Eve of departure for Gary and Luca

It's now Friday lunchtime and Gary and Luca's holiday is almost over. So soon - the time has passed very quickly. It's a very early start for them tomorrow morning and they have a couple of layovers - firstly at San Francisco and then at LA - before catching the long flight to London, then another layover on Sunday morning before the flight up to Aberdeen,

Anyway, here's the story of the last few days:

Tuesday

Boating day - Lucy's already posted lots of photos on FB from our afternoon at Galesville Reservoir, but there's another couple of short videos on You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=067TUlAAtEw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lRHfEkLth8.

Gary and I went to Jacksonville in the evening to attend one of the Britt Festival gigs - The Decemberists, with support from Calexico. We were slightly later than planned and had to fight for a space on the lawn, where others had laid out their groundsheets and tartan rugs - and then gone away. It was like the towels on the sun loungers in Europe. It was all very civilised however - one of the sponsors was Harry and David's and they came up with a nice wine glass holder:

Wednesday

Cade had 3 days of football training this week and Lucy and Gary would take him along first thing and then go for a run together before they picked Cade up again. Occasionally I would go for a bike ride - and this was one of those days. It was also the day that Scott decided it was time to sell his motor bike. The sale was to a guy up north and they agreed to meet roughly halfway on the I-5, so Scott loaded the truck up:

Gary wanted to enjoy the full American experience, so today it was churros at The Haul. It also gave me a chance to refill one of my growlers. I sampled some of the beers in the usual taster, shot-sized glasses and, seeing this, both Luca and Cade wanted one for their cokes:

Jo was first to clear her plate:

Back at Delsie Drive, I noticed for the first time, Lucy's usual chalkboard welcome:

Scott's BBQ tonight was ribs:

Thursday

The next US experience for Gary was pies for breakfast at the Powderhorn cafe - Almond Joy for me and Strawberry-Rhubarb for Gary. Luca posed for a photo outside:

Most of us then headed south to Emigrant Lake where Lucy, Braeden, Gary and Luca did the slides. Luca doesn't like water on his face - note look of trepidation:

Braeden has no such fears:

Nor does Lucy:

Meanwhile, Jo and I headed for the shade:

Once finished with the slides, the others headed for the lake:

Then it was time to head back to Ashland to meet up with Scott and Cade for lunch at the Standing Stone Brewery. Couldn't do our traditional walk through the stream in Lithia Park afterwards as high levels of e-coli were apparently present.

Chicken wings on the BBQ tonight.

Friday

Early morning trip to Wildlife Images:

Gary's more or less packed now and has checked in for his United flights - the AA ones will be done later.

Back in GP

The journey back from Tahoe to Oregon was fairly uneventful and we got here before the wagon train from SoCal arrived, which allowed Jo and I to nip out and get the groceries for dinner.

The original plan for Monday was to go to the coast (Crescent City) and pick up Scott's Dad's truck which would allow us to take the boat to the lake some time this week, but not many people fancied spending another 3 hours in a vehicle after Sunday's treks, so it was decided to have a down day in GP. The upside was that this allowed Scott to go truck shopping on Monday, having reached a settlement with his insurance company.

Early morning, Gary and Lucy took Cade to his football training and went for a short run, whilst I did likewise on the bike. Lucy came home with cinnamon buns making for a lovely late breakfast. We ran off some of the extra pounds gained at the local park:

Before long, Scott appeared with his brand new toy:

In the afternoon, Gary decided to take a trip to the cinema to see Inside Out, Pixar's latest. Braeden, Luca and Jo joined him - and I did too, a little reluctantly. They all thought it was great. I fell asleep twice.

Now that Scott has his new truck, there's no need to drive over to the coast, so this morning (Tuesday) we're heading to the lake with the boat. Gary and I have to be back by 5 pm as we're going to a concert in Jacksonville.

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.