My blog post titles reflect what was going through my mind either during or after the trip. As you can see, I was all about putting off writing the California blog until many tomorrows had passed. Sure, I had a lot going on after we got back from California: the flu (two days after we returned–I debated titling this “I should have stayed in California”), shoulder surgery, some trips to South Carolina and Catonsville (grandkids!), doctor visits, another TABICS2015 trip, inertia…
The truth is I had plenty of days with nothing going on to write this, but I practiced my procrastination skills instead. I eventually reminded myself of an important life truth: you have to start to finish. Doesn’t matter what the task is–writing (which really is 99% perspiration), cleaning the house (a useless task in my opinion, since it just gets dirty again), TAXXXXES (eeew); I’m sure most of you have favorite jobs to put off.
It’s been so long that I can’t find all the brochures I collected to use as memory joggers. I checked all the logical places where I would have squirreled them away and came up dry. I’m sure they’ll turn up as soon as I publish this. Then we’ll see how good my memory is. It was a long trip, so I’ll go through day by day to tell you all about the great California excursion.
Day 1 February 9, 2016
Actually Day 1 should be February 8, because we drove to Catonsville to spend the night at Bridget and Justin’s house because we (my friend Bernie, Steve, and I) had an excruciatingly early flight out of BWI the next morning. We had a great dinner and then we played cards. Probably. I think that’s the dinner where Edda reached over to my plate and helped herself to my beans because we wouldn’t put any more on hers. Hilarious.
Lousy flying weather was predicted for the Baltimore area for February 9. It was supposed to sleet all day, and we were worried about our flight being cancelled, but the airport was prepared! We were delayed more than an hour because of the weather and the antifreeze procedures for the planes. We watched as they hosed the wings and tops of our plane with a couple of chemicals–it had to be hundreds of gallons. The stuff was totally gone from the wings within minutes of takeoff.
I guess there are no speed limits in the sky, because we landed a few minutes early at LAX even though we left from BWI so late. LAX was very confusing to navigate, especially because they were in the middle of major renovations at our terminal. We hiked to the baggage claim and picked up the rental car and were on our way to the Embassy Suites resort in Oxnard. The sky was blue and it was warm! Nice change from the East coast.
I would stay at the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach resort again. Bernie and I wandered around gawking at the magnificence of the lobby while Steve hunted up his favorite room when we arrived. The place was pretty empty because it was midweek in the off season and we pretended it was our own private estate.
I figured you were ready for some pictures. After we dumped the luggage in our room, we headed down to the poolside restaurant for sustenance, mostly liquid. Here’s the view from the restaurant:
Beautiful! Bernie and I decided that we would hang out at Mandalay for two days instead of running ourselves ragged sightseeing every day. We didn’t get to a couple of the tourist places on my list, so we’ll just have to go back! I’m sighing just thinking about it.
Day 2, February 10, 2016: Mission Santa Barbara
The whole point of this trip was to taste McConnell’s ice cream, so we headed to Santa Barbara. We visited Mission Santa Barbara, the tenth of the 21 California missions founded by the Spanish Franciscans. On the self-guided tour we visited the museum, church and cemetery, where we saw the grave of Juana Maria, whose story inspired the book Island of the Blue Dolphins. Juana was stranded alone on San Nicolas, one of the Channel Islands, for 18 years.
Bernie is a good influence, and we attended Ash Wednesday services while we were there. The church was packed. Steve and I considered becoming monks for a few minutes.
The original McConnell’s shop is just a few blocks from the mission. Wow. REALLY good ice cream. They have a lot of flavors, all of them delicious. My favorite was lemon marionberry. It had a really tart lemon flavor offset by swirls of marionberries.
I was in an ice cream coma so we headed back to the resort to be in time for the manager’s reception, a nightly event at Embassy Suites.
Peace and all good, as the Franciscans say.
Day 3, February 11, 2016
We hung around the resort on Wednesday, enjoying the beautiful weather. Bernie and I lounged by the pool while Steve explored the resort and beach. We had lunch and snacks on our balcony, which overlooked the pool area. Check out the picture–Embassy Suites said our room was one without a view!
Day 4–February 12, 2016 Morro Bay and Hearst Castle
Friday was a big day. We headed to Hearst Castle with a stop in Morro Bay to visit Bernie’s Uncle Tom. A word of warning: just because Googlemaps assures you that you are on the quickest route does NOT mean that you won’t be terrified by the drive. Since I’m clueless about California roads, I went along with the Googlemaps directions when they said to exit U.S. 101, which runs from Los Angeles to Northern California. We ended up on SR 154 (aka the Chumash Highway), driving through the mountains. Folks, it was NOT the quickest route because I was driving under the speed limit most of the way. Needless to say, we stayed on U.S. 101 on the return trip and resisted Googlemaps’ importunings to take the exits for the mountain road.
