San Francisco

We arrived yesterday night to San Francisco, as there are not a lot of campsite in San Francisco, only 3, our options were limited and basically we had just one option, the San Francisco RV resort. It is kind of a RV parking lot with an Ocean view and smell. Apart from the fact that it is an expensive one (same as the other in San Francisco) it is fine, it is close to town, just 30 min & clean.
As it is not possible to roam around in S.F. with a 31 ft RV, in the morning, or at least our morning, 13:00 we rented a car and headed downtown starting with Chinatown area. Walking through Chinatown we stopped for lunch in one of the recommended Chinese restaurant, Bow How (or something like that), can not say I recommend it.  We continued our walk all the way to the pier where we stopped at the famous Ghirardelli Chocolad factory. They are famous with their ice cream Chocolate Sunday, and the long queues suggested that. Luckily for us we did not wait much, we kept our waiting time for the San Francisco cable car which we took right after. The 40-50 min waiting to the cable car was worth it as the kids were existed and enjoyed the ride. After that we just took our car and drove the streets of S.F starting with the steep Lombard street, all the way to the view point. Much fun.

Big Sur

From Morro Bay we headed up north on the scenic route # 1. Tough we had a very foggy day the view is very nice, instead of sea there where clouds which gave the feeling we are flying in the sky.

We stopped at San Simeon to see Elephant sea. 

The road sees long due to the curves and low speed (though it took just about 2 hours), but at the end we reached out campsite for the next 2 days at Big Sur area, Frenwood resort. This is a small campsite just along the river where you park your RV between the redwoods and can go to the river.  

The next day we just too a hike between the Redwoods forest and then went to the beautiful white sand beach along the scenic road. 

 On the way back from the beach we were driving south (so far we were driving north) and one thing there is to say, it ain't the same, the view going south is by far more beautiful and there are much more view spot that you can pull of and take pictures. On the other hand, it is more scary as you drive on the cliff's edge. In any case as we need to go North we have no alternative. 

 Today we visited the Monterey Aquarium. We had a nice surprise as while waking to the Aquarium a lady just pulled her car and asked us if we would like 2 tickets (worth $ 80) to the Aquarium. We had no choice by to accept.

Though it was quite packed with people, it is already summer holiday and it was Saturday, both are people increase factors, the kids loved the Aquarium.

Morning at the RV

We are spending the morning in our RV at Morro Bay, doing some laundry while the kids reads books. As Ziv does not read yet, Zoe reads him Curious George. Soon will close everything and start the day.

Morro Bay

Yesterday we have finished our L.A. part and started our journey north. Our last day in L.A. was a 14 hours fun and exhausting day at Disneyland. Though for us the grownups the rids where, yet again, 80's rides, the Disney experiences and atmosphere still makes it and the kids just loved it ! It was packed & crowded, but the kids just loved it ! so starting at opening time, 8 am we arrived back to our campsite (10 min drive) at 12 pm. 

The following day we started our way north were first stop was Santa Barbara. There we had lunch on the beach while the kids build castle and played with the waves. As we had to stop for some stock replenishment, we headed toward the nearest 24h Walmart, and spent the night at Walmart parking. Needless to say that we spent the evening and the next morning at Walmart buying stuff. 

Today (24.06) we are camping at Morro Bay, it is on the coast in a lovely little town. 

On the camp side we have used our new Walmart barbecue grill, which took a while to build and a while to light, but once we did it kept running. 

Tomorrow we plan to reach to the Big Sur going via Cambria & San Simeon.

Los Angeles, Universal Studios, Santa Monica Pier.....

We have been in L.A. for couple of days now, we are mainly here for the Universal & Disney experience as otherwise apart from traffic, and a lot of it even on Sundays, L.A. is not much, for us it is slightly stuck in the 80's. Places like Hollywood boulevard, Santa Monica Pier are really, well, not so interesting, in the 80's they where the place to visit. 

With regard to the Universal Studios, well, for us the grownups the Studios were kind of discontentment as the old nostalgic rides have been replaced with a high tech 3-4D simulators that shakes all around. For the kids though the experience was great, though they did not like the rides too much, but they did love the atmosphere and the characters, mainly the Minoins. So we visited the park twice :). 

Today we are going to Disney land.

          

The actual starting of our trip

Finally, after a year of planning and several years of expectation and dreams the final moment has arrived. We have worked quite a lot to prepare and set the stage to our trip, but I'll keep it for some other time while I'll have more time (quite exhausted from the day). 

Well, we arrived after a 15th hour flight to L.A. and the first night we spent in a hotel near LAX airport. We have planed that way as we assumed that we will be tired from the non sleeping flight, and we were right to do so. Though the kids were great during all the flight and were barely noticed, we could not really sleep during the flight and once we received our room at the hotel at 11 am we just went to sleep right away. We woke up at 4 pm just to order some food and go back to sleep at 8 pm. As expected at 5 am we were up. 

The next day ( 18.06 ) we wend to to pick our home for the next 3 months, our motor home. 

Though I have planned and did some prior investigation on the motorhome types etc' being in one is slightly different. Originally we have rented a 27 ft motorhome, however we ended up with a 31 ft, and the 4 ft really does make a difference, it is a huge motorhome. As one picture worth a 1000 words (might use that quite a lot) you can just look at the pic. 

So with that extra 31ft of a car I start driving around, starting with Walmart as we needed to fill the fridge. Next stop was our campsite for the next 3 days, Balboa RV park. We booked in advance one which is closed to the universal studios with the thought to leave the camper at the site a catch public transportation to the studios. At the end we just went with the 31ft to Universal, which apparently was a great idea. Having our home with us just gave us the flexibility to enjoy the Studios with the luxury of going home for a short afternoon nap and lunch. Universal Studio was fan as you can imagine and here are some clips of that. So with these clips I say goodbye for today.