"CALIFORNIA OR BUST"

Well, we weren't going to prospect for gold in the hills, but we made it across the country to California with no mishaps.   We stayed wih my sister, Laura, her husband, Bob, and my nephews, Chris and Geoff.  Chris is graduating in June from UCLA in engineering and Geoff is a junior in HS.

Below is a picture I took from Laura's back yard in Yorba Linda which overlooks Chino Hills national park.

Laura's back yard

BAILEY

Penny and I made a new friend, Bailey, the family's golden retriever.  Bailey does tricks and loves to catch frisbees, even over the canyon!  I took Bailey for a long walk every day (with my IPOD on, if you made a prediction).





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Finding Rick an apartment
 
It took us two weeks, but Rick finally found an apartment near Hollywood.  We learned quickly to schedule our trips into LA around rush hours--the traffic in LA lives up to it's reputation of being never-ending! 
Rick is settled into his new place.  I know he won't starve to death--there are orange and lemon trees right outside his door!  He's taken some dance lessons and has already been chosen by one of his instructors to perform with other dancers in a dancers' review.  He's very excited!  On one of our trips into LA, I had lunch with my cousin, Paula (Aunt Betty's daughter).  It was great to catch up on news


Rick's apartment        Paula

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Sight Seeing

Once Rick was settled, Laura and I had time to do a little sight-seeing.  We've been to California to visit before, so I had already visited Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, etc.  Laura and I took a trip to Newport Beach and Balboa penisula.
On the way, I saw areas that had been burned in the terrible fires several months ago.  We also drove through mountains marked with white layers. 

Question 3:  What is the name of the substance that creates the white layers? 

So I made it coast to coast!  Here I am with my feet in the Pacific Ocean. 

The Pacific is colder than the Atlantic Ocean.  I wondered why.  Do you know?  We explored the Balboa penisula, where we found a place called a "wedge" because the position of the levee and angle of the waves causes the waves to be especially tall (and dangerous) as you can see. 


 The ocean at Balboa penisula

Well, Rick was settled in and it was time for me to head east for the second half of my journey.

ON THE ROAD UPDATE

The two men who designed and completed Mount Rushmore were Gutzon and Lincoln Borglum, father and son.  The presidents depicted on the mountain are Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt.  0ver 400 people worked on the sculpture, which was begun in 1928 and completed in 1941.  Miraculously, noone died and there were only a few injuries.  Work was intermittent during that time and totaled about six and a half years of regular work.  NY State was the 11th state admitted to the Union on July 26, 1788.

I skied a total of 4.61 miles.

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Rick and I left Park City, heading southwest on I-15.  The Utah landscape is breath-taking.


Utah has massive rock formations, some gray and some rust-red, part of the scenery on our drive.

 



Question 1:  What causes the red color in the rocks?

As we passed from Utah into Nevada, we went through the Virgin River pass.  The massiveness of the rocks was impressive and a little intimidating.



Virgin River Gorge

OUR NEVADA STOP

After passing through the river gap, we made our only stop in Nevada.  I must admit, for a minute, I thought I was back in NYC when I saw what's in the picture below.

 Question 2:  Where did we stop?




During our two days here, Rick went to the Kelly Pavlik vs. Jermain Taylor boxing match.  I was able to reconnect with a friend of mine, Karen, from high school who has lived here for over 18 years.  We remembered having such a good time in PE class in high school together that one of us was sent to the principal's office.



After our visit here, we headed west again on I --15.  We spent several hours driving through the Mojave desert (2 pictures below) and then turned on the 91 to Yorba Linda where my sister and her family lives where we planned on staying for several weeks while we found Rick an apartment and got him settled in LA. 



Mojave Desert

Mojave Desert