19.3 miles today, 4,928.1 miles total

Gorgeous Friday…sunny 80 degrees! We drove 9 miles up to the Santa Monica pier then rode our bikes almost 8 miles up the coastal bike path to Will Rogers State Park Beach with friends, Hannah  & Rachel. After a leisurely lunch, we experienced the amazing LA snail’s pace traffic to Sony Pictures Entertainment to get a personal tour from our gracious hostess, Michelle Mignon. “Awesome” kudos to Michelle, she knows what that means!?! “Celebrating Indomitable Spirit.” Who knows, I might apply for one of the medical consultant positions at Sony!?!? We took some more pictures of the amazing sunset from the effects of the huge wildfire just up the coast. Back at our beachside Dockweiller State Park campground site, it’s incredible to see the huge jets going out over or coming  in from the Pacific Ocean on their flight path to & from LAX International Airport.  And then under that technology, to walk among the many firepits on the beach. It’s a physical juxtaposition of pre-dawn man with 21st century technology man.  From LA, m, b, w & t

“If we know exactly where we’re going, exactly how to get there, and exactly what we’ll see along the way, we won’t learn anything. ” –M. Scott Peck

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” –Albert Einstein (1879-1195

“Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.” –Charles M. Schulz (“Peanuts” Snoopy American cartoonist, 1922-2000)

“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.” ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn’t it be? —it is the same the angels breathe.” –Mark Twain (“Roughing It,” Chapter XXII, 1886)

“Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the human race.” –H.G. Wells

149.3 miles today, 4,908.8 miles total

We ventured down the coast to Santa Barbara today going up and down State Street from the pier up to the Apple Store. We had lunch at Kahuna Grill, an eclectic surfing establishment. Beth’s 5 year old Apple MacBook Pro went on the blink so we got her another one. This Apple a day has kept this doctor at bay! Will purchased a cool wood carving made from magnifying glass burning. A huge wind swept California wildfire from Santa Ana winds covered Pacific Coast Highway 1 about 50 miles north of LA covering 8000 acres just after we passed by that area late today. We stopped and took a few pictures after we had passed the part of the road about to be closed. You can even see the glow of the fire from our campsite south of Santa Monica. We are also near the end of the LAX runway and can watch & hear the planes take off over the ocean! Our site is literally on the beach at the Dockweiller State Park Beach. Tomorrow beach biking, Sony tour, taking in southern California weather…From LA, m, b, w & t

 “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” 
― Apple Inc.

“An Apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Benjamin Franklin (Inventor, scientist, writer, political  leader; 1706-1790)

0 miles today, 4,759.5 miles total

Took the bus  to Solvang to explore the town. Ate Dannish pastries, had a smorgasbord meal at The Red Viking Restaurant on Copenhagen Drive and enjoyed the town’s farmer’s market. Relaxed by the pool, m, b, w & t

“Every man’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.”–Hans Christian Anderson (Danish Author whose fairy tales are famous throughout the world, 1805-1875) 

77.8 miles today, 4,759.5 miles total

After a nice walk along the Moro beach bay, we headed inland. Will is standing at our campsite with the Pacific Rock of Gibraltar & beach literally out our RV side door. Arriving in Buellton, the “Gateway to the Santa Ynez Valley,” we’re staying at the beautiful Flying Flags RV Resort.  We headed over to Andersens Restaurant for lunch, known world-wide for it’s split pea soup since 1924. Outside, you can still pose a couple of traveling pals in the head holes of Andersen’s trademark “Hap-pea” and “Pea-Wee,”  where the cartoon chef splits peas with his mighty mallet. Will went bike-riding while Beth & I did our run/walk to explore the town. We ate Dannish pancakes for dinner in celebration of Solvang, the Dannish settlement here, m, b, w & t

“Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever…” –Isak Dinesen (Danish Writer, 1885-1962)

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”  “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” –Soren Kiekegaard (Danish Philosopher/Theologian, recognized as the 1st existentialist philosopher, 1813-1855)

