Monday 2/26/18 - Hearst Castle 116 rooms, 45 bed rooms, 65 bath rooms, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts on 250,000 acres sound like an amazing place? Construction started 1919 and continued for 28 years until William Randolph Hearst death in 1951. The Castle is filled with treasures from around the world, artifacts from the the pyramids, 14 century tapestry, paintings etc. The Hearst castle and warehouses in Ny contain the largest private collection of museum quality artifacts in the world; even today. Interesting tidbit Hearst was born in 1866 when the Civil war was ongoing and Abe Lincoln was President. The grounds of the castle as you would expect are impeccable.

The coast line here is just amazing. The mountains literally come right to the Ocean in spots and how the roads were built is just amazing. We are just south of the mud slides where a number of people were killed. The houses are built on cliffs so I can understand how this all happens, so sad. The sights however are amazing from elephant seals to sheer cliffs to the ocean.

2/25/18 - Travel Day to San Simeon where the Hearst Castle resides. Along the way we stopped at

San Luis Obispo harbor and pier. The pier is wooden and was constructed in 1897.

People  were driving their cars out on the pier, not us! This little ocean town had a great harbor
where the boats could anchor.

We also stopped at the Madonna Inn which was over the top in
stone and wood work. The Inn now sports 110 rooms everyone of them different.
The Inn was landscaped with gardens, fountains and pools.

Likely the most unusual stop we will have on the Great Adventure is bubblegum alley which is a narrow
passageway between two buildings that thousands of wadded up pieces of gum have been stuck to the
wall. In some spots the gum is several inches thick. Wendy wanted to stick her gum to the wall but I put
my foot down which promptly stuck the floor with gum all over the alley way. Gross!

Saturday 2/24/18 - We started the day (early!) saying goodbye to Joan & Burton as they left Malibu Beach or as Burton referred to Malibu as the "Bu". UBER worked well picking them up at our beach campground. Joan however was a little concerned about fitting their luggage which hit a crescendo when the driver showed up in a Toyota Prius. Plenty of room in those little cars.

We continued our trek north to Pismo Beach & stopped at the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove. The western population of the Monarch Butterfly winters in the Pismo Beach area. Pismo has a grove of 100' tall Eucalyptus Trees which attract the Monarch's. The butterflies arrive in October and winter until the beginning of March. There were easily 10,000 Monarch's in the grove of huge trees. An interesting tidbit: the western Monarch's live 6 months storing fat whereas the Eastern Monarch migrates from Mexico and only lives 6 weeks.

 Also in the Pismo Beach area is Oso Flaco State wetlands park and dunes. The wetland park encompasses a large fresh water wetland lake feed by a river. This flows through the dunes which are 18 miles long and the second largest in California. Both areas are pretty amazing.

The wetlands would be a great hunters location with many types of birds - Mallards,Teals, Ruddy & White Pelicans (which I have never seen before).

 And in Wendy style maximizing the day after finding the cheapest diesel in town we stop at a suspension bridge built in 1900.

Friday 2/23/18 - Today we explored Malibu Beach. Walks on the beach. Went to Malibu Fishing Pier and Santa Monica amusement pier. We toured the Adamson property built in 1929 and originally encompassed 13,000 acres. The Abamson's were in search of gold on their property, but instead found clay, so they founded Malibu Pottery which fueled the their wealth for generations. The house and the remaining ocean front property is owned by the State. 

                                                                       
                                                                                Malibu Fishing Pier

Santa Monica Amusement Pier

Mike still has cat like balance ..... NOT!

Thursday 2/22/18 What a beautiful place. We’re at Mailbu Beach. What a great day. Took a hike in Solstice Canyon. Deep canyon. Lots of birds singing. Little waterfall. And a BIG mountain to climb. But we did it and the views were stupendous.

Then we went to Paramount Ranch where they film a lot of the Western films. In fact, they were prepping the houses to shoot a movie next week so we were not supposed to take pictures of the sets.

And finally, we ended the day by going out to dinner to celebrate Joan’s birthday. Went to Moonshadows- restaurant that was right on the beach, in fact the water was under us (cantilevered). And we had a oceanside seat so our view was great. And the food was really really good. End of a perfect day.

Wednesday 2/20 - 21/18 Joshua Tree - Malibu Beach  - We didn’t have Internet last night so Tuesday and Wednesday are combined.

Tuesday Feb 20^th- Had to leave our great site in San Diego and traveled to Joshua Tree National Park in the California desert. Very different landscape and trees. These trees are pretty spindly and have really hard and super sharp needles, in fact some birds impale their prey on the needles. Lots of cacti too. Took a good desert hike to Barker Dam, a dam that the old ranchers built to store up water for their animals. It was like an oasis in the middle of the dry desert.

                                                                                        Joshua tree 

Took a good desert hike to Barker Dam, a dam that the old ranchers built to store up water for their animals. It was like an oasis in the middle of the dry desert.

                                                                    Fuzzy Cholla Cactus

Wednesday Feb 21^st- took an early morning ride to Keys view at 5,154’. Great views from the top.
 From Keys View.

Then we- or rather Mike- fought all the traffic from Joshua tree to Malibu beach. Lots and lots of traffic. Believe it or not, we then relaxed at our campsite and enjoyed the view. We are on a cliff that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. We walked down to the beach and took a walk too. Water is pretty cold.

Our campsite at Malibu Beach

Monday 2/19/18 San Diego - starting the day with a sight detour, our truck (AKA The Beast) unexpectedly needed front brakes and a caliper. We were lucky to find a Ford dealer to handle the repair while we were on the Midway Aircraft Carrier. We spent the better part of the day on the ship built in 1945. She was a replacement for the carriers sunk by the Japanese during WWII and named after the battle of Midway in 1941; the greatest single win by the US Navy in their history. The Carrier actually didn't see action until Vietnam and was also used in Desert Storm.  Likely the most memorable use was the evacuation  of over 1,000 people - US and Vietnamese during the fall of Saigon in 1975. The Carrier is emorumus carrying a crew of 4,500 and upwards of 100 planes at a time.

The waterfront in San Diego is amazing with many historic ships docked. Below are several Tall ships.

We capped the day off with visit to La Jolla. A beautiful rocky coastline with sea lions bathing in the very windy cold weather. Yep the sea lions look like rocks when they are dry.