21. Pismo Beach, Moody Bay and Monterey

Pismo Beach, Morro Bay and Monterrey Photo Album


Hello everyone

We said our goodbye's with Jocelyn in los Angeles and hit the  road up north toward Pismo Beach....we chose this stop because it was half way between San Francisco and LA.  We checked in our campsite and biked around the camp a little while geocaching. I dropped off a travel bug I had picked up in Sedona and picked up a new one which i'll take home to Montreal.

Bar's Motto

Peter having trouble choosing

Once again it was  too chilly to sit at the beach so we decided to drive up to San Luis Obispo which is Caltech town. We ended up at a bar where you can try 36 types of beer and wine. Basically the way it works is that you check in with your credit card and are given a bracelet with a chip. You go to the taps and decide which beer you wanna have, tap you bracelet and pour yourself a drink. They are a variety of beers at different costs of course. At the end of the night you can check out by paying what you owe with card and give bracelet back....I found the beer to be delicious and the system to innovative and cool. On our way back to the car we stumbled upon Bubblegum Alley....yep you guesssed it....it was pretty disgusting.....so I added mine too.....GROSS!!

The next day we drove to Morro Bay to see this giant rock...we also saw a school of sea otters playing in the bay and of course the wind was howling so we stayed for about an hour...took photos and had to retreat to the car for some warmth...

kite surfers...

And the piece de resistance was driving up the coast on Highway 1 to Monterrey...... OMG the coastal views of the rugged  coast with the beautiful bluffs and the deep blue ocean  was breathtaking ......we took our time and stopped frequently to take soak in the beauty. We watched the HBO series Pretty Little Lies so we wanted to go the the bridge and the cafe they filmed at on the show.....it did not disappoint....we got a kick of seeing these locations in real life.....then we drove south again on highway 1 towards Big Sur right to the end of the road, since the landslides have damaged the highway and therefore closed a huge section of the highway.  We promptly performed a U-turn and headed back north on highway 1. The next day we drove did the 17 Mile Drive at pebble beach....that was also pretty cool....we stayed to watch the sunset at one of the lookouts....spectacular....I  can't ever get enough of the sunsets !!!!

beautiful coastline

happy Mary and peter!!!

OFF to San Francisco!!!

Love always
Mary and Peter

Brixby bridge in the show

Cafe in the show

20. Los Angeles

Los Angeles Photo Album

WE arrived in L.A full of expectations since we always hear so much about this city.  So the first thing we did was check into our Airbnb house in North Hills. We were greeted by Jocelyn and her sisters. It was gonna feel good sleeping in a real bed and not in the van for four days. We immediately hit ti off with Jocelyn, Theresa and Pamela. They made us feel right at home. So the first order of operations was to figure out what we wanted to do in this town.

We decided to support local theater and went to a Green Day musical at the cupcake theater in LA. The theater was in an obscure part of town in very tiny place....the local artists did a fairly good job at singing and dancing in the musical but they were NO Jersey Boys that's for sure.

 The next day we decided to get into beach mode. We hit the coast and went to Saint Monica's pier and Venice Beach. Another cold day in Cali.....once again we did not swim in the ocean but we had a picnic lunch and met a lovely young girl from Nevada named Lexi. She was practicing her cartwheels so naturally we struck up a conversation!!!  , Heidi, her mom,  was very friendly and Lexi was delightful... she was  in grade 4 !!! After a 15-20 minute conversation we took a selfie and went our ways. We headed towards the Santa Monica pier which was an amusement park. We strolled along and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon.

We kicked off our second day with the infamous walk of fame on Hollywood Boulevard ( had to do it),  luckily we went early in the morning because we passed by later in the evening and was absolutely jam packed. So we did the touristy... thing took pictures of some stars on the walk. From there we went to the Chinese theater where we saw some footprints and hand prints of some stars and notably Marilyn Monroe was the only one that flowers on hers. We saw the  Dolby theater with the infamous red carpet....it was quite cheesy and we did feel very touristy but when in LA you got to do at least once right?










