Avila Bubble

Locals refer to Avila Beach's weather as the Avila Bubble as it is sheltered in
San Luis Bay and stays clear and warm when both Pismo Beach and Morro Bay on its north and south side are socked in as is often the case at this time of the year on the California coastline.
We stayed here last year and fell in love with it. We were luck when we arrived on Tuesday to get the same spot where we stayed last year which is right above the water on a small cliff. Savannah is in heaven as this is a dog beach and dogs are allowed to run free. We don't need no stinking leashes says Savannah and the other happy dogs who chase balls and run in the ocean. Last year we only planned on staying a few days and ended up staying the full 2 weeks you are allowed to stay. It looks like our plans are the same this year. We are enjoying the warm weather as we know we probably won't be getting that much this summer as we travel north into Canada and Alaska. Though we are certainly looking forward to the beauty of what we are expecting to see.
Avila Beach started as a fishing port and is still a commercial fishing area We bought some shrimp
from one of the vendors on the pier. Joe barbecued the shrimp wrapped in bacon. YUM YUM.

     We had stored our hard shells at my niece's We originally were going to take our inflatables boat with us on our trip north. However, we have been looking at the Sea Eagle inflatables that a number of bloggers we follow rave about There is one called the Paddle Ski, which is a cross between a kayak(uses kayak paddles) and a catamaran. We were intrigued by the options as you can add a sail and also a small engine which gives a lot of versatility to it. We decided to go ahead and order the boat with the sail option We ordered it from Inflatableboats4less. Tim and Crystal are great to work with and very helpful. We had it sent to a Fedx in San Luis Obispo and picked up the seven packages soon after we arrived in Avila. They have a deal now and when you buy one boat you get a second boat free The second boat is a smaller basic kayak without paddles or seats but we can use the second boat with one of the seats and paddles if we want to paddle in separate boats We can use the second seat and paddle for the second boat. Our paddle ski has more room for Savannah to sit than our other inflatable did and when we made our maiden voyage Savannah seem happy to sit in front of me and enjoy the ride. I'll have pictures in my next post. We haven't tried out the sail yet but will be doing so before we leave here. We walked to the pier for lunch at Pete's Pierside Cafe and Fish Market one day which is the only one of the three restaurants in the pier area where dogs are allowed on the patio. Joe had fish tacos and I had fish and chips.

    Took some pictures of the pier activity including someone raising their boat from the water to the pier. For some reason they don't have a boat ramp and larger boats need to be raised and lower to and from the water  .



  On Friday afternoon we went to the Farmer's Market at Avila. We bought some blueberries and avocados. They also have restaurant stands and I had shrimp crepes and Joe had a fish taco and also a sausage sandwich. They have music as well and is a great place to stroll, which is between two restaurants with big patios and the ocean on the other side.
       

  We are enjoying our little bit of paradise and looking forward to another week.                                                                                                                                          

Back to the Desert - Palm Springs

As we found out on a Friday that the parts wouldn't be in until after the weekend, we made a quick decision to go to  Palm Springs. What the heck, we had never been there before. We didn't check the weather forecast, which we probably should have done. It was in the 100's all weekend. We made the best of it though, and it is an interesting place. It is well known for its mid-century modern architecture of the 1950's and 60s and the town has done its best to preserve many of the buildings and houses, especially those of famous celebs, such as Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope.
We enjoyed some good food as a number of restaurants on their outdoor patios. As dogs are not allowed to stay in the motel alone and it was obviously too hot for Savannah to stay in the car, we were fortunate that many of the restaurants with patios are dog friendly. Many of the restaurants had mist systems to help keep it cooler. We had great pastrami and corned beef sandwiches at Sherman's Deli and Bakery, ceviche and tequila prawns at the Blue Coyote Grill, waffles with coconut cream and mangos and corned beef hash at Cheeky's and steamed calms, white pizza with maui onion, gorgonzola and pears and angus beef meatloaf at Lulu's California Bistro. We also spend some time as Starbucks for morning coffee.

                                                        

Yum

Misters to keep heat at bay

Where's my taco

                                                                                   


We took some drives around the area. We stopped at the Visitor Center, which use to be a gas station.

                                                          
We drove up to the Aerial Tramway, but no pets allowed like they were in Canada. :(  Took a few pictures of the valley from there, including one of the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm.

                                                                  

We drove around checking out the interesting architecture. The motel we stayed at, Caliente Tropics Resort is also an example of the 50's/60's architecture.

