California - February 2017 - Day 5 & 6

February 12, 2017 (Sunday)

Nike Missile Control Site LA-96

LA View 

Our last full day of soaking up the CA sunshine took us back towards LA. We stayed at one of Mike’s friend’s house in Sherman Oaks. The afternoon was spent chit-chatting and hiking.  We hiked up to the old Nike Missile Control Site LA-96 at the San Vicente Mountain Park. It was really clear so we were able to get nice views of both the ocean and downtown LA.  For dinner we walked to Mel’s Drive-In. The atmosphere is 50’s diner and they serve large portions. The food was okay.

February 13, 2017 (Monday)

The flight back home was at 11:45 am.  We cut it kind of close on time – the airport was mega busy! The drive to drop the rental car off was not too bad, when getting the rental they said to be back 2 hours before the flight, which we were pretty close to that amount of time.  It took us 25 minutes to get from the rental drop off to the terminal drop off!!!  By the time we got the luggage checked in it was about an hour to the scheduled departure.  The security line was so long they were holding people downstairs and then allowing 10-15 people at a time to go to the main security line upstairs. The line upstairs was of course really long. I asked one of the workers if we were going to make it thru the line in time for our flight and she directed us to a different line. Luckily that line was short and we made it to our gate just before the flight started boarding. Somehow we once again got stuck in the back row of the plane, this time the flight attendants were not as nice and did not provide us with anything for being stuck in the back row.

We did have a semi-famous person on our return flight – Rory Feek from the county star duo of Joey + Rory.   He boarded the plane a few people behind us and was very friendly.

All-in-all it was a nice getaway. It would have been nice to have clear weather in San Diego and more time at the park at the top of the aerial tramway. Apparently there is also a waterfall that we missed in an Indian Reservation in Palm Springs. Until next time – Happy Travels!

California - February 2017 - Day 4

February 11, 2017 (Saturday)

Time to cross out another National Park Site, this time Joshua Tree National Park. Our first stop was the Joshua Tree Visitor Center, which had a medium size display area. We picked up the park newspaper which highlighted different hiking options. Down the road from the visitor center was the park entrance, where the fee is $25/car (or free if you have a NPS pass). The pass is valid for 7 days.

Joshua Tree NP

Hiking was plentiful throughout the park.  We hiked the following trails on our drive thru the park: Baker Dam, Hidden Valley, and Keys View (not much of a hike, more just an overlook with a steep walk to the top).

Joshua Tree NP

The only trail we had a problem with was the Skull Rock trail. We visited the rock and then picked up the trail across the road from it, we had intended to do the Discovery Trail loop, but somehow we must have missed a turn. The next sign that we came across had the arrow pointing the direction that we had come from.  Finally the trail wrapped to the road and we discovered we were on the Skull Rock trail, which then cut us thru the parking lot of the campground before putting us back on the trail. We did not attempt to find the trail that we wanted, but moved on down the road to the next trail.

Upon leaving the park we stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center. Again the visitor center was not overly large. There are restrooms, bookstore, and water fill stations available.

We had lunch at Pappy and Harriets in Pioneertown.  We were told it would be an hour wait, but to check back in 15-20 minutes.  Well we checked back at 20 minutes and they already had our name crossed off the list!  Luckily they were able to set us immediately and we did not have to get back on the list. The food was just okay, I had the pulled pork and the cheese fries. The atmosphere was neat. The place is basically an old barn. The place is well known because famous musicians (Paul McCartney in 2016) stop by and play there.

Joshua Tree NP

After lunch we headed back to Joshua Tree, to the Black Rock Nature Center area. The visitor center was small, but the staff was very helpful regarding hiking options. We hiked the Hi-View Nature Trail. The trail has numbers along the way and there is a guide book at the visitor center to help you understand the plants and general topography. The hike is 1.3 miles if you start at the trail head. You can also start near the visitor center to make the hike a little longer.

The only area of Joshua Tree that we did not visit was the Cottonwood Spring area. 

California - February 2017 - Day 3

February 10, 2017 (Friday)

Panning for GOLD!

After checking out we headed to the Eagle & High Point Gold Mine in Julian for some history of the gold rush. The tour was $10/adult and $5/child. The tour lasted about an hour and a half. It was a neat tour – we got to pan for gold and walk around in the mine. The mine was 11 floors, the tour took you on two of them. The place was a little tough to get to, the GPS was trying to take us away that would not go through and then once we did get on track the road was really rough (but not long).  Tourism is the largest industry in Julian. The town is well known for its apple pies, the climate in the area is ideal for apple growing. The entire township is designated as a historical district.

