Disneyland

In the true holiday tradition I’m writing my postcards (=blogging) from the airport. As I’ve only got some “borrowed” internet, and an hour or so before the flight, I can’t do our visit to Disneyland justice. In fact, nor can the photos, but they’re all I’ve got; check them out on flickr by clicking here.

Posted: August 20th, 2010 under Los Angeles - 1 Comment.

Now for the real holiday…

Not much time to say a lot about Los Angeles, mostly because I haven’t seen much beyond the freeways and the hotel pool. Now that’s what I call a holiday (well apart from the freeways bit).

The girls are loving the pool, and we met up with some of Lily’s school friends who’ve moved to LA and visited the local Santa Monica pier, which has an amusement park complete with kids rides and roller coasters. Of course, Jen and Jessica couldn’t resist the roller coaster!

Posted: August 17th, 2010 under Los Angeles - No Comments.

iPad doh!

“It’s done; the RV has been returned safe and sound, without a scratch – well, none that they noticed at least. We set off from Malibu at 8.30am and I dropped Jen, the kids and the luggage at the hotel on the way, as it was only a few miles further into LA down the Pacific Coast Highway. Then I faced the LA freeway alone (apart from Serena the sat-nav) to get to the depot; there were a few missed turn-offs and illegal u-turns, but eventually I got there with 20 minutes to spare. We’d spent about the last 24 hours in the slow process of removing all traces of ourselves from the RV, so the return went without a hitch. Now all I’ve got to do is get across LA back to the family at the hotel…”

Oh, what fateful words I wrote while waiting for the shuttle bus. Little did I know I’d done something so stupid it would end up costing me over a hundred dollars and 4 hours of driving up and down the LA freeways.  

Why? Because somehow despite all our RV packing efforts, I’d managed to forget one little thing: my £700 iPad. It wasn’t until I’d been on the bus for an hour and was about to be dropped off at LAX that I spotted an iPad billboard advert. You know how it feels when you realise you’ve done something monumentally stupid? I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach like we’d just looped-the-loop.

I got on the phone (my mobile, ouch) and after 15 minutes they confirmed they’d got it. All I had to do was get back to the depot and collect it. Problem was the shuttle bus is a one-time round-trip, so I could get back there, but would then be stranded in the outskirts of LA facing a $150 taxi ride.

Luckily(?), the shuttle bus driver offered to take me himself (he was just finishing his shift) for the bargain price of $60. No idea whether it was a bargain, but I was in no mood to haggle. So after another couple of hours on the freeway (including in the Iraqi driver’s beat up car) I finally had the iPad back in my hands and got to the hotel to meet the girls. I have a feeling it’ll take a while to live this down with Jen…

Posted: August 16th, 2010 under Los Angeles, RV - No Comments.

Penultimate stop: Santa Barbara

Well, our penultimate RV stop is upon us: a 3 night stay in the slightly-misleadingly named Santa Barbara RV park; it’s 18 miles out of Santa Barbara, I guess Galeto hasn’t got quite as good a ring to it. Despite that, the park itself is nice; bathrooms and a pool worthy of a hotel, and only a couple of minutes walk from El Capitan beach (more on that later). Not only is the site well appointed from the grown-ups point-of-view, it’s also got a (triumphant trumpet sound)… playground with swings! The girls are in seventh heaven: swings, pool, beach. So much to do! (We haven’t even mentioned the prospect of Disneyland to them yet, fearing excitement overload…)



So for the past couple of days, we’ve been spending a lot of time playing at the beach. It’s a nice one, with a combination of large stones and sand, and with warm(ish) sea and great waves; apparently it’s a bit of a surfers mecca at certain points in the year. Today we had a bit of a nature extravaganza too. First, while I was out splashing in the waves, I noticed a seal popping its head out of the water about 30ft away from me! Luckily Jen spotted it too from the shore, otherwise I’d have no doubt been accused of a ‘the one that got away’ style exaggeration. Then a bit later, Jen spotted a pod of dolphins frolicking just offshore. We’d seen them yesterday too, but they were much closer and gave us a good show, jumping out of the water just long enough for Jen to snap them. Result!

