The Return to Dana Point

A couple of things I do quite a bit: Take an early season vacation, and go back to places I've vacationed at before!!! Last month, we did both again!!!

The last time, it was for our anniversary celebration, so this was the first time for the younger. Stayed at the same Best Western in Dana Point, right across from the beach. I didn't opt for the room with the upcharge this time, just took one that sleeps four. I'm not sure they even have one that sleeps 4 with the improved view and balcony, but we didn't use the balcony much last time. The room was on the back side, so possibly a little less train noise from there. It didn't shock me awake this time, so either that was the case, or I was ready for it this time.

First day we were there we headed straight to Selma's again for more Chicago Deep Dish!!! It was a little early, and we did manage to get in on their happy hour for some pretzel bites as an appetizer. It was awesome, as it was last time.

Just as an aside, I had made a trip to a thrift store again to get a “work” T-shirt, and one for a pajama top, since a lot of mine seem to have gone missing. Ended up with three, one is a big, lightweight coral colored one for the PJ's (that I've used for general purpose as well), another is a Buc-ees with a nice Texas theme (it's a medium, so it's towards the smaller size of fitting me well. We'd stopped into a Buc-ees on our Texas vacation), and the final is shown here, a cool design, “McGuffin Creative Group, Established 2004”. Love me some McGuffin!!!

Last time we were in Dana Point, the weather was phenomenal. Not so much this time, a lot of gray skies. When we'd headed out and for most of the drive, it was bright an sunny. Just as we neared the coastline, it got grayer. It was mostly like that while we were there. When we arrived back at the lodgings, one of the guys camping across the street at the beach had a nice fire going in a fire ring. I considered heading over and warming myself to their fire, it's been forever since I've been to a fire on a beach!!!

The next day, we got in on another whale watching trip!!! I located one that was supposed to have underwater viewing pods, that sounded very cool. However, the ship with the viewing pods is being worked on, so we were on a catamaran. As previously stated, it was cold and gray. It has an upper viewing deck, side and bow access, and an enclosed cabin. My wife mostly stayed in the cabin.

The boy and I ventured out to the bow, and the breeze just cuts right through your hoodie!!! Didn't stop us. We headed to the upper deck, and shortly after they announced a sighting, looks like a juvenile blue shark, they said. Looked like the pictures I've seen of the Loch Ness Monster to me!!!

It just cruised along without a care in the world, and we were near it for several minutes. Not long after it was spotted, they changed the ID to a thresher shark. In my second picture, and in real life, you can somewhat make out it's long tail that it uses to smack stuff around!!! Pretty cool!!!

Always love seeing pelicans. Here was a line flying low over the fairly flat ocean. I also love seeing when they're flying high, and spy their lunch and fold into a spear and dive straight down!!!

They headed on, and just a little later, they spotted a pod of dolphins. It wasn't the massive size of the last one we'd seen, but it was good sized, and there was a good amount of action.

Hung around them for a while, then it was time to head back in. Once more, didn't see whale one!!! Ah well, it was still pretty fun. On the way back in, the obligatory swing by the buoy with the sea lions on it.

I noticed that this time, we passed the green buoy, and I was pretty sure the last time we'd gone past a red one. Went back to the pictures from then to confirm, and yeah, it was red. Didn't have a picture from last time, so here's one from 2021, when the sun was actually out!!! (I think it was gray most of while we were out last time as well, but it was clearing by the time we came back)

I don't remember if we had been discussing Chinese food prior to it or what, but I located a Chinese buffet place that we headed off to that evening.

The next day, after having a nice breakfast again at the hotel, the sun made an appearance in the afternoon!!! The younger an I headed across to the beach, and walked a ways up.

Spotted this white, looked like quartz based rock among all the dark ones, so we posed with it.

Later in the afternoon, we finally made the trek down to San Clemente for some Taco Bell. There's another thing I tend to do on vacation, spend a considerable amount of time looking for somewhere to eat!!! I think I was looking for places that serve dogs, and nothing really grabbed me, so Taco Bell never fails!!!

My wife wasn't feeling well, so she stayed back. Of course, I had to head down to the pier!!! Once again, just like the time we'd gone to the Ventura pier, he neglected to bring a jacket!!!

I hadn't mentioned last time we'd been out on the pier, but to the south there's an artificial reef, the Wheeler North Reef, that pokes up above the surface. I didn't get a shot of it, but there the boy is pointing it out!!!

As before, great views from the parking area, so rounding it out with a couple of shots from there!!!

Good Times!!!

The Mid Year Vacation

Last November for our anniversary my wife and I had gone to Palm Springs. It was a good time, and I was feeling like going again. I had some vacation time in the middle of last month, so that's where we went!!!

We were big fans of Monster Shakes the last time we were there, so that was the first place we went after we got to our hotel!!! We'd stopped for dinner on the drive in, not at Whalburger's this time. This time we both got a shake instead of splitting one, and the boy had Dole Whip, as they have an amazing array of flavors on tap there. Wife got a cinnamon toast crunch shake, and I got a cookie monster shake.

Looks like the boy is eyeing my shake!!!

After a restful morning the next day, we had lunch, then again went to the Aerial Tram, which was a good move, this time of year it was over 100⁰ down in the city, and up in the San Jacinto Wilderness, it was in the 70's.

Did I mention??? I'd taken this week off for my wife's birthday!!! Once we got up to the top and the visitor's center, we hit the gift shop, and found a nice bag for her birthday.

