Southern California Trip 1990 Part 1

Click on map to zoom in:

Monday July 2nd, 1990 DAY 1

Camped at the KOA near Richmond Indiana after driving for eight hours on the first leg of our Southern California Trip.

The day went very smoothly. We left Ajax just after 9 am, stopped for lunch at a rest stop near Tilbury just before crossing the border at Windsor. The weather was glorious. We arrived here about 6 pm, pitched camp and went for a swim in the pool.

After a great camp feed of spaghetti and California Burgundy (Gallo) we went for a little stroll and watched an open air showing of Disney's Peter Pan which ended about fifteen minutes ago. Now its to bed and an early rise.

Supposedly tomorrow will not be quite as long a driving day, but who knows? We are scheduled to camp in Missouri. It will be interesting to cross the Mississippi in real Huck Finn country. Anna was a great traveler, bearing up well over the eight hours of driving.

Tuesday July 3rd, 1990 DAY 2

Another long driving day takes us to a KOA near Lebanon, Missouri.

We went over the mighty Mississippi today and the weather was clear but oven like. Even at 10 pm the air is still very muggy.

We had a campfire tonight and toasted some marshmallows despite our exhaustion. We are camped in a secluded setting overlooking a tiny lake with the eternal highway just beyond. The area is thrilled with fire flies and Anna caught one in her bug jar.

This is a woodsy, well tended KOA, but there are very few people staying here. I guess its just a little too far off the beaten track.

Wednesday July 4th, 1990 DAY 3

Camped in a secluded site at the KOA near Clinton, Oklahoma, west of Oklahoma City.

Tomorrow, we dip through Texas and New Mexico briefly.

Today was very hot and as long a driving day (less about an hour) as the last two. Even though we got an early start, it was still oven-like by the time we pulled out of our campsite. We arrived here about 5 pm and had a refreshing swim in their clear and cool pool. This park is considerably fuller than the last one, but the tent area we are in is empty, but for us, which is rather nice.

Didn't feel quite as worn out today. Getting off the road before the last hour seems to make a world of difference.

Thursday July 5th, 1990 DAY 4

Another long driving day through Texas, New Mexico and into Colorado. We are camped at Lathrop State Park just outside Walsenburg, Colorado.

We have a good site nestled in among stocky evergreens and yukka trees. There is a woodsy smell to the air, something lacking at previous camps.

This is actually the next morning as I write. We went into the tent to get out of the rain yesterday night and after telling the Legend of Sleepy Hollow to Anna, I promptly fell asleep, a good sleep.

There is a good climbing tree for Anna here and she has been up and down it now several times, including one fall which left her scraped and bruised.

We do not have as far to drive tomorrow. It's good to be in a park instead of a KOA for a change, though Anna misses the pool. We had lunch at a huge truck stop and it was good and fairly inexpensive. The rain held off nicely for our dinner.

Friday July 6th, 1990 DAY 5

Not quite as much driving today. We pulled into our campsite in the Ute Loop, Site 173 of Mesa Verde National Park and Anna had her spaghetti birthday dinner in the tent in the rain.

Ute Loop, Campsite 173 as it looks today, much the same as when we were there.

The rain was heavy and the night was wet. My sleeping bag soaked through and I ended up sleeping in the car, or at least trying to hunch into a sleeping position in the front seat, as there was no room elsewhere in the car.

The bright light from the moby across the way was driving me nuts. I cleared out the food and dishes from the tent in case we were totally washed out, but Chris and Anna managed to get a semi dry night's sleep.

It was great to leave flat farm land behind and drive into the mountains. At bedtime, I had to tell the Legend of Sleepy Hollow again, exactly the same way!

Saturday July 7th, 1990 DAY 6

Had a great day exploring the various cliff dwellings, and they are more spectacular than pictures could describe. The very act of first driving mountain roads and then hiking down the canyon walls provids an excellent prelude to actually seeing the cliff dwellings themselves.

The less popular for sightseer dwellings that we went to first were more evocative for being less crowded with tourists.

Anna was more interested in the dwellings than we had expected and particularly enjoyed going down into the roofed keva in the Cliff Palace.

You can use Google Street View to explore the amazing cliff palace:

Enter the Cliff Palace

It started to rain, so we had to rush back to the campsite in the afternoon to save the gear we had left out to dry in the sun. Fortunately, it had only rained a short time by the time we got there, so all was not lost.

I was struck by some of the similarities between the Mesa Verde people and the Incas: both dwellers on high plateaus where life was hard and a great deal of resourcefulness and ingenuity were required.