We stayed for a couple of hours and then decided to head over to the Getty Museum .....NOW this place is a spectacular place that's absolutely immense and it was very very well laid out.  There's a tram that takes you from the parking lot to the museum since the museum is up on a hill. The museum boasts some exquisite our collections from original artists such as then go Monet,Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Gogh many etc. we enjoyed it so much we stay till the very end we actually closed the place down. Best of all it's all free!!
😮

As usual when we got back to the house we chitchatted and exchanged our day events with our house Jocelyn and her family, this time we met her daughter Stephanie....it was so cool the way  Jocelyn's  family embraced us .....they give us many tips on where to get free food ...seriously they should have a blog on how to get free food...and it was very very pleasant.  After about an hour and a half of chatting we decided to head to bed. 

Our 3rd was an exciting day......we knew we had tickets to the James Corden show so we decided not to take any chances and  headed down to the CBS studios. We decided to park her car in indoor facility and then headed over to the farmers market which was right nearby. Walked around the farmers market for a little while and had some lunch and then started to notice that the line was forming for the James Corden show so we proceeded to the line ourselves. Official check-in was at three o'clock  and we got in line  at 1:40 and so it began... waiting ....waiting.... waiting .....waiting. Suddenly  an intern comes out to tell us there should be two lines one for priority tickets one for general mission ....we felt lucky since we had priority tickets and we were fairly close to the front of the first line. At about 4 o'clock they ushered us into the first waiting area in the building after we had cleared security through metal detectors and then finally were given a bracelet. So basically Peter and I deciphered that if you were young and hip you were given two colors purple and gray ....if you were not you were given just the purple and if you're lucky you're given a gold bracelet (gold bracelet meant that you were invited by somebody who worked at the show ). While in line we met some young kids from Montreal ....they  were actually from France but are working Montreal ...doing a work stage ...they were all in their early 20's ...so when we were ushered in  and we thought we're gonna sit together but noooooooooooooooo..... they got the two bracelets (young and hip) so  they were sent immediately to the front and we were sent to the middle ............oh well I guess if were 20 or 30 years younger. Once we got inside and told where to sit,  I was struck by the size of the studio 56....it's very very small and intimate ...so every seat was a good seat....and there were A LOT of people working behind the scenes.  The director gave us strict instructions to cheer at the top of our lungs in certain specified moments ....which were a lot of them..... and we were NOT to jeer or yell out  words.... just cheer and clap very loudly. He certainly cracked his whip and made sure that we did this.... he told us to fake it if we have to but we have to clap and cheer as loudly as we could!!!!  by the end of the night my voice was shot my triceps got a work out...... but it was kind a neat to watch a live show and it was so fun to be in the audience......James is very affable although he did not come to the audience to say hi how are you doing...thanks for coming....oh well!!!!

tomorrow we're off  up the coast to San Luis Obispo at Psimo beach

19. San Diego, California

San Diego, California photo album

hey hey everyone


I  hope you're keeping well ....sooooo we made it to Califonia....it's the furthest west we have ever been and we're sooo far from home, as you can see from the pic. I must admit, it was pretty cool smelling the pacific ocean and putting our feet in the very frigid water. Our timing is not good at all, as it's unusually cold in California this week compared to last week's temps of 90 Fahrenheit. Oh well, good thing we're Canadian and we have winter jackets. In fact we had to switch our campsite because the wind was howling so badly that we couldn't even cook. Anyway, we settled in and decided to go check out the downtown area.

We quickly stumbled upon fisherman's village and the USS MIDWAY Naval ship.....she was a beaut, acting as a backdrop to the Unconditional Surrender Statue; a man kissing a woman  after V-J Day as you can see from the original picture.....so we did like all the other tourists ....took a selfie in front of it....lol......we strolled along the oceanfront geocaching along the way....it was a really good intro to San Diego.!!!

The next day we decided to go the the Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma. National parks are fantastic because there offer free tour guides explaining the preservation of a natural resource such as the park forests or tide pools or caves etc.  Our guide told us that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was the first European to ever set foot in California but it was Gaspar de Portolà who established the first settlement there...interesting facts huh?  So we went to his statue...looked out to the bay and we could see Mexico across the bay. Tijuna was right there!!! wow so close.....afterwards we proceeded to the lighthouse then the tide pools and called it day.....we had to hurry out of there and pick up some supper because we had a show to catch....Jersey Boys at the civic theater. We absolutely loved the show!! Of course it helped that the music was so good and of course the acting was spot on. I didn't really know much about Frankie Valli's story ...I cried a couple of times too. Anyway totally recommend this show. 




