Death Valley!

Lynnae and I lived in California for about a combined 89 years and neither of us had been to Death Valley.  Everyone our age grew up watching "Death Valley Days" with the 20-mule-team Borax ads and I had pictures in my mind of vast sand dunes and salt flats, but the reality of this place is beyond what I expected.  First of all, the scale is HUGE and with no trees anywhere, the vistas are spectacular.  The lowest spot in the world (289 feet below sea level) surrounded by 11,000 foot mountains and a place where the skeleton of the earth is laid bare and the geologic processes are exposed like nowhere I have ever been.  As I write this, we've been in DV for a week (without internet, I should add), and I will get some blog posts done (probably after we leave the valley) that show some of the wonders we have seen.

Sand dunes with mountains behind--at sunset

Lynnae hiking a typical slot canyon in DV.  As you will see, some are so smooth you can drive through them!

One more stop in Palm Springs

We had to attend to some medical appointments back in Palm Springs (thanks, Obamacare!) so we rented a space for a week at the Outdoor Resort, which was WAY more upscale than where we had been staying all winter (the Happy Traveler) and more upscale than our usual style.  It was fun and very comfortable and we met some nice people who come back here every year.

Outdoor Resort near Palm Springs

We also visited the Living Desert Zoo, which was pretty interesting.  The landscape design was fabulous and the grounds were beautiful, but zoos are always a little bit sad and this one was no exception.  It did have what must be the world's largest train set and some beautiful cats that did tricks.

We are off for Death Valley National park and very excited to visit there for the first time for both of us.  Here is a picture of a tourist trap in the desert on the way and of us stopped on the road leading into the park.

Tucker checking out the Mad Greek's sign

Not a lot of traffic headed to DV! You might just be able to see the yellow wildflowers.

Taking the train to San Diego

The Coaster commuter rail goes along the coast from Oceanside right into Old Town. We decided to take a train ride on our last day (for now, we'll be back!).

San Clemente

Once jokingly called "San Clemency" in honor of ex-president Nixon who lived here, San Clemente is a sparkling beach town where everyone seems to surf and the fish tacos are plentiful. We are here for a week of beach and laundry hopefully some good bike riding. The weather promises to be cool but dry and we can once again see the Pacific from our living room.  Our friends Janet and Jim from Plymouth are going to visit us here and that will be a treat.

Sunset after the storm

We had torrential rain today (California desperately needs the rain!) and it is clearing just in time for a spectacular sunset.  (The spaceship is a reflection of an inside light.  This is a view out our back window.)  Can you make out Santa Catalina Island?

Balboa Island (part of Newport Beach)

We spent an afternoon bumming around Newport Beach and visited Balboa Island.  This tiny speck of land lies within Newport Bay and is a mostly artificial island created in 1906 when the Red Line trolleys began running from downtown Los Angeles to Newport Beach.  Subdivided into tiny lots which sold for $250 at the time, the island today is as densely populated as Manhattan--3,000 people live on 128 acres of land, 10,000 in the summer!  You can take a short bridge to the island, but the cool way to get there is by the ferry that runs back and forth and can carry three cars and a bunch of people and bikes.  Apparently, frozen bananas are the thing here (the banana stand on Arrested Development was located on Balboa).  It is a great place to walk around and gawk at the cute homes and tropical landscaping.  Tear-down lots of 25 X 60 here go for $2 million.

Balboa Island Ferry

After a 5 minute ride, we approach the dock

Laguna Beach, CA

What a great place this is!  Quaint downtown with an eclectic/surf casual atmosphere mixed with more Mercedes, Ferrari's and Bentley's than you'll see this side of Monaco.  We, of course, are renting our space for $55 a night here in the state park which has views as good as many of the multi-million-dollar homes in Laguna Beach.  Homes on the edge of the bluff overlooking the Pacific or on the beach start at about $5 million and several are listed on Zillow for $25 million to $35 million and more.  Who can afford to own these places?!  Anyway, we get to have the same view and drive the same roads and eat at the same fish taco stands as the rich people.  Ain't America great!

Aliso Beach County Park, we ate lunch here

Crystal Cove State Park.  We are camped for the week a short walk from this beach.

A Venetian palace overlooking the beach.  I was counting the windows with an ocean view and gave up at 50.

Thousand steps beach (there are actually only 220 steep steps to climb down here)

Yahoo's Fish Tacos. MMMM....