San Clemente

2021-08-16 and 17 – The Oregon Trail caravan … Days 19 and 20 – Pocatello, ID

August 16, 2021

It is an exciting day for us today! Most of our grandchildren start school for the first time in 17 months…

3rd grade, 2nd grade, Kindergarten… While the 3-year-old looks on wistfully… (She starts Preschool next week…)

Or as they say in Burbank: “Primer Dia de Escuela! Kinder, Grado 2, Grado 3…”

But on to today’s activities:

We took the truck in for an oil change… I tried to get an appointment for today a week ago, and I was told by the Chevy dealer and the GMC dealer that they were too busy. When I asked the GMC dealer, “What am I supposed to do?” he replied, “There’s a Jiffy-Lube right across the street!”…

We stopped in at Fred Meyer to do some grocery shopping…

After we returned to the Villa Lynda remembered that she forgot one item, so she walked to the nearby Kwik Stop Market…

But they didn’t have what she needed, so she walked a bit further to the Albertson’s…

So after that exhausting round of activity we took it easy the rest of the afternoon. We enjoyed Happy Hours with friends, then we joined others for a post happy hours Happy Hour…

An enjoyable time was had by all…

August 17, 2021

The caravaners toured the Museum of Clean this morning…

Donald Andrew Aslett (born 1935) is an American entrepreneur and author who specializes in cleaning and housekeeping products, services, and techniques. He co-founded Varsity House Cleaning Company, a house cleaning service, in 1957.

He is considered a cleaning expert and has written books about how to reduce the time spent cleaning by reducing clutter, selecting and organizing the efficient cleaning tools, and creating what he calls a self-cleaning house.

In 2011, he opened the Museum of Clean in Pocatello, Idaho, a six-story building with a theater, art gallery, and collection of 6,000 artifacts. The building is a restored warehouse in Pocatello’s historic warehouse district…

They do have the worlds Largest Janitor!

The musem has collections of vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and similar apparatus…

This display is close to home for us… In 1974 there was a winter storm that brought giant waves to San Onofre, at San Clemente, where we typically came 4-5 times per year. Hank “Crawdad” Wilson, a master surfer, who lived in nearby Dana Point, went to surf those giant waves. Unfortunately, his board was in the shop getting some Fiberglas work done. So he grabbed the closest thing in the shape of a surfboard – an ironing board!

He hit the waves and created a surfing legend that day…

(I have no idea what this has to do with clean…)

After the museum we headed north to Blackfoot, ID. To the old train depot…

Because, after all – we are in Idaho…

The potato museum was even more fun than the clean museum… We watched videos of potato harvest, we saw how McDonalds makes their French fries. There is also a potatoe, autographed by Dan Quail…!

And it has a café! We shared a baked potato with a few toppings for lunch…

We returned to the Villa…

This evening we are having a group dinner – baked potatoes!

An enjoyable time was had by all…

August 21, 2021 0

2021-04-17 – Scouting the California AFW Caravan…

Saturday, April 17: Redlands to Lodi

We left Redlands at the crack of dawn. We have a long day of driving ahead of us We are driving to Lodi….

Update: We last posted in July of 2019; we had returned home from our 2019 caravans and were spending the week at San Clemente State Beach with family and friends, many of whom we had not seen in many months. But as we anticipated staying close to home we were less energized to be blogging every little local trip we were taking. We were scheduled for four caravans in 2020, and we were saving our blogging energy until then. And Covid happened…

We were camping with the Airstream Club at Pechanga in Temecula on my birthday weekend of March 8, 2020, when news of widespread Covid hit. On March 11 I did my stint as a docent at the Hollyhock House, traveling back and forth via train. I saw one person wearing a mask – about average. That night the NBA cancelled its season, and things were beginning to be shutdown left and right. On Friday, March 13, we had invited new friends from the neighborhood to dinner. They were all still working as school administrators; 15 minutes before dinner was to start they called to cancel, saying that they were being required to work all night to figure out what to do about schools being closed. Luckily we had other friends nearby who had not started dinner who agreed to come by and help us eat all the food that Lynda had already prepared… Tuesday, March17, I did my last session volunteering at a homeless shelter; it, too, was closing. And the rest is history…

All four of our 2020 caravans were cancelled. We didn’t take out the Airstream for over three months – a record! We hunkered down, spending our stimulus checks on ordering food for take out and delivery to keep our local restaurants afloat. Finally, in June, with all the state parks still closed, we spent 4 days in Temecula, at the Pechanga RV Resort. (Indians don’t have to listen to Governor Newsom…) The park was nearly empty and we had a lovely time just relaxing and walking on different streets for a change. We did this two more times before the state parks re-opened. We spent a week at San Clemente in August. And so the year dragged on. The Airstream Club had a few camp-outs as usual, but different because lack of potlucks and group dinners.

