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"!

Windy Marina State Beach

We decided to go for a little ride today and scope out how we will get from Marina to Hwy. 101 South to Los Angeles when we leave here in a couple of weeks.  Before we went for our drive, we decided to stop Marina State Beach.  The beach is just on the other side of the sand dunes of the RV park.  We go to this beach just about every day because it is so close (within walking distance) and it is so beautiful.  To our surprise there was a gentleman who was just getting ready to take off with his parachute glider.  It was quite a site to watch him sitting in his "sack seat" guiding his parachute with the hand controls. It was a perfect day for him to be "sailing", the waves were rolling in and the wind was really strong.

After watching him "glide/sail" for several minutes, we decided to continue "exploring" (as our grandson, Noah, would say). Just a couple of miles out of Marina, we were in completely different terrain.  We were in huge corporate farm fields full of fresh strawberries, lettuce, carrots & some other vegetables that we don't know what they were (I'm thinking artichokes).  The scenery changes so dramatically around every curve in the road.  One minute we're next to the ocean, the next we're in valley full of farm fields, and the next we're surrounded by mountains.  I'm in love with this part of California!

Just before we went back to the RV Park, we decided to stop again at Marina State Beach.  This time there were 3 people with their hang gliders.  We only had to wait for a short time, before one of them took off.  Unfortunately, he no sooner took off and his wing clipped the side of  the sand dune and he crashed.  Roger and I went on the edge of the dune and could see that the man and his glider were OK; however; he crashed into a young couple sitting on the sand watching the surf.  The young man was slightly injured but said he didn't need any medical help.  They couldn't see the glider take off from where they were sitting on the side of the sand dune.  I'm sure that they were very surprised to all of a sudden have a glider coming at them.

It's always an adventure!  Till next time!

Marina, CA

It's been a while since I've posted something, but unfortunately, it's been a while since I've had a decent connection.  We arrived at the Marina Dunes RV Park on Oct. 11th.  It is just a hop over the sand dunes to the ocean from our site or as they say here, 1/3 mile walk.  It is just beautiful here and we are only about 6 miles away from where Ben is stationed.  Our site also includes a grill and a fireplace! The second night we were here Ben took us to a great little Italian seafood restaurant called Louis Linguine's on Cannery Row in Monterey. 

We've spent several days scoping things out at various locations.  We found out that in Moss Landing they have their own Fisherman's Wharf and an excellent Mexican restaurant called The Whole Enchilada.  Last weekend Ben took us for a drive along Hwy. 1 through Carmel-By-The-Sea and to Big Sur.  We ate at a really cute, very old restaurant along the Big Sur river.  We stopped at a couple of campgrounds along the Big Sur that had enormous Red Woods.  The campgrounds were some of the most beautiful that I've ever seen.  Very expensive; however, $50 for a primitive site.  Cabins started at $150 a night.  I'll be going back to Carmel by myself to do some shopping!

One of the things that we've found while here in California is that the cost of firewood is outrageous!  Here at the park, a bundle of 6 pieces is $8.50.  At the aforementioned campground, a bundle of firewood was $11.  We found out that we could buy lumber at Home Depot from the "culled" bin for 40 cents a piece, but we also found out that we can get the scrap pieces for free.  They are stored under the lumber shelves and we have been able to get enough to have many many fires.  

I found a very good little farmers market that's only 4 miles from the RV park.  It is so great to have such a great selection of fresh vegetables and fruit.  The strawberries are fabulous!  On one of our drives, we drove to Camping World which is just outside of Gilroy (the garlic capital of the world).  We could smell garlic for miles.  On the same trip, we stopped in Cantorville (the artichoke capital of the world) and picked up a couple of huge artichokes.  I love artichokes, Roger is "OK" with them. 

We found the "world famous" Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing and picked up his famous Ciopinno.  It's a combination of Dungeness Crab, Shrimp, White Fish, Squid, Clams & Mussels in a spicy tomato broth.  It is all that it's bragged up to be.  I loved it, Roger said it was "OK", but you have to remember that he is not much of a seafood fan.

