From Sea to Shining Sea

We did it! We have completed a full cross country trip. In the past year, we saw the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico while staying in Florida and now we saw the Pacific Ocean in California. I love that our lifestyle is able to take us to so many beautiful places. When we initially planned our winter travels, we were going to spend the winter in Arizona, with 3 months in Tucson and we didn’t think we would make it to California on this trip.

this ship was just hanging out and we watched it do a 3 point turn and end up facing the other way in the same place. not sure why they did that.

After we started traveling with the motorhome, we found that it is much easier to set up and tear down, so we didn’t mind moving quite as often. We decided to only spend 2 months in Tucson, then move over to Yuma, AZ. Yuma is in the far southwest corner of Arizona, at the California border. Since we were so close, we decided that we needed to visit California as well.

We ended up leaving the motorhome at the RV Park in Yuma, and booked a hotel in San Diego for 3 nights. It was an interesting drive over from Yuma. At first is was a fairly boring drive across the desert and not very scenic. Then we came to an area filled with sand dunes. It would have been very scenic except for the giant powerlines crossing the dunes. As we drove further, we passed huge solar farms and windmill farms. Lots of electricity is being produced in that area.

fairly boring drive until we started to see the sand dunes

the electric lines really messed with the view

i got one shot when we stopped at a rest stop without the big electric poles

Then there was some really unique scenery as we climbed in elevation. There was an area of large hills just filled with gigantic boulders. Someone described it to me as feeling as if you had entered another world, i.e. on another planet. Very interesting landscape. Finally we crossed over the mountains and headed down to San Diego. Our first stop was Mission Beach to find a place for lunch with an ocean view.

it is hard to tell but these hills were all boulders like the ones in front.

As we got up to these hills the boulders were on both sides of the highway and almost too close to get a good picture. You felt like they would easily roll down onto the highway.

It was a perfect day to be at the beach, even though the breeze was a little cool. Unfortunately, we were expecting a rainy weekend so we had to get our beach fix on the first day while the sun was shining. After a relaxing lunch, we headed to our hotel. It was a really nice resort with a large pool area, a couple of restaurants and a large outdoor patio area.

I thought it was cool to see these pictures of our hotel, today and in the past. definitely a big change.

One reason we chose to go to San Diego was the opportunity to visit some of our cousins. My cousin Joanie and her husband Chuck live in the San Diego area and they came into our hotel to visit. We sat out on the patio, near one of the fire pits, and enjoyed catching up for a few hours. It was a great place to have a drink, enjoy the cool evening and grab a bite to eat. We had a wonderful visit and hung out together for a few hours.

It rained as predicted on Saturday, so we looked for things to do that we wouldn’t need to be outside all the time. Tim’s choice was to visit the USS Midway Museum. It was only raining lightly when we arrived and most of the exhibits were inside on the various levels of the ship. When we got to the flight deck, the rain had stopped which was great for checking out all of the planes. I think the flight deck was my favorite part, but I also enjoyed going through the ship and seeing how the sailors lived and worked on it. Even though the ship was built after the battle of Midway, they have a movie about the battle which was very well done and quite interesting. I highly recommend this museum for anyone visiting San Diego.

i liked seeing the hospital ship from the deck of the uss midway

looking down on this famous statue from the uss midway flight deck

don’t you love these realistic displays?

most of the rooms on the self guided tour were set up this way.

i can’t imagine sleeping in these bunks.

It starting raining as we left the ship, so we decided to head over to Old Town to grab lunch and then decide what else to do. We got into Old Town, found a good parking place and headed into the closest restaurant, Rockin’ Baja Lobster. Perfect timing as it started pouring once we got seated and it rained the entire time that we had lunch. We ended up getting the Big Baja Bucket which is a meal for 2. It was so huge that we couldn’t finish it. The bucket included 4 small lobster tails, shrimp, 2 pieces of steak, 2 pieces of chicken, corn on the cob, rice, beans and tortillas, then a fried ice cream to split for dessert. I think it would have served at least 3 people!

After our long lunch, the rain stopped and the sun was shining so we decided to walk through Old Town. The main street is interesting with some historic buildings, a pretty church, quite a few stores, and of course restaurants and bars. We browsed a bit, bought a couple of T-shirts, and then headed over to the Old Town State Historic Park. The park is on the ancestral land of the First People with an exhibit dedicated to them, as well as historic buildings from when it was California’s first Spanish settlement and also when it was a Mexican pueblo before it became an American settlement. So much history and it is definitely a glimpse into the converging cultures of this area. We ended our day back at the hotel for a cocktail and dinner before calling it a day.

On Sunday, we had plans to meet up with a couple of Tim’s cousins who live a bit closer to Los Angeles. They agreed to meet us about half way which was perfect because I wanted to visit San Juan Capitstrono and see the historic mission there. Tim and I left early so we could tour the mission before meeting them for lunch. It was another rainy day but luckily it was just a light rain off and on all day. The Mission worked out well because even though some of it was outside, there were enough inside rooms that we could duck into when it was raining.

this baptismal font was from the original mission and used to baptize many native americans.

This mission was founded by Junipero Serra on November 1, 1776, and is the 7th of the 21 missions established in California. The goal of the missions was to expand the territorial boundaries of Spain and to spread Christianity to the native peoples of California. The object was to convert them to Catholism and teach them fundamentals of Spanish agriculture. They wanted them to become self-sustaining Spanish subjects and of course pay taxes to Spain.

the church that was destroyed by the earthquake

The exhibits at the Mission were really interesting, covering the way of life during that time period. The church itself was destroyed in an earthquake in December 1812 and disintegrated over the years but luckily it was the home of a family in the mid 1800s which probably helped to save the many strucutres and buildings in the mission. In 1850, President Abraham Lincoln, restored the Mission property to the Catholic Church. By the early 1900s, a group was working the restore the mission.

Most people have heard of the miracle of the Swallows of Capistrano celebration which takes place at the mission on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19, each year. The swallows migrate 6,000 miles from Goya, Argentina to San Juan Capistrano in large groups. Unfortunately, we were there too early to see the swallows.

visiting with carol and dale. photo thanks to dale’s wife patricia

After our visit to the Mission, we were able to walk to the restaurant to meet up with Tim’s cousins Dale and Carol, and their spouses. They chose a wine bar for lunch and they had us set up inside at a nice table by the bar so we didn’t have to be out on the patio in case it rained again. We had a wonderful visit with them and again spent a bit of time just enjoying the company and catching up on their families’ lives. It had been about 15 years since we last saw them so it was wonderful that our travels took us close enough for a visit.

We headed back to Yuma on Monday morning. I haven’t really written much about our stay there yet so look for that as well as our stop in Casa Grande in the next post. Till next time!

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