Central California

After leaving Las Vegas on Monday morning, March 13^th, we overnighted in Bakersfield, and made our way to Morgan Hill where we spent a couple of nights. On Wednesday we drove to Monterey for lunch and to see Monterey Bay. We walked along Cannery Row, with its many shops and restaurants, but the best was seeing a sea otter floating in the bay.

We drove up the coast to Santa Cruz and then to Felton, a small town in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We enjoyed dinner and visiting with Julie’s cousin Jayne and husband Rich. Julie hadn’t seen her cousin in 40 years so it was a really nice visit.

Thursday we drove to Fairfield and checked into the FamCamp at Travis Air Force Base for 12 nights. We went to Sacramento the following Monday to see my sister Janet and her wife Nancy and enjoy dinner and a Netflix movie. We drove over again last Friday and enjoyed pizza at an old style Italian restaurant called Zelda’s near downtown Sacramento.

On Saturday, we headed to San Francisco for the day. We enjoyed seeing some things we had never seen before on many previous visits to “The City.” We had lunch at The Cliff House with its great view of the Pacific. We learned that years ago there had been a bath house / swimming pool called “Sutro Baths” next door.

We drove through Golden Gate Park and towards the Haight area of the city. It was an interesting area known for the 1967 Summer of Love. Many bands lived in the area including Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Country Joe & The Fish, and Country Joe McDonald.

 

Next, we drove up to Twin Peaks, two hills at 925-feet elevation with stunning views of the city, Golden Gate Bridge, and East Bay.

Then we headed to the North Beach District to go to the Club Fugazi theater to see “Beach Blanket Babylon.” The show, first started in 1974, has been showing for over 40 years. It is a zany, musical spoof of our pop culture and various celebrities. Julie and I didn’t quite know what to expect, but it was fun-filled and very good. We’d definitely recommend it if you ever visit San Francisco.

After the show we enjoyed dinner at The Stinking Rose, an Italian restaurant that specializes in garlic. The roasted garlic, spread on fresh sour dough bread was especially yummy. We last visited The Stinking Rose in 2002 and the food was as good as we’d remembered.

We moved back to Cal Expo RV Park today where we’ll park our house for two weeks. We fly to Taiwan this Thursday on a 9-day trip to see our son, daughter-in-law, and our new grandson. My sister Janet is going to look after our cat for us while we’re gone.      

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Viva Las Vegas

We arrived in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago on February 17^th. We stayed 5 nights at Oasis RV Resort, moved to Nellis AFB FamCamp for 5 nights, then to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for a week of “dry” camping (no utilities). It was our first time boon docking in our new motorhome, an all-electric coach so we had to run our generator a lot to keep our batteries charged up.

We were busy during our stay in Las Vegas. On Monday night Julie and I enjoyed going to the Mirage to see The Beatles Love Cirque Du Soleil show.

On Tuesday, we enjoyed meeting an old co-worker and his wife, Wayne and Shelley, for coffee and conversation. We hadn’t seen them in many years.   

On Wednesday, we drove across town to the Nellis AFB FamCamp for our 5 night stay.

Our friend Wendy flew out from Colorado Springs on Thursday to spend the weekend with us. We enjoyed seeing many local sights with her, including History Channel’s TV series “Pawn Stars” actual pawn shop on Las Vegas Blvd.

We enjoyed breakfast one morning at our favorite Las Vegas breakfast place, Hash House A Go Go.

We also stopped by the Las Vegas Harley Davidson store to check out their tee shirts and the many motorcycles on display. Later, we went to Fremont Street to see the light show.

On Saturday night we went to Harrah’s for a comedian show, but the show had been canceled. So we enjoyed listening to a band in Toby Keith’s Bar & Grill.

On Monday, we left the Nellis FamCamp and drove two miles north up Las Vegas Blvd. to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. After getting settled in, we headed to Mandalay Bay for the Michael Jackson One Cirque Du Soleil show. It too was very good.

Our good friends Rick & Diana, from Colorado Springs, joined us at the race track for dinner on Thursday night.

We went to the Friday night RV Appreciation night in the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Neon Garage. They offered $1 hot dogs, $2 beers and half-price on all the other food. We also saw Danica Patrick (#10 car) on stage and we also visited several of the race car garages.

We enjoyed the Boyd Gaming 300 race on Saturday and the Kobalt 400 race on Sunday. The #78 car, driven by Martin Truex, Jr. won the Kobalt 400, his first NASCAR win of the year. It is a Colorado car sponsored by Denver Mattress, Furniture Row, and Bass Pro Shops. Both days were hot in the grandstands with sunshine and  temperatures in the low-80s.

After the race on Sunday we walked back to the motorhome, fixed a cold beverage, kicked back and watched the post-race traffic drive by slowly on their way home.

        

We left Las Vegas on Monday morning, overnighted last night in Bakersfield, and are in San Jose for two nights before we head north to Fairfield, CA.

Steve & Julie Cornelius