Archive for Uncategorized
December 27, 2005 at 4:58 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I wish I could offer you some exotic story about the glamour of Airstreaming today, but it’s not much fun when you’re sick. It seems like part of the package of taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip should be guaranteed immunity from illness, but the truth is that anything can happen, and does. Including the common cold.
So I’m sitting at home in my pajamas breathing through my mouth (the nose has closed shop for a few days) and working on Operation “Kill Paper”, while Eleanor and Emma are taking the opportunity to do the laundry, pick up our forwarded mail, and buy cold-related supplies for me (extra tissues, various medications for the symptoms). If they could find a full-body condom to wrap me in so they don’t get the virus I think they’d buy that too.
But we’re all making lemonade out of it as best we can. Eleanor met a women with five kids at the laundromat, and discovered through that connection that some museums at Balboa Park are free on Tuesdays. The specific museums offered for free change every week. So she dropped off a few things here and then whisked off to have fun at all the places I’d like to go: the Automotive Museum, the Aerospace Museum, etc.
Meanwhile, back at camp I was pleased to receive a blog reader by the name of Byron, who turned out to be a charming fellow who is currently doing a motorhome restoration. He didn’t mind that I am a dripping, coughing mess today — and he invited us over to his canyon home in San Diego. If I am more pleasant to be around by Thursday we will definitely drop in for a visit. That’s the best way to get to know an area, in my opinion. Thanks for cheering me up, Byron!
December 23, 2005 at 4:12 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We had to flee the Los Angeles area. The original plan was to head down to San Clemente for another day or even through Christmas, but we got so frustrated with driving in the incessant traffic that it felt like a better decision to head to our base in San Diego and just sit still for a while.
So, although a few people recommended Newport Dunes (pricey but substantial), Doheny State Park, San Clemente State Park, and other spots, we bailed out. Los Angeles was tough on us and the trailer. We came in with a perfect trailer and left with a new stone ding and a bent stabilizer pad (impacted an obstacle despite being fully retracted), plus the aforementioned greasy coating.
The truck wash turned out not to exist, but we did find a car wash that seemed big enough at first glance. It wasn’t. I pulled in straight but couldn’t get out going forward, so I did a quick spray of the truck and trailer, and then Eleanor stood in the middle of a side street and directed me backwards while watching for oncoming cars. We survived. The trailer isn’t sparkly clean, but at least it doesn’t leave a residue on bystanders anymore. We’ll do a proper wash later.
We’ll be here for a week.
Christmas is in two days and Emma is very excited. She and Eleanor spent much of Thursday making decorations for the trailer and the little rosemary bush. So we’re all decorated and ready for the holiday. I’ll post a few shots of the decorations they made in a new Flickr photo album soon. In the meantime, stay warm, wherever you are!
December 21, 2005 at 8:30 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The big waves of yesterday got bigger. We woke today to find the parking area wet between our row and the “front” row of campsites that border the beach. Around 5 a.m. a giant wave came all the way up the beach and splashed into some of the campsites. No damage at all, but it got everyone’s attention. The state police beach patrol came by to tell us they were expecting more high surf when high tide arrived at 11:50 a.m. By noon, everyone had moved out of the front row to higher and drier ground.
The incredible waves made the beach uninhabitable later in the morning, but we did get in a little time earlier to play and marvel at the pounding, churning water. Emma tried her best to hold them back but the waves wouldn’t listen.
We met up with a fellow named Manuel who was camping for Christmas with his two teenage boys. Manuel has been coming to Carpinteria for over thirty years, and even he was impressed by the surge of water. So we all stood as close as possible to the high water mark to chat and act brave, and then got chased back repeatedly as random waves completely covered the beach.
Manual was fascinated to hear about life in Vermont, how cold it is back home right now (15 degrees F), how early the snow arrives, how much land we used to own (11.6 acres — in his area it would cost millions for a parcel that large), etc. We agreed that standing in shorts and t-shirts on the beach was an ideal way to spend Christmas. Santa can come in on a surfboard this year.
I want to meet with some folks in the Los Angeles area before Christmas, so we headed out around noon with the intention of reaching a state park in Huntington Beach. On the way we stopped at the Channel Islands National Park visitor center, and then of course we got mired in traffic as we got closer to L.A. Finally, after parking on I-405 for half an hour, we bailed out and got mired in even more traffic on city streets. Two hours later, we gave up completely, having managed to cover only 10 miles since we entered the traffic.
L.A. is not a friendly place for RVs. We knew it would be bad, but not THIS bad. Our timing couldn’t be worse: rush hour the week before Christmas. We couldn’t even park and rest because every parking lot was full of shoppers. We tried I-405 again but it was still jammed. That’s when I said, “If we could just find a place to park, I’d quit this and try again tomorrow.” And suddenly … a Wal-Mart appeared.