There are also loads of Sand crabs on the beach too. I’d never heard of them (have you?) but a guy just wondered up to us (as people have been doing quite often on this holiday) and said “have you seen the sand crabs?” He showed us that all of the little dimples in the sand as the surf went out were in fact little burrowing crabs, and that you could dig your hand (or a spade, if you’re crab-phobic like me) into the sand and scoop ‘em out. Not particularly attractive little critters, but the fascination/horror kept Lily going for hours.


Tomorrow is the last RV stop: Malibu Beach. We’ll see if it’s as glamorous as it sounds. Early the next morning we give the RV back, then it’s (cough) slumming it in the Loews Hotel for a few days. While I’m looking forward to not being in charge of an oversized vehicle any more, it’s sad that it’s the beginning of the end of the holiday.

Posted: August 14th, 2010 under RV, Santa Barbara, Wildlife - No Comments.

Dipsy Diving

Bit of a bad photo of Monterey Bay from my Iphone.

The girls like to call my holiday hobby Dipsy as oppose to Deep Sea Diving.  I think everyone prefers Dipsy, even the casual passer-by thought it better as the girls were skipping off to the aquarium with me correcting them whilst trying to get my kit on.

So while they went to look at the “static fish” as Divemaster Jim called them; I went out into the Ocean to spot them.  I’d booked a last minute trip with Monterey Bay Divers and for a change got a really lovely guide – the aforementioned Jim.  I’d try to get a boat dive but unfortunately all the boats were booked; it was the weekend of Monterey’s biggest Dive photography competition so all Jim could do was a shore dive.  Whilst I’m on the subject of underwater photography – I’ve tried it. It’s very difficult. Sorry no pictures.

My dive buddy was Jennifer from Pittsburg; she’d never dived in seawater before; only lakes with the visibility of an arm’s length, so it was nearly all new to her.  As we got in we saw a seal mucking around on one of the buoys, I was hoping he’d come and investigate us, and have a bit of a play but no….  I did see a heck of a lot of star fish and giant scary crabs in amongst the kelp. Kelp is a bit like a nursery tower block for small fish, all the young of the fish we like to eat hide in it. Kelp is also incredibly strong and wraps around you like rope so you do get a bit tangled as you’re going along.  We didn’t get too far on the first dive; we’d just got to the interesting bit when we had to head back – Jennifer was low on air.    

She decided not to do the second dive. I have to say it is a bit freaky trying to battle with kelp the cold (did I not mention the cold? Did I not mention the cold!?!  It was the most freezingest water ever!) ; and if you’ve never dived in the sea the force and currents can be scary.  

In between dives Jim told us about the previous days Diver. He’d taken out a Frenchman who worked at the embassy in Washington. He’d been busy on his phone during the dive break – important embassy business Jim thought. After the second dive he realised it had been important food business. Waiting for them on the beach was lunch. Table, chairs, china plates, wine, cheese, etc etc  and a couple of hotel staff to serve.   He’d actually been on the phone to his swanky hotel in Carmel and arranged a post dive meal. Wonder if he put it on expenses under “liaising with the California Dive community”.  

So it was just me n’ Jim for the next dive and it was excellent. We followed an old pipe on the seabed that was used by the canneries to suck the fish up from the fishing boats. Ironic that it’s a haven for marine life. The mouth of the pipe had a big fishy sitting in it and all along there were teensy tiny pretty sea sluggy things, tons of star fish and  a giant star fish with the body the size of a dinner plate and about 20 legs, he was more like a sunflower than a star. And he was blue so not a lot like a sunflower or a star fish ….   At the end of the pipe we went over to this amazing stand of strange anemone. If you can imagine very soft cauliflower on the end on a fat stalk about half a meter long sticking to a rock in clusters of 100’s. Very  very beautiful.  Unfortunately I was incredibly cold at this point so I did the “I’m cold” sign and we headed back.  On the way back down following the pipe we found some kind of underwater bunny. Jim said his latin name back on land, but its commonly known as a rabbit. It’s like no bunny I’ve seen – its red, bunny sized but has more slug features than a bunny.  When you stroke it, it kind of puts up its “ears” but there the similarity ends.