With the surge in Covid in December we forwent our annual New Years trip to Palm Desert. The winter progressed much the same.

So today we start a one week “scouting” trip in preparation of the caravan we will be leading next year. More on that later…

We left at about 5:15, as the sun was breaking in the east. Luckily, we drove west, towards Los Angeles and north over “The Grapevine”. After a brief breakfast stop outside Arvin, we continued north up the 5. Long boring drive; but it was fun to be on the road again after so long. We refueled in Lodi and easily found out campsite for the night – Van Ruiten Family Wines, vineyards, an outdoor tasting area, and “free” overnight parking…

We found a table in the tasting area and enjoyed sample of 10 wines, plus cheese and crackers.

After a lovely time here, much of it spent talking to a couple from Ventura who were also camping overnight, we retired to the Villa. An enjoyable time was had by all…

April 26, 2021 2

2019-06-17 thru 2019-06-24 – Family time in San Clemente…

Another Airstream Adventure. But no traveling…

On Monday, 6/17, we drove the short 1.25 hours from Redlands to San Clemente. I have been camping here since 1956… It never disappoints…

We found our campsite – all RV sites are pull-through, about 75′ long, with full hook-ups. Some are better than others, but considering how hard it is to get reservations here, we’ll take whatever we can get…

We had a quiet afternoon, happy hours ensued, and we enjoyed a peaceful evening with friends. This will be the last peaceful evening we will have for awhile…

Tuesday morning (and every morning this week) we walk the 1 1/2 miles along the beach path to the pier…

We’ve been walking this path for about 20 years now…

We’ve been watching these cliffs erode for about 50 years…

A landmark along the way is the T-Street bridge…

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Across from the pier is Bear Coast Coffee – the best coffee in So Cal. Today (and every day this week) Lynda has a latte, I have a decaf cappuccino, and we split the Feta-Egg sandwich…

After breakfast we walked back to the Villa and awaited the arrival of the Thundering Herd…

Our daughter, Erin, arrived with Roisin (6), Ian (5), Evelyn (1), and George X (3)…

Erin and Lynda put up their tent while I tried, unsuccessfully, to keep the kids out of trouble…

Despite the cool weather Tuesday (and every day this week) – it never broke 70 – beach time soon arrived…

I asked Lynda why she rarely takes pictures of anyone besides Evelyn; she replied that she is the only one who stays still long enough…

(PS: I don’t do the beach thing. I sunburn easily, there is no drink service, and I need my alone time in the Villa…)

By about 5:00 on Tuesday (and every day this week) Lynda and Erin and the Thundering Herd arrived back at the Villa; they’re hot, tired, sandy, hungry, and cranky…

We do our best to keep them from killing each other while the cleanup process takes place…

Usually we feed the kids, then put on Netflix in the Villa while the adults enjoy Happy Hours. Then we put the kids to bed and finally all the adults collapse… For some reason on Tuesday (and every night this week) Evelyn refused to fall asleep quietly and required adult attention for about an hour…

Wednesday morning the Thundering Herd accompanied us to the Pier and Bear Coast Coffee…

Everyone watched the train go by…

We were able to corral the kids for a picture on the Group W Bench:

Time on the swings ensued…

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And the rest of the week proceeded in exactly the same way…

The only difference occurred late in the week. Erin and the kids went home Thursday evening, and they returned on Saturday morning… This allowed Lynda and me to make our marathon walk; we walked to the pier and Bear Coast for breakfast, then we walked to the north end of the beach path; from there we walked inland to Rainbow Sandals to buy new flips for me – walking as much as we do, I wear them out often. Then back down El Camino Real to Beach Town Books, a used book store Lynda likes, then to lunch at South of Nicks (which is actually NW of Nicks…)

From there we walked down Del Mar to the pier, and then back to the Villa. About eight miles…!

On Saturday morning Erin and the Thundering Herd returned…

Another special event occurred Saturday…

Happy Anniversary to us! It’s been 45 years !