Caliente Tropics

Del Marcos Hotel by architect
William Cody 1947

One day we were at Starbucks across the street from where they were installing a giant Marilyn Monroe statue It is a traveling statue that was last in Chicago. It is Marilyn in her famous scene from the movie "Some Like it Hot"

                                                                              

                                                                         

Statue in Chicago before being shipped to PS

                                                                        


 It was a busy time on the weekend, especially at night when people were out enjoying the warm nights, all the restaurant and bars patio's full, some of which had bands playing music. Quite a scene.
Monday was much quieter. We found out that our motor home is fixed and we headed for Mira Loma on Tuesday morning to pick it up and we finally will start our northern journey to Alaska First start will be one of our favorite spots, Avila Beach in central California.

                                                                  

Family, Friends, Doctors and More RV Repairs

I haven't been posting the last few weeks while back in Orange County and so here is a catch up blog on our time in the area. We arrived at Sunset Vista in Huntington Beach on Sunday, April 22nd. We have stayed here before and love it. Great views of the beach and water and bike/walking path in front of the temporary rv park It is closed for the summer season when they need all the parking spots they can get in their busy summer season. We had our kids over that night for dinner and to watch one of the many Hockey playoff games the Kings have won. Our hearts are always with our Ducks, but since they are out of it this year, we are rooting for the Kings. I was born in LA and grew up in LA county and so will be happy to see them win this time. We ordered pizza for dinner. Yikes, I took a picture of one of the pizzas but not sure if you can tell how loaded it was. Seemed like it weighed 5 pounds.

                                                                          

          Joe had a conference in San Diego on Tuesday and Wednesday. He also had a few doctor appointments and one of his doctors wants him to have a few more tests which means we will be here longer than we thought. We had planned to stay through Sunday only but he couldn't get an appointment until the next week and it is a conference only and meant it could be the following week before the actual test. Well that is what happen. We had to cancel our rv get together in Moab. Joe's tests ended up being okay, but you have to be careful with health issues and are just glad tests were okay and we will be able to head north to Alaska which is our big planned trip. On Saturday, the 22nd, we went to Kristi and Brocks for our brother-in-law's 60th birthday. It was fun getting together with family and friends. Didn't have the camera out much while here in OC and so didn't take any pictures of where we stayed or places we went.    We actually had to move on Saturday to Newport Dunes as park was full on weekend and we had only reserved through Saturday as we were originally going to leave that day but decided to stay for Brocks birthday party.
Sunday we drove down to San Juan Capistrano, as they were having a garden tour of the historic Los Rios area where our friends Bonnie and Kaylee have their shop, The Tangled Vine.   I was busy checking out their shop as they are always changing their place and getting in new things and didn't pull out my camera to actually get some pictures. . Stupid girl. They specialize in flowers and photography but also sell jewelry and other interesting items. We stopped at the Hummingbird House Cafe, one of the restaurants on the street and sat at an outside table with Savannah and enjoyed people watching and I finally remembered to take out my camera.

Note Train in background

        A beautiful area right near the Train Station.
We had some cool cloudy weather but Thursday was suppose to get some sunshine and so we took my Dad out to lunch in Dana Point at a restaurant in the Harbor It was still overcast and so we stay inside but it was still nice. My Mom and Dad use to spend a lot of time down in this area, sometimes just taking a lunch and enjoying the views.
While here we also got some other things done. Joe had to buy a new computer as his old one died. We also took our boats down to my Dad's house to store. My niece , Kori, is leasing  and hoping to buy it.    They had a major plumbing issue recently and had to dig up the floor that had just been newly installed. One of the problems with old houses. This neighborhood was the first one in Mission Viejo, which my parents purchased back in 1966.  Other than the plumbing problem, the remodel went well and the house is beautiful.
We finally got the okay from the doctors and we left Newport on May 8th. We had to stop in Chino for our on going problem with a low coolant message that we keep getting even though when checked the coolant is not low. Some places we have been these past months have either not been able to find the problem or gave us a what turned out to be a wrong solution as we found out this time. M & M,  checked a number of things and figured out what was wrong which included sending us to another place,Valley Power Systems, who specialize in engines and are now working on the problem. Unfortunately, as it was close to the weekend and parts have to be flown in which won't get here until Monday, we needed to find a place to stay. We stayed one night at a La Quinta Inn, in San Bernandino. There was a chance in could be fixed on Friday but when they checked and saw that the bearings needed replacing as well, those  were the parts that wouldn't be here until Monday. We decided to spend the weekend in Palm Springs and are now here hoping our motorhome will soon be fixed and we can start making our way up north.