Catalina Island

What a perfect way to spend our anniversary!!!!  We left Dana Point about 9:45 on the Catalina Express for the Island.  It was a nice quite trip over, not to bumpy.  Joe liked standing outside and letting the wind blow on him. He would come in every 15 min or so to warm up then go back out for a while longer.


Catalina was quite different that I had pictured it.
The town itself is quite small and the house are so close together and on top of each other.
Once we got our land legs back we went looking for some place to eat.  It is amazing how a little ocean air wets the appetite.  We strolled through a few shops and walked over to the casino, which is not really a casino, before deciding to eat at  Antonio's Cabaret.  The food was good and plentiful.  I had an sausage sandwich with home made potato chips and Joe had a calzone.  We were so full we had to take a good walk before boarding the bus for a tour of the interior of the Island.  This bus is from the 1950's and in excellent shape.

 This is the last year they will be using them because they are not able to get parts for them any longer.  It is really to bad because they are great old buses.  The tour is 2.5 hours long and takes you up the skyline drive.  You are looking not only at the rugged interior but beautiful ocean vistas.

We stopped at one corner to look at a fox that was resting in the shade. They have gray foxes on the island.
 A little further up the road there is a great big buffalo munching on grass.  Later we were able to see a whole herd of the buffalo up on one of the ridges.

 Once we reached Skyline airport, we depart the bus for refreshments, they have cookies to die for.  They are pretty big, I had a oatmeal/chocolate chip/walnut cookie, which I shared with Joe.



While enjoying the back patio Kim, the bus driver, found another little fox.  This one is a female and just laid there and let us all look at her. Isn't she the cutest thing!!!!!!

  On the way back we went by the Zip line.  We really wanted to to the zip line, 5 of them, but it was quite expensive, $120 per person so we decided not to.  We did get to see other riders on them.  The longest is  1045' long and you go about 50 miles per hour.  They flew across the distance, it really looked cool.
By the time the tour ended it was time to get back on the ferry and head back to Dana Point (about 1.5 hr trip) and about a 40 min drive home.
What a wonderful day, one we will always remember.  Friday it is Captain Dave's Whale watching.  Can't wait!!!!!!

Oceanside CA

We left Mesa at 7:15 Sunday and pulled into Paradise by the Sea RV Resort at 4:00.  What a long day.  It is so hard to go 55 all day long.  The day was pretty uneventful until about 15 minutes from our destination.  Someone came up beside us and started honking and pointing at the fifth wheel. Joe quickly saw we were having a tire problem.  We got out and the tread was separating from the tire.  It had a bubble in it about 1/4 of the tire. Pretty scary if you think what could of happened if the tire had blown.  We got back in the truck after letting some air out of the tire, and pulled it up to a wider flatter spot.   Joe got in the back of the truck and was getting out the jack and tools we would need when we heard a loud pop.  The tire just blew.  Luckily no damage was done since we were not moving and only the side wall blew, the tire still had air in it.  Joe got it jacked up and the spare down and in no time we had the tire changed. I can tell you it is no picnic changing a tire on a CA freeway. Once we had everything put away we were on our way again.

We checked into space 65 at Paradise by the Sea RV Resort.  This is pretty nice place with pool, Jacuzzi and a walking path to the beach.  We were set up in no time and decided to go out for dinner to help relieve some of the stress of the day. Had a real nice dinner at Sizzlers steak house.


Monday morning Joe went to the Discount Tire store to see about new tires.  We decided, for peace of mind,  to replace all the tires that came on the fifth wheel.  He ordered 4 new truck tires, as they hold up much better than trailer tires, we were to bring the fifth wheel in Tues morning to have them put on.

What to do for the day, we decided to walk the beach up to the Oceanside peer and eat at Ruby's Diner at the end of the peer.  The food is always good here.  I enjoyed watching he Seagulls dive for fish the whole time we were eating.  After lunch we walked around down town Oceanside and I did a little shopping, which was interrupted by a call for Discount Tires.  Our tires were in and they wanted us to bring in the fifth wheel to get them installed.  So we walked all the way back to the resort and got the fifth wheel ready to take in, all in about 1 hour.  Once they got it jacked up and all tires removed they had it all back together with new tires and spare installed in about 1 hour.  I was really surprised how fast they were.  We are so glad we don't have to worry about tires anymore.

Thursday we are going to Catalina Island, Friday a whale watching tour and Saturday the Zydeco festival in San Diego.  Stay tuned for those adventures.  Maybe even a Zip line or five!!!!!!!!!!!!

Train/science center/races

Saturday morning we get up early and go to breakfast at Wildflower with the Nichols family.  For those that don't know who that is, Kristy, Pat, Paxton, and Kiernan, our daughter and her family.  Afterwards we jump on the light rail and ride into Phoenix.  Joe has not had the chance to ride it until now.  We walked around Phoenix for a while went into Urban Outfitters where Paxton found some tennis shoes she just had to have, so of course grandma bought them for her.  I am such a sucker!!!!!!  Went to Starbucks for some tea.




Then we decided to go to the Science Center.  This is another thing Joe has never done.  We had fun playing with all the displays and doing the interactive weather video where we got cold, hot and a little wet not to mention wind blown.  It was fun.  As we were leaving that area Kiernan an Pat stopped at this table of bugs. If they ate one we would get free passes to the planetarium.  Kiernan didn't even hesitate he just chomped down on the beetle and Pat eat the other half of it.  It was one of those horned beetles.  After all that we didn't have time to see the planetarium show.

We ride the light rail back to Mesa and go home and take a nap and get ready a big night of racing at Arizona Speedway.  The races were good, it has been a long time since Kristy has gone with us to a race so it was added fun having her and Kiernan with us.