Eagle Mine 1870

San Jacinto Mountains

We continued driving through the mountains on our way to Palm Springs.  There were some nice viewpoints that we stopped at along the way. We also stopped at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center, where we hiked the Randall Henderson Trail. There were three different trail loops, we hiked to the second loop. Unfortunately we did not spot any bighorn sheep.

The previous day we booked a trip up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.  There were two options for the tramway – with or without a meal. We decided to eat at the top since it was only $10 more ($25.95/adult without the meal or $36/adult with the meal). The Tram starts in the Chino Canyon (elev. 2643 feet) and takes to up to Mountain Station (elev. 8516 feet). It is a 2.5 mile ascend that takes about 10 minutes! The Tramway features the world’s largest rotation tramcar. Up to 80 guests can ride the tramcar and the tramcar rotates two full rotations on the ride. I should warn you that there is a $5 parking fee that we did not know about prior to arriving. The food at the restaurant was well worth the $10 – you get a salad, roll, veggie, potato and main meat (or vegetable lasagna).

Mountain Station

Once we made it to the top we headed outdoors right away since it was late afternoon.  There was about 3 feet of snow at the top of the mountain! It was about 45 degrees during our visit and the snow was a bit slushy. Heading back inside we watched the videos about the park and how the tramway was constructed.  By the time we headed back down the mountain it was dark out. The view out of the tram was pretty with all the city lights shining (sorry no photo – the rotating tramcar did not provide good photo options).

California - February 2017 - Day 2

February 9, 2017 (Thursday)

Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery

San Diego, here we come! It was about an hour drive from Ramona to San Diego. Our first stop was the Cabrillo National Monument. Actually we stopped at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery for some photos before heading to the monument. The monument opens at 9am (we were the first in line). There is a $10 fee/car to get into the site or free with a NPS pass. It was super foggy on the drive to the site, luckily some of the fog lifted by 9.

A few video options were available and shown on the hour. The visitor center did not have a ton of information, but enough to explain the importance of the site.  It is believed that the park site was the first location that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo stepped onto what is now the West Coast of the US (1542).

USS Theodore Roosevelt - Cabrillo NP

There are a couple of things to see while visiting the site. Then the tide is low you can check out the tidepools, there is a lighthouse that you can climb into, and there is the Cabrillo Statue. There is also a 2-mile hike that takes you thru a coastal sage scrub habitat. We hiked the trail and it provided nice views of activities going on in the bay.  The USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier was going out to sea during our visit – very neat!  Unfortunately during our visit it was too foggy to do any whale watching.

Old Town State Park Area

Old Town State Historic Park was our next destination. There are a bunch of old buildings, shops and restaurants. We headed to Old Town Mexican Cafe for lunch and then wandered around Old Town. Parking was free. The restaurant again, was just okay.

The Gaslamp District was next on the docket. Mike needed to stop by the Hard Rock Café to collect another Zippo. The Gaslamp district is a shipping district, with lots of stores and a mall. It is known as an entertainment district with nationally recognized nightlife venues. We did not do much exploring of the area since we do not go on vacation to shop!

Our last stop for the day was Balboa Park. The place was very busy so we just did a drive-thru before heading back to Ramona for the night. Balboa Park is the home of the San Diego Zoo, 15 major museums, performing art concert halls, and gardens. Of course there are also playground areas, restaurants, and trails.

California- February 2017 - Day 1

February 8, 2017 (Wednesday)

Trip time!! CA here we come…again! We had a morning flight out to LAX. The flight was good other than for some reason we ended up in the very last row on the plane – we did not pick those seats when we booked our flight. On the positive note the flight attendants were very nice and let us pick a meal for free. Amazingly we still had to wait for our bags at the luggage carousal.

The car rental location was pretty far from the airport (we booked with Alamo). Luckily there was not a line and we were able to get the car pretty fast. Mike selected a Dodge Dart, which was not bad other than the lack of charging capabilities (no USB charging ports).

Beach at Dana Point

We headed to Capistrano Beach, it was quite foggy so we did not get great views.  After the beach we headed to Dana Point for lunch at The Shwack Beach Grill. The food was just okay, which was kind of disappointing since the place had a really good trip advisor rating (#2 for Dana Point).

Continuing down the coast we stopped at the visitor center in Oceanside. We checked out the harbor and the strand. The pier in Oceanside is supposed to be really neat also, but since it was still very foggy we did not walk it.

It was getting to be late afternoon so we decided to just go check-in to the place we were staying – Riviera Oaks Resort and Racquet Club, which was up in the hills of Ramona. The place was really nice and it was very quiet. 

Year in Review - 2016

From a nearly missed flight to Miami, a family outing to the Kentucky Derby, followed by a week long trip out west to celebrate my parents 40th anniversary, a long weekend down in NC were we got to visit some SC friends, followed by my Keep Collective Annual Training which was down in Charlotte, NC (sorry I did not blog about that - it was a whirl-wind trip),  then a trip to Napa, CA to visit our first nephew.  That was not the end of it - then we road tripped down to Virginia Beach, and we closed the year with a trip with my sister to New Orleans!

