California Dreamin'... - Newport Beach, CA
Newport Beach, CA
Well, the pilot did his best and had made up well over an hour of the two hours delay we had endured at Heathrow. It was a shock to hear that there had been a fatal shooting at Los Angeles Airport on the morning of our arrival but I don't think we would have been aware of that unless we had been told – the USA Immigration was as soul-less as it ever is and we made our way out into the evening to pick up our pre-booked hire car (Alamo - £215 for our entire stay – bargain!). We had to queue for about an hour – maybe because of the delayed arrival of so many (due to the shooting) and by the time we reached the desk they had very few “compact” cars left and were able to take our pick of the “medium” cars – not quite as good as getting upgraded on a flight (that has NEVER happened!) but at least we could get all our luggage in the boot, sorry, TRUNK!
I was driving as Jeremy is the better navigator. We hadn't hired a GPS from the hire company as it was $70 a week (we were staying for two) and we figured we could buy one for less than that when we needed one, as Jeremy had done all the right things – we knew where we were going and he had printed out a detailed map of the beginning of the journey to get us onto the “freeway” and a detailed map of the other end - how to get to
John and Marilyn's house – the middle bit was a doddle – straight up the I405... Off we set. It was dark and it was a strange car - I have driven on the right hand side of the road before but only in a left hand drive car and everything felt wrong. The steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car, therefore I was on the wrong side of the car, Jeremy was on the wrong side of the car, the rear view mirror was on the wrong side of the car. I seemed to be very close to the middle of the road (Jeremy thought I was very close to the edge of the road...) however, when we got onto the I405 we thought we were home and dry, until... we saw the “road closed ahead” and “detour” signs. We crawled along – one of the thousands of cars travelling that night at just after midnight! We were in the middle lane (ish – kept changing, sometimes four, sometimes five, sometimes three...); in the lane next to us was a big UTE followed by a smaller UTE. Sometimes they were ahead, sometimes behind, gaps opening up and gaps closing again, however I was a little disconcerted when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the smaller UTE peed up, race to close the gap and... BANG! He closed it rather tighter than intended me thinks!!! Three car shunt and all I could think was “thank the Lord I was not in that lane”! We followed the detour signs religiously (we thought), only worrying when we began to see the same roads, the same buildings, appearing en route. We had been on the road about 2 hours (on a journey that should only take just under an hour at most) when John phoned and tried to talk us in. Not helped of course that Google maps were unaware of the road closure (overnight roadworks) and we still kept seeing the same old roads, same old
buildings.... Eventually, mindless of expense, I turned my phone on and with the help of the GPS AND John talking us through, we eventually made it to Newport Beach at 3.15 AM – a journey of nearly 4 hours. I was informed by my phone that I had spent nearly £18.00 (it was worth it!) Jeremy will have to wait to see how much it cost to receive John's phone call of about an hour (but it will have been worth it!!!!). John had flown in from Japan earlier that day so “luckily” his body clock was out of sync and he was wide awake. We crawled into a lovely American King sized bed and didn't know much until the next morning.
Opened the blinds, startling blue Californian sky, temperature around 70 and climbing, swimming pool sparkling, palm trees in the garden, lovely flowers, humming birds – it was beautiful. We were introduced to Doug the Dog (I'm in love) and asked if we fancied a walk around Balboa Island, followed by breakfast there? - “Hell Yes!”. Balboa Island is actually two small islands with some quaint (and some ostentatious) properties all
around the perimeter. It was 2 November – just past Halloween and there are definitely things that the Americans do better than us – Halloween is one of them. The Halloween decorations were amazing – animated ghosties and ghoolies, and long legged beasties, huge spiders, enormous webs, pumpkins by the hundred, themed lighting, baskets of sweets – fantastic. It took us about an hour to walk around the islands and at the end of the walk we felt we had earned our breakfast but what to have? “Breakfast Number 2 please” – “how do you want your eggs” (scrambled, poached, over easy, sunny side up...), “crispy bacon or linked sausages?”, “hash browns?”, “English muffin, sour dough toast, white toast, wholewheat toast, raisin toast?”, “Honey?”, “Maple Syrup?”, “Tea or Coffee?”, “Cream?”, “Water?”. It was delicious – all of it.
With jet lag setting in we went back to the house and sat out in the yard (I'm bilingual now – I can speak American!) and, to the amazement and perhaps consternation of our hosts, went in for a swim. Marilyn dipped a hand in and declared it far too cold – and indeed, I have to say, it was a bit parky. When we checked the water temperature it was the same as the sea temperature on our last swim, about a month ago, in Brixham – around 16 to 17 degrees. However, with the hot Californian sun beating down it was no hardship! That evening we were taken to the Balboa Yacht Club for dinner – Jeremy amused that the initials, BYC, are of course the same as Brixham Yacht Club (we went back at the end of our visit to buy a few souvenirs...).
