NATIONAL PARKS - CANYON EDITION

Visalia CA (Low 51 Partial Sunshine Currently 57) 
Coarsegold CA (Partly Sunny High 72)

Continuing our review of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks that we began here with our review of the trees. We left you in the area around the General Grant tree in Kings Canyon National Park.

From the Grant Tree area we drove to the canyon. We were a little surprised that we ended up leaving Kings Canyon NP and entered Sequoia National Forest again and then reentered Kings Canyon NP towards the end of our very long day. We guess it is all federal land but it seemed weird to have the General Grant tree in the Kings Canyon NP. We visited both visitors centers and we think the Kings Canyon one is better.

Anyway on to Kings Canyon. Actually our journey began on the drive from Sequoia National Park. While in the Sequoia National Forest we came to an overlook with the canyon in the distance.

After leaving Grant Tree we drove along the rim of the canyon and then began descending down from over 7000 feet to just under 4000 feet. Here is the canyon as we progressed.

This shot is neat because you can see the road going downhill in the distance.

Once we got to the bottom of the canyon there was an amazing river running right next to the road.

As we drove further and further we came upon the Roaring River Falls just a short walk from the road.

The canyon looked neat on the way back too.

Although it was a very long day, and we did virtually nothing the next day, we are glad that we were able to see both the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

We head off today a little further north to the Escapees Park Sierra in Coarsegold where we plan to visit Yosemite National Park and the surrounding gold country area.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

NATIONAL PARKS - SEQUOIAS EDITION

Visalia CA (Low 54 Mostly Sunny High 83)

We did Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in one day, a very long day. We wanted to see big trees and a big canyon but did not know that some of the trees were in Kings Canyon National Park. Today we will deal with the giant sequoias. Although closely related to the giant redwoods there are a couple of differences. The sequoias grow on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range while the redwoods grow in a narrow band along the Pacific coast. They also grow a little differently; the sequoias grow as fast as possible as tall as possible and then stop. They then continue growing but expanding their girth, kind of like humans if you think about it. Redwoods stay thin throughout their lifetime continuing to grow upwards. We were here to see the giant sequoias.

The scenery on the way to the trees is amazing.

Here is tunnel rock which used to be part of the road but has now closed.

Here are the trees at big trees trail. It is difficult to get a good picture of this tall trees to get the entire tree.

Here is the General Sherman Tree. Although there are trees taller than its current height of 275' and some trees wider at the base, no other tree's trunk in the world takes up as much space. This is the world's largest tree. From this vantage point you get a good view of the entire tree, remember that top to bottom it is 275'.

Here are some more trees seen top to bottom, they are impressive.

We were kind of surprised there was still snow on the mountain. We were at about 7000 feet. Here is Bob making a snow ball.

From Sequoia National Park you drive along the Generals Highway, so named because it takes you from the General Sherman tree to the General Grant tree, one of the five largest trees in the world. What we did not know is that you actually leave Sequoia National Park and enter the Sequoia National Forest and then into Kings Canyon National Park where the General Grant tree is (more on this weirdness in a future blog posting). Along the way to the General Grant tree you have an overlook of Redwood Mountain Grove.

This grove contains one of the worlds largest groves of the worlds largest trees, 5 square miles with 2100 trees with a trunk diameter of 10' or larger. Next is the General Grant tree area. Here we see a fallen sequoia from a long time ago rotted out but providing a trail. Here is the fallen tree, what they call a monarch, from the side.

Here it is from one of the ends showing people walking through.

Here is the General Grant tree, which is one of the five largest trees in the world.

Here is the fire damage showing on the General Grant tree.

Another angle for the General Grant tree.

Giant Sequoias are amazing and we are so glad we got the chance to see them. We will discuss our visit to the canyon in a future blog posting.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

CATCHING UP - PARKER ARIZONA

Visalia CA (Low 55 Partly Sunny High 91)

Well we made it to the National Parks yesterday but it was a very long day. Should have broken it into two days but waiting for the awning motor cost us a day. We have an incredible number of photos to go thru so this will be a catching up post on our stay in Parker Arizona.

This was going to be our "On The Road Again - to Parker AZ" blog entry but we ended up in an internet dead zone so it was not posted.

Here is the route we took from Goodyear Arizona.



We stayed at Castle Rock Shores and the location is amazing. Right on the Colorado River, here is the view to the right with our truck in the picture.

Here is the view to the left.

The remoteness of the location makes it a virtual dead zone for cell and internet service. To some this is an advantage but to us we struggled with this at first. Bob read the reviews and there are some spots in the park that can get cell coverage so we went with the beauty of the park. The park had free wifi but only at the clubhouse.

With all that said we still like this park and there were a couple of sites that were more appealing and we had cell coverage there. We really like the area and if we are back we would consider staying here again. After all how many times do you have a saguaro in your back yard.

Here is Bob along the river just outside our camper, it was too hot while we were there unfortunately to spend too much time outside though.

The big things we did while in Parker were the Desert Bar, the London Bridge, and a Da Vinci exhibit which we will blog about later.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

SAW "THE OTHER WOMAN"

Visalia CA (Low 58 Sunny High 94)

By the time the awning motor was fixed it was too late to head to the National Parks so we went to a movie instead. We have seen a lot of good movies lately but we were in the mood for a comedy so we saw "The Other Woman". 

We are so glad we did as we cannot remember the last time we laughed so much. From physical comedy to dry comedy to bowel comedy it was really funny. Although there was some swearing the movie did not have a lot of it and although a little raunchy in spots it wasn't overly raunchy either. Just the right balance we think.

Short synopsis is that Cameron Diaz's character finds out the guy she has been seeing is married. She meets the wife and they strike up an unlikely relationship. Then they realize the guy is cheating on both of them with another so they all get together to wreak havoc in his life. Doesn't end well for him is all we'll say.

