Oceanside to San Luis Obispo February 16-Feb 22, 2012

Back tracking to our last blog,  we were headed north along the coast with a stop to visit our nephew, Wesley, and his wife, Alena. We planned to stay 4 nights at the Fullerton Elks Lodge, a perfect location for visiting So Cal! There are 6 sites on a hill with a recently renovated Elks Lodge. Once we set up our home we visited the Botanical Gardens at Cal State Fullerton and had a lovely afternoon.

Wes lives in Tustin only a 10 minute drive for us. He was busy studying so we did some sight seeing before connecting with him on Saturday. Friday we visited an amazing exhibit at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, Warriors, Tombs and Temples: China's Enduring Legacy.  

The exhibit featured life-size terra cotta warriors along with artifacts from the excavated imperial tomb compounds from several dynasties. 

 We spent the afternoon in the tiny town of Orange and loved this fun building we spotted as we drove into town.

I checked out the website, Goldstar, to see what events were going on in Orange County that weekend. Goldstar is a fantastic site to find 1/2 price tickets to a variety of events and productions in large metropolitan areas. I found a dinner show, Battle of the Dance, a dance competition between Irish dancers and dancers of the Flamenco. What incredible talent and a fun evening!  I also found a Jazz Brunch for Saturday morning at the Newport Beach Jazz Festival. 

By Saturday afternoon Wes had finished his studies so he showed us his preferred method of travel to school...his motorcycle

had coffee at his favorite coffee house: 

and then all around his campus at UC Irvine.

 

We ended our day with a delicious dinner out with Wesley and Alena at one of their favorite restaurants and said our GoodByes the next morning after breakfast in Fullerton.

We left Fullerton for Simi Valley to pick up a new addition for our motor home, a screen porch Paul found on Craig's List. From there we took a new route which dropped us down into Camarillo to spend the night with dear friends, Sue and Rick Reichel.

 Sue was my Student Teacher so many years ago and we've been so lucky to have stayed friends through the years. It was such a wonderful stay...we never run out of things to talk about, funny how that happens!

Monday afternoon we moved to our favorite beach campsite at Rincon Beach. 

 Staying 2 nights gave us time to ride our bikes into Ventura to visit San Buenaventura Mission, the ninth and last California mission founded by Father Serra and the 12th we've visited...only another dozen to see.  The gardens were lovely.

 Across the street was the Museum of Ventura County 

with a remarkable exhibit of miniature historical figures by George Stuart. 

 

Extraordinary figures, no more than 10" tall and yet every detail was extraordinary! From the bio I read he has made over 400 of these figures from throughout history, the ones we were viewing were from the Renaissance and Reformation Period. The displays are rotated throughout the year...another reason to return another time.

 So glad we had stopped on our bike day in town, but since we had spent so much time seeing sights and having lunch, the wind had picked up which meant we were driving into it all the way back to the beach!!!! A very good workout!

Evening sunset was spectacular that night! Clouds gave off such amazing color as we sat around the campfire.  I do think this is one of the most amazing places to camp along the coast and can't believe we hadn't ever tried it before this year's travels.

The next morning it was time to pack up and get to SLO. 

Now that I'm back into the swing of things I'll get all the last month's adventures up! I actually forgot how much I enjoy logging our travels...it is after all, my only journal of this Gypsy Life!