Although it rained most of the night again, we stayed dry by putting our plastic tarp OVER our foam sleeping pads and thus staying above any encroaching water. A primitive form of water bed!

Sunday July 8th, 1990 DAY 7

We are camped in a beautiful site in the South Rim of the Grand Canyon campground.

The site is spacious and even has a tall pine with a low, straight branch for Anna's swing. We were relieved to see what kind of site we had, as we didn't know what to expect at a tourist trap like the Grand Canyon.

We spent the morning drying our gear AGAIN and taking seventy-five degree showers. I was glad to get a good night's sleep. I told Anna a Native American story about Swift Heart the horse and Bright Eagle the boy. The basic plot came from some Native American book or other I had read to Anna, but I had to embroider a lot since I remembered few of the details.

It was so wonderful to have a peaceful evening at the picnic table, without having to duck in, out of the rain.

We did no Grand Canyon gazing today, other than what we could glimpse as we drove in.

Anna has a new friend, Rachel, who is camping with her grandparents across the way. Her grandfather is a gregarious type and worked in computers, so we had some good talk.

Anna bought a Native American bow and arrow set today and will need some extended lessons on learning to shoot it. At the moment, she is inclined to aim it back at herself!

Monday July 9th, 1990 DAY 8

An active day walking and busing along the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

Wore ourselves right out. We saw the canyon from a wide variety of perspectives in a wide variety of light.

Although it looks like we are perched on the rim, we are actually on an overlook wall well back from the edge.

We watched the mule lines filing up and down the dizzying switch backs.

All the spots that offer the opportunity for a violent death by falling! I find them all somewhat unnerving. Fortunately, Anna is a relatively cautious and calm child. To bring an active ten year old boy here would probably give me a nervous breakdown.

The altitude with its reduced oxygen makes for exhaustion in activities that would not tax us much at home.

We stumbled over to the kids marshmallow campfire with a ranger and heard an interesting talk on bats. Bats have always interested me so I was quite intrigued. Anna was more intrigued with the fire and the marshmallows. I could hardly believe she could still stand up after the day we`d had, but then again I wondered how I myself could still stand up!

Tuesday July 10th, 1990 DAY 9

Chris got up early and went to the Rim for the Camera Walk where a Kodak expert explained how to get great shots of the canyon. He suggested you get one of the suicidal fools clambering dangerously out on rocks in the frame to give perspective to things. It would certainly give a flavor of mortality to the scene.

Anna and I had pancakes for breakfast and went over to the Visitors Center for the Children's Hour. A Forest Ranger gave a talk on coyotes (one of Anna's favorite animals) as well as telling some of the Navajo coyote stories. It was a good presentation and the stories were well told. We bought an audio tape of some of the coyote stories as told by Joe Hayes. This was a big hit with Anna:

Coyote and Native American Folk Tales

Watch Joe Hayes tell a Coyote story Yellow Behind the Ears, one of Anna's favorites:

For the afternoon, we drove out to see the Desert View Watch Tower:

Desert View Watch Tower Documentary

Then we went on to see the Tusayan Pueblo, which is the remains of a small A ncestral Puebloan (Anasazi) village.

We worked our way back, stopping at all the overlooks, some of which had good views of the Colorado River:

Tonight we went over to the amphitheatre and saw a lively presentation on geology. The ranger's enthusiasm was infectious and he proved the point that any area of knowledge can be made interesting with imagination and enthusiasm.

Wednesday July 11th, 1990 DAY 10

A relaxing morning around camp. I played my guitar. Anna gave herself a violin lesson, which was surprising, and she kept at it for a while, sounding rather good in the open air.

After lunch we all went over and had timed 75 cent showers in slippery shower stalls. I finished washing off the soap just in the the nick of time.

After that we drove over to the IMAX theater and saw an excellent seven story high film of the Grand Canyon, starting with the early native inhabitants and ending with a one man mini-airplane swooping about the canyon. It was very well put together and dramatized the history of the Grand Canyon very well.

We went over to the canyon rim about 3pm and had an interesting time watching the mules and their riders come back up. The father and son in the family from Long Island, New York, that we keep running into since Mesa Verde were riding up, so it was interesting seeing someone you know riding out.

As usual, there was one poor woman who was so stiff from the ride that she couldn't walk. The wrangler helped her off, to the side of the trail, whereupon she promptly lay down on the ground as if she was never going to get up again.

I went further up the rim to get a panoramic view of the mule groups. The first sight of our friend's group was a mule, minus the rider, ambling up the trail with a rope dangling on the ground behind him. My first thought was that someone had fallen into the canyon! As it turned out, it was just a stubborn mule who had gone on ahead without the wrangler.