The last day we were in San Diego we decided to beach it. So we went to La Jolla beach and it didn't disappoint. although it was a super cold day to swim, it was hot enough to sit on the beach an vegge out while Peter went for a hike. He found some hand gliders doin their thing and some beautiful homes on the beach. we spent a deal of time there and recharged our batteries. 

We headed back to our campsite for supper ...woohooo, fajitas. We met some kids from Kansas next door to us who had trouble strign a fire. .....so we went over with our hatchet and help split the lod into kindling.....they were very polite and offered us a beer bu way of thanks.....so we hit it off....we had supper then hung out by the fire pit exchanging  stories... mostly about what it was like growing up in Kansas.... they were hilarious , and delightful.....a great night all around.....tomorrow we head off to LA.

love always
Mary and Peter  

18. Joshua Tree National Park

May 8-9

18. Joshua Tree National Park, California Photo Album

Hey everyone,

We started our day fixing our mirror which had fallen off at Lake Havasu...then we were off towards California at the Joshua tree national Park. We pulled up to the campground called Black rock Canyon campground and then decided to hike up to one of the peaks near our site. We had difficulty finding the trail head for the peak and then  came across an ex- Marine who was shooting squirrels with his pellet  gun on his property cuz they were "vermin around here" so we asked him for some help and he pointed us in the right direction. It was about a 30  minute hike up the mountain ...as usual look outs on top of mountains are absolutely beautiful .

The next day we got up early because we needed and oil change.... so we went to Walmart then off tot the national Park. Upon arrival to the park we were quite surprised to see how many boulders were there in fact just as many boulders as Joshua trees. Our first stop was the cholla cactus garden ...it was quite interesting to read about about the different types of cacti and how they survive in these extreme conditions. The layout is similar to the petrified national forest whereby you drive along this huge park and you pull off at the specified locations where they want to show you some pretty neat stuff.



Our second stop was the skull rock .....as you can  see from the photos the boulders shape resemble a skull ...we found others like the old man....the big toe....etc. We also decided to go check out Barker Dam ..only we got lost there again!!!  we started off on the trail and somehow we went off trail for about an hour and retraced out steps and found barker dam. Barker damn isn't as attractive after 1.5 hour hile to go see it....arghhhhhh.......  We headed over to  hidden Valley for a picnic lunch...this was was kinda  cool because you picnic  amidst the boulders....they provided shade and very pleasant view. Finally to finish off for day we went up to Keys View which was a good 10 to 15 minute drive up the mountain over 5000 feet in elevation and the view was absolutely fantastic .....wowwwwww....we were able to see the Coachella Valley .....Salton Sea..... Palm Springs and the San Andreas Fault ......big caveat .....there's also quite a lot of haze which was quite apparent....... caused by the pollution in California....what a shame!!!!!

The part about travelling that we love is meeting people.....today we  met a very young couple from Texas named Kelly , Christopher and their baby Ezra. Christopher was so familiar to us because he look just like my sister's nephew Christopher Neves. We chatted with them for 10 minutes or so and took some photos and went on our way. We also met Sandra and Rohan from Australia...they helped us get back on track when we came off the trail while bouldering..... were super nice.... they are visiting the area here for eight weeks or so. We were going to stay for the sunset but we were tired and hungry because we got lost twice so we headed back to camp had supper...did some star gazingand called it a night..... ... we enjoyed our stay here at Joshua tree....tomorrow we're off to San Diego...



PS the Joshua Tree is not a succulent as many believe....it got its name from Mormons who said it resembled Joshua praying with arms spread to the sky.....

love always
Mary and Peter.

17. Sedona and Lake Havasu Arizona

May 3, 2017


Sedona and Lake Havasu, Arizona Photo Album

good morning,,,,

I want to go have one last look at the Grand Canyon before we left for Sedona ,  so we did just that......and the canyon was just as magical and as s spectacular as the first time I set eyes on her three days earlier !!! Except this time we met a nice French couple from Calais....we chit chatted for a while then hit the road for Sedona. The drive was easy, only 3 1/2 hours...we were  aback by all the beautiful rock formations that surrounding  the city.....kinda reminded me of Jasper with the Rockies in the background except here we have the Canyon formations....one word simply beautiful ....we immediately  we set off for the shops area did a little bit of shopping ....we stayed at Dead Horse Ranch State Park about 20 minutes south of Sedona in the town of Cottonwood.

