Temecula

To the south of us is the town of Temecula, we decided to go visit it today.  Temecula Valley is Southern California's wine country.  But we did not visit any wineries.  There are just too many and we've seen wineries before.  They do have a very nice Old Town that we chose to see instead.

Our first stop was at the Visitor Center which is located in the civic center just a block off Old Town.  We enjoyed the fountain out front which is designed after the local Indians' grass woven basket.

Civic Center / Visitor Center

Inside the visitor center in the less-than-one-year-old building is a lit glass ceiling picture from the hot-air balloon festival they have here in the summer. 

Ceiling pic in Visitor Center

 Beautiful Old Town has lots of nice restaurants, antique shops, and specialty shops and we had fun looking in them.  Our favorites were The Old Town Rootbeer Company, Old Town Spice Merchant, Old Town Sweet Shop, Old Town Olive Oil Company, and more! (yes, I know, it's all food!)  We had lunch at the Swing Inn Cafe.  Bernie particularly liked this rocking chair made from a wine barrel.  Too bad it was over $500, or we might have bought it.

Wine Barrel Rocker

Old Town Temecula, California

We have decided to stay in our present RV location until Friday.

Orange Empire Railway Museum

We walked around the RV park this morning.  It's on a small lake, and this is the view.

Lake Park RV Resort

Lawn Mowing in January, cool.

We went exploring today to see what is in the area.  We found these apple boulders someone had painted along the side of the road.

Apple Rocks

We found a train museum called the Orange Empire Railway Museum.  We didn't really expect much when we drove up to it as the parking lot was empty except for two other cars.  There were two ladies in the gift shop and one man out in the yard.  Free admission, so we went in anyway.

What a pleasant surprise.  This place is on 90+ acres and really was interesting.  The man in the yard gave us and another couple a personalized tour of the place.  Turns out this is the largest railway museum in the western United States.  

The museum houses I think at least 30 old trolley cars in various stages of restoration, as well has several train engines and train cars of all types.  The tour was very informative and we were glad we stopped.  They do have some big events throughout the year, one of which is a Thomas the Train Engine event which is a really big deal with the little kids.  And on weekends they start up a few of the engines and you can ride, but not today (Monday).

For more information they have an extensive website [click here] that gives information about their inventory.

Old Old Steam Shovel

One of the buildings housing trolley cars

Pullman Sleeper Car Inside

Executive Car

Narrow Gauge Steam Engine

Lake Elsinore, CA

One more walk along the beach this morning before deciding what to do and where to go today.  While we do like it right where we are it is a little more expensive than we want to pay as well as no hookups.  

The Surfers are Out There

 My project for this morning was to put the State Stickers on the RV.  I finally decided the best location would be just under the passenger side window. I'll add a sticker for every state we visit with the RV.

State Stickers

 The fence behind us has apparently been here a long time.  The trees and shrubs have grown into it.  Looks like this one was trimmed away.  Mildly amusing.

We finally decided to leave, and found a Passport America member park about an hour north of us.  We can stay here for $15 per night with all the hookups we need, as well as Cable TV and free Wi-Fi.  The view isn't so great, but for the price it will do for now.  We can stay here for 5 nights at this price, but so far we only committed to two nights.

Lake Park RV Resort
Lake Elsinore, California

San Juan Capistrano

We drove about 30 minutes up the coast this morning.  The beach goes on and on.  I swear everyone is out this Saturday morning, walking, jogging, biking, and surfing, or playing beach volleyball, except us.  Well we were leisurely walking, does that count?  The surf was up, and I think we saw about 100 people out trying to catch that wave.

 We went to visit San Juan Capistrano Mission.  It was a very interesting place and I'm glad we went there.  Here are some pictures:

This was so beautiful, all shiny gold, the photo does not do it justice.

Seriously??  A Plaque?

"To commemorate the visit
of the
President of the United States
Mr. Richard M. Nixon
and
Mrs. Richard M. Nixon
To the old mission of San Juan Capistrano
March 22, 1969
When they rang this bell of San Rafael
Cast in 1804"

The original mission was destroyed in an earthquake around 1812

The Mission is perhaps best known for the annual "Return of the Swallows" which is traditionally observed every March 19 (Saint Joseph's Day).  In the last 20 years the swallows have found other places to nest as the town around the Mission has grown, development of the area, and fewer insects to eat, so they are not seen in the great numbers like they used to be.

South Carlsbad State Beach

Our discount period has ended at Mission Bay RV Park in San Diego, so we decided to move on up the shore.  San Diego is awesome, I'm looking forward to being there again.

