Rolling Through SoCal

Southern California, CA

Not the real State Line sign

2 Nights in Spring Valley CA (a suburb of San Diego)

We are currently in a Tustin Airbnb, which is an apartment in a giant apartment complex. It's absolutely under the radar because the listed address is slightly different than the address you get when you receive your check-in instructions. The other day we drove from Vegas to the San Diego area and visited with family and now we are working our way north on our way to our Portland stay which starts next week. We had a lot of camping planned but the inches of rain coming has changed those plans.  The current plan is 2 nights in Spring Valley, 2 nights in Tustin, CA, 2 nights in Alameda, CA, and then a few nights camping, and closing out with 2 nights in different hotels in Oregon.

We stopped by Spring Valley to visit Mom and Bill at the Covenant Living at Mount Miguel. It's a beautiful retirement community with a lot of amenities.

Amenities that include these weird scooters.

And estate sales where they sell absolutely everything left behind by residents who have completed their stay at Mt. Miguel.  You can't take the napkins with you.

After our visit we marked off another Tiki Bar.  Chief's Da Tiki Bar in Bonita CA. It had good drinks and a wide selection of food and allowed dogs. 

The Tiki Bar had a strong San Diego vibe.

After lunch we headed down to 3rd St. in Downtown Chula Vista to walk around. It's a great walkable downtown with a lot of character.

Chula Vista seems like a proud community.

We visited Chula Vista Brewing Company, a Black owned brewery making great beers.

Sadly all of the wide shoes were boring and women's shoes.

Our next stop was Thr3e Punks Brewing.

More of that Chula Vista pride

There was also a cool looking skate shop and sneaker store.  The whole front of the building opened up like a garage to take advantage of the perfect Chula Vista weather.

2 Nights in Tustin

On Saturday we drove from San Diego to Tustin.  We stopped by Orange, the city were our house is, and drove around to see how it has changed.  We took Francis for a walk around the block where our house is located to make sure it looked good and it did.  The neighborhood appears to be in better shape than when we left it.

Our house in Orange, CA.  The photo is crooked because I wanted to take photos on the sly.  It looks great!

After checking into our shady Airbnb, we headed over to our friend Darrin's house to play some board games and see his Tiki Bar. We visited Darrin's Tiki Bar almost two years ago (read about that here) and he has made a lot of changes and even given it a name, The Lost Lagoon Lounge.  

Darrin has had a nice plaque made for his bar

He has added nice foliage hanging from the ceiling.

He gave us a tour and showed us all of the decorations that he collects for his bar on his travels.

He even has branded placemats and glasses.

Darrin behind his bar.  He made us a great Mai Tai.

We spent the rest of the evening playing Forgotten Waters, an App Assisted Board Game, with Darrin and Jo.  He has quite a few App Assisted games to choose from.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Birding With a Camel, check it out.  We went birding with a camel!

Birding with a Camel

Las Vegas, NV

 

Donna walking Abraham while taking to Nancy

Clark County Wetlands Park

Today we met Donna's childhood friend, Nancy, at Clark County Wetlands Park for some birding.  Nancy said she was going to bring Abraham and it turns out Abram is a 1000lb Dromedary (Camel).  He is about 5.5 years old and still growing.  He is one of 2 camels that Nancy has on her ranch in Henderson.  Nancy runs Petting Zoo 2 U here in the valley, providing all kinds of exotic animals for all kinds of events.  She once took her camel Moses to Zappos for a hump day event, she provides animals for manger scenes during Christmas, and all kinds of other events.  The first time I met her, we had just seen La Rev at The Wynn.  She provided Doves for the show. 

 

Our walk started out with a great view of a Greater Roadrunner.  We were close enough to here it say, "Beep Beep!"

Soon we saw a truck and trailer pull up and we were in Vegas so we gambled that it was Nancy and her Camel.  The license plate said 2CAMELS so it was a safe bet.

Abraham wanted to get all the smells as they arrived.

Part of this walk is training for Abraham.  He is used to being with big brother Moses and taking cues from him.

Abraham got pets and pats from us as soon as he was offloaded.  He also met quite a few people in the parking lot.

Abraham likes snacking on all of the plants as he walks.  It would be kinda like us walking through a buffet and stopping to snack from time to time.

Nancy showed us how well trained Abraham is by having him sit and even kept him from rolling in the mud, which he likes to do.

Nancy wants Abraham to get used to all sorts of situations so she had Donna walk him.  It would be an understatement to say that Donna didn't mind.

There are a lot of things you can't do in the wetlands park...

but we never saw a sign saying No Camels so I think we were fine.

When Nancy saw a footbridge she saw a new challenge for Abraham.  He had never crossed a bridge before and the rushing water under the bridge made him a bit nervous. He did great.  Camels are less jumpy and skittish than horses.

You can't go very far with a camel in Las Vegas without getting requests for photos and pets.  Nancy is very accommodating and even finds moments to pass out her business card.  People happily take them and she says that quite a few of these interactions lead to new jobs.

After our walk it was time for snacks.  Abraham loves his snacks and Donna loves passing them out.

Some other lucky passerby got to give Abraham a snack too.

It was so much fun to walk and talk to people.  They just loved meeting Abraham and Nancy.  One of the people we met will be contacting Nancy for a bit of manure for his garden.

Tomorrow is packing day and on Thursday we head out.  We will be driving down to San Diego to see family and then heading up the coast camping along the way to our next destination, Portland Oregon!  We are looking forward to lots of great food, Willamette River views, and I am looking forward to tons of pinball tournaments!

That's it for today.  If you missed, Valley of Fire State Park, check it out.

Valley of Fire State Park

 Moapa Valley, NV

Not Watching the Super Bowl

Today we had a slow morning and then headed about an hour north to Valley of Fire State Park to avoid any Super Bowl festivities.  It's been on our list of places to visit for years now and we figured that it wouldn't be that crowded during the game and we were right.  I only heard one person mention the game and that was an employee working in the gift shop  It was nice being around people who chose nature over supporting the NFL.

The Visitor Center perfectly fits in with the red rocks of Valley of Fire

They were open but I wanted to make a, "Sorry Folks, Park's closed, The Owl out front should have told you!"

They had a theater showing videos from various state parks within the state.

The Visitor Center Store had the most Las Vegas / State Park shirt ever.

After the visitor center we did a short drive to the parking lot for the Rainbow Vista Trail hike which is a mile round trip.

It was a mile in loose sand so we got some good exercise

The red sand really made some of the plants look blue.

We saw a regular sized Big Horned Sheep that looked tiny.

We made it to the end and enjoyed the views.

You can see the train markers leading us off into the distance.

After our hike we drove to the end of the loop to see some of the other named rock features before heading home.

Donna took some really good drive shots.  It was a great drive and you should try to get out there next time you are in the area.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Pinball Tournament at the Pinball Hall of Fame, check it out, it was a fun tournament.