We headed out the back, which leads to several trails. We headed just a little ways down, and it was apparent it was going to be too steep for my wife. We headed back, and asked if she'd be OK waiting while we headed out for a hike.

Just a little ways into the hike, spotted a hummingbird at a bush. Pulled up my camera, and he came straight up to eye level, and hovered there!!!

Nice little stream flowing through the area...

And this crazy red fungus!!!

There's a lot of Jeffery pines in the area. Thing about Jeffery pines, they smell like butterscotch!!!

We came to one of the areas that overlook the Palm Springs basin, and there was a tree leaning over precipitously.

Walked a ways down, and found out that one tree had toppled into another, which also toppled, and was into the third tree!!!

On the way back, we stopped at a hotel restraunt just a few down from where we were staying called The Reef. The food wasn't anything special, but the theming was great!!!

Speaking of great, the place we stayed was an amazing room!!! It had your own carport, a huge living room with a fireplace, a good sized fully equipped kitchen, a seperate bedroom, two bathrooms, and a little patio with a gas grill. There were a couple of pools and a hot tub, which we took a little swim and soak in in the evening.

On the way back, we stopped off at the Cabazon Dinosaurs.

They're featured in one of the Fallout games, so my son had to see them!!!

My wife wanted to go to The Cheesecake Factory for her birthday, so naturally that's what we did!!!

Roadwork

It's been a while, again. Here's a post I've been meaning to put together.

Back at the end of January, they started in on working on our street. The foreman for the project stopped by and told me what was going to happen.

They were putting in new natural gas lines for our street. They mapped out where they planned on cutting up the street, came back with a concrete saw and cut the outline, and then peeled up the concrete.

They started out great, taking care to cover the trench with steel plate, and even going so far as to weld the plates together!!! The next day, they came back and pulled up the plates, then put them back at the end of the day. They only did that two days.

Of course, they dug up our yard, too, to add in the pipe. The place where the gas line entered is about 10 feet below where the meter is, so they proposed moving the meter to the other side of the house, so it's only around 4 feet. It's not a big deal to me, so I let them go ahead and do it.

Here's where things got interesting. I believe it was early March when this happened. They had ran pipe across the front of the house to where the meter was, and had the supply pipe run to the other side of the house. On a Friday, they let us know the gas would be off for a while, while they connected everything.

They disconnected the meter, and it was late in the day and they hadn't re connected it. The pipe crossing over wasn't quite ready. I called the foreman, and he told me the gas company was going to put the meter back on where it was. They didn't. The technician said his work order was to install it to the new location, and that wasn't ready.

We got in touch, and the next morning they sent another tech out to put the meter back where it started. He then went to light the pilot light on the heater, and broke the control knob!!! Naturally, the week that followed was about the coldest weather of the year!!! It was Thursday before they got another tech out to replace it. Bonus, I've finally got a control with a thermostat connection. At that time, they also discovered that the valve at the water heater was leaking, so they had capped that line off until they could replace that valve. It made for an unpleasant week.

It was weeks after that before they came back and cemented the street back together as well as the four places they'd sawed the walkway by my house. The cement crew was slow and messy compared to the plumbing crew. One of the steel plates was sliding out of place down the street. One day while they were cementing the street across the street, they hadn't blocked off the street, and a couple of cars came down then had to back up the street, rolling through the wet cement.

And, when they wrapped up, the boy and I both went over and did a little vandalisim!!!

The boy did his character, CatNip, and I, once again, put the mark of the 512!!!

Looking Back: Completely Surrounded by Dolphins

Man, it's been a while since I've posted!!! This is from towards the end of last year.

For our anniversary weekend we stayed in a place in Laguna Hills in Orange County. The first night we were there, we went to a place that's been mentioned on The Woody Show, Sargent Pepperoini's.

You may have figured out from thier name, it's a Beatles themed pizza place. Beatles and Beatles-adjacent music, artwork, and a Beatles pinball machine, which of course I played several times.

One thing that is often mentioned on The Woody Show when discussing the place is the pin wheels. They are smallish sized little pizzas, without much sauce. Had to try them, and they are good!!!

Of course, we had to have a pizza, too. Also good, but I think I'd fill up on the pin wheels!!! After we ate, we went to a nearby theater and watched Dune, which gives you an idea about when this took place!!!

Didn't have much planned for our time, but on the second day, we went down to Dana Point Harbor and went on a whale watching boat.

It was gray and overcast, and the ocean was fairly flat.

Something they didn't tell us when we were signing up, there haven't been a lot of whale sightings this year. The reason hypothesized by the boats' marine biologist is that we have a huge backlog of freighters offshore waiting their turn to get unloaded, and if they are going to have any power onboard, they have to have the engine going.

So, all the cargo ships are making all this racket, and she thought that the whales are probably heading farther away from shore to avoid it. Makes sense.

So we didn't see whale one, but the captain spotted a pod of dolphins feeding.

And what a pod it was!!! The marine biologist estimated it was probably 700+ dolphins!!!

We were in the midst of the pod for probably close to an hour, and got to see a lot of dolphins!!!

We also saw a sun fish, and of course there were sea lions on the bouys on the way back.

Afterwards we went to a Mexican restaurant for a big lunch, which was pretty much the last we ate that day.

Headed home the next day, but I was looking for something to do on the way. Looking at the map of the shoreline, I came across a listing for "pirate tower".

Well, I'm something of a pirate myself!!! I've gotta go check it out!!! Sure enough, there's a tower right next to the cliff. Apparently it was made as a beach access stairway back in the 20's or 30's. It's closed off now, but it's a great visual!!!

It was a great little getaway!!!