Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum

Today Roger and I had the opportunity to go to Simi Valley and visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum.  I'm not much for museums and I have to admit that I'm not much of a "political fan"; but this was quite impressive.  The grounds were very green and lush with a replica of the Rose Garden when you enter.  Once you enter, you are lead to a replica of Reagan's Oval Office.  If you saw the movie National Treasure, you saw the former President's desk. 

After viewing the Oval Office you proceed to see the Air Force One Pavilion.  Air Force One 2700 served seven Presidents starting with Richard Nixon.  Ronald Reagan used the jet the most, logging 661,708 miles promoting freedom and democracy for all mankind.  Also in this area is Reagan's limousine, and Marine One.  Marine One is the helicopter that Reagan used during his term.

In the National Treasures Gallery is a Special Exhibit of a 50 foot long and 18 foot wide model of the White House.  Each room is decorated exactly as it currently is decorated by the Obama's.  The TV's even work!  The miniature had just been completed to include the Christmas Trees and Decorations for the Holidays.

Outdoors, we were able to view a huge piece of the Berlin Wall.  It's interesting to see the piece was painted on the West Side with a beautiful butterfly and is totally blank on the East Side.  There is also an F14-Tomcat on the grounds.  Just before you get to the Memorial Site we passed through a replica of the South Lawn.

Following his passing, Reagan was laid to rest at the Memorial Site.  The inscription reads "I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life."

The Californian RV Resort

Roger and I arrived  here today at The Californian RV Resort in Acton, CA.  This is considered the High Desert Country of Los Angeles County.  Our site is absolutely beautiful!!  The bright green shrubs and little yellow flowers painted against the brown/beige colors of Soledad Canyon and Antelope Valley are breathtaking.  The pool and hot tub are next to our motor home and we plan on using them both in this 75 degree weather.  It is cooler here in the High Desert Country compared to the lower elevations.  The Resort is above 3500 feet.

Our Site #307

The Spa & Pool View

View of the back of our motorhome & mountains

View from out of our dining room window

We plan to stay here until next Saturday, the 20th, when we go to Christmas Tree School.

Castaic Lake

Roger & I said a sad "good-bye" to Ben last night and left Marina Dunes RV Park this morning.  We went down a back road past some of the Central Valley's beautiful strawberry, artichoke, lettuce, cabbage, garlic and carrot fields.  It is such a pleasure to see and smell these beautiful fields surrounded by mountains.  Once we got onto Highway 101 going South, we continued to see more fields and occasionally a herd of cattle.

As we traveled, we were surprised to see as many vineyards as we saw.  I was under the impression that most of the vineyards were in the Napa/Sonoma area, but we drove past many well know wine tasting rooms including Meridian.  It appeared that the grapes have all been picked and the vines are turning a vibrate gold.  The color of these vineyards along the sides of the brown beige mountains is breathtaking.  A little further down the road, we could smell the sweet smell of oranges and lemons, sure enough, we saw acres of orange and lemon groves. 

The further South we drove, the more interesting things we observed.  Have you ever seen thousands of almond and pistachio trees?  We drove for over two miles and could see nothing but these nut groves!  In the middle of one of these groves was a huge oil field.  There must have been 100 or more oil rigs pumping up oil.  Just past the oil rigs we came upon some cotton fields.  At first, from a distance, I thought that we were seeing snow, thank God it was cotton!

The ultimate sight was four mule deer grazing just on the other side of a pomegranate grove.  I've never seen pomegranates grow, so I had to look them up in Wikipedia to make sure that is what I was seeing.  They look so funny growing on a small tree and seeing these big red "balls".

We're staying at Castaic Lake RV Park, which isn't much for the price.  We at least have WiFi (one hour free per day) and cable TV.  Otherwise, I would describe it as a RV "Trailer Trash" park.  Ninety percent of the RV's here are year round.  We're only here for two nights, so we can put up with it.  We plan to head out tomorrow in the car to see where we can keep our RV when we go back to Minnesota for Ben's wedding.  It's always great on the road!!

Relaxing

We spent today relaxing around the campground and going for a ride around Monterey.  We are very lucky to have such a nice place to enjoy the sunny California weather.  It was close to 70 degrees today!

San Francisco Trip

We had a great time in San Francisco yesterday with Ben.  We went on a tour so that Roger could relax and enjoy the sites and not have to worry about driving the city.  Here are some of the sites we enjoyed.

7 Sisters on Postcard Row

Alcatraz Island

Ben & Sue in front of Golden Gate Bridge

China Town

View of the City

View of the City from Nob Hill

Coit Tower

Ferry Building

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge from Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park

Grace Chapel

Japanese Tea Garden

Lombard Street

Lombard Street the Crookedest Street

View of City

Palace of Fine Arts

Palace of Fine Arts

Ben at Salsalito Park

Ship in front of Angel Island

Sue & Roger in front of Golden Gate Bridge

View of Concert Park from DeYoung Museum

 

View from DeYoung Museum

View from DeYoung Museum

Whale Watch

Hummingbird at Marina RV Park - Marina, CA

Fishing Boats

Blimp

Tail Fin of Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale

Pelican at Fisherman's Wharf

Seal Island

Seal Island at Fisherman's Wharf

Yesterday, Roger & I decided to go on a Whale Watch.  It was an unusually clear, calm & warm day, so we thought that we'd head out on the ocean.  We made a great choice!  The tour we went on took us out about 12 miles from the wharf.  The boat we were on was called the Pacific Princess which was a nice large boat with about 30 passengers on our trip.  At some points during the cruise, we hit seas rolling to about 10 foot swells.  Roger was totally intrigued by the rolling seas, I was more impressed with the sites of the mountains from the ocean and how beautiful the area of Monterey/Pacific Grove is.

On the way out, we passed some of the fishing trolleys.     When we got closer to whale site area, one of the passengers spotted a "blow" off in the West.  The Captain followed her directions and low and behold, we came upon 2 Humpbacks.  Humpbacks are gentle giants, they are so graceful in the water and love to come pretty close to the sightseeing tour boats and "check us out".  They "blow" 2-3 times and then when they roll out of the water with their tail fin out, they will be under from anywhere of 2-8 minutes and can stay under up to 15 minutes.  We spent at least a half hour watching them and really got to enjoy them!

On our way back we spotted a blimp heading toward the San Francisco area.  They probably were going to be doing some overhead shots of AT&T Park.  People in this area are, of course, very excited about the San Francisco Giants being in the World Series.  We also stumbled upon some Sea Lions and Dolphins who were looking for fishing boat "left overs".

Once we got closer to the Wharf, we were able to hear all of the sea lions on Seal Island.  What a terrible smell and you talk about noise!  There had to be hundreds of seals on the breaker/island - all males.  The females are further South this time of year.

As a quick addition, I'm adding a couple of pictures that I took this morning of the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds that are feeding off of our feeder outside the dining room window at our RV park.  I just love watching them dart in and out and then sit in the tree.  Needless to say "we are loving it here"!