Saturday at North Lake Tahoe

This was our quiet day of rest prior to completing the second half of our return road trip back to Grants Pass. First stop was the Visitors Center where we learned about local walking and biking trails, the first of which was down to the beach to relax and read our books:

We walked back up to our apartment and then took the short drive down to Tunnel Creek Cafe for lunch. Adjacent to it was a bike hire shop who provided transport out to various trail heads allowing customers to cycle back to the shop. I was envious.

We wanted a little bit of gentle exercise and spotted a short walk round Lake Spooner so headed there where we circumvented the lake, taking lots of photos:

We then drove to the other side of the lake, crossing the California/Nevada border a couple of times to go on the even shorter Stateline Lookout Trail - or so we thought. What we didn't realise was that, to get there, we had to climb over half a mile straight up the hill. Much heavy breathing, but worth it for the spectacular views of the lake:

Lots of paragliders out enjoying the conditions:

Dinner was at a local BBQ restaurant, a short walk from our apartment. It was a 21,000 steps day.

It's now Sunday morning and we're having breakfast before packing and heading out on the road.

Newport Coast

Monday

Quiet day, but we did manage a walk down to the local beach, where Luca headed straight for the rocks:

This is what he was after:

We walked the length of the beach to Ruby's Shake Shack at Crystal Cove and had shakes there before walking back.

Gary sampled Scott's excellent BBQ skills in the evening - ribs this time.

Tuesday

Universal Studios was the target for the day. We spent about 8 hours there and had a great time, although Braeden was a little disappointed that their Harry Potter section doesn't open until next year.

Here's some of the (non-Facebook) photos:

The Lesinas ate out but the rest of us went back to Marriott and finished off the leftover ribs from last night.

Wednesday

Quiet morning - although Jo did finally get in the lovely warm pool adjacent to our villa:

The Lesinas took the boys to the basketball courts late morning whilst the Stewarts had lunch at the Vista Bar and Grill, admiring the lovely sea view. They were handing out free ice-pops to kids and Luca had one, but wanted more so he and I chased the girl who was handing them out and got another couple, after which he posed for a photo:

Gary was not yet aware of American meal sizes and ordered two appetisers - one conventional fries and the other sweet potato fries:

Needless to say, a couple of boxes had to be requested. They took them back to the apartment whilst Jo and I finished our beers and lunch:

After lunch we caught the shuttle bus down to nearby Laguna Beach. Luca again sought out the rock pools:

Luca then enrolled - no, ordered - Jo to help build a sand eagle:

Scott's BBQ tonight was chicken - excellent again.

Thursday

Everyone had enjoyed the beach on Wednesday - especially Cade and Braeden who rolled around in the surf for almost 3 hours - so we decided it would be the beach again today. This time we headed to the famous Huntington Beach, the original home of Surfing USA.

Gary had to experience the walk out to the end of the pier for lunch at Ruby's first of all, but then we hit the beach. Jo and Lucy posed on the pier:

The above was Gary's second attempt to sleep on the beach - the first was rudely interrupted when a tidal surge soaked the lower half of his body, causing him to leap up and yell.

Luca was soon directing again. This time, it was building sea defences with a hole dug to trap the water that came up:

Tri-tip steak was Scott's choice for BBQ tonight.

Friday

It was time for Jo and I to head back and for Gary and Luca to move in with the Lesinas for 2 extra days. Our "halfway" point was Lake Tahoe again - Incline Village this time. Two nights here with a day's rest in between for me, the poor old driver, before meeting up with the others back in Grants Pass on Sunday. We were a bit sad to leave this lovely resort (below) and the rest of the family behind, but I couldn't do what Scott is planning on Sunday - an 11 hour slog up the I-5:

On the way down we had spotted a popular local bakery in the town of Bishop and we stopped there on the way back for a sandwich and apple pie:

We re-fuelled at the small town of Bridgeport where there had been a rodeo on the previous week, but it was all quiet this week:

We ate in tonight - large prawns and ciabatta bread - lovely.