We had a great time on all of our trips in 2016 and are looking forward to another year of amazing trips for 2017!

Our tentative travel plans for 2017 include trips to: San Diego and Palm Springs, Philadelphia, Las Vegas (Keep Collective Annual Training), Northern MI/MN/WI (Isle Royale!), and possibly Colorado.

New Orleans - November 2016 - Day 3 & 4

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Mardi Gras Tree - Tulane University

Again we ventured out early, this time we drove to the area that we were exploring – the Garden District.  Our first stop was the Tulane University to check out the Mardi Gras tree – a tree that is loaded down with Mardi Gras beads – quite a sight! Next we headed to the coffee shop, Still Perkin’, which was near where we were going to take part in another Free Tours by Foot tour. We had a little time to kill so we walked around the neighborhood prior to the start of the tour.  Originally, we had planned to take the streetcar, but my sister had really wanted to do a swamp tour and the time frame of the tour would have made getting back to get the car tight so we drove, which worked out okay since there was a decent amount of parking available in the Garden District.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

Our tour guide for the Garden District Tour was Denver Mullican. The tour started with a visit to the Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, which just happens to be the oldest of the seven municipal, city-operated cemeteries in New Orleans. The cemetery is a non-segregated, non-denominational cemetery, with immigrants from over 25 different countries. The cemetery was first planned back in 1832. There are about 500 sealed wall vaults along the exterior of the cemetery. The wall vaults were very important. A body had to lay in rest for a year and one day before being moved. Once a coffin or casket is placed into the tomb (or wall vault) it is sealed with brick and mortar for the minimum one year and one day. After the time period has ended the tomb may be re-used, but removing the seal, separating the human remains from what is left of the casket and then replacing the remains back into the tomb (either pushed to the rear of the vault or placed in the bottom). The casket is disposed of and the next body can be interned.  There are 1,100 family tombs and more than 7000 people buried in the single city block of the Lafayette Cemetery No 1. We also learned a bit about French law – lawyers with a law degree in the state of LA can only practice in the state of LA, those with degrees from other states are also not allowed to practice in LA. Finding who owns a tomb is a long tedious process since there are so many splits in the family tree. This is often the reason why the tombs become in disrepair. We spend about an hour of the two hour tour in the cemetery – it was very interesting! After the cemetery we walked around the neighborhood, where our guide pointed out some celebrity houses – Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Nicholas Cage’s old house, the home there Eli and Payton Manning grew up and parents still live.

Manning House

We grabbed lunch nearby at the VooDoo BBQ & Grill. It was tasty, it is a local chain place.  Then we headed to the Cajun Encounters for the Honey Island Swamp tour we had scheduled. If you drive to the swamp tours are $29 for adults and $19 for kids under 12, there is an AAA discount available and there were also $5 coupons in the visitor guide books. They offer pick up from New Orleans, but those are substantially more expensive. The boats they use carry 22 people.  It was cloudy outside so there was not much wildlife other than birds. My sister really had her hopes set on seeing an alligator. 

Cajun Encounters Tour

Cajun Encounters is pretty close to the Mississippi state line was we drove across so now we can say we visited the state – looked pretty much the same as Louisiana. J

Once arriving back to the rental house, we headed back out to Frenchman Street for some more music.  We ended up going back to The Maison. The first band (Royal Street Winding Boys) that was on we liked but then the next one (Leah Rucker) we did not really like.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Baton Rouge Capitol

My sister had to get an early start on the day since she wanted to drive back to her home in MO before dark.  She dropped us off at the airport, where we picked up a rental for the day.  We have been visiting a lot of capitol buildings (we are now up to 22!) so we headed up to Baton Rouge to see Louisiana’s. The capitol building was really tall (34 floors), the 7^th tallest building in Louisiana and the tallest capitol in the United States. The capitol has been in a few places before being at its current location. There was a park next to the complex that included an old armory building. On the other side of the complex,  were some barrack buildings. There really was not a lot to do in Baton Rouge – a lot of museums were closed on Mondays. The old state capitol building is not too far from the new one and we were able to view behind a fence.

Heading back to New Orleans, we stopped for lunch at a place called John Michael’s Good Eats in Geismar. They have a very large menu. I had the chicken fajita wrap and it was very tasty. We still had some time so we drove to the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center – park of the Jean Lafitte NPS. There were a lot of displays to look at and a few video options available. 

Before we knew it, it was time to return the rental car and fly back home. The flight home was not overbooked; however, once we landed we couldn’t find one of the suitcases. We had to file a missing bag. The airline delivered the bag the next day before noon.