Our Bucket List Road Trip

We set out for San Jose today but decided to just make a midday stop in Palo Alto, home of Stanford University, Facebook, Google, HP, and other tech giants, then continue on to Oakhurst, which is just outside of Yosemite Park, because we want to take the next few days to explore Yosemite and Sequoia. We laughed when we pulled up to a place to eat in Palo Alto, Joanie's Cafe, and saw Hotel California across the street. We used to joke that owning a home care business in NY was like checking into Hotel California: You can check in, but you can never leave. This hotel California, however, was closed and up for sale. Apparently everyone DID check out! LOL. We walked through Standford University, but it was like a ghost town. Is it all remote learning now? By 3:00 we left Palo Alto and drove through miles and miles of farmland to arrive in Oakhurst. In contrast to the high gas prices we showed in an earlier blog, avocados are selling at the farms here at 10 for $1!!! We wanted to send a...

We stayed in San Luis Obispo for the day in order to catch up on laundry and watch the Australian Open Tennis (Raffa won!!! Yes) and the NFL championship games (2 new teams going to the Super Bowl!). Sandy also took some time to get a haircut. It was nice to have the down time.  Rte 1 Pacific Coast Highway along the cliffs We had planned to go to Hearst Castle, the historic estate of William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon and grandfather of the infamous Patty Hearst, who was allegedly kidnapped by the Simbionese Liberation Army, but the road to the Castle was closed due to storm damage. Instead, we took a ride up the coast on route 1 Pacific Coast Highway and stopped to see the famous Madonna Inn Hotel, known for it's unique decor, pink dining room, and themed rooms on our way. Tomorrow we are heading up to Stanford University. Sandy in front of the Madonna Inn Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo Phil enjoying the beautiful hills of the pacific coast Phil and Sandy along the Pacif...

It was a blast staying in San Diego the last few days but we still have more sites to see on the West coast so we headed North on a 300 mile drive to the city of San Luis Obispo. The ride took us right through LA. Since neither of us had ever been there we decided to stop for lunch and to look around. We found our way onto Rodeo drive and drove past the famous Beverly Hills hotel. Beverly Hills Hotel on Rodeo Drive We got back on the road as soon as we discoved the Beverly Hillbillies no longer lived there!  Continuing on our ride north on Rt 101, took us through such beautiful country side! It was lined with farms filled with strawberries, and various produce. We loved to see the rolling hills filled with rows and rows of  wine vineyards.  Vineyards along Rt 101 We decided to stay a couple of nights on the outskirts of  San Luis Obispo in the town of Pismo Beach which is right along the Pacific coast line on the Pacific Hyw Rt 1.  Beautiful sunset in Pismo Beac...

 We stayed in Encinitas last night, giving us all day to explore San Diego and the surrounding towns. We started in Coronado island, across the water from the Pier Cafe where we ate yesterday, at the famous Hotel Del Coronado resort community. We mostly walked along the beach.  Hotel Del, as the locals call it The Sandman. Zoom in to read his caption Another Sandman work of art Holy cow! $5.59 for gas!! Hold onto your purse! Beautiful beach behind Hotel Del Gas Lamp where Phil got pizza for lunch We went back to mainland San Diego at lunchtime and visited the Gas Lamp district. It's supposed to be a fun place to go, but there were not too many people there in the middle of the day, except for homeless people on the streets, like we used to see in NYC.  Later, we met up with Robert Terranova again and went to the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial, in La Jolla, where you can get a bird's eye view of San Diego and all the surrounding area. We also had the pleasure of meeting Rob...

 It was great to wake up in beautiful, sunny San Diego today. Blue skies. 70 degrees. You can't beat it! We strolled through Old Town San Diego. Captain Fitch's in Old Town. Notice the small sign to the right. We blew it up for you in the next picture. No cussin' and no spitin' allowed! Do you remember the five and dime stores? We do! Then we met up with Robert Terranova at Balboa Park, where we just walked around in the beautiful weather and hit some tennis balls.  At the bridge by the museums in Balboa Park We had a late lunch downtown on the water at the seaport village. What a relaxing day! Phil has been doing ALL the driving! He especially appreciated the down time. We plan to stay in San Diego until Saturday morning. Lots of sun and fun! Phil and Robert on the seashore walk It was an excellent lunch at the Pier Cafe  Midway ship museum in the background

In the morning we went back to the Saguaro Park area to visit The Museum of The Sonoran Desert. It was just right for us. We learned a lot about dessert life.  We had lunch and got on the road intending to get to Yuma, Az and stay overnight. On the way, the co-pilot was checking out hotel prices and points of interest in Yuma. Our driver, Phil, was feeling good, hotel prices were high in Yuma, and there was nothing we were looking forward to seeing there, so we decided to continue on to San Diego. We arrived here at 6p, checked into the Doubletree, texted with our Niece Jaclyn, who lived in San Diego for several years, about things to do in the area, and texted with Robert, brother of our neighbors Joe and Denise in Massapequa. Robert lives in San Diego and we will try to meet up with him, too. This is a video of the prairie dogs at the museum. Windmill farms on the way to San Diego. We have seen a lot of Windmill farms and solar panel farms for miles and miles on our trip. Renewab...

  It was a tough day for the road warriors. Phil drove the 4 hour trip from El Paso, TX to Tucson, AZ. We arrived about 2:30 and decided to visit the Sagauro National Park before we checked into our hotel. The west end of the park, which is the side we planned to visit, is all open. There is no main entrance. After following GPS directions that took us in and out of the park several times at different locations, we stopped at a local gas station for directions. We finally got to the visitor center, got a map, and chose the path we were going to take, a 4.3 mile hike. We met an 84 and 87 year old couple with their 2 grown daughters at the start of our hike. They were 3/4 of the way through the hike from their starting point and the elders couldn't continue. We gave them water and let them rest against our truck while their daughters finished the hike to get to their car and come back for the elders and we started our hike. Less than a mile into the hike we couldn't agree about w...

It was another amazing day! We did a 5-mile hike in White Sands National Park today. Some Star Wars episodes were filmed here. 275 square miles of Gypsum sand creates huge dunes and craters that are constantly changing with the wind. It's the lagest gypsum dunefield in the world! Having fun in the sand!   Markers kept us from getting lost. Notice we did the black diamond trail! This trail marker is almost buried by the shifting sands White Sands Missile Range surrounds the park. About twice a week the department of defense closes the park for missile testing!

Carlsbad Caverns is amazing! Pictures don't even come close to the real experience.  This is the opening to the cavern. The cavern goes down 1037 feet and we did 2.5 miles of trails! Some of the rooms in the cavern are bigger than 3 football fields and many look like the coral reefs that they once were, when this area was covered by a sea many years ago. It's the only reason to go to Carlsbad, but it's well worth the trip!The movie Journey To The Center Of The Earth was filmed in Carlsbad Caverns    The Guadalupe Mountains and Chihauhuan Dessert that surround the area are also very beautiful and actually full of small plant life that supported native american life. Chihuahuan Dessert, where there was a sea many years ago Gaudelupe Mountains That's Phil's truck On our way to El Paso we found ourselves at the border crossing to Mexico! The GPS directions confused our co-pilot (we won't mention any names!). Border patrol let us turn around and we got to our hotel i...