So that's me up to date at last.

Tahoe and Road Trip Part II

Saturday morning - no food in our apartment. Where to have breakfast - the on-site restaurant or go down to the Lake? We looked at our watches - the shuttle bus was due to leave soon - let's catch it.

We wandered round Tahoe, remembering former holidays there, but looking for somewhere nice - with wi-fi - for breakfast. It was Saturday and it was July 4th. Everybody, but everybody was out for breakfast/brunch and the lines at the attractive-looking places were too long. Eventually we spotted Applebee's across the street but that didn't open for another hour or more, so on we rolled. Jo came up with the idea of walking away from the main resort. "Let's try the brewery" she said. We started to walk but very soon realised it was a long way away and one eye on the heavens above told us it wasn't wise to try to walk too far in case the forecast storm broke. We had managed to avoid all the weather yesterday - there were reports of flash floods all around us, but we dodged them all.

Just after we turned back, the first raindrops fell. Heavier and heavier it got and soon we had to take shelter - initially in the doorway of a closed restaurant, but then, as the rain reached torrential levels and hailstones started to fall, we were rescued by the staff at the Holiday Inn across the street, who invited us in for shelter - and a cup of tea thrown in. Perfect - and half an hour later the storm was over and Applebee's was open so that's where we had brunch.

Here's what it looked like from our first, temporary shelter:

 
The rest of the day was spent wandering round Tahoe. We were planning a trip up in the Gondola but there was another storm system just 20 miles away and all the facilities at the top were closed and it was likely that we would have to evacuate quickly if this storm hit the area. In the end, it didn't, but we opted out of the Gondola ride anyway and strolled around - mostly from pub to pub.

We decided on an early evening and bought some groceries - and a bottle of wine - and had them in our apartment.

On Sunday morning, part II of our Road Trip adventure got under way. We knew LAX was 8 hours or so away so we set off early to make sure we were at the airport in good time to meet Gary and Luca, who were flying in.

Some interesting - and changing - scenery down the main highway between Yosemite on one side and Death Valley on the other. Jo had my camera and took lots of photos through the windscreen but none of them came out particularly well - although she also took this one of me munching my breakfast muffin en route:

There were still some noises coming from the car, but generally it was performing OK, which was just as well, as we were at times a long way from civilisation. We made it in good time and waited for the arrival of two-thirds of the Inverurie clan. By the time they got through all the usual Immigration, Customs and Baggage Claim, it was 5 pm, USA time, although this was 1 am Monday UK time - technically no longer Gary's 40th - but we celebrated anyway once we got to our resort at Newport Coast.

Luca was still going strong and was happy to play around with his cousins:

Gary cut his cake:

Monday was going to be a quiet day.

Road Trip

Well we made it down to Newport Coast in the end, but it was a mammoth journey, not without its scary moments. We headed down the I-5 from Grant Pass in Lucy's old Mazda then turned off before Redding in Northern California and headed inland towards the Mount Shasta area.

McCloud was our first stop - not the old TV series but a small town in the middle of nowhere. We had to hunt to find the little cafe-cum-rental shop and to use their rest rooms and had coffee and muffins outside:

Driving on from there, I looked down at the fuel gauge in Lucy's car and was shocked to see how far it had gone down already. We needed fuel fast and we were out in the wilds. I used our Sat Nav to locate the nearest gas station and was relieved to discover it was only 7 miles away. We limped towards it but came across a Shell station after only 4 miles. OK - we'll use this one. I pulled in and opened the fuel cap and was about to start filling when the girl came out and said all her computers had just gone down. Could we pay cash? "No - that won't work either, but you could try using your card on the pay at the pump option." I was a little reluctant but I slid my card in and the machine responded with a request for my Zip Code. I explained that it was a UK card and I didn't have a US Zip Code and before I could stop her, the attendant said she would use hers. "That won't work" I said - "it's got to be linked to my home address". Too late.

We had no choice but to drive on the extra 3 miles to get fuel in the town of Burney. I kind of guessed that my card would now be blocked by my bank and so it turned out - but that's exactly why I carry more than one card.