Today, we drove to the Monterey Fisherman's Wharf.  What fun!  We spotted many many sea lions and sea otters.  The sea otters are just the cutest things ever.  We walked along the wharf and could have eaten at dozens of restaurants.  We don't know which one we'll go back to, but we picked several that we can't wait to try.  We also scoped out a Whale Watch tour that we want to take in.  After our little walking tour of the wharf, we went for a drive to Pacific Grove.  The nice part of driving along the coast is that there are spots to pull over and get a "closer view" about every 100 yards.  The views are so beautiful that it's hard not to stop at every pull off.

Well tomorrow is another day and another new adventure.  Stay tuned for more fun!

Reno & Lake Taho

Today we drove from Winnemucca NV to the Placerville KOA (California). When we drove through Nevada, the scenery was so dry & "moon surface" like. I was really impressed with Reno. Very nice city, clean & traffic was pretty good. Shortly after going through Reno, we saw some Hot Springs off to the side of the freeway. I forgot that there were hot springs in this part of Nevada.

We left I-80 for California 89 so that we could drive the scenic route around the west side of Lake Taho. What a drive! I've never seem such beautiful huge pines in my life. The lake it's self is as blue as the sky & over 1600 feet deep. Think that's cold water?

The drive on 89 is a little scary in spots. We had several hairpin turns while towing a vehicle, that I give a lot of credit to Roger. We climbed up to over 9500 feet & the campground is at 1500 feet. This campground is nice but the WiFi stinks! I'm posting all of this via my iPhone.

We should get into Monterey early tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, the connection will be better at the next campground.

Montpelier, Idaho & Salt Lake City, Utah

After traveling through the Grand Tetons, we arrived at the Montpelier Creek KOA in Montpelier, Idaho.  This KOA is one of the nicest KOA's we've stayed at.  The owners and workkampers were extremely kind, happy and the ultimate hosts.  After I did some laundry and Roger washed the motor home and car, we went to dinner at Lott's which was a local restaurant run by a very hard working woman.  She not only ran the restaurant, but was also the waitress.  The food was great! 

We left Montpelier Creek KOA the next morning and visited the Oregon Trail Museum right in Montpelier.  If you are a Western History buff, you'll love the paintings in the museum.  The painting are all done per diaries written by people who traveled the Oregon Trail.  They tell the stories of hardship and hard work that the new settlers went through to get West.  On our way to Bringham, UT we traveled the Logan Canyon Pass from Garden City to Logan.  The tree colors were changing and it was absolutely one of the most beautiful drives I've ever seen.  It was a 55 minute drive and Roger was thrilled to be getting 22 miles per gallon downhill!

We arrived at the Bringham-Perry KOA outside of Salt Lake City, UT on Friday afternoon.  No sooner had we pulled into the campground but our friends, Kitty & Terry, pulled in right behind us which we had pre-arranged but didn't think that we would both arrive at the same time.  They are from Brooklyn Park, MN and have been traveling through New Mexico and Colorado. 

This KOA was one of the worst KOA's we've ever been to.  Not only was it run down, but the sites were not level at all.  When Roger was trying to level the motor home, the leveling jacks decided to quit working.  After a whole lot of frustration and phone calls, Roger was able to get the jacks to come back up and we just leveled the motorhome using blocks of wood.  We'll try to get them fixed once we get to California.

Salt Lake City is a very clean city and the people are very warm and welcoming.  We toured Tabernacle Square and the new LDS (Mormon) Conference Center.  We were able to listen to an organ recital in the "old" Tabernacle and go into the Visitors Center where there is a cut out of the Temple.  All I can say is that the LDS church has a lot of money.  They are slowly buying quite a bit of the city land up and revitalizing the area.

