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Today we chose to go to the March Air Reserve Base to the March Aviation Museum. A really nice collection with mostly WW2 through modern times. It provided interesting history of the base that started during WW1 to train pilots for that war. It has a really nice SR-71 on display. Many aircraft are outside and are some of the better maintained outside exhibits we have seen. We took a tram tour of the outside exhibits. The older lady tour guide couldn’t quite keep her facts straight but you have to forgive her. She has been a pilot since age 17 and has been flying for over 70 years! WOW!

This morning we departed San Diego. We were very sad to leave it behind. We had such a great time and could have explored for another week. Our destination today is the Riverside County Rancho Jurupa Park. I only picked it because I couldn’t get anything closer to Disneyland over the weekend. What a cool place. The park is beautifully maintained and has many affordable RV camping options. The park is located very close to historic downtown Riverside.

We got to the RV park pretty early due to the short drive and we immediately left the park for lunch and chose the Mission Inn downtown Riverside. Another great find! The Mission Inn is very historic and started taking in paying guests in 1880. Many presidents have stayed here including Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush. Many celebrities has stayed here as well. The architecture is really neat and my favorite feature is the “Famous Fliers Wall”. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia…

In 1932, Frank Miller opened the St. Francis Atrio. The “Famous Fliers’ Wall”, added by Miller’s son-in-law DeWitt Hutchings, was used to recognize notable aviators, including Amelia Earhart. On March 20, 1942, World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker was honored at the Inn, becoming the fifty-seventh flier added to the monument. Today, 151 fliers or groups of fliers are honored by having their signatures etched onto 10-inch-wide (250 mm) copper wings attached to the wall.

As a pilot you know I dig this. The walll includes dedications starting in 1932. Names include famous aviators you might know like Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindberg, Amelia Earhart, and Chuck Yeager. The dates on the wall are when they were honored not at a particular event.

This morning we dropped Maverick off at day care again and headed out for a Whale Watching tour. The tour left the downtown San Diego harbor and we quickly found some juvenile California Gray Whales off of Point Loma. We followed them for probably 30 minutes before heading off in search of other marine life. We saw White Side Dolphins, common Bottlenose Dolphins, and harbor seals. We repeated a late lunch at the Fish Market restaurant next to the Midway. Like before we enjoyed fantastic weather and outside dining on the water. Next we walked down and explored the Maritime Museum. The museum has a great collection of old sailing ships, a Russian submarine, and an old steam Ferry. The Ferry was very cool because the giant Steam engine and engine compartment was beautifully restored.

Today we drove to Carlsbad to see the Flower Fields. Really beautiful and very much a favorite of Donna’s. This is where they raise and display Ranunculus flowers. They also had a greenhouse of beautiful Orchids. Afterwards we drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to Crepes and Corks in Del Mar for lunch. We ate outside in beautiful weather and Donna had a fantastic crepe and I had an disappointing turkey sandwich. After lunch we let Maverick run the Del Mar dog beach. He had a great time and so did we.

Today we got up early, took Maverick to day care and headed to the San Diego Zoo. What a beautiful zoo. The animals were great but the grounds are equally fantastic. It’s a botanical garden with a zoo in it. The zoo has lots of elevation change so by the end of the day we were pretty tired. This is one of the few zoos to have the Great Panda’s which are Donnas’ favorites. Unfortunately when we were there they were sleeping and so we could only see their butts. Our ticket included a nice bus tour that we took at the end. The crowds were pretty crazy for a Monday morning. It must be a madhouse on the weekends. We ate back at Fuddruckers (easy) and all crashed the rest of the night.

Got up late (daylights savings time). We drove downtown to the Gaslamp District. We picked the Gaslamp Tavern as our lunch spot. It was pretty good and not crowded. We then walked a few blocks around the area. Because we are glutens for punishment we went back to the Ocean Dog Beach. Being the weekend it was super crowded with both people and dogs. Mav had a great time until one aggressive dog attacked. The owner quickly separated them but not before Maverick got a bloody lip. Not too bad, but we were done. We decided to drive to Coronado Island just to see what was there. Lots of beautiful homes and a pretty beach. Since we just came from the beach we simply enjoyed driving around with the windows down. We came back to the coach and Donna went shopping while I started taxes and did other work stuff.