“Worries go down better with soup than without.” Jewish & Yiddish Proverb

99.1 miles today, 4,681.7 miles total

Perhaps the best known stretch of highway in America, California’s Highway 1 between  San Francisco and Los Angeles is 400 miles of coastal beauty. Scenic Highway 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, hugs the coastline from northern California to its southern border. It offers magnificent views of the ocean. We spent the day traveling ~ 90 miles along the breathtaking Pacific Coast Highway from Big Sur to Moro Bay. We stopped at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to see McWay Falls & the California condors hiking amid the southernmost region of the famed coastal redwoods. We also stopped along one of the overlooks for lunch and again for a long hike among the hundreds of elephant seals on the beaches. On land Elephant Seals huddle together and sleep much of the time, eating nothing while on the beach. At sea it is a different matter entirely. They dive constantly for 20 to 30 minutes at a time searching for food with only a few minutes on the surface to catch another breath.  After a brief visit to Hearst Castle Visitor Center, we went on to Morro Dunes RV Park at Morro Bay, called the “Gibraltar of the Pacific” because of the 576-foot-high volcanic peak looming over town and bay, the westernmost of nine extinct volcanoes named “the sisters.” Morro Rock could have served as inspiration for that 1960s Simon and Garfunkel tune with the “I am a rock, I am an island” refrain. After a Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurant fresh seafood dinner and walk around the piers, we ended up watching the James Bond movie, “Skyfall,” partially based in Shanghai, before bed.

“The aim of life is some way of living, as flexible and gentle as human nature; so that ambition may stoop to kindness, and philosophy to condor and humor. Neither prosperity nor empire nor heaven can be worth winning at the price of a virulent temper.” –George Santayana (Spanish/American philosopher/poet/humanist, 1863-1952)

53.4 miles today, 4,582.6 miles total

We started in Marina Dunes RV Park 10 miles north of Montery. We parked at San Carlos Beach & walked around town having lunch on a terrace overlooking the bay at Louie Linguini’s. We drove past Pebble Beach and through Carmel-By-The-Sea. We then continued on the scenic 17 mile drive along Hwy 1 Pacific Coast Hwy to Big Sur. Highway 1 was constructed through geologically diverse landscape in the 1930′s and opened in 1937. Parts of the Highway north of Big Sur follow the Old Coast Road, completed from Monterey to Big Sur by Monterey County in the 1880′s. Construction of the highway involved extensive excavations that utilized steam shovels and blasting.  We had an incredible dinner with magnificent vista views at Nepenthe Restaurant at Big Sur on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It is 808 feet above sea level. Then we took Thumper back to Fernwood RV Park at Big Sur, m, b, w & t

“Big Sur is the California that men dreamed of years ago, this is the Pacific that Balboa looked at from the Peak of Darien, this is the face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look.” –Henry Miller (American Author/Writer, 1891-1980)

Nepenthe is a word derived from the Greek, meaning “no sorrow.” A mythical Egyptian drug, the wife of Thonis, King of Egypt, gave it to Helen, daughter of Jove, to induce forgetfulness and surcease from sorrow. The word and thought have been used in literature through all time. Homer mentioned it in “The Odyssey,” & in “The Raven,” Edgar Allen Poe said: ” Quaff oh quaff this kind Nepenthe, and forget the lost Lenore.”

114.1 miles today, 4,529.2 miles total

We left Pacifica and headed to Palo Alto to meet a friend of Will’s, Ambrose Gano. We drove into town and had lunch at NOLA, a New Orleans restaurant and then headed over to Stanford University where Ambrose is an MBA student. He gave us a campus tour including the Philip Knight Management Center. We then began our trek down US Hwy 1 via Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to Marina Dunes RV Park. We hiked over the dunes to touch the Pacific Ocean for the first time! After a delicious dinner using pasta from Little Italy in SF, we retired for the evening. m, b, w & t

