Southern California - Friends and Sites!

 

We left Tucson and headed west to the Pacific Ocean, Southern California and long but not lost friends. Sorry we missed a few as our schedules were just out of snyc.   Our first stop was Camp Pendleton Marine Base but we did notice driving into the base the gas was $4.00 a gallon, quite different from the $2.17 a gallon in Tucson.  But we settled in and made some calls to friends in the area.  Since we been in this area a few times, sightseeing is not high on our agenda.  Pat and Domnique Shores actually accepted our call and we made plans to meet the following day in Dana Point.  We were all stationed at Ramstein AB, Germany from 1983 to 1986 and travelled to the ski slopes in Austria together.  Pat ad Domnique were perfect hosts, we enjoyed breakfast an toured the harbor at Dana Point while we caught up with each other.  As always with good friends,  it seemed that we had been together just a couple months ago had a wonderful time visiting.  We left Pendleton we drove up the coast and stopped at Seal Beach and Port Hueneme naval stations before visiting our friends Frank and Alberta Rock.  Frank and George were stationed together in the early 70s at Ramstein and it has a few years since we connected when we spent a year in the Mojave Desert while George worked on the B-2 project..  It was great seeing them and they are looking pretty good for some old timers.  Continuing up the coast we stopped at San Luis Obispo so we could visit the famous Hearst Castle and Moro Rock.  We can tell you that Mr. Hearst spent millions of dollars on this little abode and it rivals any castle in Europe.  The architecture, paintings, furniture, fountains etc. are really something to see if you are out this way.  We changed plans at this point and decided that we should do something for Amy....so we drove to Travis AFB to do some wine probing in the NAPA valley.  We found a vineyard not far from the base and stopped in... what do you know...it is owned by Coors and ran by the sister that Kris works for in Colorado.  So now Amy will get some wine from the Coors family...hope she likes it!  We detoured again to do some family history in Humboldt County, California the ancestry home of Pat's great grandfather John Hiram Rease.   Now it was time to leave California and drive to Crater Lake, Oregon but that is a backyard story for another blog.  Hope you enjoyed our adventures in California, we did find out that not all of California is like Southern California which is a very good thing!

 

 

Dana Beach, the ocean views were remarkable!

George, Pat, Dominique and Pat Shores having breakfast overlooking the ocean

 

George, Pat, Alberta, and Frank Rock good friends for many years!

The mission at San Luis Obispo

Ronald Regan's Presidential library, Simi Valley California

 

Hearst Castle entrance

The heated swimming pool

How is this for a dining room?

 

We really enjoyed California this time around, the weather was great,  and the scenery was just beautiful.  However, it was the friends we connected with that we will remember the most of our swing through the Golden Bear State.  It is on to Oregon, which is one of the few states that we have never visited so our backyard exploring will all be new.  Stay tuned the summer has just began!