The IMAX movie gave you a real feel for what it was like right down in the canyon at the Colorado River. It also gave credit to the Native Americans for being the original inhabitants.

Anna enjoyed making friends with the mules:

Tomorrow is a hard driving day through desert and mountains, and we hope to get an early start so as to get through the desert in the cool of the morning.

I feel better for having a day of rest. I feel that we have done the Grand Canyon as thoroughly as I would would care to, without going down into it. Save that for another trip when it is not so infernally hot!

Google Street View is also a great way to explore the Grand Canyon. You can use it to hike the famous Bright Angel Trail down into the canyon:

Go to Google Street View Bright Angel Trail

You can also go boating through the Canyon down the Colorado River... Go to Google Street View Colorado River

Thursday July 12th, 1990 DAY 11 Camped at the KOA in Chula Vista, just south of San Diego.

It's a large, state of the art KOA with all the amenities.

We got up early, ate a light breakfast and then drove all day, arriving here at 6pm.

Most of the area we passed through today was the Mojave Desert and deserted it was, for long stretches. We did happen upon a newly built McDonalds for lunch.

We arrived here, pitched our tent, had a swim and a jacuzzi. (I didn't get into the latter for fear of falling instantly asleep!) We ate a dinner of hot dogs, Kraft Dinner and white wine. Tomorrow, we plan to spend the day at the San Diego Zoo.

Friday July 13th, 1990 DAY 12

Spent the day at the San Diego Zoo (or as Anna calls it: the Sandy Eagle Zoo), which was terrific. California climate allows for every sort of greenery and flower you could imagine and they were all there.

Most of the animals were displayed in natural style habitats as in Toronto Zoo.

The only disappointment was that the heart of the zoo, which included the gorilla enclosure is under construction. It was great seeing all the tropical vegetation in the open air, after Toronto where it must be kept in pavilions.

We began with the double decker bus tour to orient ourselves, then set out on foot and managed to cover 98% of the zoo.

A wondrous bird is the pelican, for its beak can hold more than its belly can!

Anna said the zoo was boring, but she was fascinated by the trained animal displays: seals, a red tailed hawk, an otter, a mountain lion, and some relatives of the raccoon from Central America.

We passed by the cheetah enclosure near closing time and noticed a small dog running around in there! Our first thought: "OH NO! THEY ARE FEEDING THE CHEETAHS STRAY DOGS!" But there was a zookeeper standing by and so we asked him, and he said that after hours they put a dog in with the cheetah. The dog had been adopted to be a companion for the cheetah.

Surprisingly, they do become friends, and apparently the little dog becomes the dominant one. The zookeeper said that when the cheetah would start its obsessive pacing back and forth, it was as if the little dog said, "ENOUGH ALL READY!", grabbing the cheetah by the ear and dragging him off! You can read more about these unlikely friends... Dogs And Cheetahs Living Together At The San Diego Zoo

An owl had been trained to attack a robo-skunk and we found out that since the great horned owl cannot smell very well, it is one of the skunk`s chief predators. Anna correctly guessed the weight of the owl at two pounds.

Join Wander Kay for a walking tour of the zoo:

Saturday July 14th, 1990 DAY 13

A two hour tour of San Diego Harbor this morning. Saw the Exxon Valdez, infamous oil spill tanker being repaired and renamed Exxon Mediterranean and about to head for somewhere in the Middle East. Saw many naval vessels, everything from frigates to aircraft carriers.

We had a picnic on the shore and then went to see the tall ship Star of India, over a hundred years old and still seaworthy.

We returned to camp about 3 pm for a swim. After supper Anna started up a great game of pirate with the kids at the playground which went on until about 9 pm.

Sunday July 15th, 1990 DAY 14

Camped at site 145 in San Elijo Beach State Park, just about twenty miles up the coast from San Diego.

Camp Site 145 as it is today and looks much the same.

We are camped right on the edge of a bluff overlooking the Pacific. You couldn't get any closer to the ocean without falling in! After our last California trip we learned our lesson and this time booked campsites at state parks right up the coast.

We spent most of the day doing the scenic drive around San Diego, which is a most beautiful city. We spent about two hours in the area of the old lighthouse near the Cabrillo Monument.

At the Visitors Center, we watched an hour long movie about Gray Whales.

We rolled in here around 4 pm and couldn't believe our luck at getting such a fine site. The beach below is quite rocky and not that good for swimming, but there are more fine beaches near here, both up and down the coast.

La Jolla was one of the highlights of the drive, though also one of the worst sections for traffic.