We took it as a sign. So here we are. It’s not glamorous but it beats the alternative. We talked to the security guard (we asked if overnight parking was OK, and he said “I get off at midnight and I’m not calling the tow truck,”), walked around the corner for Mexican food, picked up a few items at the Wal-Mart, and settled in. Tomorrow is another chance at L.A. traffic.
December 18, 2005 at 5:35 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
This has to be the worst weather we have encountered since we left Jackson Center, OH in early October. Gusty strong winds, frequent rain, 50s — a real blustery damp day, not the sort of weather one associates with coastal southern California.
But they do get weather here, and there wasn’t much to do about it but go ahead and investigate Hearst Castle as planned. The conditions made a challenging photographic subject even more difficult. They don’t allow any sort of flash photography inside the buildings, and all the rooms are dimly lit to preserve the art inside. I had to crank the camera’s ISO up to 1600 to get anything at all, and most of the photos were hopeless. I even got a reprimand from the tour guide for the Nikon’s “AF assist” light, which briefly illuminates the subject to help the autofocus system, so that feature got shut off, too.
Outside, the same prohibition on flashes seems to apply (although you would think the marble statues wouldn’t care if they can take the direct sunlight), and the whipping wind, rain, and fog pretty much wiped out all photo opportunities. The photo above is of the heated outdoor “Neptune pool” which was rebuilt twice as Hearst enlarged it. Believe it or not, this is the best shot I got all day.
Emma survived the 1 hr, 45 minute house tour fairly well, but with that length (and at $20 per adult) we decided one was enough for our family. We had an expensive set of hamburgers made from former 4-legged residents of the Hearst ranch ($25 with drinks and fries), saw the movie, toured the exhibits, and fled. I suspect it’s a nicer trip on a sunny day, but today the lack of central heating in much of the Visitor’s Center and the house itself was painfully apparent. It felt like visiting the dungeons of some European castle.
The sea is stormy, exciting, and worth watching today, but now that dark has fallen we are thinking about where we will head next. Forecasts claim we will have better weather tomorrow.
December 16, 2005 at 7:58 am · Filed under Uncategorized
What a great town for street hiking, eating, and photography — three of my favorite things. I couldn’t wait to get everyone out of the hotel and on the street. I was up early, the rest of the gang was not …
When we finally did get out, Emma was interested in the “F” line historic streetcars, so we hopped on one of the 1940s green-and-white PCC cars (originally from Philadelphia) and rode down The Embarcadero.
The F line swings around the waterfront on The Embarcadero and then down Market Street into the heart of the SF business district. We got off at Powell Street, where the cable cars terminate, and walked north (uphill) a dozen blocks, taking in the sights.
A stop at the Westin St Francis hotel’s elaborate gingerbread house was a hit with Emma, but it made us all hungry for breakfast.
So, a few blocks later, on the downside of the hill we stopped at a small Chinese restaurant and bought 3 large pieces of dim sum for breakfast. Emma liked the deep-fried bun with ham in it (not sure of the proper name), Eleanor liked the sesame lotus bun with sweet bean paste (sort of like a filled doughnut), and I liked the translucent potsticker with cabbage and pork. We munched and walked down to our hotel, 24 blocks in all.
After checking out of the hotel, we headed the to streetcars again, this time to catch one of the orange “Peter Witt” cars from Milan Italy. These feature gorgeous wood interiors and signs in Italian. (“Vietato sputare” was one.) Emma was hoping they’d be more rickety than the PCC cars, but the ride was just as smooth.
We got off the streetcar a bit earlier this time, so that we could hike the famed stairs to Coit Tower, on the bay side. Toward the top of the stairs there is a spot where two hundred wild parakeets live in the trees. I got some good shots of them eating berries, and a local commented that I had been lucky enough to get closer to the birds than anyone he had ever seen.
The views from Coit Tower were, as always, spectacular. I can’t imagine a bad view, unless the visibility was zero in fog. (This time of year there’s less fog than in the summer.) And the entire Telegraph Hill residential area that surrounds the tower is interesting to browse.
After hiking down the west side from Coit Tower, we turned south and headed for Chinatown. I wanted to revisit a place I’d had lunch with my friend Captain Mikey a few years ago: Yee’s. It’s one of those places where the cooked chickens hang in the window, the clientele is almost entirely Chinese, and a row of old men stand behind the counter with cleavers, whacking pieces of poultry for the 3 o’clock buffet. Perfect.