“There comes a time in every life when the past recedes and the future opens. It is that moment when you turn to face the unknown. Some will turn back to what they already know. Some will walk straight ahead into uncertainty. I can’t tell you which one is right. But I can tell you which one is more fun.” –Philip H. Knight (Nike Founder, CEO & Chairman of the Board: Stanford MBA Class of 1962)

“About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.” –Herbert Hoover(31st President of the US; Pioneer Stanford Class of 1891)

“I like to get out in the woods and live close to nature. Every man does. It is in his blood. It is his feeble protest against civilization.’’  – -Thomas Edison at Muddy Creek Falls, 1921

President Herbert Hoover, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone at Edison’s 82nd birthday. Ft. Myers, Florida, February 11, 1929. Hoover was in the first class at Stanford University.

Edison, Ford & Firestone shared camping together about two weeks each summer from 1915 through 1924. On these camping trips, these wealthy captains of industry called themselves “vagabonds” as they roughed it together in the great outdoors away from civilization. The publicity that followed these celebrated men on their summer adventures helped to introduce to the general public the pleasure of motorized recreational touring, outdoor recreation and camping. Historians have noted that these camping trips were “the first notable linking of the automobile and outdoor recreation.” The loud sounds of the motor caravan breaking the quiet of the rural countryside would have certainly drawn the attention of anyone within hearing distance.

46.7 miles today, 4,415.1 miles total

What a day of celebration! Our son, Will, has come from China to RV travel with us for 2 weeks down the California coast & beyond!!! We picked him up at the San Francisco International Airport this morning and spent the day discovering San Francisco after parking Thumper at Pier 43 at Fisherman’s Wharf. We walked for miles exploring, eating fish, shrimp, clams, & Ghirardelli chocolate. We walked by Lombard Street (famous for having a steep, one-block section that consists of eight tight hairpin turns), Knob Hill, Chinatown, Little Italy, & the street cars. We toured Hyde Street Pier, part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, where various historical ships are anchored to the pier. Among the ships on display is the Balclutha, an 1886 square rigged sailing ship.  We returned to Pacifica to our San Francisco RV home, got a Mexican dinner and settled in for the night. Today, we had a blast, m, b, w  & t

“When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son.” –The Talmud

“A boy is a magical creature – you can lock him out of your workshop, but you can’t lock him out of your heart.” –Allan Beck

“On the green they watched their sons
Playing till too dark to see,
As their fathers watched them once,
As my father once watched me.”– Edmund Blunden

God took the beauty of the Bay of Naples, the Valley of the Nile, the Swiss Alps, the Hudson River Valley, rolled them into one and made San Francisco Bay. (Fiorello La Guardia)

You wouldn’t think such a place as San Francisco could exist.  The wonderful sunlight here, the hills, the great bridges, the Pacific at your shoes.  Beautiful Chinatown.  Every race in the world.  The sardine fleets sailing out.  The little cable-cars whizzing down The City hills….And all the people are open and friendly.  (Dylan Thomas)

102.6 miles today, 4,368.4 miles total

We left the wine country of Napa Valley mid-day and headed to the pleasant town of Pleasanton. There I visited the Zeltiq corporate headquarters. My gracious guide was Dana Martinez and I had a jovial meeting with Keith Sullivan, Senior VP of Worldwide Sales. It was a pleasure to meet such nice people in this “cool” company inspired by popsicles & ice melting. They market Coolsculpting, the one & only procedure I still perform in retirement up at Westglow Resort & Spa in Blowing Rock, “where cool people come to chill.”

We then traveled onto the San Francisco Bay area checking in at the San Francisco RV Park in Pacifica literally overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The last picture was taken from our campground! m, b & t

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” — Abraham Lincoln

“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” — Albert Schweitzer

56.6 miles today, 4,265.8 miles total

Headed up Hwy 29 to the Castle Winery, Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga. Fascinating “castle of love” tour and wine tasting. After PBJ lunch in “Thumper,” we headed across the street to Sterlng Vineyards for a self-guided tour and aerial tram ride.

“Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used; exclaim no more against it.”
~ William Shakespeare

“Wine is light, held together by water.” — Galileo