Slightly more relaxed, we headed onwards. After a few miles, I noticed a yellow warning light had appeared. There was no manual in the car and initially we couldn't figure out what it meant. We got to somewhere I could get wi-fi and I managed to check online for the symbol and it was the engine warning light. What could be causing this? Perhaps the fuel cap wasn't closed properly? Nope - not that. We began a series of phone conversations with Lucy and Scott to try to understand it. We'd had lunch by now and were halfway between Susanville and Reno. Scott checked online and found a dealer in Reno who could look at it for us.

We got to Reno and turned off. By now, it was too late - the first dealer's service dept was now shut - it was Friday and the eve of the July 4th holiday - but Scott found another dealer for us, but, sod's law, it was on the other side of town. It took us a seemingly interminable half hour through so many traffic lights, but we got there in the end. The guys there were in holiday mode, but they said, "sure you can pull in to our service bay and we'll check it out for you - but it'll cost you $150 for them just to scan it for you, without doing anything". "You'd be better off going down to O'Riley's down the road - they'll do it for free". So, off we trotted again.

O'Riley's ran the scan and gave us the error code, which turned out to be a fat lot of good, listing about 10 possible causes. All we wanted to know was whether it was a serious fault or not and if we could carry on our journey to our overnight stop at Tahoe?

Further conversations with Scott, who had done some more online research, followed and we decided to plough on. We were relieved to pull in to The Ridge eventually - although the final steep climb up to the 10,000 feet elevation was done very gingerly.

We grabbed a couple of beers after posing for a photo:

Tomorrow would be another day.

Eve of departure from Oregon heat

Tomorrow morning we're all making our way down to Southern California - slowly - meeting up with Gary and Luca on Sunday afternoon.

Jo and I are heading to the Lake Tahoe area for a couple of nights whilst the Lesinas are taking the coastal route down. I think we're all looking forward to getting away from this oppressive heat for a week or so - it'll be more than 20 F cooler in Newport Coast - high 70's/low 80's we believe.

Scott seems to be recovering OK from Sunday's incident and the insurers seem to be playing ball so far, so it looks like they're not going to come out of it badly financially.

This week, Cade's been at pre-season football conditioning for the last 3 days. Thankfully, he's got the early morning slot so it's not as hot as those who have to do it in the full heat of the day later on. I've been running him and his pal Chris in at 7:30 am.

I've had a couple of cycles this week and this morning, Braeden and I played 9 holes at Applegate GC:

He was a bit rusty to start with but he improved as the round went on. You can't see it, but this was a particularly good drive of his at the 4th hole (he's a leftie):

The daily routine to escape the heat is to jump in the pool late afternoon when there's a bit of shade from the neighbour's hedges. It's been so hot that even Jo went in yesterday - quietly on her own:

Sunday shock

The day started off with a bang - literally. Scott was driving to work, minding his own business crossing the first set of lights at nearby Dowell Rd, when all of a sudden he was banged in the rear, side-on, by a guy who was running a red light.

Scott was in his big truck and the other guy was in a Subaru, but the point of impact was underneath the trailer half of Scott's truck and we think that Scott's rear wheels then mounted the Subaru's bonnet and Scott's truck, with its higher centre of gravity was flipped over - it rolled one and a half times, ending up on its roof, with Scott hanging upside down.

Scott managed to release the seat belt and then kick out his side window and crawl out the truck. Lucy got a call from him a few minutes later and she and I rushed round. By the time we got there, the police and medical teams were all there - all we could see was blue lights flashing at first, but, as we got closer, the horror of the scene was all too obvious. Fortunately, Scott was standing there, grinning and waving at us, apparently none the worse for wear. He had  a few cuts and no doubt some bruises will start to appear over the next few days, but his adrenalin was keeping him going.

Looking at the scene, with both vehicles now written off, it's a wonder that both Scott and the other driver came out of it, largely unscathed. The police have charged the other driver, but, amazingly, nobody was breathalysed. It may have been shock, but the other driver appeared to us to be not quite with it.

