December 1: Las Vegas and Rod Stewart
A couple years ago, Chieko accompanied me to Las Vegas for a business convention, and when we looked for something to do in the evening, we found a Rod Stewart concert in the Colosseum. We loved the show so much that we were happy to see he'd be at Caesar's Palace again on December 1. We were not disappointed. Even though the Colosseum seats over 4,000 people, and it was sold out, Rod Stewart gives what feels like an intimate concert. He is very personable.
Driving through the Virgin River Gorge in Arizona, between St George and Mesquite.
We stayed in the Hyatt House (we arranged all our hotels through Costco Travel, and Costco seems to have a deal with Hyatt) near UNLV, and this equestrian training area was across the street. Because the tents and fences looked temporary, and a San Diego State University (UCSD) bus was in our parking lot, I assumed some horse event was going on among colleges here, but I couldn't find anything online to confirm this assumption. (Update: On our return trip through Las Vegas, we stayed again at the same hotel, and there is a rodeo going on.)
We ate dinner at Sushi Takashi. The food presentation is beautiful. I hope it tastes as good as it looks.
Yup.
Caesar's Palace.
In front of the Colosseum.
Rod Stewart.
Notice that a banjo player has a place in Rod Stewart's band (she also plays violin and mandolin and sings and dances).
And a harp.
Balloons and soccer balls seem to be his trademark near the end of the concert. And a tribute to the Celtic FC soccer team is also a mainstay in his concerts.
December 2: Drive to San Diego.
This is a small peek at a massive solar farm just on the California side of the border with Nevada.
I've been to La Jolla a few times--it's where I bought my latest Bianchi road bike--but I've never been to La Jolla Cove. This is a pretty cool place that should be on the itinerary of anyone visiting the San Diego area.
Overlooking the Pacific from the Cove.
Pelicans and cormorants were all over the rocks, and a lot of seals were playing or fishing in the bay.
I think these are cormorants.
This looks like a great place for a body-builder photo shoot at sunset.
The rocks along the cove have caves cut by the waves.
Sunset.
This sunset was beautiful.
December 3: San Diego Zoo Safari Park
We've been to the San Diego Zoo, so this time we decided to visit the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We highly recommend it. The park offers several extra safaris (various ways to ride around the park) at additional costs. We didn't buy any these, and I'm glad we didn't. The standard admission price includes a tram ride around the African area, and we walked the rest of the park, probably multiple times. The only extra I would consider is the rope course. I think kids and many adults would enjoy that.
Here's the entrance.
This pretty bird welcomed us at the entrance. Sorry, but if they aren't seagulls, eagles or owls, I'm not much good at identifying birds. I don't remember most of the other animal types either. So, here are some pictures, but you're on your to identify them.
Some kind of vultures.
The African Safari area has a lot of grazing animals. The Asian Safari area was closed for repairs. One of the advantages of coming at the beginning of December was easy parking and very few people. Very few people. At one point late in the day we wondered if the park had closed. The disadvantage was that the Asian area and the theaters were closed.
This is what most of the visitors looked like: Mothers with younger-than-school-age kids. And I think most of them went home for naps in the afternoon.
These are Somali asses. I do remember they're called.
We took the tram around the African Safari.
Giraffes eating and just hanging out.
The lions were especially interesting. A male and two females live here. They are about 15 years old, and they have 17 offspring between the two females. To keep some variety in the gene pool for captive lions worldwide, this family is done. Also, the females don't usually bear cubs after this age anyway.
Males in the wild typically live to 12 or 13 years old, because they're challenged and eventually killed by younger males.
These sisters may live to be 20 or so years old in captivity or in the wild. Lions have no predators in the wild, so the females often live to their old-age life expectancy.
I could eat you.
Young fighting elephants.
A baby nursing.
Duck!
Another mama and her baby. This baby is about two years old.
Hanging out in a big ol' (fake) tree stump.
In the Australian Walkabout.
Some California vultures are also in the Australian Walkabout area.
The tigers were just lying around sleeping. So you only get to see what we saw: The backs of their ears.
