April29, 2012

Today was a short drive from Thousand Oaks, Ca to Goleta. We traveled along the coast to Ventura where Tom met a high school classmate that he probably hadn't seen since graduation. We also went to Channel Island National Park, right on the ocean.

These starfish were in a children's tank at Channel Island NP. They were happily feeding on the supply of mussels, although you didn't notice because they work in slow motion.

Also in the tank was a Sea Anenome.

A daily sightings chart at Channel Island.

A Sea Cucumber.

The city of Ventura from the pier.

Have you ever seen a sign at a car wash in Main that reads "remove the salt before the salt removes your car", not true here. We finished the day traveling to Goleta where we met with Tom's cousin Steve and wife Lisa. The whole area in the spring is beautiful with flowers.

April 28, 2012

It was a day of some anticipation, knowing that the traffic would be some of the worst, however still being early in the morning for Californians, (10:30) we breezed into Beverly Hills to make it in time for a trolley tour around Beverly Hills. The tour guide, out of respect for peoples privacy mentioned past owners, or the location where the movie was filmed.

This was the trolley where we started the days activities. The tour guide was excellent and didn't overbear us with too much trivia.

This was the witches house used in the Hansel and Gretel movie.

This is the front gate of the Avakian hotel made famous in the movie "Pretty Woman"

This is the front entrance of Graumann's Chinese Theater where many a movie was first premiered. It's screen is 90 by 50 feet and is claimed to be the worlds largest.

Outside of Graumann's you find the hand or foot prints of many famous actors and actresses. Alice's favorite was Shirley Temple.

Even though there were so many prints to choose from, Ron Howard has been one of my favorite actors...and directors. The latest set of prints belonged to Kim Novak's, done on April 12th

Out on the sidewalks, stars were placed on the sidewalks as a tribute to the many stars who have contributed to the arts and motion picture industry. Who would not agree that Bob Hope was one of the great contributors to all...well at least for us older people.

Besides the sidewalks being full of tourists, there were people dressed up as all sorts of characters, who would let you take a picture of them with you, for a fee of course. Charlie Chaplin was there too.

I was trying to get a picture of a famous person with the Hollywood sign in the background but I couldn't get them both in focus.

Ok kids, and grandkids this is a reminder...even though the famous person above isn't going to be around for the big day, get creative and have a party at her house, but don't forget to clean up after. To the rest of you out there, this is a reminder, not a warning....and Doug, it's also your anniversary, that is a warning.

I did manage to get my own picture, so if you want to by the rights to my picture...

I took this one for Tyler, it is a huge statue right where we had dinner, and yeah, we didn't have the steak dinner for 43.95.

April 27, 2012

This morning after leaving Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton we made a short trip to Long Beach, Ca where we met Tom's cousin Steve Trytek. After a noon meal and catching up on family we visited the RMS Queen Mary.

The Queen Mary was a ship that was used during WWII as a troop transport. She was retired in December 1967 and much of the machinery including two of the four engines, three of the four propellers, and all of the boilers were removed, and the ship now serves as a tourist attraction including restaurants, a museum, and hotel. The ship is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A view from the bow. When sailing on a round trip, she used 3 million gallons of oil, or 13 feet per gallon.

Did I tell you they had clowns aboard ship?

April 26, 2012

Today we headed back to San Diego to tour the Midway, an aircraft carrier who saw conflict during Operation Desert Storm and was retired in April 1992. She is now a floating Museum after being decommissioned. Before I get too far with that tour, I had a special request from Tyler.

Tyler, this one of the elephants that we saw at the museum. I hope that you like him. He was very big.

This is the seat for the guy that last ran the boat, CAPT L. L. Ernst.

This is where the helmsman works who really runs the boat.

During Desert Storm, this was the ship's War Room. The screens etc have been recreated to that time in history.

Up on the Flight deck, this is where the steam driven catapult was that got the planes into the sky. From 0 to 160 mph in 250 feet.

And of course, from 150 mph to 0 is accomplished by "The Hook".

Across the bay is another big ship. Three guesses. At the end of the day we had an opportunity to Skype with some of the grandchildren as Tom walked around the deck with the ipad. It was fun for all. We also had a short visit with Joe Adams who is currently stationed at Coronado Naval Base. As usual the beach facilities there were great. It gave Grammie an idea, fly to San Diego and stay at Coronado for a bit...and then cruise through the Panama Canal over to Florida. Grammy has started to develop some awful expensive tastes. We may be home sooner than expected.

April 25, 2012

Today we spent the day at the San Diego Zoo. Later on we met my cousin Stan, his wife Barbara and their daughter Anna. We figured at least 45 years since we last met. It was a great way to end such a wonderful day in San Diego.

This is a Bonobo...similar to a chimpanzee. As you can see he has been photographed a lot and is pretty laid back. Born 1979

I took this picture for Drew to see. The Otter is one of his favorite animals.

How can you not love this picture, the favorite of all the pictures taken today. Bai Yun

The Koala Bear is much smaller than we thought it would be.

