January 29th – We left the LA area this morning but not before taking one more trip down through town to the beaches. On a Sunday morning traffic was very light and we had no problems navigating our way to Marina del Ray. Boasting the world’s largest man-made small craft harbour with a capacity of 5,300 boats, we found it to be rather claustrophobic. There was no view of the ocean without having to park and the condos are built so close together that even the roads seem narrow. From there we drove north on the Pacific Coast Highway through lovely towns and scenic vistas to Santa Monica. As a famed resort town, Santa Monica sits on a relatively flat piece of land that gently slopes down to the ocean with miles of sandy beaches. Along the north side are high bluffs into which many homes of the wealthy and famous have been built. Not sure I’d want to live up there – some of them look quite precarious.

As we made our way north, we passed through areas of beaches on one side and steep cliffs on the other, into mountain passes where the ocean was no longer visible and then into verdant farmland that reminded us of the Holland Marsh at home. We passed what must be hundreds of acres of cauliflower, strawberries, spinach and other crops…as far as the eye could see. With the completion of this part of the Pacific Coast Highway, we have now completed almost all of it save for a small section between Los Angeles and  San Diego.

When we arrived at our hotel in Morro Bay, we realized that we had stopped in this little spot two years ago before going on to find the elusive Holiday Inn (Feb 2015). Dinner was at a little Italian restaurant within walking distance of the hotel and then we turned in early. Scrabble was a problem because of the internet and the game was postponed until tomorrow.

January 30th – Today we headed north about 45 minutes to Hearst Castle. Advertised as a museum like no other, it is the estate home of William Randolph Hearst – newspaper magnate and art collector. The castle is uniquely situated about 1600′ up atop a hill overlooking San Simeon Bay. Built between 1919 and 1948, which is a story in itself, the estate was the playground of the Hollywood and political elite during its heyday in the 1920s and 30s. The castle was built to house Hearst’s large collection of artifacts – some dating back to the 1400s. Tapestries, statuary, ceilings and furniture were brought from Europe and pieced back together on site.

Guests at the estate were left to their own pleasures during the day but appearing at dinner was mandatory, as was watching the evening’s movie in the theatre afterwards.

The dining room – Hearst sat in the middle of the table

There are two pools on the property, although only one was operative during our visit. The Neptune pool,built to replicate a Roman temple, is currently under restoration.

The indoor pool, was built with Murano glass, from Italy, some of it inlaid with gold.

Indoor Pool below the tennis courts

For dinner tonight, we drove in to San Luis Obispo and went to the Big Sky Cafe at the recommendation of the lady from whom we are renting in Palm Desert. We ordered the daily special – a three course spanish meal including the most delicious seafood paella for two. In true American fashion, there is enough for dinner tomorrow night. Fortunately, our hotel room has a microwave.

Last night’s scrabble game was won by Nancy and George ruled the game board tonight with two seven letter words late in the game.

January 28, 2017 – Here we are back in California for the third year in a row, on our way to a month in Palm Desert. This year we decided to do Los Angeles, since George had never been, and Hearst Castle, since we missed it two years ago on our way down from San Fransisco to San Diego.

Our departure from Mississauga and arrival in Palm Desert reminded us of the need to be conscious of how much luggage one is carrying and what sized vehicle to order. The taxi in Mississauga was a large Lincoln town car but because it had been converted to propane the trunk space was too small for our golf clubs. Another car had to be sent and fortunately arrived with just a five minute delay. The dispatcher had chosen to ignore my brief note about luggage since I had ordered a sedan instead of a van. You would think they’d call and question it. When we arrived in Palm Desert we found an mid-size car here would be called an economy car back home, so this time George had a problem sitting in the front seat. Even with the seat all the way back, his head was still touching the top of the windscreen and roof…a bit dangerous I’d say. They brought us another car but again the luggage wouldn’t all fit in the smaller sized trunk. In the end we had to upgrade to a full-sized car.

Our hotel is the Hampton Inn in Glendale which is in a rather upscale neighbourhood with three blocks of high-end stores and restaurants and a lovely park with a water fountain and trolley route. One of the streets also sports a huge chandelier! After settling in and having a short rest, we headed out for dinner to a Mexican restaurant and then walked through the area – called The Americana at Brand.

Today we headed to downtown Los Angeles for the Grand Tour of the City. Despite all the dire warnings about driving in and around LA it wasn’t any worse than Toronto; it was Saturday, after all. The tour company had arranged to pick us up at the Marriott hotel, which we realized after we got there, was one of the host hotels for the NHL All Star weekend. This became obvious when one of the first people we saw in the lobby was Wayne Gretzky!

The tour took us first to the Walt Disney Theatre, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and some of the other major musical venues. Then it was on to the Griffiths Observatory, from where one can see the famous Hollywood sign, out to the beaches in the West, and the wider LA urban area in the north and south – spectacular views, despite a brown haze of smog on the horizon.

Relatively small downtown core

Nancy and the iconic sign

From there it was on to Hollywood, the famous theatres, the Walk of Fame and the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Among the theatre’s most distinctive features are the concrete blocks set in the forecourt, which bear the signatures, footprints, and handprints of popular motion picture personalities from the 1920s to the present day. It used to be that the individual must have had a movie which had it’s premiere at the theatre, but it seems that this has been waived given that movie premieres are no longer shown there. R2-D2 and C-3PO have a block right in the front by the sidewalk. I was there with the kids many years ago but can’t remember if that square was there or not. It so, it would have been Georgie’s favourite! I was pleasantly surprised to see how the area has been cleaned up since we visited about 25 years ago.

From there we traveled through various sections of town to Beverley Hills where we got a taste of some of the Hollywood Stars’ homes. In particular we saw where Katie fled from Tom and where Lindsay Lohan hangs out.

This was one of the most interesting ones – called the Witch’s House – it was moved to its present location from a movie lot in 1934. The 3500 sq ft house is worth about $10M today.

The next stop was the Farmers Market and the Grove – a unique mix of old and new. The Original Farmers Market, first opened in 1934, is an open-air market with over 100 vendors including meat and vegetable stalls, ready-to-eat foods of every ethnic persuasion, and a few tourist shops. We had world famous corned beef sandwiches from Magees and homemade ice cream from Bennett’s – Fancy Nancy was the chosen flavour.

On the way back to the various hotels to drop people off, George kept our tour guide Mark – a transplanted Canadian – in conversation, as only George can.

Dinner tonight was at the Outback Steakhouse. Ironically, we passed on a Crepe restaurant because the only seating was outside and we thought it might be a tad chilly but the air conditioning was even colder at the Outback and we hurried out to a coffee shop after dinner to warm up!

Now for our first game of Scrabble. Who will be the big winner this year?