Photos
Monday, December 9, 2013
We slept in till after 7am again. This has been a nice quiet
place to relax after all the hustle and bustle of Disneyland. We went up to Moonstone Landing's registration room’s continental breakfast buffet and put together trays and brought them
back to the room today. We saw a lot of people doing that yesterday morning and
I pointed out to Clay that it was warmer in our room plus we had the great
views. So, while it was nice to come and go from the buffet, our room was a
nicer place to eat. We talked with the woman there and she offered to let us
check out at noon instead of the regular 11am. We’ll see.
We did our online check in for tomorrow morning’s flight
using the wifi Internet available in the room and we’ll print out the boarding
passes later. We brushed our teeth and got all layered up and headed out to the
beach on a quest for ‘moonstones’. Since we learned what to look for, we will
try again today.
The sun was out brightly today and the wind was much calmer
than yesterday. So, while it was still about 30 degrees F out, it felt much warmer. We
both found some moonstones within about 5 minutes of arriving on the beach. I
suggested that we walk out to the stairs before the small point where we
had seen all the seals and otters the day before. So, we walked back up our near
stairs to the boardwalk and headed there. It is too hard to walk on that rocky
beach for any distance. I guess because it is Monday, there were no surfers
this morning. We went out and walked on the beach around the point’s inlet
looking for a close up view of the sea otters we had seen cavorting from the point
above, but no joy. No otters today. There were also fewer seals on the rocks.
Oh, well. We headed back to the hotel and by now there were 3 surfers, but not
many waves today.
We went in and removed the excess layers and packed up and
Clay went up to registration and got our boarding passes printed and checked out. We
were on the road just before 11 am. The GPS said we should arrive at the
Radisson LAX (which is just down the street about a 20 minute walk from the
Thrifty car rental return) by 4:30pm. We are scheduled to return the car at
6pm. That should give us some time to have lunch and do a little sightseeing.
I
wanted to visit a couple of mission churches. There is a 21 church mission trail from near San Diego to near San Francisco. I picked just San Luis Obispo
and Santa Barbara. First one we got to was about 30-40 miles south of Cambria
and was San Luis Obispo. It was built in 1772 and was surprisingly similar to
those in TX and New Mexico.
The next was
Santa Barbara about another 88 miles south. The front of it was covered with
scaffolding, so sadly we didn’t get a good look at the front of it. You had to buy a
self-guided tour to be allowed to enter and see the church inside too. It was $11 for the
2 of us. (We did make donations and gift shop purchases at the first one, so it
is not like we were being cheap. We had already spent almost $55 in the SB gift
shop and we were prepared to make a donation as well. But not after being
forced to buy tickets and walk 3 blocks around the rest of the complex just to
walk through the church short wise at that.) We asked at the gift shop about a
place to have Mexican food and she recommended Los Arroyos on the other side of
downtown and she gave us very accurate directions. We found it easily. Santa
Barbara is a pretty little town and we found a place to park on the street
right in front of Los Arroyos. It is a counter service, sit down restaurant and
it was very good. Clay had posole and I had chicken enchiladas. We were back on
the road without spending more than 2 hours sightseeing and eating. Wildlife
stats: 4 deer, 1 red headed woodpecker, and 3 whale blows off the coast!
We made good time until about Oxnard where we came to a
standstill. We drove about 12 mph for the next 20 miles or so and I don’t think
we ever got back up to 65 mph again. We found the Radisson LAX and got checked in
without losing the car to the valet only parking and got back in it to gas it
up and return it. Of course all of that was harder than it should have been and
we turned in the car at 5:50pm. We walked back without finding a restaurant we
wanted to eat at. So, we just went in the one here in the Radisson. It wasn’t
bad, but it wasn’t really good and it was overpriced for what we got since they
didn’t bring everything described on the menu. Mine was described as including
the house salad right down to the salad dressing on it, but I didn’t get it,
only a bowl of pasta. I was too tired
and too not even hungry to complain about it.
The LAX Radisson is conveniently located right next to one
of the airport entrances. That is the only good thing I can really say about
it. It was old, tired and dirty. Our room on the 11th floor was dark even after we got a keycard
plugged in to get the power on. It was a reasonably sized with a single king
bed, a desk and 2 chairs, a cabinet with a TV, a small fridge and a coffee
maker, a safe in the closet. The bathroom was small with a shower over tub.
We checked on the airport shuttle and decided to catch the
first of the every 20 minutes ones running at 6am. Our flight is at 8:50am. The concierge
said we should be to the airport by 7:10am. Hopefully that will be enough time.
We both got TSA pre-checks on our boarding passes so that should speed things
up and make them easier. But, the Radisson is located right at the entrance to
LAX and there is strict security for vehicles entering. They have both routes
in front of the hotel reduced to one lane by police cars with flashing lights blocking
the rest of the roads and they are stopping and checking every vehicle. We
aren’t sure if that is a full time security situation here now or if all
security at LAX is tightened now and whether we should allow more time. The guy
at the concierge desk thought the 6am shuttle would give us plenty of time and
I am willing to go with that. So Clay has set the alarm for 4:45am. That will
make a short night. So, I’ll say good night now.
