More summertime fun with the grandsons in the OC

June 12-19, 2013
Orange, California
Orangeland RV Park



We returned to Orange, California, to spend another week with my step-daughter and grandsons as we hardly saw her last time we were here and the boys were all still in school. Fortunately, we made these plans a few months ago as our campground was quite full with the beginning of summer as it is only a few miles away from Disneyland.  The Angels Stadium is even closer and there were fireworks after each game that we could see from the RV park.



The first day we arrived was the last day of school for the boys. Sure brings back memories of last days of school for my own children when they were small as well as memories of wrapping up the year as a teacher for almost thirty years. There is kind of a collective sigh of relief followed by anticipation of Now What? I could sense this feeling in the boys on their arrival home from what was only a half day of school. Lucky for them, they have their own swimming pool and spa which their mom heated for this special occasion. The kids, their mom, Mindy, and I all spent the afternoon in the pool while Grandpa took what must have been a needed nap. After pool time, we had a BBQ outside on the patio and, for a special treat, the boys were allowed to have root beer. We headed back to our motorhome (about twenty minutes away) with plans to return by noon the next day for a Jump Into Summer celebration held by their neighborhood association.

Before going to the summer celebration,  Vic and I took an opportunity to go out for breakfast in the charming historic downtown area of Orange—near Chapman College. We discovered this area when we were here a few weeks ago and looked forward to enjoying one of their sidewalk cafes on this trip. A little after noon we met Mindy and the boys at the East Lake Village clubhouse and pool, their local park, where the association sponsored a great event for young children to celebrate the beginning of summer. East Lake is a beautiful neighborhood that includes a man-made lake with homes on the water.



In addition to events going on in the large swimming pool, the association had rented inflatable jumping houses and waterslides and set up booths for face painting, tattoos, and other arts and crafts.  Another big hit for the kids were the free hot dogs, lemonade, popcorn, cotton candy, and snowcones.  Quite the sugar binge but at least they worked it off by being in constant motion the whole four hours we were there. Every hour they also had some kind of contest the kids participated in such as bingo, a cannonball contest, free-throw contest, and water balloon toss. Needless to say, the kids had a blast.  At the end, the oldest grandson remarked that he wished he could go there every day of summer.I remember feeling that way as a child when the annual carnival came to town. It was a very well run event with lots of volunteers and generous donations that helped make it a success.



The next day our middle grandson Nate had a basketball game in the morning, then our son-in-law, David, had a company picnic for the family to attend at Universal Studios.  We were invited to join along but we would have to buy $80 admission tickets to the park.  We were going to do this but reconsidered when we thought about it being the first weekend with school out—long lines and lots of people. Plus, the kids had been here several times already and they were not really planning to “do” Universal so we decided to spend a quiet afternoon at our park. 



The second and third grader basketball game brought back memories of when my two sons were young and playing all kinds of sports. Where do the years go?  Nathan’s team, the Raptors, played very well for this age level, winning the game 35:28. They do something interesting to give all the kids on the team a chance to score: they line up to each try a free-throw before the game and again at half-time and any points made get added to the overall team score.





This Saturday was also opening day of the College World Series and “our team,” the Oregon State Beavers, were playing at noon against Mississippi State. It was a perfect day for lounging outside on our patio and watching baseball—all except for one thing. The Beavers were down by two in the bottom of the ninth with two men on, two outs, and on a 3:2 pitch Danny Hayes (first baseman) hit one to the wall but it was caught—ending the game with a loss for the Beavers. All is not lost though because in ‘06, they lost their first game in the World Series and came back to win the championship. As I write this, the Beavers did win their second game (an elimination game) against Louisville 11:4 and tonight they play another elimination round against Indiana. Having lived in Corvallis for almost thirty years, we came to know many of the coaches and assistants as well as teaching their children. And, as I mentioned in a previous post, my step-daughter played volleyball for OSU and her husband played baseball for OSU, so we are big fans.



Father’s Day sneaked up on us this year. I think having endless summer all year makes us less in touch with the rituals of each season. Most years when I was teaching, Vic would drive down to the Bay area for Father’s Day (where his daughter used to live) as I typically flew to Tampa (yes, in the heat of the summer) to spend time with my mom when she used to live there. (She passed away two years ago and I am now so grateful we had that time together for the last ten years of her life.) For Father’s Day this year, I thought it would be fun to have brunch at our campground so the kids came over for a relaxing time in our park.



After brunch we watched the movie Wreck it Ralph and then the boys and grandpa played a little shuffleboard.