The medics checked them both over and all seemed to be well, and soon the recovery trucks arrived. The Subaru was upright and was easy to get on the back of the pick-up, but Scott's truck had to be righted in two careful manoeuvres.

Scott's sister Laramie and her boyfriend Rick were soon on the scene, but once all the paperwork was done, Scott wanted to walk the short distance home and Lucy went with him, whilst I took Lucy's car back. Scott's Dad, Bill drove over from Crescent City and we took both Bill's and Rick's trucks over to the recovery vehicle's yard to get all the stuff out from the back of the truck - Scott hadn't had a chance to empty it after their weekend camping in N. California. There was a quad bike and a dirt bike in the back, along with lots of other stuff, but most of it seems OK, apart from some fairly minor damage.

Here's just one shot of Scott's damaged truck, now upright in the breaker's yard:

Had it been left hand drive, who knows what the consequences might have been?

This week in Grants Pass

Well, we arrived in Oregon on Monday. The Lesinas were driving back from their annual family camping trip in the wilds of Northern California and and had arranged to pick us up in Medford. We landed slightly before they could get there, so we took a taxi to our favourite Pizza Bar/Restaurant - Kaleidoscope - and had lunch there, finishing in perfect time, just as they arrived.

We all drove over to Grants Pass and started to settle in. The rest of the week has been spent mostly in Delsie Drive as Scott and Lucy returned to work - Scott is doing 10 days in a row prior to us leaving for Southern California next weekend to meet Gary and Luca.

It's been getting hotter each day - yesterday (Friday), it reached 108 F and today must be at least as high - it feels that way anyway.

The boys are happy to be home, back in the comfort of their own rooms again. We've only taken them out twice this week - once to our favourite book store Barnes & Noble in Medford, and the other time locally to Fred Meyer to try to get a game for Braeden, who still has birthday money to burn. The price of our book store trip was another lunch at Kaleidoscope - not at all painful - and we took the surplus Mozarella sticks back home in a box.

Scott has been busy on the BBQ and Lucy has delivered a steady supply of various cocktails - it's nice to be back here.

I've been out cycling 3 times this week. On one of my excursions through Rogue C. College grounds, I came across this totem pole:

The rest of the week can be told in pictures:

My Father's Day cards - Cade's on the left and the rest of the Lesina's on the right, with the "stubby cooler" below

On their camping trip, Scott came across these relics of a long-lost railway line in the wilds. We couldn't quite figure out exactly what they were.

This was taken in Grants Pass today to try to provide a comparison.

Grants Pass always has a selection of bears in different poses Downtown each year

Lucy took us to her work - a new building that she moved in to last year. This is the treatment pool.

No, it's not a gym - this is Lucy's work again. The equipment is for patients.

Cade tries on some of the OT mechanical aids.

Practising certificates in After-care. Lucy's on the right, second down.

Judy, one of Lucy's work colleagues has some blueberry bushes at her home and allows the public to come in and buy - pre-picked or pick your own. 

Judy's husband, Pete, was constructing this tree house and he showed us around.

Back at Delsie Drive, Lucy shared her birthday present from Kelly - frozen cheesecake lollies.

Sunday - last day in Breckenridge

We've checked in and head off for Denver at the crack of dawn tomorrow to catch our plane to Medford, where we'll meet up with the Lesinas, who are at camp at Ballard just now.

Jo went to church this morning. I walked her there and then came back to get our boarding passes printed. We had a lazy lunch and early afternoon and then set off to walk to Broken Compass Brewery - one of the few we hadn't visited.

It was hot and we took a wrong turning - my fault - which added probably 40 minutes or so to our walk, but we got there in the end. It was a brewery and tap room and the beers were very nice - although I broke one of the samplers. I was too hot, sweaty and tired, but they were very nice about it.

We caught the bus back and went to Bubba Gump's for tea:

So it's bye bye Colorado tomorrow - and look out Oregon - here we come!