California Here We Come

Before I get to today in sunny California, a few comments from yesterday. We had another foreign tour bus encounter at a rest stop. This time it was Germans who were looking at, and taking pictures of the motorhome. And the wife spoke some English! This rest stop was the one I mentioned yesterday at the edge of the Mojave Desert. The hillside was dotted with Joshua trees (see picture). Since we saw one, we don’t feel so bad that we are not going to the Joshua Tree National Park.

One thing we have realized – we will not be able to do and/or see everything. For example, we could have spent another whole week in Utah. Who knew there was so much to see? We left Salt Lake City, Park City, Provo, Moab, Monument Valley and Arches National Park on the list for next time.

Back to sunny California. We are in Pomona, which is about 35 miles outside of Los Angeles. This will allow us 3 days of traveling in the car to sights within a several hour radius. This campground is our least favorite so far and if we were going to spend any amount of time during the day here, we would have looked for someplace else. We have no room to park the car on our lot, no picnic table, and only a 3ft. wide strip of grass between the next camper and us. We were able to grill (on the ground) our dinner Friday night before the neighbors arrived. (You have to be thankful for the little things. . . )

Our first stop today was Simi Valley, home to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The sprawling, ranch style building is perched on a hill with an impressive view of the valley. The drive up the hill was lined with banners of all the Presidents, beginning with George Washington on through Barack Obama. Amazingly, the banner of Ronald Reagan was right in front of the library! We are glad we arrived when the library first opened. Four hours later, the parking lot was full and cars were parked on the side of the road for a mile. The library is very well done – an honest reflection of Reagan’s life, beginning with his birth in Illinois to his death in 2004. We often stopped and sat on a bench to watch a short video clip or lifted a speaker to our ears to hear snippets of his speeches. His career as a movie actor (the ND sweater he wore in his role as George Gipp – the Gipper – was displayed), traveling the country as a spokesman for General Electric (where his views on government, the economy and world affairs were sharpened), his years as Governor of California and his 8 years as President were all detailed in interesting and informative ways. You know how on election night the networks always have a map of the United States showing the red states and the blue states? We saw such a map from election night of Reagan’s second –term bid. Every state on the map was blue except for Minnesota – the home state of Walter Mondale, Reagan’s Democratic opponent in that election. He carried 49 states in a landslide election. We had forgotten that.

The tour of the library took us to an attached 3-story building that housed his Air Force One, (which we got to walk through), a Marine One helicopter and his presidential limo. You don’t see this part of the library when you drive up to the entrance so it was a pleasant surprise. Also in this area is a pub from Ireland that was dismantled and reassembled here. Reagan’s family is from County Tipperary in Ireland and he made a visit there during his presidency. (we could be related – Mike’s great-great grandfather, Michael McCarthy is from County Tipperary!) The owner’s of O’Farrell’s pub renamed their establishment The Ronald Reagan for his visit. Reagan said with pride, “John Kennedy has an airport named for him, Lyndon Johnson has a space center named for him, and I have a pub named for me!”

There is also a chunk of the Berlin Wall here. We bought jellybeans for our souvenir.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s life was a love affair from beginning to end and the library is reflection of that. It was touching to read his love notes and telegrams.

He is buried on the grounds, again overlooking the valley.

We were reminded of how he unabashedly loved America and brought optimism and hope and strength of character to the office of President. I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff and I had to choke back tears several times.

We then drove about a half hour south to the Pacific coast – specifically Malibu. On the way we passed Pepperdine University, Being the weekend, the Pacific Coast Highway was bumper to bumper. We thought we would be able to pull over and take a walk on the beach. That’s not an easy thing to do. Cars were parked along side the road for miles to avoid the fee to park in a public lot. And we only saw two places where we could have paid to park and get to the beach. (It made us appreciate our hometown of Ludington, with its free parking and unobstructed access to the Lake Michigan beach). Otherwise, the beachfront is solid private homes. There are surprisingly few hotels (no high-rises at all) and restaurants on the beach side of the highway. Fortunately, we kept driving and ended up at Santa Monica beach – of Baywatch fame (or as some called it, Babewatch). We did pay to park, but the beach was wide open for long stretches. We had our bikes and there is a cement path right in the sand for walkers, rollerbladers, and bikers, and there were plenty of all three. We rode down to the Santa Monica Pier, which was even more packed. What a colorful collection of humanity! We had a delicious hamburger at the Pier Burger. Its catchy slogan was too hard to resist – “Last Burger on Land”.

The beach was loaded with people. We noticed most of them were fully clothed – few had on bathing suits. It was as if they come, not necessarily to swim or get a tan, but just to be in the open, cooler air.

We’ve already experienced the smog and traffic and it’s only our first day!

We have flown to California before, into a specific city (San Diego, San Francisco) for a specific purpose (Mike’s work), but we both agreed it was different today. We stood on the beach, looked at each other and said “We’re in California!” like it was something brand new. Driving all the way to California is the difference.

Pictures today are: a Joshua tree; in front of the Reagan Library; a portrait of President Reagan, a replica of his Oval Office; Air Force One; Reagan’s burial site; the smog (hope you can see it); the Malibu beach; your intrepid travelers on their bikes (notice how wide the beach is); the Santa Monica Pier; a sign on the pier; the Santa Monica beach (the high rise is off in the distance, not on the beach); and the President and First Lady boarding Air Force One - ha!