That evening we had dinner at their house, then Vic took the oldest grandson to basketball practice. As a former basketball coach, he was very pleased to see the fundamental drills the coach had the kids perform. They must be paying off because he is a good ball handler for a third-grader.



Monday brought a somewhat unexpected experience for Vic and me. We learned that Mindy’s dentist was offering a new patient special: x-rays, exam, and cleaning for $59!  Since I retired, we no longer have dental insurance so we are always looking for deals on dental care. We tried to follow a suggestion from Mr. and Mrs. Heyduke of On the Road of Retirement blog which is to find dental hygienist schools, but they have either been closed for the summer or had long waiting lists. The other plan was to go to Mexico once a year but we have not done that in a while; however, we both agree that we are due for a south of the border visit—for other reasons than seeing a dentist!

After our successful dentist visits, we took Mindy and the boys out for lunch. After lunch, we had a great time watching the Beavers score ten runs by the end of the fifth inning. The sad part for Louisville was most of our runs were due to errors on their part. Adios Louisville. We will take our first win and eagerly await three more.

Plans for the last day here were to spend it at Newport Beach. The weather here (inland from the coast) has been absolutely perfect with daytime temps in the high 70s-low 80s, a gentle breeze, and hardly a cloud in the sky. Vic and I just recently discussed how lucky we have been with excellent weather since we left Florida in April. The last time we remember having rain was in Louisiana one night for a few hours. Reading so many blogs from the East Coast, we are happy with our choice to be here in the spring and early summer. Last year we headed north to Oregon a couple weeks too early and spent quite a few cloudy days on the Oregon Coast, so we decided to wait until July to go to Oregon this year. Having said all this, I really don’t mind the rain—never have, but Vic—not so much. I am most resistant to hot and humid weather as it just seems to drain my energy. Living all those years in the Northwest definitely creates a bias against steamy climates. So, in our quest to fulfill Vic’s vision of twelve months in his cargo shorts and flip flops, we have done pretty well.



Back to the beach. Our parking genie gave us a spot right next to the boardwalk with direct beach access. The beach here is a fairly wide expanse of sand with rather cool Pacific waves (66 degrees) breaking at the shore. They boys were in heaven with their boogie boards, shovels and pails, and baseball gear. I thought I would go in the water with them but the air temperature was also about 66 making for a rather chilly water experience. I kind of regret not just going for it, but instead I resorted to taking lots of photos of them braving the cold water on their boards.



What a fun last day to be on the beach in the sun watching the kids play to their hearts content. We ended the day with ice cream treats and too soon goodbyes at our campground. What made it easier though was knowing we would see them all again in a few weeks at a family camping trip in Oregon. Next stop for us is an overnight stay in Fresno at a friend’s then on to the San Jose area to see Vic’s mom and two sisters. La familia es muy importante. Roll on. . . .

Heading north of LA to Simi Valley

June 6-12, 2013
Simi Valley, California
Tapo Canyon Park

Simi Valley is our third stop in Southern California to visit with family. My stepson Todd and his wife and two daughters have lived here for six years.  We were only able to visit with the granddaughters, age 14 and 11, for one evening last year when we were here so this time we decided to park the motorhome as close as we could to their home, so we could spend more time with them.


After reviewing several parks on-line and reading a few blogs about area campgrounds, we settled on staying at a Ventura County Park called Tapo Canyon Park, a county park with about seventeen sites. The location is great, the sites are decent and it is peaceful here, but due to the canyons, there is no phone reception or internet. This is the first time in all our travels around the country that our Mi-Fi (Verizon wireless) won’t get a signal and we are only ten minutes from town. A second problem is one we discovered two nights after we arrived: an invasion of tiny ants. Everyone in the park is battling them including the camp host, so we gave in and bought some Hot Shot spray (I don’t like to use chemicals) that we used outside; I was able to control them inside by sprinkling cayenne pepper on their trail. So far we are winning the battle.




In addition to visiting our grandkids, our close friends, Bruce and Sharon, from our hometown of Corvallis, are also here in Simi Valley visiting her mother. This is a sweet bonus as they now live in Mazatlan, Mexico, and, unlike previous summers since we retired, our time in Corvallis later this summer will only overlap about a week so we are grateful for any additional time together.

The granddaughters just finished school a few days before we came, but the oldest is already busy with Varsity Cheer practice and they both have numerous summer activities so we are trying to squeeze in any time we can. Thankfully, we are only about fifteen minutes away so our proximity gives us lots more options than if we had chosen to stay at the beach in Ventura (something we considered) which is almost an hour away.



