Let the So Cal fun begin part 1

This blog is going to be a highlight reel of the 3 months we spent at Rancho California. And I have a confession to make. We got real lazy while we were there. It may seem that we were busy all the time doing all of the fun things we posted on Facebook, but in reality we spent more time sitting then going. You have to do that now and then because when we leave here we are going to be very busy. 

So on to the highlight reel. 

We love to Kayak but finding a place to put two 10 foot long kayaks is not an easy task. Carrying them on the roof of the truck would be a pain in the you know what, and on the roof of the 5th wheel, even worse. The solution was to buy two inflatable kayaks. They work great, can store in the back seat or in the truck bed with the bed cover closed. Here we are using them on two different occasions. 

 These two pictures were taken on Mission Bay in San Diego.

 These three were taken at Bonnelli Regional Park in San Dimas. 

Needless to say, we loved it and plan on using them as much as we can.

We spent a fair amount of time in the San Diego area. Here are some of the pictures that we took at Point Loma-Cabrillo National Monument and Coronado.

A great view of San Diego

Cabrillo statue

A fun shot with our good friends Rick and Lenore. 

Just one of the ships leaving the Naval Base. 

We love the coast, but who doesn't. 

The shore at Coronado.

As this was the Christmas season they of course had an outdoor skating rink. 

As San Diego was an hour west of us, Joshua Tree National Park was an hour east. I have never seen a landscape like this before. Desert but with rock and small mountains to climb and play on.

Part two coming soon. See you down the road and thanks for reading our blog. Don't forget to let us know what you think.

Rancho California

Rancho California is beautiful. As you approach it on the highway it looks like this oasis of green in among the scrub bushes. The sites are large and most have some sort of build out. The whole park is wrapped around a par 3 golf course. (of course I gave my clubs to my son. duh) The people in the resort are friendly and there is enough to do to keep us as busy as we want. 5 pools and hot tubs, Check it out.

Our site

Our view and patio. 

On the road to the park are these amazing metal sculptures.

We took a hike into the foothills surrounding our resort. There is our little oasis. 

Wait a minute. This is California not Wisconsin. 

One of the nice things that we did was to spend the Christmas Holiday with my niece Carol, her boyfriend, and her two children. An added bonus was seeing my brother Ron who flew out for a visit. It was great to see him and spend Christmas with family. 

Well we are here for 3 months and there is a ton to do. So until next time. Oh and thanks for visiting our blog. 

California here we come

You hear all of the stories about California traffic and drivers. Well let me tell you, coming from Chicago the drivers I've run into out here have been very nice. The even let you in when you signal. Why is that surprising you may ask. Well you see, in Chicago when you signal for a lane change it signals the driver in the other lane that he needs to speed up so you can''t get in. No I'm not kidding. I even think it's in the Chicago "Rules of the Road" hand book. But as usual I am getting off topic.

The park we stayed at is the East Shore RV Park. Great views of the city, especially at sunset. The interesting thing about this park is out of about 600 sites 300 are full time residents. Cheaper then renting in the city I guess. The sites that we had weren't exactly level, nor were they easy to get into, but I'm getting better at backing this beast up. As usual we met some nice people here at the park and we met up with our old friends Rick and Lenore, Fellow full timers that we met this time last year and spent thanksgiving together in NOLA. It was like old home week.



The views of LA and the surrounding mountains from our campground.

We also met up with my niece Carol, her kids and her boyfriend. It was great to be able to spend some time with them. We also connected with Holland and his boyfriend. Holland, from Wisconsin, is out here trying to make it in show business. We got to see him in "Your a good man Charlie Brown" at a local theatre. He played Charlie and he and the show were quite good. A bonus with doing shows in LA are the guests you get in the audience. We had the actor who originated the role of Snoopy in the original production when it opened in NY and the actor who originated the role of Snoopy here in LA.  Kind of cool to meet them.

The LA Snoopy

The cast

Holland. We are so proud of him. Great job in the show.

Our next outing was to Santa Monica Pier. A very cool place and as you know the end of route 66. Found some great restaurants fabulous views and interesting people watching. We liked is so much we went back with our friends.

First on the east coast now on the west. Check that off the bucket list. 

No trip to LA would be complete without a visit to:

So we visited the sign. A very nice dog park below the sign. Oh and I would suggest that you not to take your 20" long 8" wide pickup truck into the neighborhoods in this area. A few tense moments. But other then that a great time. We also hit several of the must see places. Here are a few pictures. 

So thanks for checking the blog. I know it's been a while but we don't have wifi at our site so yo really have to go out of your way to do all of these downloads. Next stop is Rancho California near Temecula Ca.