Monday July 16th, 1990 DAY 15

Same place. We went over to the San Diego Wild Animal Park (now called the San Diego Zoo Safari Park) today, which was very good, sort of like an expanded version of the outdoor areas at Toronto Zoo, with lots of open spaces for the animals. Where it differs the most from Toronto is the trained animal shows which were quite spectacular.

We saw some Austrian equestrians putting their white mounts through their paces. We saw a superb bird show featuring tumbling doves, manic macaws, and amusing emus. A parrot swooped into the audience, took a dollar bill from an outstretched hand, carried it back to the stage, then reversed the process. A hawk dived on target to capture a stuffed, leather prey.

The elephants were quite impressive also. They hauled logs around with their trunks, lay on the trainer without crushing her, hoisted the trainer onto their backs, then bowed and strutted about.

We rode the monorail around the park, seeing various animals from that point of view. The day was very hot and we passed a woman who had fainted from the heat and was being attended by medical staff.

We got back to camp in time for a brief dip in the ocean and had a lantern lit dinner of burgers and salad.

Tuesday July 17th, 1990 DAY 16

Same place. We had a leisurely day visiting the historic Old Town of San Diego in the morning.

Old Town San Diego, San Diego, California (38) Uploaded to Wikipedia by PDTillman

Then we went out to Coronado Island for lunch and an afternoon on their famous beach.

Anna had a great time on the beach building a raft of kelp to ride in the surf, and she finally got a pair of moccasins in San Diego at the Native American Trading Post.

Wednesday July 18th, 1990 DAY 17

This morning we went to Balboa Park, San Diego to see the museums and gardens there.

First, we went to the science museum: Fleet Science Center where I bought the book Science, Order and Creativity by David Bohm and F. David Peat. We saw two IMAX movies. The first was based on an Arthur C. Clarke story (Sunjammer) about a race to the moon sailing on the solar wind. The race is halted due to sun spot activity, but the American entry ejects and leaves his solar sailing ship Diana on a program called Phoenix that will take her out of the Solar System and on to the unexplored depths of the galaxy.

The second IMAX movie was about sailing here on Earth, and particularly the computerized yachts that now race in the Americas Cup. This movie also covered Surf Board Sailing and Land Sailing in the Arizona Desert. It began and ended with a British man who routinely sails around the world and writes about it. In general, we felt that the movies were not a patch on the Grand Canyon IMAX movie!

After the movies we had a picnic lunch and then returned to view the "hands on" science exhibits, which were now crawling with hysterical public school children.

Anna enjoyed the big bubble demonstration where a man made a huge soap bubble right around her! Despite the crowds, she managed to do this twice. Most of the rest of the exhibits were geared to older children or grownups.

After this we went through the Museum of Man which had some good displays of Mayan and Equadoran archeological artifacts.

Anna got to ride on the big old fashioned carousel (built in the Herschell Carrousel Factory in Tonawanda, New York) in Balboa Park and then we went out the beach, on the bay side this time, where you could swim instead of battling the surf.

We came back to the campsite and barbecued up some chicken for for supper.

In general, it was a good, not too frantic day.

Thursday July 19th, 1990 DAY 18

Spent the day toodling around about La Jolla, San Diego. We went to the aquarium in the morning, which was of a modest size, but good. Many fascinating fish.

We had lunch near the Children's Beach after a refreshing swim.

In the afternoon, we went to to few shops in La Jolla village and then drove over to the Children's Museum which was very good, so good that Anna only managed to cover about a third of it in the tme available before closing.

We ordered a pizza here at the State Park for supper.

Friday July 20th, 1990 DAY 19

Spent the day at Sea World from 10 am to 9 pm. And still we didn't see everything. But we saw most things and some things twice.

The first thing we saw was the Penguin House which was the best penguin enclosure I've every seen. The penguins are glassed into an ice cold environment with both a land area and a deep pool in front, that is lit from beneath.

A moving sidewalk carries spectators across the front and there is a gallery behind the sidewalk for more lengthy viewing.

We saw excellent shows featuring dolphins, pilot whales, and killer whales.

Anna liked the sea lions and otter show the best because it was a pirate story acted out aboard the HMS Pinoquet. The story involved a pirate captain whose crew had left him (her) who is testing a new crew. The captain and his sea lion put the would-be pirate and his sea lion through their paces, rejecting them, getting blown up by a cannon ball and eventually discovering the two sea lions are long lost brothers and that each has half of a treasure map of Skull Island. On Skull Island, they meet up with the Pirate King who is a huge, pink walrus. The river otter played the bilge rat who keeps on taking people's purses.