We picked up Chloe from cheer practice one day and she gave us a tour of her new (she just completed her freshman year) very impressive private high school: Oaks Christian.  As retired public school educators, we were not accustomed to seeing such top of the line facilities. I think our mouths were agape on most of the tour. Check out these sports facilities for a high school:










Both our granddaughters will be attending this school next year as the youngest, Issie, will be going to the middle school, which is in a separate building on the same campus, as a seventh grader. 

While we were here ,we had a few meals out with the girls plus had them over to our park for a barbeque. They had not seen our motorhome before, so I think they were a little surprised to learn we weren’t roughing it as much as they had imagined. They were also surprised to discover such a remote park in the canyons just beyond their hometown as we heard a few coyotes howling after dinner.  After dinner, I managed to get a photo of the girls with their dad and grandpa.



In between visits with the granddaughters, we sneaked in a few other activities while we were here. One was a shopping trip to help my friend Sharon find a dress for her son’s wedding. I enjoyed this because I wasn’t the one having to go through this challenge and it was fun to just spend time with my friend and her sister. We also had a lovely evening with them enjoying dinner and playing cards one night—something we used to do often in our Corvallis days as teachers together (and I spaced out taking photos as I have been on a bit of blog vacation lately).

We also took a day to explore Ventura Beach—a place neither of us had ever been. Ventura is about 45 minutes away from Simi Valley and, like most Pacific beaches, it was significantly cooler and windier there. The beach itself seemed a little trashy to us, but we discovered we may have gone to the beach on the “wrong” side of town. It may also be that we are a both a little spoiled by the beautiful white sand beaches of the Florida Gulf. Regardless, we enjoyed a walk on the beach and the fresh salty air.





On our drive away from the beach, we looked for the Ventura Beach RV Resort as a possible place to stay next year. The sites were a little close, but we some were more open and the amenities all looked very well maintained. It was a little on the spendy side, but would be fun to stay at because of its close proximity to a nicer beach, a river, and within biking distance to the charming main street of town. After checking out the beach, we explored the downtown area of Ventura, and were quite impressed with its charm. It definitely has a vintage feeling in terms of architecture and the plethora of resale and antique shops on Main Street. 





The other thing that stood out was the amazing variety of restaurants all within a few blocks of each other. One of the cafes that caught my eye had a lovely outside patio that reminded me of our time in Italy—so we decided to splurge a little on a delicious lunch on their terrace.



Another fun surprise for us was having the opportunity to go to a Dodger game with my step-son Todd who was able to score some VIP tickets from his office at Anheuser Busch. We were lucky enough to do this one time before a few years ago and, even though we are not big Dodger fans, it was a great way to spend a beautiful early summer evening. The Dodgers were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks whom they lost to 5:4 in the last two innings. For those who follow baseball, it was the next night when they were playing each other when the big brawl occurred. Other baseball news that happened the same night we were at the Dodger game was our hometown college team, the Oregon State Beavers, winning a super regional game to earn a spot in the College World Series (which they won in ‘06 and ‘07).  We arrived back to the motorhome that evening in time to see the last two tense innings of the Beaver game where they hung on to a 4:3 lead. Go Beavs!



From Simi Valley, we are heading back to Orange County where we will spend another week with our grandsons now that they are out of school. Lots of family time here in California to make up for our long time away during the rest of the year.

Another family visit and a little sightseeing in San Diego

May 31-June 5, 2013
El Cajon, California
Camping site: my nephew’s driveway

Warning—super-long post! I took the week off and found myself with too much to write about. . . .



One of our intentions in coming to San Diego for a few days was to check out the local campgrounds and get a feel of the place from the perspective of possibly staying here for a few months in our motorhome. The past two winters we have spent in Florida and we intend to do so again this winter, but traveling cross country every year has its drawbacks (especially in terms of fuel).  Even though we have both been to San Diego before, it was always a hotel trip kind of vacation often with children—very different from our current lifestyle as nomads in our motorhome.



A second intention in coming here was to spend time with my niece and nephew and their families. My nephew has lived in San Diego for nearly twenty years and my niece just moved here with her husband and six-year-old daughter. They both have lovely homes in the foothills near El Cajon and we were lucky enough to be able to stay in our motorhome with full-hook-ups in my nephew Tim’s driveway. Tim and his wife Michelle have two daughters, age 13 and 11, and two beautiful labs the same ages as the girls. Our two dogs thought they arrived in nirvana with wide open spaces to run and play and a dog- friendly pool to swim in. Thankfully, Boomer and Cody, the two labs, were generous in sharing their space with Jetta and Rico.