We were fortunate today, usually the Polar Bears are not out and about when it is warmer.

There are many animals out and about. Even thought we didn't get the typical Peacock fan, she sure was colorful. what a great day, lots to see and the weather cooperated even thought a storm was predicted.

April 24, 2012

After another breakfast "on the house" we decided to go to the beach. Although not a hot day by any means there were a few discoveries.

We went to the western front of Camp Pendleton to the location known as Delmar Beach. There can be found the training grounds of the Marines 1st Expeditionary Force. Although training can become intense, today was not the case. As you can see, the military owns some of the best training sites.

After leaving Maine just 4 weeks ago, we accomplished a goal to get to the west coast. The water was a little cold but we stood up to the task.

One of the discoveries was that if you look in the opposite direction of the above training site, there were nice places on the beach that, if I had known in advance, we might have been staying there. They have a nice fire pit in front for evening activities.

Tonight Alice had a good time with a couple of her "greatest generation" of students. We met them for dinner in Oceanside and enjoyed a teacher, kindergarten student conversation. Another great day west of the Continental divide.

April 23, 2012

Another great day in not so sunny California. After a short ride around Camp Pendleton to see what they had available, we took care of a little business. We gassed up the car at $4.119 and then Alice dropped off Tom at the golf course where he got in 18 while she waited for the repair shop to turn the rotors and put on new brake shoes on the van. What a great ride she is now. Later we visited with cousin Bridget and her husband Jim, who I hadn't seen in years. We shared family information and filled in Bridget in on our unique family information, of which she wasn't aware. Tomorrow we get the camera working again.

April 22, 2012

We left Phoenix today and headed for California. It was a peaceful, and warm drive until we got to San Juan Capistrano. Heading over the last set of hills and down the other side we were greeted with a drop in temp of about 25 degrees, and clouds, and fog. Our first stop was to see nephew Graham and his wife Rachel Kus. After hauling it over many mountain and flatlands, we gave them a quilt that Alice made for them just before we left. They were happy and excited to see us. They took us on a ride to see some of the sights from Huntington Beach to San Clemente where we had dinner on the pier, waves breaking under our feet.

April 21, 2012

Today, we went to play golf with a hometown (Winthrop) native Greg Bellemare and his wife Phyllis. (Alice rode shotgun) It reached 106 degrees and even though it was hot, Tom's muscles didn't ache after playing. While on the course we saw many small Praire Dogs and even saw a Roadrunner...just like the one in the cartoons.

They are cute but smaller than we imagined.

Beep Beep!

April 20, 2012

Because Phoenix is a city of over 10 million people and takes about a half hour to get to the center of the city, we decided to pick one thing to see and do it right. Our choice...and a good one was the Musical Instrument Museum ( themim.org ). The museum has over 15000 instruments and artifacts from all over the world. It included 3 special sections...Fender Guitars, LF Martin guitars, and Steinway something or other. The exhibits were organized by continent, country and included video clips of the instruments and samples of the music being played through special headsets. Many instruments have been purchased by the museum, many donated by the countries or artists and many on loan from other collections (ie Graceland, John Denver estate).

A pancake cactus in bloom.

The really neat steel pan made from the tops of 55 gallon steel drums.

This was a timely picture of a guitar played by Duane Eddy on American Bandstand in the early 60's. It has both electrical and acoustical sets of strings.

This guitar belonged to John Denver and was the first one he ever played. It was stolen and recovered several years later. It was at this time that he wrote the song "This Old Guitar".

This guitar made by L.F. Martin was the last one used by Elvis in a performance.

This was a mechanical organ from a section of the museum that featured instruments that played themselves. Actually, this one was more of the whole band as there were many instruments hidden behind the front display.

And now to the Experience gallery where Alice attempted to show up her daughters on the xylophone. I think the tune was "Chopsticks".

This player was from the collection of Gene Autrey. It was also in the experience gallery, however instead of playing it, you could purchase a token to get it to play. All in all, a great day. If you are ever in Phoenix, have 4 hours and have not visited 14 other museums, by all means see the Musical Instrument Museum.

April 19, 2012

After leaving Albuequerque about 7:30, temperature 56, the Van managed to put if a full day. After about 2 hours, we crossed the Continental Divide near a small town called Continental Divide at an elevation of 7,287 feet. After about 4 hours we turned onto Route 260 just south of Heber Arizona, only to be turned around because of a chemical spill. That only cost us an hour of time. We went back through Show-Low AZ and then down to the Phoenix area. Now that we are in Arizona, we are 3 hours behind home time. Today's total, 8 1/2 hours of seat time and 480 miles.

On the way down out of the mountains we managed to snap a few pictures, but the camera doesn't really do any justice to the view.

After the van spent most of the day above 5500 feet, and temps in the 60's we finally arrived in Phoenix, and were treated to warm temps. After a long day and a good meal, it's time to plan tomorrow in the city.