The next day we decided to hike up to the famous Cathedral Rock ....we decided we were gonna start to go up as much as we could and take frequent break in the unbearable heat. So we did....the climb up was tough on the old cardio but technically not bad at all....there was one section that was steep but a crevice gave us extra security to scale the rocks....anyway we made it the "NOTCH" and the view was absolutely  spectacular....so we took a few photos and hustled down cuz we had a reservation for a pink jeep sunset tour of a local canyon at 5:30. We learned a lot about these very old rock formations and enjoyed the sunset in the canyon. Coming down was more fun and easier than i thought it would be....i am super happy we hiked to top ... it felt super good... a real confidence booster....oh yeah we also went to the famous church on the rocks...

we had an awesome time and day in Sedona....highly recommend it...


Lake Havasu

wow who knew??? Lake Havasu is a mega water playground, resort town complete with speed boat races , which were cancelled because of the wind. We met a local couple, Tammie and Dave who were super nice and extremely hospitable ..so they extremely affable and we hit it off right away......they invited us out for supper at a local Mexican restaurant where they were celebrating Cinco de Maio. What an awesome night!! Huge shout out to them for making our stay here very nice ...someday we'd like to repay them with our Canadian hospitality...

Also, Lake Havasu is also the location of the original London Bridge.....which was not sound enough to support modern traffic in London England , was put up for sale.... so a local man bought it for 2.1 million ...had it dismantled and each brick was numbered, then rebuilt here in the 70's ....who knew??? tomorrow were off to Joshua Tree National Park.....

love always

Mary and Peter

16. The Grand Canyon (Mary's Birthday)

THE GRAND CANYON , Walnut Canyon and Little Colorado River Gorge❤️❤️
April 30, May 1-2

Walnut Canyon and Gorge Photo album


Grand Canyon Photo Album

April 30th, 2017

After a good breakfast we headed towards Flagstaff.

 saw a sign for Walnut Canyon which is a national monument and decided to check it out. It was very impressive, with a long trail that led down into the canyon and through several cliff dwellings, we decided to pass on the walk but enjoyed the views and the info center then were on our way. We spoke to a woman at a gas station and decided to take the east entrance into the park. It was longer but more scenic. We stopped at a smaller canyon on the Little Colorado River, Mary bought herself a birthday present at a roadside Hopi Indian craft stand and then we proceeded into the park. We stopped at the Watch Tower and were blown away by how beautiful and immense the canyon is. The watch Tower is built in the native style and gives amazing views of the canyon, very well done. We were amazed at the way people would walk past the guard rails and down paths that lead out onto rocks that were in fact the edge of cliffs, some climbed onto rock towers to have their picture taken. One missed step or stumble would result in a 1000 ft fall and certain death but they posed and took selfies, it was hard to watch.

The views from all around the tower take your breath away, pictures and words cannot convey the feelings you get when you see this magnificent wonder of nature. We took picture after picture, for a place with so many people it was fairly quiet as people gazed in wonder, there was a sense of reverence. That happened over and over again as each new view or change in light made the canyon more beautiful. We stopped at 3 vistas on the way in each one with incredible views then decided to head for our campsite. The site was fine and we headed out to see our first canyon sunset. After a bit of a scramble we managed to find a place to watch the sun go down, it was great.

May 1st, 2017

When Mary got up the girl from the next campsite asked if she knew how to boost a car because her battery was dead. We helped her get it started then invited them over for breakfast. Marine from France was visiting her friend Charline, who was also french but working in California. They were camping and travelling together and were a joy to get to know. They reminded us so much of our wonderful friend Annaick as they shared their stories with us. After breakfast we headed to the visitor center to watch a video on the canyon and the decided to head back out in the direction we came in and finish the rest of the stops we missed the day before. Wanting to see the tower again we ran into Charline and Marine again and took more pictures with them. We again said our goodbyes and worked our way back towards the village stopping to marvel and take pictures at each stop along the way. After supper we headed out for sunset #2, this time we knew what we were doing, we went to Mathers point where we could watch the setting sun reflect on the eastern end of the canyon.