First off, I have to share about our gorgeous site. Tim cautioned us that the road to his home and his driveway was quite hilly and curvy, but he keeps his 40’ motorhome on his property so we knew it was doable. He was pretty modest about his place so we were quite blown away to have such a fantastic site for our motorhome. He even made sure we scored the spot with the best view by having us back in alongside his guest house.






The most breathtaking spot at his home, though, was the poolside and hot tub view in the backyard.





Just as soon as we set up the motorhome, we were in our suits taking advantage of this resort-like experience. Jetta, our female Portuguese Water Dog, is an enthusiastic swimmer, while Rico, the male, is more of a reluctant swimmer. Within minutes, Jetta was jumping off the side of the pool to fetch a retrieval toy while Rico was more interested in checking out his “cousins” Boomer and Cody.  Our dogs had spent a lot of time in their crates the past week, so this was a real treat for them to have such freedom.






Our first night here we all went out to a local Italian restaurant, Marechiaro’s, for a great meal together. It turned out my niece also Kelly had in-laws visiting from out of town, so we had a group of about twenty people for dinner. Fun time.



The next day, we went to my niece Kelly’s for an afternoon BBQ with her extended family that was visiting. She also has a house with an amazing view, pool, and lots of space for an RV—good to know!



It was fun to meet her mother and father-in-law, step-daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, aunts and uncles, and her little dog, Leroy Brown, a dachshund/corgi mix. Best of all, was seeing Kelly and her husband Ted with their six-year-old daughter, Danielle, a child that came to them later in life after many challenges in trying to have a baby.





We also came just in time for Tim and Michelle’s annual Kick-off Summer Pool party which was the following day. With fifty people coming for a party from 1 p.m. to the wee hours, there was a lot of activity around the house in getting ready. Our contribution was to be fresh flowers so no better place to go for these than a Saturday morning Farmer’s Market—one of my favorite pleasures in life. Thanks to Gay and Joe of Good Times Rollin’, I had learned from their blog about the wonderful market at Little Italy every Saturday. It did not disappoint.













One of my complaints about some farmer’s markets is when they don’t have regulations about only selling local produce. Happily, this one did and they also had a great complement of other local products like gourmet salts, olive oils, almonds, dried fruits, and artisan cheeses.  We also scored some locally-grown flowers at very reasonable prices for the party.



The party was a big success; it was fun for us to meet Tim and Michelle’s good friends and see all their kids interact. The early guests were mostly those with families. The first round of food was hamburgers and hot dogs then around 6:00, a local barbeque place delivered ribs and chicken for the evening crowd. There was no lack of things for everyone to do with a horseshoe pit, table tennis, pool table, foosball, and even a slide going into the pool.







I enjoyed watching the middle school kids entertain themselves—brought back memories of my years as a middle school teacher. At first the boys were all on one side of the pool while all the girls were giggling in the hot tub. Eventually, the kids intermingled and seemed to enjoy the awkward flirtations with each other.













While sitting by the pool after our second meal, I had the strange realization that Vic and I were the oldest generation present—the old-timers. Rather than feel bad about that, I relished the idea that I could just take it easy. No kids to be responsible for, no expectations of staying to the end and cleaning up—hah. I took advantage of the lack of expectations for us and sneaked off to get photos of the sunset. Not many clouds to add dimension to the sky, but the drama of the mountains as a backdrop was sure beautiful. Not long after sunset, Vic and I called it a day and turned in to our cozy and relatively quiet space in the driveway.








On Sunday, Vic and I set out to look at several campgrounds that we had on our list to see, a big priority for our time here. I sketched out a little map to determine how to see them all in the shortest possible route. Our tour took us from El Cajon to Lake Jennings Park, to Santee Lakes Preservation, to Mission Bay RV Resort and Campland on the Bay, and then finally back south to Chula Vista RV Park.




The road to Lake Jennings Park was long, narrow, and quite curvy. Once we arrived to the campground area, we discovered most of the sites were not big-rig friendly. We did, however, really like the looks of this big-rig friendly pull-through (pictured above) with a great view. It seems like this place would be ideal if you wanted a retreat from the hub-bub of the city rather than an easy access to the San Diego happenings.



Next stop was Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, the campground which seems to get the best reviews for long terms stays in this area. We liked the location pretty well, but the first area of the campground seemed pretty cramped. Then we discovered the back area which looks to be newer with wider sites and agreed that it looked like a great place for a long term stay, but I forgot to take a photo of it. The photo below is of the entry area to the preserve. Fishing seems to be a popular pastime here.





