California Musings

Just spent 8 wonderful days in California. San Diego, The Pacific Coast Highway, Disneyland and Hollywood. These are just some random thoughts, observations and musings of our week, there will be a longer blog about Walt Disney later this week, in no particular order…

San Diego is VERY beautiful. Just an amazing place to be! We spent time in Little Italy, Mission Beach Boardwalk, downtown and the bay front. Never got above 82 degrees, and the people were all friendly! My friend Ron says, it is “America’s Finest City”, he just may be right! This is just along the bay front road…

San Diego is full of “dog people”. There are people with dogs everywhere, happy go lucky dogs just walking down the streets with their owners. If you love dogs, and looking to live in a big city, this is the place for you!

Los Angeles/Hollywood was our biggest disappointment. We rented a car, and drove in to do the whole Walk Of Fame/Grauman’s Chinese Theatre thing. There was trash, not a little, a lot of trash all over the highway, was just dirty everywhere. We exited right where the entrance to the Hollywood Bowl was, also trash everywhere… We parked at the mall that’s connected to the theater. Mall was cool, had a great lunch at Cabo Wabo! Then we went down to the street and wow! There were numerous protests going on, all with sound systems trying to “out yell” the others. We saw no less than 2 drug deals happen, and we were solicited for a third. There was pushing and shoving, and an arrest was made! The people were rough, the language was rough, the stores were not places you wanted to enter. To quote my wife, it made Bourbon Street look like a cake walk! #disappointing

85 degrees is hot to Southern Californians… Every other Uber driver told us how hot it is! Workers were telling us it’s the “hottest days of the year”. There was a definite feeling of stress due to the heat! 85 is our 102 here in Texas. We laughed about it at first, then realized, it’s the same for them as it is for us, it’s what you are used to… So when you see California at 85 degrees, know they are under a heat advisory, just like us…  🙂

The Pacific Ocean… Beautiful, no more words needed…

Sea World isn’t the root of all evil! Yes, Blackfish showed the struggles and issues with Ocra whales in captivity. But all the rescues, conservation and education being done by Sea World shouldn’t be just pushed aside. I think they have “righted the wrongs”, the people there are passionate about what they are doing. and the park is such a great educational experience, you shouldn’t pass it over!

Punch Buggy Heaven exists! The Trapane family plays “Punch Buggy” everywhere we go, and the stretch between Solana Beach and Oceanside on the Pacific Coast Highway is the Super Bowl of Punch Buggy! We saw no less than 17 vans, and at least 40 bugs!

Dole Whip… Kelly discovered Dole Whip at Disneyland. This discovery was made the last night of our Disneyland visit, and it was seismic! You see Kelly can’t have dairy, and Dole Whip has no dairy, so Kelly can eat it! We have the recipe, and will be making it at home in the very near future!

The Pacific Coast Highway is just one of the coolest rides I have ever taken, mind you we only did San Diego to Huntington Beach. We didn’t do the north California coast, which supposed to be even more scenic! (We will have to make it back, and do the wine country!)

It was truly one of our best vacations ever, by the end we were tired, our feet hurt, our bodies hurt, we needed sleep, but wouldn’t trade last week for the world!!!

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