Sunday morning Kitty & Terry left to go to Colorado and see Kitty's daughter.  We left the campground to head West.  We traveled all day and arrived in Winnemucca, Nevada and are using our Camp USA membership to stay at the Hi-Desert RV campground.  We have a very nice site overlooking the mountains.  On our way here, we saw the Great Salt Lake and a whole lot of desert.  Tomorrow we leave for a new adventure on our way to California.

Yellowstone National Park & Grand Teton National Park

After leaving Canyon Ferry Lake, Court Sheriff campground on Monday; we headed for Yellowstone National Park.  What an experience!  Just after entering the park we viewed several male Buffalo, a female Elk, and a Trumpeter Swan.  We entered the park at the West Yellowstone entrance and thought that we would have an easy time getting a spot at Madison campground.  Not exactly!!  There were only 4 out of the 7 campgrounds open and Madison was the only campground that had spots big enough for our RV.  We pulled in and the campground host was pretty sure that we were SOL, but after doing some checking, he was able to put us in a beautiful site that not only was big enough for our rig and slide outs, but we were also able to pull the car in behind the motor home.

The campground has no hookups but we were able to fill up with water in the campground and again, we have our inverter and generator so not a problem!   Because Roger has the National Park Senior Pass we got into the park for free, which is normally $25 and we only paid $32.75 for 3 nights in the campground.  Not too shabby!

After settling into our spot we decided to head out and take a look around, so we drove to the Norris Geyser Basin and saw the Artists Paintpots, Steamboat Geyser and Beryl Spring Monument geyser.  There are so many sites that it almost is overwhelming.  Not only are the lodge pole pines spectacular, but the Aspen were also in full fall color.  The following morning we took off for the Northern Part of the loop.  We set out for Mammoth Hot Springs, Undine Falls,  Petrified tree, Dunraven Pass, and of course, Canyon - home of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  Besides seeing a huge Male Elk and his group of Females, Mule Deer, and Buffalo, we also saw a "Cinnamon" Black Bear lumbering across the road.  I think that it was a grizzly, but another tourist thought it was a Black Bear.

On Wednesday, we left for the Southern end of the park which includes Old Faithful, the Old Faithful Inn, Craig Pass, Yellowstone Lake, and the famous Mud Volcano.  We took a beautiful walk along LeHardys Rapids and toured Sulphur Caldron.  I don't think that we missed too much of the park, but in case we did, there's always the next trip.  On this side of the park we saw at least 200 buffalo, a wolf, and many coyotes and fox along with the occasional elk and many mule deer.  On 2 of the 3 nights we had a beautiful fire in our fire ring.  You are allowed to cut and burn fallen dead trees, of which there are thousands.  Lodge pole pine burns very nicely and for a long time. 

Today, we left Yellowstone and drove south to Grand Teton National Park.  We didn't see much wild life but the Teton's are absolutely gorgeous!  We arrived at the Montpelier Creek KOA in Montpelier, Idaho shortly before dinner time and were able to wash the motor home, car and clothes.  It's pretty nice having full hookups since we've gone a while without.  Again, I'll try to spend some time going through pictures and posting some soon.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

On Thursday, Sept. 30th, we headed to Medora ND and entered the South Park of Theodoree Roosevelt National Park.  We toured the 36 mile loop of the park and were able to view Buffalo, Wild Mustangs, Prairie Dogs and of course beautiful sites. Pictures will follw as soon as I have a connection that will allow me time to upload.  After our fantastic trip through the Park, we left for Montana and spent the night in Forsyth MT.  The Wagon Wheel RV Park was not much, but it was good enough for the night.

On Friday, Oct. 1st, we left Forsyth for Helena Montana.  We arrived in the early afternoon and are planning on staying for the weekend and leaving Monday morning for Yellowstone National Park.  We filled up with water at the "Glass Slipper", a local bar and convenience store near Tammy & Pete's.  We found a georgous spot next to Canyon Ferry Lake at Court Sheriff Campground which is a campground run by the Bureau of Reclaimation. 

The campground has no amenities such as WiFi, electric, sewer or water but the view is so nice and we are self sufficient. We are able to run off of our inverter and generator.  Pretty nice!