To celebrate, we took pictures…

In the afternoon we did our separate things…

Saturday evening we were joined by friends (whose anniversary is Sunday) for dinner at Pierside…

We enjoyed the sunset…

Sunday afternoon we were joined by other friends… Beach time, happy hours, and dinner ensued…

And then everyone left. Silence! Golden silence!

Monday we walked one last time to Bear Coast for breakfast… We packed up and returned to Redlands…

And an enjoyable time was has by all…

June 25, 2019 1

2019-02-21 to 2019 02 28 – San Clemente State Beach

We’re off again for 11 days… First stop is San Clemente State Beach, one of the best ocean front RV parks in California – large sites, full hook-ups, 30-45 minute walk to town and the pier, shops, restaurants. It’s a little further to the Rainbow Sandal Store, but we will walk there one day during this trip…

We packed up the truck and headed out at 11:00 am on Thursday. We picked up the Villa in Temecula where we had left it for service at Airstream IE. So far they have been OK, but I’m not overly impressed after two visits. We’ll see…

We arrived at the campground promptly at 2:00, found our site, and tried to set up. After several tries in various locations we were able to get decent satellite TV service. However: OOPS! the utility post prevented the slide from opening! So we had to un-stabilize, re-hitch, and re-position. Now that the slide opens we can’t put out the awning due to an unfortunately placed tree… We have such first world problems!

But we are set up and a quiet evening alone was had. Happy Hours occurred. The sun set, and all was well.

Friday morning dawned bright and cold! 42 degrees! (It had snowed the day before in many parts of LA…) So we walked to the pier a little later than usual. But it was delightful in the sun and the coffee at Bear Coast was wonderful.

We did see evidence if the recent heavy rains:

The rest of the day was spent reading and doing income taxes. Much fun…

At 2:00 pm or so three cousins arrived and set up. We had a little casual conversation with them, but we retreated back to the Villa as the sun set and it got really cold again. Happy Hours and dinner inside were had and all was well…

Saturday is the big day and the reason for this trip. We will meet up with many of my cousins, plus the various inlaws and outlaws. We’ve been doing this for about five years, mainly since so many of us have birthdays around this time…

We did walk to the pier for coffee, of course…

Around 1:00 we started to gather and by 2:00 we had a nice crowd, although it was smaller than some previous years… We counted six first cousins, plus about 12-15 others, including kids and grandkids, and the aforementioned inlaws and outlaws…

These are the six cousins, standing in age order. I have no idea what I was looking at…

Just some of our motley crew…

We spent the afternoon getting reacquainted, lying and bragging about our kids and grandkids, and, for some, great grandkids. (Note that the other five cousins are all a LOT order than I am…)

There was much food and wine and even a little bourbon…

Again it was quite cold, so we turned in relatively early… All was well…

Sunday was another big day. It is Lynda’s birthday! We are the same age for about two weeks… And we will be visited by our daughter and her thundering herd…

We walked to Bear Coast Coffee once again, then we returned to the Villa and 30 minutes of peace before the McAnoy clan arrived…

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They soon decided they needed to walk down to the beach…

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Evelyn enjoyed her first time crawling about in the sand…

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After a walk to the pier and a brief snack and they all departed for home… We were exhausted…

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We turned in early… And all was well…

Monday we decided it was time for an epic walk… First to the pier for coffee, then to the Outlet Mall in North San Clemente. Lynda found a few bargains for the kids, then we headed over to Rainbow Sandals to buy new flips for the kids. We walked back through town, stopped for used books, and then returned to the Villa – a total of 9 miles and about 20,000 steps. Then it was nap time! In the evening we joined the few remaining cousins for a light dinner and another day was in the books… And all was well…

Tuesday again found us at Bear Coast Coffee…

It was the first day we could walk to the pier without wearing jackets… As we were walking we received word that Evelyn has received her first birthday present:

The others have also received their own chair on each of their first birthdays…

Today we went through all the cupboards and storage areas in the Villa and removed anything not necessary for our upcoming three month trip to the east coast and back… We don’t need 16 wine glasses, six water hoses, etc. We feel much lighter now…

Since last Sunday was Lynda’s birthday, tonight we walked in to Ave. Del Mar and went out to dinner at Brussels Bistro…

It was OK – nice Old Fashioneds, pretty good frites, good meatballs, OK mussels… Good, friendly service… We took Uber back to the Villa and turned in early… All was well…

It’s Thursday morning and it’s time to go. We walked for coffee one last time… The coast was lovely as usual…

We packed up, hooked up, and left San Clemente about 10:30 am… We are off to Pechanga RV Resort in Temecula!