The highlight of the day was the cheetah run.
The zoo workers let him out of a cage in the back of a little truck, and he chased a stuffed (toy) lemur (I think that's what it was) on a rope.
He completed the 100-yard run in 5.4 seconds, running possibly 60 miles per hour.
Pretty amazing.
And he gets a reward at the end of the run.
December 4: Mission San Juan Capistrano and drive to San Luis Obispo on the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1).
Here's Chieko just inside the entrance to the mission, which was established in 1776. That's an orange tree behind her.
This is the courtyard.
The soldiers' quarters. The mission had two priests and about six Spanish soldiers.
One of the interior walls.
The chapel.
Forty parishioners were killed when the heavy rock walls of the mission fell during an earthquake in 1812. They were then buried in this courtyard. The priests kept accurate records of the people, but they didn't record the specific places where individuals were buried. And there are no headstones.
These bells are still rung today.
This is one of the walls that was damaged in the 1812 earthquake. The large damaged exterior walls have been left standing but damaged in commemoration of those who were killed.
A creche is placed here in an alcove in the damaged part of the building.
A closer look.
This is looking at what I assume is the front of the mission.
December 5: Mission San Luis Obispo and the Hearst Castle
This was a mostly rainy day, so we visited more-or-less indoor places. The first was Mission San Luis Obispo, a small mission established in the late1700s. The intention of the Spanish government in supporting these missions was to baptize Native Americans and thus expand the number of Spanish citizens to counter the interests of England and Russia in what is today California.
When Mexico was established and took over the California area, it secularized the missions. A prison and other enterprises moved into the San Luis Obispo mission. In the mid-1800s, after the United Sates took control of California, the Catholic Church retook control of the missions and turned them back into places of worship.
In front of the mission looking at a tall palm tree.
Next, we drove north to San Simeon and the Hearst Castle. William Randolph Hearst spent about 28 years building this mansion on property his uberrich father had purchased and on which the family had a camp high on the hill, where they could enjoy the area above the almost-constant summer coastal fog. This is the outdoor swimming pool, which was built and rebuilt three times, each time to enlarge it.
Chieko on the approach to the castle. More about this Egyptian sculpture later.
This is the entrance to the main castle building. Some cottages also surround the castle.
This is the main room. Shortly after World War I, when European countries were hurting for cash, Hearst and other rich Americans purchased artwork and structural parts from castles and cathedrals that were being demolished in Europe. Hearst placed about 20,000 of his 200,000 pieces of art here in the castle.
One of two Christmas trees in the main room.
This is the dining room. Hearst was not a religious man, but many of the art pieces came from churches and cathedrals. The chairs lining this dining room are choir chairs from a cathedral. The two tables are from a monastery.
The game room.
The indoor swimming pool.
From here are photos of some of the art pieces. These are the choir chairs.
A window.
This ceiling in the main room is over 500 years old. It was disassembled from its original home and reassembled here.
One of the many marble carvings.
There are many marble nudes.
A mother and child.
Notice the scary masks these people are holding.
This sculpture is assembled from four Egyptian carvings that are from 3,300 to 3,500 years old. I don't remember the type of stone, but the docent said it is next to diamonds on a hardness scale.
December 6: Driving Highway 1
Today we drove Highway 1 from San Luis Obispo to Carmel by the Sea. This is a must-do drive in California.
Our first stop was at a beach just north of San Simeon. Although the elephant seals aren't quite in their breeding season, so there were no big fights between males, a lot of elephant seals were here and lying around the beach like a bunch of giant dead slugs.
Here are a couple of seals that were fighting, probably over sleeping space or snoring.
The females can weigh about 1,000 pounds.
The males are the ones with the big nose that gives them their name. They also have a protective shield on their chest, which looks like thick checkered skin on their chest, and they have big teeth. They can weigh 5,000 pounds.
You can see this lighthouse from the elephant seal beach.