We had a nice visit with Uncle Tom and stopped in Morro Bay for dinner on our return trip from Hearst Castle. The Hungry Fisherman is a local restaurant with great food and prices. And pies. Must…have…pie… Huge pieces of the classic pie flavors. Yum! Be sure to stop there if you’re ever in Morro Bay.
It turns out that you don’t just drive up to the front door of Hearst Castle. You catch a shuttle from the visitors’ center at the bottom of the mountain for the tour. I had my eyes closed for most of the trip up. Has anyone figured out yet that I am not a mountain person? I like looking at them from miles away, but driving and walking around on mountains are not my cup of tea. Fortunately, we were inside for most of the tour. Hearst Castle is a major tourist destination and we got the requisite pre-tour picture:
Hearst Castle is a monument to money and imagination. William Randolph Hearst named the retreat he built with architect Phoebe Morgan “La Cuesta Encantada”, which is Spanish for “The Enchanted Hill”. I guess my definition of “hill” is really different from Hearst’s. Some outside views of the castle (and yes, we drove on that winding road to get there!):
The statue in the middle picture above is Sekhmet, the ancient Egyptian goddess of war and destruction, plagues and healing. The statue is over 3000 years old. I don’t think Hearst found it at his local interior design store.
Sadly, the famous Neptune Pool is out of commission due to damage from earthquakes. You can check out YouTube for a video of Lady Gaga to see how beautiful it is with water in it.
The interior of the castle is every bit as impressive as the grounds. It showcases Hearst’s art collection, which is amazingly eclectic. He was not a slave to any style or period–he just bought stuff he liked.
The next set of pictures are from the interior of the house. I admit I went overboard on the indoor pool. It was just too beautiful. The guide told us that the family turned it over to the staff for their use because they didn’t use it (they used the Neptune Pool instead). Nice perk. The last picture is of the bottom of the pool.
We took the grand rooms tour, but there are two other tours of the house which would be equally fascinating. Some day if I get back there I’ll do the other tours, but I will NOT take the Chumash Highway to get there!
On the way down the mountain, our driver kept gesturing for us to look at various sights instead of keeping both hands on the wheel as any sane person with a fear of heights would do. I was having heart failure and yes, I kept my eyes closed!
Hearst maintained a wildlife preserve at La Cuesta Encantada, complete with polar bears with ice imported to keep them comfortable. The driver on our return trip told us about the zebras that still run wild with the local horses. Sure enough, we saw them in a field as we exited the estate. I didn’t get a picture of them, but I did get some really nice views of the Pacific from a scenic overlook on the highway.
Day 5–February 13 2016
We were pretty tired after all the mountaineering, so we chilled at the resort. Total hardship. Not! The weather was as consistently beautiful as it had been since we arrived. I took some pictures of the Pacific at sunset. Try not to be too jealous.
Day 6–February 14, 2016 Santa Barbara
After breakfast at the resort (really wonderful–check out the blood oranges), we went to Mass at Santa Clara church in Oxnard. We THOUGHT we allowed plenty of time to get a seat. People, it was not Christmas, Easter, or Palm Sunday and the place was packed. We ended up standing behind some pillars at the side of the church. I was amazed by the number of adults who requested a blessing at Communion. Very different (in a good way) from what I am used to. Here is the picture of a blood orange. Locally grown and luscious.
I’m all about the ice cream, so we went back to Santa Barbara after Mass. This time we took a trolley tour around the city while the driver pointed out the homes of the rich and famous.
Bernie and I have a sweet memory from the trolley stop at Mission Santa Barbara. In the parking lot we saw a man down on his knee proposing to his girlfriend. She said yes! I just now realized that it was Valentine’s Day. I should have figured it out, since Steve and I got engaged on Valentine’s. We enjoyed the rest of the tour and of course stopped for more ice cream at the McConnell’s in downtown Santa Barbara. Look how blue the sky is!
Sadly, they did not have soft serve at this location so we had to go back to the original shop so I could sample it. Bernie was driving and was very understanding about my ice cream needs.
Day 7–February 15, 2016
This was our last day, since our flight was scheduled to leave at 10pm. We made the most of it and visited Channel Islands National Park. I’m a big fan of the National Parks Service. They do a great job of presenting and preserving our national parks. This park is a little out of the way, but well worth taking the time to visit.
We headed to LAX after the Channel Islands park visit. Since we allowed lots of time to get to the airport, we ended up warming some chairs for awhile. We had a true red-eye flight, landing at BWI around 7am. We came back to the same kind of weather we left behind the week before–the sky was slushing. We should have stayed in California!
Ice "Scream" Tour Blog! 