Today as we left it was sprinkling. We headed off with no real direction at first and ended up at Old Town. This is the “old” historic San Diego with lots of restaurants and tourist shops. We ate a Miguel’s Mexican restaurant just before the crowds arrived. This had the added benefit of a parking spot. Maverick, Donna, and I walked the streets in a light rain. Donna shopped the tourist shops. Maverick was invited into one of the bigger tourist shops and enjoyed his admirers. Maverick was invited into the train shop but did not like the sounds so he and I quickly left while Donna spent time looking at the very elaborate model train setup.

Leaving old town I surprised Donna with a trip to La Jolla. The coastline here is very picturesque and populated with sea lions and harbor seals. It was really crowded but still lots of fun to see. Maverick was very curious about the sea lions and seals.

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This morning we headed downtown to see the Midway aircraft carrier. Maverick waited in the car for the 3 hours required to see the Midway. When I got back to the car, Mav and I played on the nearby grass for a while. I decided I could fund our trip by simply putting out a panhandle bucket and letting people pet Maverick. He is super popular everywhere we go. After play time Donna and I ate lunch at the Fish Market restaurant on the parking lot/bay. On the patio it was a great view of the harbor and the Midway. The prices weren’t terrible and the food pretty good. Next we wandered along the harbor until we came to Point Loma. There we discovered the Ocean Dog Beach. Maverick got to play with other dogs and run in the surf. He had a fantastic time. Now our car and coach are covered in sand. That’s the price we pay

Today we traveled to San Diego. The trip took a little less than 3 hours. The KOA campground is nice but we don’t have a clear line of sight for satellite TV. Yuck. It wouldn’t be so bad but we are here for a full week. I tried our over the air antenna and we only get 3rd world or Spanish channels. Bummer. First order of business was lunch. We ate at the Fuddruckers in the historic Chula Vista downtown. Afterwards we went to Silver Strand State Beach to see the ocean. The weather here is awesome. Temperatures are in the low 70’s. Maverick loved the dog park with real grass for a change.

Today was all about Joshua Tree National Park. We stopped and picked up a sandwich to eat later in the park and then went to the Joshua Tree (town) Visitor Center. This visitor center is in town a few miles outside of the park entrance. After a quick stop there we headed into the park. We kind of had low expectations. We had seen a Joshua Tree forest in the Mojave desert and expected more of the same. What we did not expect was the many very cool rock formations that were easily accessible from picnic areas. The rock formations in the North portion of the park make the trip worthwhile. Many people were scaling the rocks both using easy approaches and using true mountain climbing approaches. Maverick, Donna, and I explored a number of these formations and it was a lot of fun. We continued on to exit the South side of the park. From about the middle of the park to the South we found the park pretty dull and uninteresting. I’m sure some people really like it but it wasn’t for us. At the south entrance there is Cottonwood Springs with a stand of enormous and old palm trees. The springs was very cool. It looks like there is a similar feature near the 29 Palms (north) entrance but due to our route we didn’t see it. If we were to return we would only bother with the path between the Joshua Tree (town) entrance and the 29 Palms entrance. That route would take you by all of the interesting portions without a long tedious drive in the southern portion.

The park namesake, Joshua Tree Cacti and cool rock formations. Note pick-nick table for scale

After the park we decided to go downtown Palm Springs and see the historic shopping area. It was pretty cool and very popular with many restaurants and high end shops. We didn’t feel like fighting the crowds and didn’t have much use for the high end shops so we simply drove by it all. We did drive through one of the older very nice neighborhoods known for the renovated mid-century modern homes. It was neat to see if you like that sort of thing (which we do).

Once through with Palm Springs we went back to the RV resort. We decided to try the mineral hot springs fed swimming pool and hot tub. The pool was beautiful and super relaxing. Very warm and beautifully lit. There weren’t too many people and we regretted not trying it the night before. All in all this is a super nice resort. Unfortunately we plan on moving on tomorrow morning. Why? If we wait any longer we will head to San Diego on the weekend and don’t want to fight the crowds. We could stay here until after the weekend but simply didn’t find enough to make us want to stay 4 more days.