We made our way back to shore and dragged ourselves out like some tired elephant seals (more about them later) The thing about shore dives is it’s not that you see any less than on a boat, it’s just the walk to and from the sea with a huge load of kit and a tight wetsuit is a bit of a bugger.  And I was cold.

As per usual I had loads of air left, and if it had been warmer I could have stayed in for ages living out my “I am a sea otter” fantasy amongst the kelp. I have this habit of getting into some kind of relaxed low breathing or something when I’m diving – Jim joked “are you practicing not breathing?”  The amount of air left is a kind of sign of experience or that you’re not panicking and puffing away or something; I always have about the same as my Divemaster despite my holiday diver status. So I guess I’ve finally found something I’m a natural at. Breathing. .… it’s so easy I dunno what the fuss is about.

One more thing. I haven’t seen a sea otter….Gutted. But I have seen elephant seals – huge monsters!

Posted: August 13th, 2010 under Monterey Bay, Uncategorized, Wildlife - No Comments.

Life’s a beach – finally

The race southwards towards the sun and warmer temperatures continues. Jen has just about stopped complaining about the cold as we reach Morro Dunes, well, once the ubiquitous morning fog has cleared. We’ve got a couple of days here as our stays get longer and we’re covering less ground. It’s a pretty basic site (with terrible internet again; that seems to be the norm) but it’s very close to the beach, which is nice when the sun comes out. We’ve been promising the girls a beach now for quite a while, and they finally get to break out the bucket and spade.


On the second night we went to the local harbour, which for a change was actually close enough to walk. The local fishing trade seems to be wholly supported by the slew of restaurants surrounding the harbour judging by how busy they all were. We stopped at the first one we saw, and had a really good fish and chips. It seems to have become the girls new eating-out favourite; I’m surprised there’s so much of it about. Obviously English cuisine is finally finding it’s way in the world. Unfortunately we misjudged how big the portions were (2oz pieces?) and only got a 5 piece meal, so we were pretty much fighting over it. Jen also had a lovely bit of clam chowder from a bread bowl. Looks like she’s gotten over her shellfish allergy (which I always thought was more of a hangover-allergy anyway).

Next day we had a 2 hour long slog down to our next stop at Santa Barbara. We just went for it this time, rather than stopping off anywhere on the way. The drive was much easier, highway 1 seems to have calmed down a bit from those hairy-scary days north of San Francisco, so it went pretty quickly.

Posted: August 13th, 2010 under Food, Morro Bay, On the road, Weather - 2 Comments.

Car-parks, castles and class war

Odd day today. We started off with a spooky overnight stay in an empty parking lot in the Big Sur state park. It was pretty disconcerting being all on our own, in the dark, in the middle of the woods, with nothing but the strange noises to keep us company all night. Guess that’s what we get for not booking ahead in the campsite itself. The girls didn’t seem bothered, but Jen and I had a night of disturbed sleep with the rustlings and scufflings of various unknown things outside the RV.

In the morning we set off bright and early (for us) at 9am, with a fairly long drive ahead to get to Morro Dunes RV park. On the way we had a stop planned at Hearst Castle (another excellent last-minute booking by Jen) but as it turned out we also did a couple of interesting stops on the way.

As we’d been driving down highway 1, we’d noticed how much of the land was private property, It was fenced off at the roadside with large “no trespassing” signs, and we’d been commenting about what a shame it was. Then we came across a lovely looking waterfall down to a little cove, so we screeched to a halt and went to take a look. It was just on the outskirts of the catchily-name Julia Pfeiffer Burns state park. Disappointingly there was no access to the cove from the road, but we followed the path to see where it went anyway. The story was that a very rich family had owned the land, including the beach, and had had a house on the cliff above with magnificent views of the ocean. When the last remaining family member died, she bequeathed the land to the people, but with a couple of, frankly bizarre, stipulations. First, the house should be demolished on a certain date. Secondly, there should be no public access to the beach, to “maintain it’s beauty”. That’s the one that really got our goat. The fact that “the plebs” can’t be trusted to preserve a piece of natural beauty, but the rich can.


