|
2008: Down the Coast
In Santa Cruz, we have our very own little esplanade where we can walk or
bicycle whenever we get the urge, West Cliff Drive.
From time to time, we explore the rest of the California coast, and spent a
short week doing so in July 2008.
Our first stop on this vacation was in San Simeon, the village below
Big Sur where Julia Morgan helped William Randolph Hearst build his summer home,
Hearst Castle. We'd driven past it
on earlier trips up and down the Coast, but never visited.
The motel where we spent the night boasted a few hundred yards of ocean
frontage, with the Pacific lapping at the shore about 50 yards from the room.
They lit campfires along the front during the evening.
The boys heated marshmallows in the
flames, and then sandwiched them between graham crackers with chocolate to make
s'mores.
On the left, Marie-Hélène
posed in front of one of the Castle's beautiful swimming pools.
Below are other shots of a trip which was a lot of fun, if a little short for
a summer holiday.
|
A few miles up the Coast from the Castle, on a beach called
Piedras Blancas,
each spring and summer a colony of elephant seals comes to stay.
|
Alex and Charlie in front of
one the Castle's old firetrucks, restored and housed in the visitors'
center. We studiously avoid learning what the gestures mean!
|
Our next stop was Disneyland. In our motel
across from the park in Anaheim, Alex discovered the joys of filling his
t-shirt with the jacuzzi's bubbles.
It was a rollercoaster day, with us spending most of our time in the
California Adventure Park rather than in Disneyland next door. Good
times! |
Charlie, sitting on the "C" in "Disney." Tilt! That's "C" as in
Disney's California Adventure, the new twin park to
Disneyland opened in 2001. Here's
Alex with the "A" on an earlier visit.
|
On the left, the most lasting portion of the trip, provisionally installed in
the living room at home.
We found the store which sold mantelpieces to Hollywood studios, including
for "The Titanic," and picked one in wood painted white. They also made them in
white stone.
This was how the living room looked for Christmas, with the cards on the
mantel between the lamps and the new high def. TV off to the side waiting to be
mounted above the mantel.
Okay, we admit it, we're sneaking this last one in! On the right, Charlie is
diving at Harvey West Pool in Santa Cruz a week before we took off down the
coast.
Even when we take a short summer holiday, the family spends the rest of every
summer in a holiday town on the Pacific Ocean!
Here are the other 2008 photo journal pages: Tom
living in Paris, Alban out and about in
Santa Cruz, Ian on a short visit to family in
England, birthdays and other special days in
2008, soccer in 2008,
portraits in 2008 and, last but not least,
the main 2008 journal page.
|