In the distance you can see the highway lined with a white cement barrier. A couple of years ago, this mountain slid into the sea. It was the biggest land slide in California history and closed the road for 14 months. It just reopened, and in fact, it opened so recently that people we talked to in San Luis Obispo told us it was closed.
The coastline with Highway 1 snaking along.
One of our many stops along the way.
This wispy grass grows all along the coast.
When we stopped for lunch, I saw what I thought was a lot of birds floating in the water. Then I realized it was kelp.
A hummingbird working the nectar at our lunch break.
This is pretty much what the entire drive from San Simeon to Big Sur looks like.
Another stop.
I am so happy we chose this as our graduation car. It is the greatest for road trips. Okay, maybe a convertible would be nice on this particular highway. In fact, I've driven this road in my Z3, and yes, this road was made for that car. But the Lexus is just so comfortable and easy to drive.
This is one of several similar bridges along the highway. And that's the end of today.
December 7: Golden Gate Bridge and Muir Woods
We've been to the San Francisco Bay Area quite a lot. In fact, we lived here for two years, and on this trip we didn't have anything new we wanted to do today. So we ended up walking part way across the Golden Gate Bridge and walking around the Muir Woods.
This was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect: Low 60s, sunny and no wind or fog.
Chieko on the bridge.
I love tugboats, so watching this boat push a barge under the bridge with another following behind was fun for me.
If you look closely, you can see people on the ridge behind the bridge. This is the Marin Headlands. You can also see the road cut into the mountain to the far left. It continues up another hill to an even higher point. I love taking photos of the bridge and San Francisco at night from those viewpoints.
Just after Chieko and I finished walking on the bridge we looked back and saw emergency vehicles on the bridge where we had just been. Three Coast Guard boats and some other water craft were rushing to the spot below the red lights. You can also see a helicopter in the far left of the photo. The copter flew very close to the water and under the bridge. We assumed someone jumped, and we wondered if it was someone we passed on the bridge. One of the Coast Guard boats sped back to Fort Baker below us on the Sausalito side of the bridge.
Chieko and I continued on to the Muir Woods, a beautiful national monument (which means we got in for free with our National Park senior pass). The oldest trees here are about 1,000 years old and 250 feet tall. This grove was preserved because it was a really tough place to haul trees out of in the 1800s, when most redwood logging took place. A rich guy named William Kent then bought the woods to preserve them, and then he donated this place to the Federal Government when the city of San Francisco tried to claim it under eminent domain to rebuild the city after the 1906 earthquake. Kent named this place for John Muir before the well-known Muir had ever visited.
This is a big tree.
The coastal redwoods are skinnier and taller than the sequoias in the Sierra mountains. They get most of their water from coastal fog and rain, whereas the sequoias get theirs from ground water. The ranger told us that factoid as if it explained the size differences.
Chieko in the woods.
More Chieko. More woods.
A lot of the trees are covered with a lot of moss.
Hi there.
A large bunch of wild turkeys was pecking at something along the road when we left the parking lot.
Emerging from the tunnel leading from Marin County to the Golden Gate Bridge.
December 8: Drive I-5 to Thousand Oaks, Burned Canyons and Houses, Beach and Dinner
Today we drove back to Southern California on I-5. If you ever think California doesn't matter to the rest of the country, spend several hours driving the Central Valley and realize how much of our food comes from here.
I think these may be almond trees. At least, I know there are a lot of almond trees in this area. We saw field after field of orchards, often stretching as far as we could see. I also saw a sign that said one orchard was pistachio trees.
I don't know what's growing here.
A few sheep and cattle hang out here.
Oil is also a product of California. I was surprised at the large number of semi trucks that said on the back, "There's more to Prime. A truckload more," with the Amazon swish arrow on the side (sorry, no photos).
After we checked into our hotel, we decided to drive about 20 miles to the beach to watch the sun set. We didn't realize we would be driving through some of the areas devastated by the Woolsey fire a few weeks ago. This house was one of the lucky ones. Actually, we saw quite a few homes that the fire crews saved in the middle of massive burned-out areas.
The house behind this gate was not a lucky one.
Here are the foundations of several burned-down homes.
