landed in downtown Palm Springs. We actually locked up the bikes and walked the main strip (Palm Canyon Drive), enjoyed a coffee in the sun watching the interesting mix of people and what they were wearing. Afterwards, we took one of the marked bike trails through the north end looking at many very unique and I’m sure expensive homes and estates. Beautiful streets! It was now 1:30pm so we biked back to the downtown and grabbed some lunch (Eggs Benny) at an outdoor café watching the crowds that had increased since the morning.  We caught a bus and arrived back home by 4:30 and Jazz was relieved to see us. Down to the dog park for some fun and “relief”! Palm Springs is a unique spot with the many top notch golf courses around and is certainly a beautiful setting. There is plenty of shopping for tourists and locals (highend art shops) who can afford these things. I guess it’s a great get away for the rich and famous to leave LA or other large suburban places behind. We’re quite happy with Lake Erie!

Sunday is our final day in DHS and there are many chores to be done prior to leaving tomorrow for a resort outside of San Diego for a week. Our son Bryn and his girlfriend Melissa are flying in tomorrow to San Diego to spend a week, so we are really looking forward to that. No doubt some sightseeing and golf will be on the agenda for the next week.

Until we meet at the perch again, keep squawking!

Oh and by the way, Happy New Year and all the best in 2015!!!!

 

 

 

December 16-19, 2014

We arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon and we were very happy we had decided not to stop and have lunch on the way as by the time we entered into LA it was already after 2 pm and rush hour had begun. Had we left it any later the traffic would have been much worse. It took us well over 1 hour to get through LA and we arrived at Anaheim Resort RV Park around 4 pm. On the way, we drove past Santa Claus Lane (see pic) which made it feel even more like it was the Christmas season.

Our RV Resort’s slogan is ” It feels like we’re camping in Mickey’s Backyard” and that is very true. We are just a few blocks from Disneyland and we have a shuttle that takes us right from our RV park into Disneyland every 20 minutes all day long. At night we can watch the nightly Firework display clearly from our park which means we don’t have to stay at the park that late in order to see the show. Jazz is happy we are with her when the Fireworks start as she is very afraid of the noise.

We spent Wednesday and Thursday in Disneyland going on a lot of rides and seeing the shows. Rob met Goofy yesterday which was a highlight for him (see pic). We really enjoyed the Indiana Jones Adventure, Pirates of the Caribbean and Matterhorn Bobsleds. I thought my days of going on Roller Coasters were behind me but boy was I wrong. Most of the rides we went on were roller coaster type rides. Thursday by the end of the day I was feeling like I had been both shaken and stirred!  (And Linda – it wasn’t even Martini night! lol)

We ended that day by taking in the performance of Mickey and the Magical Map at the Fantasyland Theatre and then we rode the Monorail all around the park so we could see all of the beautiful Christmas lights everywhere. Then it was off to Downtown Disney for dinner at The House of Blues, and then back to our RV Resort for a lovely and much needed hot tub.

Today – Friday we are having a quiet day at the RV resort enjoying the pool and hot tub and tonight we have tickets to see Dave Koz and Friends Christmas in concert in nearby Cerritas, CA. We will grab a cab and go out for dinner before the concert so it should be a wonderful evening!

Tomorrow we head off to the Desert – Palm Springs here we come for a 9 day stay at The Sands RV and Golf Resort. We are looking forward to spending a relaxing Christmas week at the resort and enjoying the many things to see in the area.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from our perch to yours and may the magic of the season bring peace and happiness to you and your Family.

Squawk to you again after Christmas.

Dec 14-15

Our final couple of days at Pismo Beach were laid back and rather uneventful. Sunday morning I headed south about 2-3 miles on the bike heading towards “the Dunes”. Biking on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) – yes there is a bike lane – I passed the Butterfly grove, Grover CA then arrived at Oceano CA. Oceano is a small village that is all about the Dunes. Beyond the gates at the beach, this is a CA state park. If you want to take your vehicle on the beach you pay $5 and go at your own risk. There is quite a bit of activity out there so if you get stuck, run out of potable water, need some air for your tires, it’s all out there for a price. They recommend that you lower your tire pressure before entering the beach to about 20 lbs so your vehicle will go over the sand better.

I biked down the beach for about 1/2 mile then met a creek that I wasn’t going to try to bike through, so I couldn’t get any closer to the RV/ATV village further up.

After I got back to the RV, we walked into town looking for ” the T-shirt” and found them. Over to the pier to watch the surfers, then a cold drink overlooking the beach – Sunday afternoon!

