California for Christmas

Glenna and I have taken a trip together each year for several years. This year she’d already taken a lot of leave and didn’t have too many days left, so we decided to go to Southern California for Christmas.

We had our Christmas with her boyfriend JR on the 22nd and left after work on Wednesday, the 23rd, for Charlotte and San Diego. Our hotel was in Little Italy, very close to the San Diego airport, so after picking up our Mazda 6 we were at the hotel in about five minutes just before midnight. The streets were, of course, practically empty. The funny thing was that in the next two and a half days, the streets were still all but deserted. I almost forgot to look when crossing the street while walking.

Thursday morning we found a little Italian coffee shop Pappalecco which turned out to be one that had been named best coffee shop in San Diego. We sat outside in the sunshine with our paninis (yes, for breakfast) and drinks, in my case an Italian hot chocolate which was really pudding. It had to be in the sunshine because it was not exactly warm. During our whole trip, we had cool weather and sometimes downright cold. I actually bought a coat. All the natives were talking about it everywhere we went.

Betty at Pappalecco

Glenna loves biking, so we rented bikes right across the street from Pappalecco and set off for Balboa Park. After the first few blocks, it was pretty much uphill, so I probably walked the bike more than I rode it. Glenna is always very patient. We dropped the bikes off at one of the shuttle stops in Balboa Park and took the bus to the principle museum area.

Betty biking to San Diego's Balboa Park

I love Southwestern architecture, and all the buildings around the square were in that style. Our first stop was the Museum of Man, an archeological museum with an eclectic array of exhibits.

Beautiful tower and dome of Museum of Man

Museum of Man at Balboa Park

The one we liked best was one called Footsteps of Time: Four Million Years of Human Evolution which traced primates from their beginnings through the rise of homo sapiens to a cyborg future. I particularly liked the life-size recreation of Lucy.

Evolution of man at Museum of Man

Model of Lucy--isn't she small?

Glenna wanted to see the Monsters exhibit which was aimed toward kids but interesting enough for adults too. She intends to do a second children’s program next summer with a monsters theme. This one showed monsters from all cultures; obviously the notion is pretty widespread. Other exbihits which we found interesting were one on the Kumeyaay, the native Californians, and one called Race: Are We So Different which explored what the notion of race actually means or if it is real.

That was all the time we had for that excellent museum as we were meeting Glenna’s high school friend Kelly for lunch at the nearby Prado Restaurant. It was fun to catch up and hear about her new posting in the Coast Guard defending courts martial.

We left Kelly after lunch to photograph the visually interesting area and then to head for the Museum of Art.

Visitors Center at Balboa Park

Central fountain and Museum of Art

Central square and museums

Just a pretty plant

Beautiful door of Visitors Center

Kids playing on sculpture

As a museum professional, Glenna got in free to all the museums we visited, but I didn’t. We first saw the really comprehensive exhibit The Art of Music spanning media, time and culture in three themes: The Musician as Motif, Social Interactions of Art and Music, and Formal Connections of Art and Music. Glenna, whose opinion I trust, thought it was a truly fine exhibit. Next was the small but very colorful California Wildlife Watercolors of James Hubbell. At that point I needed a sit-down (we averaged 5.23 miles walking per day on the trip), so Glenna explored the permanent exhibits on her own. At the end of the trip, Glenna said her favorite museum was this one.

We ubered back to the hotel for a rest and then went out to dinner in Little Italy. The streets and restaurants were full of people out for Christmas Eve. All the lights made it really seem like Christmas.

San Diego's Little Italy

Poinsettia Christmas tree in Little Italy

Christmas morning, after opening the small gifts we had brought with us, we walked down to the Waterfront Park which wasn’t spectacular though there were some pretty flower beds. The area around our hotel was a mixture of tall hotels and ordinary houses, odd but somehow pleasing.

View from hotel--small houses
and large hotels

Some of those cute houses

Ships in San Diego Bay

I just liked this huge tree in
Waterfront Park

Then it was off to Kelly’s, only two blocks from our hotel, for breakfast and a great view of San Diego from her 23rd floor apartment. She drove us to Balboa Park, this time to the famed San Diego Zoo. At $50, Glenna didn’t think it lived up to the hype, but I liked it a lot. They did a good job of making you feel that you were always there among the animals. At the Washington Zoo, by contrast, there are long walks between animal areas. I also loved all the greenery. We enjoyed watching the porpoises and the seals frolicking in their pools, the beautiful birds, and some unusual mammals. After the polar bears, we took the aerial tramway back to the entrance for lunch.

Swimming penguins at San Diego Zoo 

Snake wrapped around a tree limb 

Pond of flamingos

Flamingo and reflection in the water

Polar bear in the water

Pretty ibis

Unusual peccary

Kelly and Glenna in the aerial tram car

View of tram cars

After lunch we went back to the hotel for awhile. During times in the hotel, Glenna watched a lot of movies. She watches The Christmas Story every year, but they also showed all the Harry Potter movies. It was fun to see Harry, Hermione and Ron grow up.

After a glass of wine at Kelly’s apartment so Glenna could watch the sunset (yes, again), we were off to Coronado Island to the del Coronado Hotel for our special Christmas dinner. This hotel is the home of the first electrically lighted Christmas tree in the nation, so everyone has his picture taken in front of the tree. We had time to wander around a little before dinner. Our dinner was wine, salad, seafood, vegetables, and bread—for $289! But we decided it was a treat, so cost wasn’t important.

Roof of del Coronado Hotel all lit up for Christmas 

Betty and Glenna in front of famous Christmas tree

On Saturday morning, before leaving San Diego, we strolled through their great farmer’s market which was right out our back door—interesting clothing and decorative items and some unusual foods. We got pretty baskets and some spices which had all the California-ish ingredients—bio this and that, superfoods, etc etc.

After another breakfast at Pappalecco’s, we drove by Heritage Park and Old Town San Diego which looked more touristy than authentic and then headed east toward the desert. When we got off Interstate 8 we spotted a vegetable stand along the side of the road and stopped to get some tasty jerky. The lady asked us if we were on our way to Julian. It wasn’t our intention though it was on our path, but it was certainly everyone else’s intention. We didn’t know if this was a day-after-Christmas thing or what, but the town was hopping. It seemed to be an apple town because there were several shops and restaurants specializing in pies. It was here that I decided that the coat and poncho that I had brought were not going to be enough. Luckily I found a not-very-expensive jacket that I was often afterward very glad I had.

After getting some pie, we continued east to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Only a sign along the road told us that we were in the park, as is often the case. We drove up and down mountains for quite awhile and eventually got to Borrego Springs, the only town in the park. I guess I never thought of deserts having mountains, but this one certainly did. After lunch at the 4.5 star Red Ocotillo (an ocotillo is a cactus-like plant with red blooms at the ends of the branches), we drove to the park headquarters to ask about a hike. We picked the most popular one called Borrego Palm Canyon Nature Trail, a 3.0 mile round trip somewhat uphill to a small stand of palm trees. 

We didn’t start out until after 3:00. After walking a little over half way I decided that I was holding Glenna up which might keep us from getting back before sundown at 4:50 (nor did I relish driving in the dark), so I sat on a log and told her to go on. We were in the mountains which mostly blocked the sun, so it was pretty cool. The only fauna we saw was a tiny hummingbird. Borrego means bighorn sheep for which the area is known, but we didn’t see any. The desert vegetation was pretty interesting though.

Typical plant in Anza-Borrego with no color

One plant growing out of another 

Pretty bluish-green plant 

Interesting hollowed out downed tree

Striking tree roots--like hair

Loved this downed tree with its bark coming off 

End of the trail--not very many palms but a pretty
view of the sun on the distant peak

Fan palms--old fronds
droop, covering the trunk
and keeping water in

Back from the hike, we continued east toward the Salton Sea. Toward the east end of the park, the terrain changed from steep rocky land with green vegetation to sandy soil without vegetation. We saw lots of ATV drivers having fun tooling around.

Sandy part of Anza-Borrego

It was dark enough as we headed north that we didn’t even see the Salton Sea; for all we knew it was dry because of the drought. Our stop that night was in Indio. Dinner was pretty good (but not especially healthy!) Filipino food.

We had gone as far as Indio the night before so that we would have an early entrance into Joshua Tree National Park on Sunday where we spent all day. We went in the south entrance and out the easternmost of the northern entrances, using my Senior Pass for national parks to get in free. The roads throughout the park were terrific, mostly flat and very well maintained.

Much of the vegetation in the park was brown, maybe because of the drought or maybe because it was winter. The southern and eastern part of the park is the Colorado Desert which is part of the Sonoran Desert, an area less than 3000’ above sea level, which extends into Arizona and Mexico and is home to the saguaro cactus (though we didn’t see any this far north). The northern and western part of the park is the Mojave Desert, an area of more than 3000’ above sea level and home to the Joshua tree. 

Colorado Desert near southern end of
Joshua Tree National Park

Once again we saw very few animals though one we were pleased to see was the kit fox. Glenna followed one for about 15 minutes to get some good shots.

Can you see that well-camouflaged kit fox?

Near the southern end we stopped at a campground and did part of the Arch Trail. We really stopped for a bathroom break. These are only at campgrounds, and there is nowhere except at the visitor centers to get water. You really are on your own which I imagine can be pretty brutal in the summer.  We had a half bottle of water and cookies and jerky for all day, so thank goodness it was winter.

Glenna near Arch Rock

Plant growing out of the granite--
tenacious nature

Our next stop was at Cholla Cactus Garden—a patch of cacti on a couple of acres. Cholla is a variety of cactus where the bottom parts are dark brown and the tops are yellowish and fuzzy—very striking. We saw some dead stalks where the fuzz was off and you could see holes all along the stalk. I surmised that that’s how the plant absorbed whatever moisture there is in the air.

Betty and Glenna at Cholla Cactus Garden

Fuzzy looking top of a cholla cactus plant

Flowers of the cholla cactus

Closeup of the spiny cactus branch 

Holes in the cactus stalk

Once again we were driving among mountains as we passed from one desert to the other. There and at other places along the route, the rock formations were very strange. We learned that the original rock was Pinto gneiss. Over the millennia, molten monzogranite pushed up from underground into the Pinto gneiss. As the granite cooled and weathered, it cracked so that today the formations look like gigantic rock pieces stacked haphazardly on one another.

Crazy granite rock formations

Eventually we started to see Joshua trees. A Joshua tree is not really a tree but is actually a species of yucca which can grow to more than 40 feet tall. The waxy spiny leaves are typical of desert plants in exposing little surface area in order to conserve moisture. With their bare trunks and greenery only at the top, they have a very distinctive and spare look.

Field of Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert

Joshua tree in shadow against the granite mountains

We hiked the Hidden Valley trail which is a one-mile loop through lots of rock formations and interesting vegetation along a mostly flat sandy path. This valley was originally a cattle rustlers’ hideout. There were loads of climbers along this trail. Many times I couldn’t figure out where they were going to put their foot next. They must have been wondering too because they were going pretty slowly. I know a lot of people find this to be high adventure; to me it is just craziness.

Hidden Valley trail

Cactus along the trail

Closeup of that cactus

Love this bare (dead?) tree against the rock

Cactus with red stalk

I watched this climber for awhile as he tried to
figure out where to go next

Another climber who has made it to the top of a
very narrow peak

A little rest before descending

We also hiked the Barker Dam trail, a trail which ended in a dam which now was only a small pool of water. The dam was built to hold water for cattle and mining use. The flora here wasn’t nearly as interesting as in the earlier hike.

Barker Dam trail

Plant with red leaves

We had been told that Skull Rock was the best place for sundown. Glenna, an afficianado of sunsets, was determined to see this one. She didn’t like the look there so we drove a little and stopped along the side of the road. Looking at the sky she wasn’t very hopeful, but it changed and turned out to be absolutely spectacular—a sky full of blues and pinks and yellows.

Joshua tree against a sun-dappled hillside

The sky is beginning to color 

Getting prettier 

Beautiful yellows and pinks 

A spectacular last view of the sunset

With sunset over, she was ready to leave. We drove out of the park and along the northern road to a Mediterranean dinner (Glenna thought the lentil soup was delicious) and our hotel in Yucca Valley. 

On Monday we headed for Los Angeles, first driving along the San Bernardino Mountains with lots of the always graceful (to me) windmills along the side and then past lots of towns with familiar California names—Redlands, Loma Linda, San Bernardino, Pomona, Pasadena, etc. Before these had always just been names; now I can place them in my memory.

Windmills along the interstate

We circled the east side of LA and drove up to Simi Valley to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. I’d never visited a presidential library before, and I thought this would be a good one. And indeed it was. The setting is just beautiful—on a hill in the valley with mountains all around. Parking was crazy. The lots at the top fill up early, and everyone else parks along the road for a couple of miles all the way down the very steep hill. There was no way I was going to be able to walk up that hill; thank goodness they have shuttles. The style of the exterior of the library is Southwestern ranch as you would expect for Reagan.

View from the Reagan Presidential Library

Bronze of Reagan out front

The exhibits inside were very well done (though I had read criticism that the low points of the presidency got short shrift. Does anyone think any of the other libraries are any different? Do you think the Clinton library focuses on Monica Lewinsky?) with interactive exhibits and lots of quotes and interesting videos and mementos. We walked chronologically through his life from early years, through broadcasting, acting, and politics, and post presidency to his last speech where he said he was entering the sunset of his life which brought tears to my eyes. We got to go inside the Air Force One that he used (surprisingly cramped!) as well as Marine One and walk through a replica of the Oval Office decorated as it was for his second term. In the back was his very simple gravesite.

The Oval Office as it looked in 1985

Betty on the way into Air Force One

Reagan's Air Force One

Reagan's desk on Air Force One

Bronze of Reagan and Gorbachev 

Beginning of the end-- it brought tears 

Reagan's gravesite

There were banners for all the
presidents along the hill up
to the library

After returning to our car, we found good Hawaiian food for lunch and headed into LA proper. Our first stop was the Los Angeles County Musuem of Art. There was no parking anywhere around, so we found a place in a hospital lot and walked to the museum. That turned out to be nice because we walked through a residential neighborhood and got to see typical middle class dwellings and their yards.

Typical homestead near LACMA

At the museum the line snaked a long way because, as we found out, it was free to LA residents after 3pm. Glenna went up to the members window instead. She got in free with her museum ID and was able to buy a ticket for me there also. We did three floors of their eclectic collection which Glenna pronounced good.

I liked this ball made of ceramic pieces

Art piece made of fabric

Our hotel for the next two nights was a boutique hotel just on the edge of Beverly Hills. We liked it very much though we couldn’t enjoy the pretty courtyard because it was so darned cold. On the second morning there were no mini croissants. When we asked about it, the server made a batch just for us. The front desk was very helpful also. In case you’re in the area, the name of the place was Beverly Terrace Hotel.

Courtyard of the Beverly Terrace Hotel

We figured if we were in LA we should see movies, in particular the art movies we so like and can’t always see in Columbia or Greenville (the latter having fewer—come on Greenville!). So we picked out three possibilities—Mustang, a Turkish movie about 5 sisters growing up in miserable circumstances, Son of Saul, a Hungarian movie about the sondercommandos (Jews forced to clean up after the incinerations in Auschwitz), and Theeb, a Jordanian film about a young boy forced to survive in the Wadi Rum desert in the World War I era. Theeb was my first choice but the one we didn’t get to see because of time constraints. All three are nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. The two we saw are certainly worthy.

Nuart marquee

Silent Movie Theatre marquee

Before the movie that night we took Uber to dinner in the vicinity of the theater instead of trying to figure out where to park when we got there. We took Uber a few more times and had in San Diego also (my first time). We had a uniformly good experience with them—prompt pickup, nice cars, friendly drivers, and no fussing with payment. What a great system. 

Before the movie we found a little place for dinner and then walked back to the theater, an old silent movie house which now has a combination of couches and old cinema seats. It was obvious that most of the people go there regularly.

Tuesday morning we set off for the Getty Center. Along the way we passed Rodeo Drive and so drove a couple of blocks in both directions through the commercial streets and the very pretty residential section. Another place to tick off the list!

Residential part of Rodeo Drive--the
streets were immaculate and the
trees perfectly trimmed

Shopping part of Rodeo Drive

The Getty Center is a very impressive place. It also is on top of a hill. You park part way up and get on a train to get to the top. There are several museum buildings partly faced with a beautiful stone and all connected by a plaza with greenery everywhere. On the lower level is a garden of succulents and other plants that don’t require much water surrounding a pool which is fed by a gentle waterfall from the upper level. The center has pots of money and can buy just about whatever piece of art that suits its fancy. The collection was pretty comprehensive and nicely displayed.

Steps up to the Getty Center

Lobby of Getty Center

Some of the Getty Center buildings

Red plant in gardens with museum in background

Plantings around pond

Cute little bird looking for food

I'm a sucker for a plant with
colorful branches

Plant with rose-like leaves and yellow flowers

Silvery plant 

Beautiful red-flowered tree growing on a trellis

I love illuminated manuscripts--but can you tell
that I really liked the gardens?

A word about traffic. You always hear about the outrageous traffic in the LA area. Well, we just didn’t experience it. The streets were easily navigable most of the time. The freeways were generally full, but the traffic moved. In one instance, we were totally shocked to get on and see no cars ahead of us or behind us! I have to say, though, that part of the reason we didn’t encounter bad traffic was because Glenna used the traffic app on the iPhone to lead us around. She was a terrific navigator, so I was content to do all the driving.

Utterly empty freeway--not the image
we have of LA traffic

After a really good Korean fusion lunch (and Glenna found all these restaurants with the phone also), we next wanted to see the Hollywood sign.

My Korean fusion lunch

Well, that took forever. The best place from which to see it is from the Griffith Observatory, another place on top of a steep hill. There were cars parked all along the hill, but we parked near the bottom and waited for the shuttle. We missed the first couple because the line was so long . The ride up was long too, so when we got up I immediately got in line for the ride down while Glenna looked around and then took my place in line so I could do the same. We didn’t go into the observatory, but there were nice views all around, including, of course, the famous sign.

View from Observatory Hill

The famous sign as seen from Observatory Hill

The Observatory and the view to downtown LA

Griffith Observatory

Little girl peeking out from behind the sundial

Because this whole excursion took much longer than we thought it would, we missed the 5:00 showing of Theeb and saw Son of Saul instead after a dinner at a kabob house. We’d actually planned to do the Hollywood Walk of Fame that afternoon too, but that didn’t get done either.

Wednesday morning we packed up and set out for the Walk of Fame. It went on for blocks and blocks; we didn’t see it all. We saw the older concrete blocks with signatures and handprints which are now fenced off in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Glenna was thrilled to see that Dick Van Dyke and Gene Kelly were right next to one another, and an attendant offered to take a close-up picture for her. I was disappointed that I didn’t see stars for many of my favorite British actors. I looked it up later and found that most aren’t there. I also read that now they have to show up for the ceremony in order to get a star, so maybe that explains their lack. The placement seemed pretty random.

Grauman's old marquee

Blocks for Gene Kelly and Dick Van Dyck

Donald Duck's block

Star for Winnie the Pooh

Star for Julie Andrews

Street of stars

On the Hollywood Boulevard block with Grauman’s is the Dolby Theater where the Academy Awards ceremony is held. We were trying to figure out where the red carpet is laid and couldn’t quite decide. It will be especially fun to watch this year after seeing the venue.

Front of Dolby Theater where
the Academy Awards are held

Walkway where I think the red carpet is

That was our last site in LA. With Glenna’s navigation skills we left the area and made our way down to La Jolla in good time. Glenna had found a taco shack with a great rating, so that’s where we had lunch. Yum. Amazingly this was the only Mexican food we had during the whole trip.

Our delicious four tacos

After lunch we walked all along the coast with a deservingly great reputation. Beautiful water, interesting rock formations, breaking waves, lovely vegetation, lazy sea lions and lots of water birds. We took our time and took lots of pictures.

Waves pounding the shore

La Jolla coastline

Waterbirds along the shore 

Noisy sea lion...

...and lazier ones

Pretty orange flowers against the blue sea 

La Jolla cove at the end of our trail

On the way out of town we stopped at two thrift shops since that was another thing that for time reasons had to be taken off the list in LA. Then it was on to the San Diego airport to drop off the car. Within 5 minutes we were at our hotel, taken there by an Avis driver in our own car. Amazing. That evening we had another Little Italy dinner, again with Kelly. Of course we had to end the trip with another stop at Pappalecco’s, this time for ice cream. It was fun to listen to them talking about their high school experiences as we ate.

Thursday morning it was up very early to get back home. Since the airport is in the city, planes can’t leave until 6am. Somehow when I checked in online, I got pre-check. So we flew through the security line and were soon on our way to Charlotte. JR had come up to get Glenna so they could get back for New Year’s Eve and I could just drive back to Greenville. 

It was a quick trip and not one we would put near the top of our list, but it was one where I saw things that had been on my list for a long time. Check. Check. Check.

Glenna and Betty selfie at La Jolla