Our GPS directed us to Mulholland Drive, but the police had that road blocked at the two intersections where we tried to access it. Lots of utility crews were working everywhere to restore power. I assumed the road was closed to let the crews work.
One of the many utility crews.
We had been following the fires on the news and Internet, but I never realized the Woolsey fire came right to the beach. If you look closely at the ridge to the right of the Sunset Restaurant (white building), you can see the burned remains of a home, basically a foundation and fire place. Over 400 homes burned to the ground in Malibu City alone. (Update on December 9: We drove to Universal Studios in Los Angeles, and we realized how extensive the fire really was. The hills on both sides of Highway 101 were black for several miles. A sign hanging from an overpass said, "Thank you for saving our school.")
Looking in the other direction, here's Chieko walking on the beach.
And here's me taking a picture of the sunset.
We continued north to Camarillo, where we enjoyed the best dinner of our trip at Lure Fish House. Chieko had seared ono (Hawaiians call it wahoo). I had medium rare Char (related to salmon) with local Brussels sprouts.
December 9: Universal Studios Hollywood
Here we are at Universal Studios Hollywood.
The most popular attraction here is probably the Harry Potter Hogsmeade village. And butterbeer. Based on the cost and long lines, I'm guessing this park is profitable just from butterbeer sales.
The ride through the Hogwarts castle is new.
This was our favorite ride: The backlot tour. An oldie but still a goodie. The wait was 50 minutes, but when our spot in the line was making a turn near the tram, the worker asked for about three groups of two people each. We ended up skipping about 45 minutes of wait line.
The several sound stages on the lot are still used for several current TV shows. And the outside backlot is often used for movies, with some of the buildings (facades, actually) being almost 100 years old. This is a New York street that has appeared in many movies. Sorry, I don't remember all the current TV shows being shot in the sound stages (Family Feud and The Voice are two) or all the movies shot on these lots.
These are "picture cars," cars that have been used in movies from "Back to the Future" to "Fast and Furious."
A Flintstones car.
"Old Mexico" is a set that's been around for many years and has appeared in a lot of westerns.
The Bates Motel house, with Norman Bates coming toward us from the porch.
This crashed airplane was pretty amazing. The wreckage is spread all through a neighborhood from the movie "War of the Worlds."
This is what Universal Studios looks like about 2 o'clock on a weekend afternoon.
A Christmas performance in Whoville.
December 10: Drive to Las Vegas
Our first destination today was Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. According to the GPS, it was about 30 or 40 minutes from our hotel. So, we also planned to stop at Santa Monica pier before heading to Las Vegas. But Highway 101 was a serious parking lot. We ended up getting off the freeway for the last four miles, but it was already too late for beaching. So we just walked around Little Tokyo looking for food. This place has been around forever, but it seems that a lot more restaurants have popped up since the last time I was here. Especially ramen shops. Yelp recommended Daikokuya, so we put our name on the wait list under the name Archibald (too many Michaels). The guy had a hard time pronouncing our name, but we got a seat, and we were impressed with the food. We each got a combo dinner, which included ramen and a choice of rice dishes. I had tonkatsu domburi as my side dish. The ramen and side were very good, but way too much food. For the next few hours we drove to Las Vegas, and that's the whole day.
December 11: Home Again, Home Again
Today we drove from Las Vegas to home. We considered stopping at Cedar Breaks National Monument, but the website said the road and park are closed except to skiers and snowshoers.
This is what most of the drive looked like.
We did make a stop at the Cheese Factory in Beaver. However, this place has changed significantly since I was here last several months or maybe more than a year ago. First, the familiar Cheese Factory store is closed. And a new one is open. It's south of Center Street on 5th West, right by the freeway. This place is much, much bigger; new; nice; and now called The Creamery. We picked up some cream cheese, pepper jack cheese, pistachio ice cream in a cup, and a double-decker in a waffle cone with chocolate on the bottom and egg nog on top.
When we got home, we were pleased that our house was intact, and some kind person had shoveled the snow from the driveway.