We’ll be back to camp in San Clemente in June…

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

February 28, 2019 1

2018-11-30 – San Clemente State Beach – 2018-12-03

We took a quick trip to San Clemente State Beach this past weekend. The occasion is the annual Airstream Club party wherein we swear in the new officers, cuss out the old officers, and enjoy hanging out with one another as we begin the Holiday season.

For the past 14 years we have been holding the party at the HOA clubhouse at Cypress Shores, an exclusive community of about 150 homes which sits adjacent to their one half mile long private beach… One of our members has lived in Cypress Shores since 1982, and they have generously offered this facility to us.

We arrived at the State Beach on Friday at 2:15 pm and were quickly and easily set up. Within an hour of so there were five Airstreams here…

Happy hours ensued rather early, and we were soon enjoying time with our friends…

It was actually quite cold this evening – in the 50s, so we turned in early…

Saturday morning was even colder! But we were walking to the pier by 7:30 or so. Our destination is Bear Coast Coffee, where we can enjoy a great latte or cappuccino and some creative food. We soon found out that there was a big surfing contest going on this weekend…

But we enjoyed our coffee and were soon walking back to the campground. As usual, the ocean was beautiful, but quite rough, due to the recent rain storms of the past week…

While I spent the entire day watching football, Lynda actually walked back down to the sand. The storms had left quite an impact on the beach…

Happy hours again were had. By now there were 7 Airstreams here…

Sunday morning it was even colder – into the 40s. Walking along the beach in the shade of the bluffs was quite uncomfortable to us Californians… So we opted to have breakfast at The Fisherman, where we could sit indoors atop the pier. The sun felt good, and the food was good as well…

The ocean was again beautiful, and it was calming down a little…

This afternoon was the party. We drove over at about 2:00 pm. The party was soon in full swing. I found my usual introvert’s corner to try to maintain my sanity…

I did spend a little time chatting with others…

Some of our members were dressed quite festively!

Here is the whole group…

One of the highlights of this event is always the sunset view from the clubhouse balcony…

Monday morning we once again walked to Bear Coast Coffee. It was a beautiful day. Back at the campground we marveled at all the empty sites, something we never see here in the summer or on weekends…

We soon were packing up and heading back to Redlands… where we saw beautiful snow-capped mountains…

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

December 6, 2018 1

2018-08-04 – Summer 2018 at San Clemente – Moving Day

The day dawned beautifully! Those of us who wanted to walked along the beach path about 1.25 miles to Bear Coast Coffee, where we enjoyed coffee and a little bite to eat… Others stayed in their Airstreams….

This is the “Pier Bowl” area – a natural cove where the Pier is located, and around which all other beach related activities occur. We can watch the trains go by, watch the trucks delivering their early morning supplies to the retailers, and we can watch the surfers, Jr. lifeguards, walkers and joggers come and go.

After our walk back we began the arduous task of packing up. Each year we vow to keep things simple, but we still bring so much stuff. On the other had, we’re pretty organized, and we’ve done this a bazillion times, so it only took a little over an hour.

We headed off to drop the Airstream one last time at C&G in Bellflower for semi-annual maintenance and to have them give it a once-over before we depart for our caravan in a few weeks. We learned this week that C&G is closing, so we will need to find a new fixit place…

So we arrived home again in Redlands in the afternoon, and settled into our usual chores of un-packing, doing laundry, and catching up with the mail…

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

August 17, 2018 0

2018-08-03 – Summer 2018 at San Clemente – Day 7

After our walk back we settled into our usual pattern. Phil and Mark worked (or played) at the computer, Steve read in his Airstream, and Lynda, Jane, and Connie (with an occasional assist from Steve or Mark) worked on the jigsaw puzzles…

Putting in the last piece…

About 4:00 or so we dispersed, then reassembled about one hour later at our campsite for Happy Hours. We rarely cook dinner – hors d’oeuvres are usually plentiful, and we are well satisfied by the time the sun is setting…

After dark we turned in… And an enjoyable time was had by all… Tomorrow we head home, and start to prepare for our two month Caravan through the Southwest…

August 16, 2018 0