White Christmas

Culture shock!

From the burning desert (ok, it wasn't that hot), to the frozen north (ok, not that cold either), we flew.

Christmas in Edmonton with Susanne's family.

Some assembly required.

Now we enter into the non-stop whirlwind of holiday parties and excitement...

Baking in the Desert - Not!

We travelled from San Diego to Palm Springs in the pouring rain. Temperatures hovered around 5 C during much of the drive along the Mexican border.

Spent three wonderful nights courtesy of my sister and her husband, who took us to all of the local hiking spots around the area. In spite of their best efforts to wear us out, we survived the ordeal.

The weather was cool and we even got to see snow in the desert. Apparently they have winter down here too - all those tales our friends have told us about the wonderful golfing paradise are complete fabrications.

Sue says that I exaggerate somewhat, but it was really not the blistering heat I was led to expect.

So it was with some trepidation that we left the freezing valley of Palm Springs to travel to the real desert in Nevada. We stayed overnight in Laughlin before heading for Las Vegas. We had breakfast in California, lunch in Arizona and dinner in Nevada. Still jacket weather but at least it stopped raining for a while.

Las Vegas is pretty cool - a lot different than we remember it from 20 years ago. Not many of the old hotels are still a going concern, and a lot of the new ones are hurting because of the down turn in the economy. This is all good news if you are looking for cheap accommodations, so we are taking advantage by staying her for more than a week. We are using the Las Vegas Hilton as our temporary home.

Because there are less people in town, and the hotels are offering a lot of deals, we are actually enjoying ourselves a lot more than we thought we would. About the only real complaint we have is that the Internet is not very readily available here unless you are willing to spend some money (which is just against our basic nature) - that is my excuse for not updating this site sooner.

Our original plan was to drive to Edmonton for Christmas, then go back to the coast. But the weather reports we are getting from the north do not sound very encouraging, and we are really enjoying this extended drive though the south. So we are now going to stay put here for a few more days, then fly to Edmonton for Christmas and New Years, then back to Las Vegas to continue the journey.

Goodbye San Diego

Yes, that is "Bats in a Bell Tree", one of many eclectic statues that line the bay in San Diego, demonstrating the odd mixture of silly and scary that are San Diego. You can be strolling down the docks admiring the cruise ships, tall sailing ships and private yachts, while F14 fighters scream overhead, taking off from the nearby naval base.

After more than two weeks of SD bliss, winter is catching up with us. The daytime highs are not under 20 degrees C and it starting to be "jacket" weather with occasional threat of rain. So it is time to move on - hopefully the desert will be warm and dry.

Christmas is coming and nowhere do you see this more than here at the marina. An incredible number of boats are decorated with lights - more every day. Pictures just cannot do it justice. Of course this just reinforces the need for us to get moving if we want to make it to Edmonton by Christmas. At the rate we travel it could take a while.

All and all, we quite liked it here and hopefully we will be back next year - by sea this time.

San Diego Interlude

We are pretty laid back right now.

Settled into our temporary home on Shelter island, we spend the days walking, reading, eating and soaking up the sun. As you can see it is pretty exciting here.

We have checked out the local zoo and some museums and spent almost an entire day exploring the USS Midway aircraft carrier berthed by the cruise ships - that was surprisingly interesting.

For the most part, we have been trying to be a little more responsible in our spending habits, finding some cheaper places to eat (like the local bakery we found a 1/2 mile away), and doing most of our sight-seeing on foot, peering over the fences till someone chases us away, etc.

The local marine stores are fascinating for us, from the huge West Marine mega-mart to the smaller cruiser-oriented local chandlers. Everyone is super nice to us even though we haven't bought anything.

We visit the police dock regularly to see what boats are passing through but there is less and less action as most south-bound boats have already left for Mexico and there are very few north-bound vessels at this time of year. We checked on the local marina moorage rates and determined that this would be a very expensive place to stay for any length of time.

Although we really like it here, we have decided to move on next week. We will most likely drive over the mountains (hills?) to Palm Springs, where we are sure my sister and brother-in-law would love to put us up for a couple of months while they teach us how to golf (whatever that is).

San Diego Dreaming

It would be hard to find a more perfect climate than San Diego.

Low 20s every day (in the middle of winter), perfect for walking around town. Couple that with cheap off-season rates, incredibly cheap parking anywhere, and lots of things to see, and you have a recipe for happiness.

Now, for us the only thing that could make it better would be to have a lot of boats around. And again this town delivers! Yachts everywhere, sometimes almost crowded in the huge bay. we watched some sort of regatta on Sunday.

To top if off, we found some great accommodations right in the center of the action. We are staying at the Best Western Island Palms Hotel and Marina (http://www.islandpalms.com/), on Shelter island just a short distance from the customs dock. A few boats are still here from Canada which makes us feel a little more at home; although we are not sure why they are not already heading further south. The Baja Ha-ha rally left almost a month ago.

Here is the view from our room. Very nice except for the incredibly rude name on the nearest boat.