Our second glorious blue skied Californian morning beckoned; John was busy with work so Marilyn took us for a walk along Newport Beach, golden sand, crashing waves, and
then back to the pier and along to the end (past the pelicans) to Ruby's, for breakfast – where we watched a pod of dolphin frolicking off the end of the pier – how magical is that!
John and Marilyn had kindly offered the use of their cabin in the woods up in the San Bernadino Mountains at Big Bear Lake so on Sunday afternoon we packed our cold weather gear and set off – this time with Marilyn's GPS primed and ready to go.... What a fantastic trip, winding up the mountains, glorious views, staggering drops (don't look!) and then the glimpse of the lake in the distance – and suddenly we noticed that there was snow on the ground! It was obviously (and definitely) colder than down on Newport Beach (sunny and 80 degrees....) but the skies were blue and the air dry and crisp and I actually got out of the car in shorts and a t-shirt for a wander around. We had two lovely days and nights up there – wandering around during the day and cosied up in front of the fire in the evenings. The sunsets were glorious and the mountains with just the beginnings of snow cover were amazing – apparently they hope to have full snow cover and skiing by Thanksgiving on 23 November. We were sad to leave our little idyll in the woods but our time in California was short, so onwards and downwards...!
Some years ago, in New Zealand, we met an American couple, Jan and Eric, who had purchased a campervan in NZ, used it for 5 months and then sold it and returned home to the USA. They live in Palm Desert (near Palm Springs) and I had contacted them to let them know we would be in their part of the States for a few days and they invited us to stay for a couple of nights. Well, it was quite a difference from the peace and solitude and cool of Big Bear to the bright lights, bustling streets and high temperatures of Palm Desert. Jan and Eric had recently moved into a house after 12 years of living in a big RV (recreational vehicle). It was lovely – a grapefruit tree outside the front door, Kumquat
forming an arch over the entrance, orange trees in the back yard and humming birds at the window. Our first tour was to go and see the statue of Marilyn Monroe – it was huge – we all took turns posing with her before doing a bit of retail therapy along the boulevard!
The following day we were taken to Joshua Tree National Park ;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Tr ee_National_Park, the first sign we saw on the entrance to the park was “Beware of Tarantulas crossing the road”. Apparently it is mating season and they are up out of their burrows searching for anything with eight hairy legs...! I would have quite liked to have seen one but they kept themselves well hidden for the duration of our visit. We did see lots of cactus – especially the “teddy bear” cactus – so called because of its appearance, not its cuddly nature – with backwards pointing barbs it is one of the more painful to encounter – at this point I changed my shoes from flip flops to sturdy lace ups, with socks (although I have to say the thought of Tarantulas was also behind this decision...). As we left the lower Colorado Desert for the Mojave Desert, the scenery became different – piles of rounded boulders in weird shapes dominated the landscape, along with the Joshua Tree – a form of Yucca but with more “branches”.
Eric drove us around this strange and peculiar landscape and we got out and explored – making sure we looked out for scorpions, snakes and yes, Tarantulas! We ended up at Keys View – an enormous gorge/canyon/valley where we could see up to Palm Desert,
Palm Springs and the other various cities in that area and down to the Salton Sea – Mexico http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea . Back to civilisation then and a delicious bowl of soup at a little vegetarian restaurant before making our way back to Palm Desert.
We were leaving for Newport Beach the following day but before we left Jan and Eric were keen that we went to see “Sunnylands”. http://sunnylands.org/ This is a property bequeathed to the Nation by a prominent American family – the Annenbergs – friends of the rich and famous and in particular the political rich and famous. They had lived at the property themselves but made it available to those in power as a retreat, a place of peace and privacy. We were delighted to see that amongst the many photos of the great and the good on the wall there was not one of Teflon Tony Blair...The private house, the “powerhouse” is available to tourists but only if you pre-book and only if it is not being used by those in power...(which it was the day we were there). The “public” part of the estate is beautiful with lovely gardens; we had a tour given by a very informative guide; we learned about their research into the Monarch butterfly – a large orange and brown butterfly also seen in NZ http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/monarc h-migration.html which hibernates and makes huge journeys; we also learned about desert plants, cactus and creosote bushes – the guide really was very interesting and knowledgeable.
We had one last meal with Jan and Eric in a little Mexican restaurant before climbing into the car, putting on the air-con and making our way back to Newport Beach.