Monday, was a day to regroup and do some future planning, laundry etc..

Off to see Mickey tomorrow!

 

Dec 9-13

We are in the region where it seems like Santa is everywhere – Santa Lucia Mountain range, towns and cities – Santa Margarita, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara….

The area we have been parked in since Tuesday evening is a string of popular beach and surf towns along the “central coast” as they like to be referred to.  We are in Pismo Beach, which seems to be the hub for the area and to our north is Shell Beach and Avila Beach and directly south (1/2 mile from us) is Grover Beach. Grover Beach has a ramp onto the beach where for $5 you have access to several miles of beach if you want to drive on it. A couple of miles down there are supposed to be massive sand dunes where you can rent ATV’s, dune buggies and go wild. I intend to bike down there today (Sunday) to check this out.

On the Wednesday after arriving, we walked around town to orient ourselves and found one of the popular places in Pismo – the bakery with their famous cinnamon sticky buns. A couple of coffee’s and a large bun in hand, we headed to the pier/boardwalk area to soak up the sun and enjoy the treat. This time of year is much quieter with the cooler weather, so the boardwalk and street were pretty quiet.

We went back to the RV in the early afternoon and had a quick lunch. The weather was supposed to be turning on Thursday with a big storm coming, so with the nice weather we walked over to the Monarch Butterfly Grove to check this out. It was free (my favourite 4 letter word!) It is about a 10-15 minute walk directly south of us. As we approached the grove was strong fragrance of eucalyptus as the grove was predominantly these trees. When you first look up you see a few monarchs flying around then some of the guides point out the clumps of butterflies in the trees. See pic’s. A sign as we walked in had an estimate in the grove of 30,000 monarchs. They also had a few telescopes set up to get some real good close-ups.

For the next day and ½ the main talk was the Monster storm hitting from the Pacific. We did get rain all night Thursday and it ended in the early morning. Thursday night as we watched TV, the winds picked up a lot and the RV was rocking pretty well to the point that we had to take down our Christmas tree from it’s over the cab location.

Friday we walked over the local Outlet Mall to do a bit of shopping in the morning then after lunch we biked over to Grover Beach to a beachside restaurant called “Fins” that I had found the day before. When we got there it was closed as they had lost their power. So into Grover Beach we went and found another nice place for lunch. When we got back to camp, there was quite a few RV’s coming in for the weekend – locals with their families, dressing up their RV’s for Christmas.

The sun was shining brightly on Saturday, so later in the morning we decided to bike to the other end of Pismo Beach(north) and beyond. We ended up in Shell Beach and saw some pricey looking homes right on the coast. We never did see a beach as we were beside 150’ cliffs. After a 6-7 mile bike ride we were back in Pismo for a late lunch at an outdoor eatery. Pismo was a bit busier being the weekend. On the way back we picked up some firewood for an early evening campfire as there had been many around over the past 1-2 nights. At night the temps are going down to the high 40’s and low 50’s. Some days we have seen temps up in the mid 60’s with plenty of sun. All is good.

Sunday, Funday!

We’ll squawk later in the week.

December 8

Our day at Hearst Castle was over but the day wasn’t. A short drive up the coast we arrive at the Piedras Blanco Rookery – home of the Elephant Seals. To read and learn about these seals is quite fascinating. Again, I will try to be brief. When we arrived, there were 150-200 seals. The males start arriving to this beach late November through December and the females mid December to mid January.  The males can get to be upwards of 5,000 lbs. (no I didn’t add a zero) whereas the females are up to 2,000 lbs. When they come to shore they fast from Nov to March(males) where the bulls can lose up to one ton of their weight. The females arrive pregnant from the previous Feb/Mar and give birth in the Jan-Feb months. The female will give birth to a 70 lb baby feeding it for 4 weeks where the infant will quadruple in size and the mother will lose up to 40% of her weight. After 4 weeks, the female will mate several times and shortly after leave the coast. Family life is over. The infant is now on its own! The males will stay around until all females have left then head to the sea. During their time at the rookery, the seals are quite social but once they leave, they are out to sea on their own, especially the males. For the next 8-9 months they will dive and eat usually never coming onto land. They will dive several thousand feet, staying at the surface for only a few short minutes at a time.

Ok, thus ends today’s lesson!

From the rookery at around 3:00pm, we headed south about 50 miles towards out next week stay at Pismo Beach.

That’s the daily poop!