Down the coast to LA

  Malibu, California, United States
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Holla Amigos!
Just practicing my Spanish for Mexico, we are still in the US, but along the Rio Grande in Texas it feels like we are already there. It's a bit like spot the gringo.
More of where we are now later, I will start from the beginning of this leg.

A slow Turkey

We shared thanksgiving at the new Foox residence in up market Lafayette with Justin and Shar. A lovely family affair with a fantastic spread put on by the girls.

Yes that is a tea cosy

We had to kick back for a week while the RV was in Sacramento having a bit of warranty work done on it, a couple of fiberglass repairs on the body that missed quality control.
We kept busy with me preparing the inflatable dinghy that Justin loaned us, updating the blog, researching Mexico and shopping for a cargo carrier and other necessities as we won't have the luxury of a home base like we have had with Justin and Shar.
Bev has been busy washing, washing and washing. Too bad the Dryer hasn't been hooked up yet.

The Gypsies

We spent another day in San Francisco driving up some of the steepest city streets you would ever see, dining at the waterfront and a ferry trip to Alcatraz. A science museum in the hills overlooking the bay was another day trip enjoyed by the kids.

Hold on

I'm going to be pretty general with dates and places from now on because to be honest I have trouble knowing what day it is let alone the date. No need to know you see, it's only Christmas and birthdays I need to remember now.

Merry Christmas

We left Justin's on a Tuesday and headed south bound for LA. Got messed around in San Jose by a Ford Mechanic who was supposed to replace a shock absorber for us. We lost a day there and still have to find a shock. We booked a week in advance at the next Ford place in Riverside (East LA) and headed down Highway1 along the coast again through Big Sur country again. We spent a night at a park overlooking the ocean and had a great time.

out by the front fence

We did a couple of hikes high up the range with a great ocean Vista. We also met John, an Irish-Canadian from Victoria on Vancouver Island, a lovely bloke who has traveled a lot. He shared some stories and we stuck a few pins in the map for some destinations through the Rockies and Canada.

It's a bit on the nose here!

We called in and had a laugh with the Elephant seal community on the way to Moro Bay which was cold and wet so we kept heading south on the 1 to Lompoc, near Vandenberg Air Force Base where we found a County park to camp. The County and State parks are generally cheaper with more room for the kids to play so we aim for these, only staying at commercial parks when we have to.

Gingerbread house time

We hit the Santa Barbra coast on the 9th of December and camped at a State beach which was nice. You generally have to pay even to go for a swim at most of these beaches.
Next day we hit Malibu and saw some of the burnt out country from the earlier fires. We headed into the hills to the Malibu State park, that luckily wasn't affected by the fires, it used to be owned by Fox studios and was the location for many westerns and Mash to name a couple.

Malibu SP

We hiked through the countryside seeing buildings of the former country club and the concrete footings and remains of the various movie sets that were pulled down when the state purchased the land. The boys traced the park's history from the original Indian residents, the early white settlers to the Hollywood era and on the walk back we saw a film crew setting up for a shoot, and their accompanying ranger explained to us that a lot of student film making still goes on in the park because the private locations are too expensive.
We didn't have far to go the next day, just off Sunset Boulevard we ran into our old friends and fellow globetrotters the Fosters from Glasshouse Mountains.

The Malibu Boys, and girl

On the last leg of their around the world soiree, we caught up to eat some of Robs birthday cake, take them for a spin in the rv, ( the rig has seatbelts for 9) to Malibu beach for sundowners and a Quick kite flight before we dropped them home. With Emily wanting to jump ship and stay with Aunty Rowen, we said our goodbyes and hit the road almost through central LA to Riverside where we boondocked at Wal-mart ready for our next Ford appointment.
Stay tuned we'll be back soon
The McGregors-6!!!!!!