We checked out two more parks in Pacific Beach, fairly close to La Jolla. We had heard that Campland by the Sea was the nicest one, but we did not like it one bit. It was an overpriced, dirty parking lot—at least from what we could see in our short tour around the park. I did not bother to take any photos. Quite close to Campland, is the Mission Bay RV Resort, and we liked it better, but would not want to stay here for more than a week. It also is mostly a paved parking lot, so not great for the dogs, but the location is central and the rates were more reasonable than Campland.



Before heading down to Chula Vista, we decided to go a little further north to La Jolla for a walk around the bay and lunch. I fell in love with La Jolla when I first stayed here with my family as a teenager. Somehow we were able to stay at the La Jolla Tennis Club, a private club on the beach. As a Chicago girl, I thought it was the prettiest place on earth with all the red tile roofs, bougainvillea, and luxury surroundings. I am happy to say that the La Jolla still holds the same charm I remembered although now I am more cognizant of the elitism or exclusivity that seems to be here with low end homes starting in the millions.









One of the big controversies going on in the La Jolla cove has to do with the abundance of seals. The cove is a major tourist destination not only for park-goers but also for those wanting to explore the cove’s waters by snorkeling, diving, or kayaking. The seals and bird poop creates quite a stench that seems to be thwarting tourism to the area. The most recent solution to this problem is spraying the rocky shoreline with a natural compound made up of seven types of live microorganisms that literally feed on poop. This idea must be working because there was no stench and the seals and nesting birds seemed to be coexisting with the tourists quite well.









From La Jolla the drive to Chula Vista, south of San Diego, only took about thirty minutes. We have been surprised how easy it seems to be to venture from place to place around here.  Of course, we avoided the traffic hours, but for the most part, San Diego does not seem to have the crazy freeway conditions that we experienced in the LA area.



Chula Vista RV Resort and Marina surprised us. With its close proximity to the Mexican border, we thought it might be run down or sketchy, but the area we visited was much more charming than the neighborhoods near the parks in Pacific Beach, north of San Diego. Of course, it was a little spendier than some of the other parks we visited, but we both agreed we liked this one the best for a long term stay.



With only one day left to explore on our own, we decided to check out Historic Old Town and a place I always wanted to see, the Hotel del Coronado..Vic was also interested in seeing the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier museum, but we learned that the average visitor spent four or five hours there, so it was too much to take on this trip.



We had no idea that the old town area was actually designated as a state park for preservation purposes. It was mostly a lovely area of Mexican-themed shops and cafes, and an obvious tourist trap, but we enjoyed roaming around feeling the flavor of Mexico as we have have really missed our annual trips to Mazatlan the past two years. The place has a very authentic feel with similar little shops, the smell of homemade tortillas, and some authentic sounding street musicians. It’s kind of a “been there, done that” place, but the weather was perfect in the low 70s with a gentle breeze, the landscaping and flowers were lovely, and we had a delicious lunch in the old plaza.







Coronado Island was only about fifteen minutes from Old Towne. Neither of us had ever been here, but we both had heard about the famous Hotel del Coronado. Vic and I both have a desire to at least see the great hotels of the world, and even better would be to stay in them. Short of staying overnight, we usually settle for having a drink in their bar or, better yet, a meal in one of their restaurants. Our great hotel experiences have mainly been The Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C., the Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island, and the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas earns a spot here for the memorable meal we had there.







The Hotel del Coronado, referred to by locals as the Del, with its red turrets and Victorian architectural style is a national landmark. Built in 1888, the hotel is iconic as a romantic beachfront getaway making it, according to the Travel Channel,  the number one wedding destination in the United States. The hotel was also made famous by its role in the Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemon, and Tony Curtis movie, Some Like it Hot. They even had some impersonators playing these roles as entertainment for a private party on the beach.



After checking out the beautiful beach area here, we found the bar inside and enjoyed a drink there while pretending we were on holiday as a guests of the Coronado. While at the bar under the influence of fresh mojitos, we hatched a plan to celebrate Vic’s next big birthday here by renting a guest house and having a catered meal on the beach for family and friends to all attend. We’ll see. . . .





On our last day here, I had plans to take my niece out to lunch and Vic had big plans to wash the motorhome. With all accomplished we wrapped up our stay here with a pleasant evening at my niece’s and an early to bed evening before travel day. Next stop—Simi Valley to see the granddaughters and family.