There is always a lot going on here, boats sailing around in the bay, the Navy base on Coronado Island a short distance away sending out a constant stream of big ships, helicopters and jet fighters to entertain us, and a few cruise ships and massive cargo ships trying to maneuver through it all.

While we were downtown earlier this week, we happened upon one of the Oracle boats having the main mast unstepped. Now that is a serious spar. You just don't see this type of boat very often back on Nanaimo.

So far, we have spent our time just wandering around taking in the sights. We spent today at Balboa park, visiting the Air and Space Museum. We will no doubt be back to try some of the other museums and possibly the Zoo. Maybe we will bite the bullet and high prices and actually go to Sealand as well - we are, after all, tourists.

Southbound again

The last few days have seen us steadily, if slowly, following the coast south.

We stayed in Cambria overnight so we could spend a half-day exploring Hearst castle; definitely worth a visit.



Onward to Santa Barbara where we finally found our warm weather, low 20s during the day and not much cooler at night. Walked around the marina area as usual, to check out the facilities and access from the Pacific. Noticed a lot of off-shore oil rigs to look out for here.

Interesting observation on the highways. Lots and lots Toyota Prius hybrids in California - probably not too surprisingly. But also, especially in San Fransisco, there are a huge number of Mini Coopers. Very few Smart cars though. And there are still a lot of big SUVs everywhere. Not sure what it all means - just something we noticed.

We are now finally in San Diego, where strangely enough the weather is a bit cooler again. Of course, any time it falls below 20 we now feel a chill. Tomorrow we will see if we can find the true heart of the city.

Day 7 - SF

Street cars, Cable cars, Lombard street, etc. Are we tourists or what?

After a couple of glorious days in San Fran, the clouds are rolling in and the weather is still a little cool. So tomorrow we will continue heading south.

Day 6 - Hanging in SF

A typical day in San Fran.

Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square, etc.

Check out our new boat.

We are still in negotiation.

Here comes the sun

Day 4

A Eureka moment!

We woke up in the morning in Eureka and the sun was shining.

We drove through more of the redwood forest to get to the coast where we actually got to see the ocean. As the day progressed it got to a sultry 13C at the heat of the day.

We visited the Point Arena lighthouse to get an idea of what this coast has to offer for the wayward sailor. Suffice it to say that this is NOT a friendly coast.

We found our usual budget accommodations for the night and paid the usual price. What would possess anyone to set up a table and chairs in front of a motel room (our motel room of course), on a rather cool Saturday night, and have a poker, beer and maryjane party? Must be a California thing.

Day 5

We travelled inland today, via the twistiest little one-lane road I have seen in years. It was actually quite fun driving it, especially since we had it completely to ourselves - not one car in either direction for over 30 miles. And Sue seemed more that happy to let me drive the entire way - go figure.

We then found ourselves in the beautiful Sonoma wine country, winding through the vineyards, leading to our touristy highlights for the day.

First, we stopped at the petrified forest - a place that for some reason I had always wanted to see since my parents had an old viewmaster with some pictures of it. And we did enjoy it.

Next, we visited the "California" old faithful geyser. We didn't know there even was one so we just had to stop and see it. Not sure it was worth the entry fee but interesting none the less.

Even nicer is the fact the the temperature is getting much more comfortable as we go further south - got up to 15C for a while today.

In the afternoon, we motored on into San Fransisco where we have decided to spend a few days. It has been many years since either of us has been here and, with the excellent weather we are having right now, it seems like a good idea to do some exploring.

So far we have just walked around the marina area, checking out the mooring possibilities.

Wet Wet Wet

Day 2

Following the coast highway (101) through the rest of Washington state. Rain off and on.

With great anticipation, we detoured to Long Beach (every state has a place called Long Beach) to see the "World Kite Museum and Hall of Fame".

Picture a rainy off-season resort town. Little is open and the kite museum is long gone. Had a pleasant lunch at a local cafe and motored on into Oregon (with tears of disappointment in our eyes), in search of warmer weather.







In the afternoon, we arrived in Tillamook to tour the cheese factory, before settling in Newport for the night. Our early arrival there allowed us to do a walking tour of the town in search of a cheap place to eat. Not finding any, we had a first-class seafood dinner overlooking the ocean (pitch dark but you could hear the waves if you listened carefully).

Newport is one of the places that a sailing vessel transiting down this coast could conceivably take shelter, so we made a point of checking out the approach through the breakwaters, just in case.

So far, the weather has been exactly the same as back in Nanaimo. We have not seen a temperature higher than 10C. I'm sure California is the answer...

Day 3

Left Newport in the pouring rain, and it did not let up all day. Through the rain and mist, we caught glimpses of the rugged Oregon coast, small economically disadvantaged (Sue's term) towns, and the old-growth redwood forest.

We arrived in Eureka, California in the afternoon, where the rain held off long enough for us to do bit of a walking tour through the old town and the marina district.

Interesting Victorian architecture and another possible bad-weather shelter for boats cruising down the west coast.

Again, we never saw a temperature greater than 9C all day. I'm beginning to believe we never left Canada.