California Dreamin' ... of Friends, Vineyards, Mountains, Beaches, And (hopefully) a Van Repair

There is no problem in the world that a sunny beach, a glass of wine, or time with friends can't cure. And that was especially true as we headed towards California with Doug's temporary coolant fix still holding.

Before we crossed into California, the view the Red Mountains of southern Utah caught our eye. But something even better made us stop and enjoy the views for a few days. We met up with some of our favorite travel buddies, Joanne and Gary. While we recharged our van's batteries, our own internal batteries were recharged also as we enjoyed a few days of hiking, biking, and laughing together. 

As they headed towards their winter hangout in Arizona, we continued west to California. 

We headed through the magnificent canyons that lead from Las Vegas into the Mojave Desert of California. From there we traveled alongside the vast fields of agriculture that cover the central valley of the state. Miles and miles of fruit and nut trees, vegetable patches, olive groves, grape vines, and flower gardens fill this desert area with lush greenery.

Our lunch stop was in the midst of a lavender flower farm. Just imagine a purple blanket of flowers stretching on for miles in mid summer. Their gift shop tempted the visitor with lavender soaps and aroma-therapies, and for hot and thirsty travelers like us, lavender-flavored ice cream and lemonade hit the spot. But we best not tardy, as we headed to the Morro Bay Rock in search of ...

the Hymer-Heads!

A couple of times a year some of the owners of vans like ours gather in different parts of the country to share travel stories and a lot of laughs, while also ...

... holding ''fix-it'' sessions to try and figure out the complexities of Hymer's battery systems,

... sharing campfire cooking skills with a dutch oven cooking demonstrations,

... and learning about and enjoying the beautiful outdoors as one member took us on a guided bird hike.

During this weekend meet-up, Doug and I not only saw some great ideas for sprucing up Baby Beest, but more importantly, we formed new friendships with people who share our travel passion.

After our fun weekend, we headed north right through ... 

California Wine Country!

We enjoyed a few overnights boondocking in the lovely gardens of wineries that participate in the Harvest Host program. It's a win-win situation when vineyard owners allow us to spend the night after enjoying some of their fine wines in the serene surroundings.

While I would have loved more pampering at this lovely poolside winery, it was Baby Beest's turn for pampering in Livermore, California. That is where Edge VanWorks, a shop that specializes in camper van modifications and repairs, is located. The owner, Gordon, is highly revered in the Hymer community for his knowledge of inner workings of our particular type of Class B van. After Doug talked with him, we felt confident that Gordon could install a simpler type of generator to keep our house batteries charged while getting our coolant system working reliably once again. (That's the simplified version of what we needed to have done. If you are interested in the specific details, talk to Doug.) So while he worked on her in order to get the coolant system and under-hood generator back in working order, we hung out at a few local businesses including a delightful French pastry and coffee shop.

How does one choose?

Hopeful that Gordon resolved our coolant issues, we started back towards southern California with a few stops along the way to visit two more national parks.

Pinnacles National Park

The California conger has been successfully re-introduced and today soars high above the mountain peaks at Pinnacles National Park in north-central California. 

The park has miles of trails that brought us up to great heights as we climbed to see a mountain reservoir, 

.. as well as down on our knees as we made our way through a few boulder-sculpted caves.

Channel Islands National Park

Our travels went from mountains to beaches as we made our way towards San Diego. Along the way, we stopped to check out the Channel Islands which is nicknamed the ''the Galapagos of North America'' because of the unique animals and plants that are only found on these islands located about 20 miles off shore of Ventura, California. While it's possible to stop at the Visitor's Center on the mainland, the only way to ''officially'' visit the national park is to take a boat tour. So glad that this time we ''sort of'' planned ahead and got tickets to visit one of the islands, Santa Cruz.

Some highlights included:

... a spectacular dolphin show from the boat on the way to and from the island,

... and an information nature hike with one of the park volunteers during which we learned how the islands are slowly returning to their natural state after years of abuse by ranchers.

The island scrub jay, found only on Santa Cruz Island, is enjoying the re-emergence of native plants.

The Channel Island fox, who was near extinction, is once again enjoying his island playground as a result of conservation efforts.

After a few days camping at a California State Beach along the Pacific Ocean and enjoying spectacular sunset views,

... it was on to Los Angeles, where my skillful driver successfully avoided the dreaded rush hour snarls, and we got to spend some time with dear friends who recently moved out there. They don't miss the cold and snow, and we made sure that they don't miss sharing laughs with old friends.

While there, we had a moment of panic, when Doug a detected small coolant leak. He was able to replace a loose clamp that he suspects was the culprit, and with fingers crossed,

... we headed to San Diego where we visited with more sunshine-loving friends.

Here is also were we will leave Baby Beest for a few weeks as we board a plane in order to visit our 50th state of

Hawaii

We're trading our California dreamin' in for dreams of (bird of) Paradise!

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