The lunches were marvelous and enormous (enough for leftovers), the atmosphere was friendly, and lunch was just $15 for all three of us. We saved a little room in our stomachs so we could walk one block up hill to an Italian gelato shop. Lemon for me, green tea flavor for Eleanor, and a lemon cone for Emma.
Browsing San Francisco by foot is the best way to see the bulk of town. The hills offer remarkable views that continually surprise. Later, you can drive or bicycle over the Golden Gate bridge, Golden Gate Park, and other great spots. But from the hills, you can see it all and really get a sense of what San Francisco is all about.
We wrapped up our afternoon with a walk over to the Fisherman’s Wharf piers. This part of town is very touristy, but the sea lions and waterfront scenery are still worth a look. Plus, Pier 39 offers some of the best views of San Francisco in the late afternoon.
Once the sun set, it was time to start heading back home to the Airstream. We stopped in Cupertino to visit some friends for a couple of hours, and then returned to our storage spot in Santa Cruz to find our Airstream glowing in the light of the full moon on a crisp California night.
December 15, 2005 at 7:20 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We awoke in our Ontario CA airport hotel yesterday morning knowing that we had a full day of driving ahead, but feeling good about our prospects. After all, the sun was shining, it was warming up to a nice mid-60s day, and the hotel had a nice complementary waffle breakfast — the kind where you pour the batter in yourself and they come out nice and crispy.
I was feeling particularly good despite the fact during our midnight airline approach to Ontario it was my turn to have equalization problems, and I went to bed about 1 a.m. (4 a.m. Eastern Time!) with my left ear basically sounding and feeling like someone had stuffed wet cotton in it. I woke with the same sensation, but by the time we had driven up and down the hills between Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, things had cleared up.
What to do on a long car ride? Having done I-5 just last week, it was a bit less interesting. We practiced animal sounds (Emma has a good rattlesnake and parrot, I’m the best at coyotes baying, and Eleanor does a fine chicken and bullfrog); we pretended to be Charlotte and Vendetta of the cartoon Making Fiends (a surreal online series which is somewhat addictive and entirely G-rated); Emma colored and worked puzzles, and we talked about the growing things we passed (almonds, oranges, grapes, unknown green vegetables).
The ride was longer because at the last minute we decided to bypass the turnoff toward Santa Cruz and head a bit further north to San Francisco. The reasoning was this: We wanted to go to San Francisco but had skipped it because it is not RV-friendly, we were already packed for an overnight without the trailer, and it would be easy to grab a hotel for one night to enjoy the city for a day before getting the Airstream out of storage.
Also, before we started this trip, we pledged to each other that once in a while we would get a nice hotel or B&B just for the experience. We hadn’t done it yet. With a couple of phone calls I found a fine room in the Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf. We plugged it into the GPS and pulled in around 5 pm.
San Francisco is one of our favorite places. Eleanor and I have been here several times, and we’ve always had a memorable visit. Bridges, bay, city of hills, fog, and the unique SF culture. It was time to give Emma a taste of this great town.
Last night we took a short walk around Fisherman’s Wharf to hunt up some dinner. Most of the restaurants in the wharf area are complete tourist traps, and others are just not the sort of place we’d take a 5-year-old, so we opted for seafood from the street vendors: crab sandwich, calamari salad, clam chowder in a bread bowl, etc. We piled it all in an open cardboard box we borrowed from the vendors and marched through the elaborate lobby of the Hyatt with our take-out dinner. The staff just smiled.
It was an early night because we’re still on Eastern Time, but the plan is to walk our feet off today, showing Emma some of the highlights of S.F. that she’ll enjoy. I’ll take a lot of pictures and there should be a good blog entry for tonight or tomorrow. Then we’ll head down the coast and resume our Airstream trip.
December 13, 2005 at 3:55 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Here we are again … JFK International Airport, NY, NY.
I am reminded of the joke they used to tell in the south. “It doesn’t matter if you are going to heaven or hell … you’ll still have to connect in Atlanta.” These days, it’s JFK for us, because that’s where JetBlue goes, and that’s the airline of choice out of Burlington VT.
Weather along the southern coast of California is pretty much like we left: peaking around 60, mostly sunny. Our big plan is to roam southward along Rt 1 to Big Sur, Hearst Castle, San Luis Obispo, and other coastal areas. Timeline? Haven’t got one. Reservations? Nope.
Everyone tells me that towing down Route 1 should be a challenge. I’ve driven it before, so I have an idea of what to expect. After I-70 in western Colorado, California Rt 20 through the Tahoe National Forest, the entrance roads to Arches NP and Colorado National Monument, and coastal Rt 101 in Oregon, I’m not sweating it. Looks like fun to me!
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