We didn't go far, maybe only 25 miles north, along the shore.  We're at South Carlsbad State Beach.  It's along a bluff overlooking the ocean.  

Carlsbad State Beach Campground

 Close to our campsite are the steps going down the bluff to the beach.  We went down for a walk.  There were about 20 people out surfing today.

Down To The Beach

 This beach has been described as "cobble beach" because the sand periodically buries the natural seawall of cobblestones for long periods of time.  It was covered with the stones today.  I thought it was cool how when the waves rolled in it would roll the rocks around and they would knock in to each other and make a lot of noise, like tipping a giant box of rocks.

Rocks

Balboa Park and La Jolla

 What a beautiful day!  We went to Balboa park in San Diego.  This is a fantastic park!  There is so much to see and do, I can't get it all in this blog.  This was the site of the 1915 California-Panama Exposition to celebrate that San Diego was the first U.S. port of call for ships traveling north after passing west through the Panama Canal.  That's when they built a lot of the buildings here, and the architecture is amazing.  There are several museums, theaters, restaurants, and shops here, and it's also home to the San Diego Zoo.  The museums are not free, and we didn't want to spend the money, but they would have been fantastic to see.  Maybe another time.

Add caption

There was one free exhibit that got our attention.  This 1990 Beetle was decorated with 2,277,000 beads, completed in 2010, and is beginning an international tour, so watch for it.  

Incredible

Museum of Art

There are several walking paths thru various gardens.  We spent some time walking around the cactus garden as well as a rose garden and a palm tree garden.  There was a Japanese Friendship Garden, but they wanted $4 to walk it, so we passed.

Cactus Garden

Balboa Park

We spent some time inside the Botanical Building too.

Lilly Pond and Botanical Building

Every Sunday 2:00 there is a free Organ Concert.  Hmm, we may miss it.  I believe they said it was the largest outdoor organ in the world.

Outdoor Organ Pavilion

After the park we went for a drive up the coast to see what we could see.  Beautiful!  Oh, I wish I lived here.  San Diego is beautiful, but I think La Jolla (La HOYa) has a more fantastic shoreline.

West Coast View

There are at least 10 people sitting out in the water here
on their surf boards waiting for the perfect wave.

I may have to get a better camera.

There are a lot of birds on the larger rocks, and on the smaller rocks, closer up, are about 20 sea lions.  They were barking like dogs and making quite a ruckus.  And on another spot not far from there was a flock of giant gray pelicans.

Zoo and Beach

We went to the San Diego Zoo today.  What a nice zoo.  It didn't really seem any bigger than the Minnesota Zoo but it crammed more to see and do in that space.  It is almost 100 years old.

Gorilla

hahaha, don't get too close to the lions.

Panda

We saw this small film crew making a movie.  Bernie asked them what they were doing and they said something about Dianetics, but it didn't make much sense to us.  The name on the truck said Golden Era Productions, which is run by the Church or Scientology.  So wasn't a blockbuster movie in production after all.

Movie in the Making

 We found this old suspension footbridge and stopped to walk across it and take some pictures.  It goes over beautiful deep ravine.  The bridge was built in 1912, and is an historic landmark.

Not far from our RV park is a hot spot for San Diego.  Mission Beach Boardwalk, a recreational paradise.  It's a huge beautiful sandy beach with boardwalk lined vacation homes.  The "boardwalk" has been replaced with pavement now, but it's still a popular spot for bicycles, skateboarders, joggers, walkers, etc.  It looked like it went on for a couple of miles. Of course, it wasn't very busy today as it was a work day and a school day and the weather was a little cool.

Mission Beach "Boardwalk"

 Gas is expensive in California!

California Gas Prices

You Just Never Know!  
Be Prepared

Moved

We went for another walk on the beach this morning.  The surf is still up although it is not a windy day.  Mostly seaweed is washing up on shore, but we did find this piece of plywood that looks like it must have been part of a boat.  If only it could talk!  Where did it come from?  What happened to the boat?  Is it debris from the tsunami in Japan?  We will never know.

Boat Part

There's a big old hotel here, the Hotel del Coronado.  We wanted to go inside and look around but when we discovered we had to pay $16 for Visitor Parking we changed our mind.  Supposedly it is haunted.  Also, Orville Redenbacher, the popcorn king, lived at the Hotel del Coronado from 1976 to 1995.  There may be a way to walk in for free, but we didn't take the time to look for it.  Maybe later.

Hotel del Coronado

Being on the beach was nice, but we wanted to save some money.  The beach was $33/night to dry camp.  We found a nice RV park 10 north of here, not on the beach, but is only $25/night with our Passport America half price discount and we have full hookups.

Driving Across the Coronado Bridge

Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego