The Gold Coast

We decided to take a the scenic highway out of the desert, through the Anza Borrego Forest. We travelled into much higher elevations on a windy scwitch back filled single lane highway through brush and a more heavily treed landscape. How we missed trees and greenery! Again we saw snow on the side of the highway, we are constantly surprised at how cool the climate is in higher elevation even in southern California.

Arriving into San Diego you could feel the moisture change in the air. We both felt excited and maybe a little accomplished that we had made it to the opposite coast. It is a different world here. We are staying close to the ocean in an area known as Mission Bay. We got a tip from some friends that we had previously spent some time with on the East side of a great spot to overnight in the area. Pulling into the park we see many vans and motorhomes in the park parking lot. A sense of relief washes over us, it is always a little unnerving overnighting in the city. In fact many cities make it hard for people to overnight in their vehicles unless in a campground. Campgrounds around here average $50-$70/night.

We hooked up with a friend Jaime, a local of San Diego. We met Jaime while hiking the NaPali coast in Kauai. We spent a few days with him. He took us to one of his favorite spots in the city Torrey Pines Gliderport.

This is an area designated for paragliding and hanggliding and below the cliff is Black's Beach. We spent the evening hiking around the cliffs and walking on the beach. We decided to overnight in the large dirt parking lot.

Paul and I posing on the cliff side!

We also toured the grounds of the Salk Institute. Jonas Salk created the polio vaccine and this institute for biological studies.

The glider port quickly and easily became our favorite place in San Diego. One morning we sat on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. From our view point we could watch marine animals splashing around feeding. Dolphins swimming and maybe a whale... oh and also a few nudists on Blacks Beach below!

At sunset we watched people gliding through the air at the gliderport

Back to Mission Bay, we have delved into a fairly cliche beach life. Along the beach is a paved board walk that attracts all kinds of people. Electic bikes and electric scooters are hot items around here. San Diegans are health minded. We are always seeing people running or cycling or boarding along the boardwalk. In the distance are surfers and kite surfers.

Coronado Island is a strip of sandy beach and fairly wealthy communities. This hotel has hosted the wealthy such as Marilyn Monroe.

Sunset Cliffs

During our stay we alternated between staying around Mission Bay and Torrey Pines. On our last night we stayed again at the glider port, and ran into a friend we had made at the RTR. It is a nice feeling and an interesting vibe out here, almost a circuit of of van travellers. Turns out this guy and us have been pretty much travelling only a short distance apart.

So far we are feeling a love for San Diego, it was an easy place to stay for free and the weather so mild and the scenery is spectacular. This is what we envisioned "vanlife" to be like....silly us!

But we must move on. For as long as we have been planning this trip we were unsure of Los Angeles. Mostly because again it is just another city, but moreso the traffic. But again this pull of the unknown, if we are in the area would we regret missing the experience.

Los Angeles

I'm not totally sure we would have had regrets missing LA. The traffic is atrocious! Camping for free is almost impossible. We spent 3 days in and around LA and all of the time we slept street side, under the radar. Driving into Long Beach we could feel the magnitude of this city. The beauty of the ocean and surrounding cliffs hidden by off shore drilling rigs and giant ships, a heavy yellow cloud making the horizon absent and leaving a lasting thickness to the air.

Of course the further away from the thick of the city was a slight improvement in air quality, so we headed to Malibu. Still it was a struggle to find a place to sleep and the ocean views are still obscured. This brings us to Topenga and San Fernando Valley. Topenga being the top of the mountains seperating the ocean and San Fernando Valley.Topenga provided some really unique sites.

This store was all vintage second hand clothing, it was a super cool find and had mounds of neat vintage threads.

We spent a day sightseeing. Mulholland drive is a great road to motorcycle exposing high look out points amid a windy road driving past some wealthy neighborhoods like Bel Air.

Overlooking Universal Studios and Disney

We sped through Sunset Boulevard and Beverly Hills. Just for fun and a chance to see the weird and unusual of Hollywood we walked down Rodeo Drive and got a coffee at a corner shop. We glanced at the recently altered and the doctors who plasticized them....

Its hard to comprehend the world here, the world of entertainment. Maybe its best not to?

Someone on our travels recommended Ojai which is located more inland and close to the Los Padres National Forest, which usually provides great camping and exploring options.

We didn't take into account the recent Thomas Fire which came intensely close to Ojai. We spent a rainy day walking through the unique shops of Ojai. But again it seemed tricky to overnight here. The forest and hiking trails unaccessable at this point from the fire and the heavy rainfall had me concerned about landslide. This brought us to a sweet overnight area overlooking Casitas lake.

The fires devastation still very real.

There was still a linger of charred wood smell in the air. The remnants of the fire coming so close to citrus orchards and farmers homes and no doubt in other areas swallowing up homes in its intensity. We have decided to cut our trip in Ojai area a little short, so back to the coast we head. Sending lots of love Paul, Leanne and Benny.