May 2nd, 2017

We got up early 4:30 and headed out to Mathers point again this time to watch the sun rise. After breakfast we took the shuttle bus and explored the western end of the canyon stretching from the Bright Angel Hotel to Hermit's Rest. There are 9 stops each with it's own perspective view of the canyon. We met a couple from Brampton and walked between one of the stops with them. We went to every point in the west side all the way to Hermit's Rest. This is a national park so it's very we'll maintained and run... there's a freeshuttle bus that takes you along the western rim in fact cars 🚗 aren't allowed on the west side. On the way back we decided to walk down the Bright Angel Trail for about 100 m or so ... this trail takes you right down to the canyon floor ... soooo cool...

Mary's Perspective

The whole point of this trip for me was to make it to the Grand Canyon for my birthday. We entered the park from the eastern side and went to the first lookout  called the watchtower. As you're walking along you see people coming back from the tower on you're wondering what have you seen?  what was I going to see? ....  I'm the rookie here  and they've taken at all in ....😳..... So with anticipation and butterflies in my stomach we want the lawn and then this vision appeared before my eyes it was the most spectacular view I have ever seen😲the EARTH opened up below us and the cliffs....the buttes ....the faults and the Colorado River were right there.... before my very eyes. I cried. The immense size overwhelmed all of my senses .... words cannot describe what I saw !!!  My 55th birthday was so special being here in the canyon with Peter... we enjoyed the eastern 👀 lookouts al day then went back to camp ... had a delicious fajita supper followed by a birthday pie in the most serene place on earth 🌏 perfection !!!! I will most definitely come back I don't think this place ever yes old !!!!❤️❤️❤️

15. Petrified Forest National Monument , Arizona

April 29th, 2017

15. Petrified Forest Monument Photo Album

hello everyone,

we hope you're all doing well ...... we are well into the groove of travelling in our van and visiting so many cool places....and the Petrified Forest is another example.  Last night we stayed in a hotel... a much needed stay I must say. We were running out of clothes and gettin' a little run down, peter and i got  the sniffles .....perhaps a cold was looming...so sleeping in a bed was very welcome, in addition to getting our laundry done.

Next morning we set off to the National Monument.....man oh man did we have a tough driving day. not only were we driving over mountains to get to the other side we encountered inclement weather...from rain....no wait it's sleet....no way!!! it's snow....at 8000 feet on top of a mountain...wowwww seriously...... we left Montreal because of snow.!!!! anyway we drove slowly and came into a town town called Pie Town....well of course we needed to stop and check out the pies...well after a $7 (USD) piece of pie....we hit the road again...and it was mediocre at best!!!


Well we  finally arrived at the monument....we thought we were gonna see some petrified wood here and there...nooooooo....we drove a 28 mile route right through the park and saw many beautiful sites....my personal favorite was the painted desert....the way it works is to drive along and stop your car at specified lookouts and voila...feast your eyes on the immense beauty before you. We enjoyed our day more than we thought, even though the weather did not cooperate with us cuz we were freezing.....we got snowed on and the wind howled and blew us around repeatedly. The Blue Mesa was also spectacular.

After several hours making our way through the park we headed for our next campsite at Homolovi Ruins State Park. When we arrived it was cold and windy so we decided to head into Winslow to prepare and shop for the next three days. Before heading to Walmart we looked for a place for Peter to "stand on the corner" after all we were in Winslow, Arizona. After driving on Rt. 66 for a few kilometers we stumbled on a sign that listed some of Winslow's landmarks including "Standin' on the Corner" Park. There was a mural and two statues honoring the song along with the standard gift shop. A steady stream of people arrived took pictures and left while Eagles music played from across the street.

After shopping we returned to the campsite in the dark only to find someone in our reserved spot. It was dark and when we confronted the woman who claimed she had arrived late and had not seen the reserved sign. We went to speak to the camp host, he said we could take another site or he could make her move. We had calmed down a bit and decided just to take another site, so we drove over and told the woman to stay where she was. The next morning we met a couple from Venice, Florida who had converted a van ( Bobb and Trish) and were travelling around the way we were. Bobb's van was a little better equipped than ours, he had everything. We slept well and had a good shower so all's well.... Tomorrow we head for the Grand Canyon and Mary's birthday.

fyi the lovely family we met at breakfast were super nice....Alexandre from France and Shawna his wife along with cooper and Zoe...they live in Phoenix ...loved chattin with them and exchangin' phone numbers....hopefully we'll see them in Montreal one day!