If you are looking for a good comedy then go see "The Other Woman".

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Lord willing and the creek don't rise we are off to the National Parks today. It should be cooler since at a higher elevation.

SAW CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Visalia CA (Low 55 Sunny High 91)

While in Visalia we saw "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". 

 
If you like action movies you will like this movie. If you like comic book movies you will really like this movie and if you like Marvel Comics Captain America you will really really like this movie.

The action takes place after the Avengers movie and finds Steve Rogers struggling to embrace his role in the modern world. He teams up with Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, to battle a powerful yet shadowy enemy in present-day Washington, D.C.

To say much more would give away too much of the movie but we will leave you with this, stay to the very end of the credits as there are bonus scenes typical of all the Marvel movies.

We have good news on the awning motor and a recommendation for a mobile service company. Total RV Service in Visalia California was able to get the motor incredibly fast and just finished putting it on. They were prompt, courteous and knew what they were doing. We highly recommend this company. Ever since the motor went out it seems like we are always facing where we would need that awning the most. Moving every week made it hard to get the motor ordered. Feels good to have a working awning again.

Now that we have got this taken care of we can head to the National Parks.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

SAW DRAFT DAY

Visalia CA (Low 50 Sunny High 89)

Catching up on blog entries while we were recently in the dead zones. We saw the movie Draft Day starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner and many others.

We liked the actors and the previews looked good and the timing was right. We are so glad that we saw this movie. Taking us into the inner workings of a fictional NFL Draft it was well written, well acted, and well paced. They did some neat work with split screens while on the phone, pay attention to a couple of them to see what we mean. They did the draft from many different perspectives; owners, general managers, current players, college players, agents, etc.

We highly recommend this movie, and if you are a NFL fan then we highly, highly recommend it.

We have an awning motor that is on the fritz and a new one should arrive today and it may get put on today. Notice the words "should" and "may" :-) We'll see what happens.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Photos from our trip to Morro Bay and Hearst Castle are now on flickr in the Morro Bay set. All recent photos have been uploaded to flickr.com.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - TO VISALIA CALIFORNIA

Visalia CA (Low 48 Mostly Sunny High 83)

We left Morro Bay yesterday and headed to Visalia California. We really enjoyed our time in Morro Bay and we are planning on visiting again sometime. It was approximately 130 miles to Country Manor Mobile Home Community and RV Park in Visalia. Here is the route we took.



While here we plan to see Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. It is going to be a lot warmer here than in Morro Bay luckily the National Parks are at a higher elevation and thus a lot cooler.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

MORRO BAY KITE FESTIVAL

Morro Bay CA (Low 48 Mostly Sunny Currently 54) 
Visalia CA (Abundant Sunshine High 76)

The Morro Bay Kite Festival is held the last weekend of April so we decided to check it out. Here is our campsite with Morro Rock in the distance.

On our way to the festival we stopped and had lunch at Giovanni's Fish Market. The clam chowder there has won the harbor clam chowder contest a number of years in a row and we were really looking forward to it. When we got there a long line awaited us which really got our juices going. Outside there was a bbq oyster kiosk and they offered a free sample and we just had to have one and then more because they were sooooo good. Jo kept our place in line and Bob went and got the oysters. We just knew we were really going to get some good chowder.

We had company in the line, seals on the rocks at the waterfront. Here is a momma and her baby on the rocks.

More seals to keep them and us company.

By this time we ordered and got a clam chowder each and split a halibut tostada order of two small tostadas. This is one time where anticipation must have killed reality. The clam chowder was watered down, our least favorite clam chowder in a long time. The halibut on the tostada was tough, the shell and everything else was just ok.

Being less than satisfied we headed towards Morro Rock

and the Morro Bay Kite Festival. Here is the Kite Festival Pirate.

It was certainly windy enough for the kites.

Here are some kites.

Of course at a festival you have to have a chocolate covered cheesecake on stick and this festival had that vendor. Plus this vendor had what they called an ugly brownie dipped in the same chocolate which also looked good so we got one of those for later. Both were excellent.

This is a good time to bring up the food scene in Morro Bay. As with other tourist havens this place abounds in good places to eat, other than Giovanni's. Frankie and Lola's serves a great breakfast which we had a few times. They have a brulee souffle flambe french toast; brulee (soaked in brulee), souffle (baked), flambe (toasted pecan caramel sauce on top) that is incredible. The omelets and scrambles are also very good.

But the main food thing we will be checking out when near the coast is clam chowder. Right now our favorite place is Ivar's in the Seattle area and none of these rose to that level. The best in town for us was Hofbrau with Tognazzini's Dockside a close second. Hofbrau also had the best fish n chips but again not to the level of Ivar's. The best chowder we had here was the Tuesday special oyster chowder at Dockside.

We are off to Visalia today.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

HEARST CASTLE TOUR PART THREE - SELF GUIDED POOLS AND OUTSIDE

Morro Bay CA (Low 46 Partly Sunny High 66)

Continuing our tour of the Hearst Castle. After the Grand Rooms Tour and the Upstairs Suites Tour you are free to walk the grounds, visit the Neptune and Roman pools on your own. The Neptune Pool was drained due to the drought which gave them an opportunity to patch the leaks. Here is the drained pool from a distance. We don't have the best of luck with water attractions from this being drained to the Riverwalk in San Antonio being drained for cleaning while we were there.

Here it is up close.

Here is Neptune overlooking his drained pool.

The Roman Pool is an indoor pool.

Here is the diving board.

The flowers on the grounds and the views walking around are impressive.

This concludes our tour of an incredible Castle. Tomorrow we head to Visalia California for a week to see King Canyon and Sequoia National Parks.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo