Sights and scenes from trips to the West Coast--

I've been dreaming of the West Coast lately...the beaches and beauty of California. Not sure why.

I saw this video a couple of weekends ago and think maybe it has something to do with my travel lusts. I was actually intrigued by the video, because I have a friend who was purchasing the camera used to make the video. But I think the content reminded me of some of Roddy and I's adventures on the California coast.

For a while, I've been planning to blog about California and post some photos from our trips there. Since I'm California dreaming today, it seemed appropriate.

Roddy and I have taken two trips to California for vacation and Roddy was sent there a few times for work, one trip in which I got to join. On the first trip to California and our first vacation together, we saw the Los Angeles and San Diego areas. On the second trip, we flew in to Vegas, then drove through the Sequoia National Forest, Yosemite and ended up in San Francisco. When Roddy worked in California, he typically worked in Bakersfield or Ventura. On one assignment, he was sent to Ventura for six weeks, so I joined him for ten days of the trip right before Christmas. 

If you've never been to California, I'd definitely recommend it. I love how you can see beach and palm trees, then mountains and giant redwoods or sequoias all within a few hours drive. I can't wait to go back and visit again. Until then, I'll just have to enjoy the beauty I captured through my camera.

 

On our first trip, we starting in Los Angeles, where we visited Venice Beach, the Santa Monica Pier and Hollywood. This trip was a quick one...two cities in four days. You can tell as you move from this trip to the last one, I took quite a few more photos each trip, and each time the quality improved ;)

Roddy loves these Birds of Paradise! I bought him some seeds to try and grow, but they would never germinate. I guess the East Texas weather just wasn't right.

I never found a good place to photograph the Hollywood sign, so we'll have to go back and try again some other time, but we were able to see a few stars.

On the way to San Diego, we stopped in Crystal Cove, a state park in Newport Beach. There were little rock towers everywhere. We had a rock stacking contest, but I wasn't near patient enough to build a successful tower.

 

In San Diego, we saw the USS Midway, the San Diego Zoo and my favorite part...Kansas City Barbecue, where part of Top Gun was filmed :)

 

Our trip to San Francisco was six days and quite an adventure...starting in Vegas and ending with our Jeep getting towed off of Bay Street in San Fran. But it was definitely another great trip! After a whirling 36 hours in Vegas, we headed toward Sequoia National Forest. We arrived in the late afternoon, but were determined to see the General Sherman...the largest tree in the world at 36 feet in diameter. Of course we stopped here and there to admire things like this giant rock...

...and these tall trees.

There's he is in a wonderfully blurry photo...a 2.5 second exposure taken after sunset, with the camera propped on a stump.

After seeing the Sequoias briefly, we headed to Yosemite National Park the next day. We only had one day but thoroughly enjoyed it. The ride through the mountains with the top off the Jeep was beautiful!

As we entered Yosemite, we got to see more trees. These were the tall redwoods. They were so tall, I couldn't get them all in one photo, except by using my fisheye filter for my camera.

Here is Yosemite in all her glory...El Cap and the Half Dome are majestic!

We hiked to Vernal Falls. It was only a 1/3 mile from this sign, but I think about a 1.5 hour total trip from where we started. The steps toward the end were kind of tough on this flatlander's lungs.

This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen!

From Yosemite, we drove to San Francisco for our final stop of the trip. There, we visited all the normal tourist stops. We rode the trollies and visited the Cable Car Museum. 

We visited the seals at Pier 39...and smelled them too, unfortunately.

We drove down Lombard Street, enjoyed free chocolate samples at Ghirardelli Square and of course, drove across the Golden Gate Bridge.

The views from this side of the Golden Gate Bridge were beautiful from every angle.

As was every angle of the bridge...even with the famous fog rolling in.

I think it was the next day when our Jeep was towed. After retrieving it from the police impound, we realized we weren't going to have time to drive the coast like I planned. But, it was so foggy that day, we weren't able to see very far past the cliffs anyway. It turned out okay. We stopped to visit a beach and it was there I took one of my favorite photographs...this starfish.

I really like this photo of Roddy as well. It was taken at the cliffs above the starfish beach.

 

And on our last visit to California, we went to Ventura. Although Roddy had to work most of the time while I was visiting, I really enjoyed this trip. We rented bicycles the day I got there, so I'd have some type of transportation. He had a company truck to get to and from work and to get us around on the weekends and evenings. In the mornings, I'd pack my backpack with some snacks, whichever Harry Potter book I was reading at the time and my camera and head out to enjoy the West Coast. I'd cruise around town, checking out the various sights and little shops here and there. I'd meet Roddy for lunch or he'd come get me for lunch, then I'd do it all over again.

Ventura is a beautiful place, both by day...

My absolute favorite thing to do was to sit on the beach and watch the surfers. I took tons of photos of people surfing. I really wanted to go myself, but my attire most days consisted of a sweatshirt and ski jacket, so I figured I might be a tad miserable in the cold Pacific. 

Since my trip was in the middle of December, I also did some Christmas shopping there. They had a pretty nice mall with a two-story Target. A girl could do worse... One day I road my bike to the mall. It was a lot further than I expected, with a headwind. So after I loaded up with quite a few shopping bags worth of Christmas gifts, I called my knight in the white truck to come rescue me, so I didn't have to ride all the way back.

In the evenings, Roddy and I ate seafood almost every night. I was spoiled when I left that trip. And on the weekends, we saw what sights we could get to closely in the area. One weekend, we drove north out of Ventura toward Santa Barbara and visited the beaches along the way. Roddy found a barbecue restaurant that he liked and was up to Texas standards, so we visited it in between beach visits.

While I photographed the wildlife...

Our big excursion of the trip was to the Channel Islands. We only went to one of them and I can't remember which, but it was great! We took about an hour or so boat ride out, hiked around the island and had a picnic lunch, then rode the boat back. It's really beautiful out there!

Seeing all the seals and sea lions was my favorite part. I think Roddy enjoyed the tour of the lighthouse and the seeing the giant fresnel lens from the old light.

Now, back to Texas and reality. Until next time California...

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