A bit further down the coast we made another impromptu stop at an elephant seal sunbathing spot. It was full of lots of large, ugly creatures, lolling about on the sand, slowly shedding their skin. Insert joke about English beaches here. We had a good gawp, then set off for our scheduled appointment at Hearst castle.


Hearst castle was weird but interesting. The result of a wealthy American buying up all the ancient artifacts he could get his hands on and putting them in one place in a vain attempt to look like a member of the European aristocracy. And those were (almost) the words of the tour guide! It was another scarily well organized tourist centre and interesting to hear that the family still use the house when they want to. My favorite bit was definitely the Neptune pool, as featured briefly in Spartacus.

What a day; from car parks to castles.

Posted: August 10th, 2010 under On the road, Wildlife - No Comments.

RV site: down hill, round corner

On the way down the coast the night before last we made a quick overnight stop at the Carmel-by-the-river RV site. Oh. My. God. What a ridiculous place to put an RV site. Before I begin, bear in mind that it’s going to have vehicles the size of coaches coming in and out, day-in and day-out. To begin with it’s down a tiny, single-track road, where you have to get over an army-style bridge (made of metal, 5 mph speed limit, just wider than the RV) to get to it. Then, once you reach the entrance, you have to go down a 100 ft steep hill, with a tight corner at the end! Bizarre. Then to top it all, the sites are so close together that it took a 27-point turn and the help of neighbours (whose truck I was within a couple of inches of hitting) to finally get parked. I needed a bottle of Modelo after that, I can tell you. On the way out the next morning we came upon an RV so big that “it couldn’t reverse” trying to get in, meaning that the 3 vans trying to get out had to reverse up various side roads in order to let it past. Luckily Jen was on hand with her military-style direction to sort things out. Phew.

Posted: August 10th, 2010 under RV - No Comments.

Fishy – Monterey Bay

While Jen was off dipsy-diving, the girls and I headed to Monterey Bay’s famous aquarium. We dropped her off at the beach, watched for a while as she squeezed herself into a wetsuit, then parked up the RV (across 2 spaces of course) and queued up. As it was a Saturday morning it was absolutely heaving, but the line moved quickly. Inside it made it difficult to get a lot of quality time with the exhibits, but the girls didn’t seem to mind too much. It’s a very kid-friendly place, feeling a bit like a playground with fish at some points, but we easily whiled away 4 hours gawping and playing.

The aquarium is based in the Cannery, the old sardine and tuna canning district. It’s one of those odd places where one industry has become obsolete and been completely replaced with tourism; only the buildings remain. But the transformation isn’t quite as complete as in some places in London (like the various old docks), so it still has quite a run-down feel. I’m sure that’s not helped by the recession, which according to Jen’s chat with her dive instructor has hit the area (and the dive industry specifically) pretty hard.

Quite strange: it feels like we’re getting near the end of the holiday now… eurgh! There are only 7 more nights until we give the RV back. I’ll miss the old girl, but not having to do 27-point turns to get into sites like tonight. Thank goodness for helpful neighbours.

Posted: August 8th, 2010 under Monterey Bay, RV - 1 Comment.

Racy…

Last night we didn’t manage to get into our first choice site (a nice looking place right on the dunes, en route to Monterey Bay), so instead we ended up in Laguna Seca raceway, of all places.

Of course, given our luck, it was a big historic race the next day, so places were limited, but we ended up getting a site high up on top of a hill that had a view over one corner of the track. At 7am the next morning, the cars started racing noisily round the track, and of course the girls had to go and take a look. Jasmine played along with her toy cars (one of the few toys she bought), but the tomboy effect was offset by her use of a bright blue bunny handbag to hold them in…

Posted: August 8th, 2010 under Laguna Seca - 1 Comment.