April 19, 2016 Trip to Winchester House, San Jose

Tuesday, April 19, 2016 Trip to Winchester House, San Jose

Seeing that we have only one more day in this area we decided to go to see the Winchester Mystery House.  I thoroughly enjoyed the 90 minute tour.  I have heard from my sister Dawn that it was worth seeing.  We were not disappointed.  We toured 110 out of 160 rooms, each very unique.  I loved the wood throughout, the windows, short steps called (easy riser steps), doors and staircases that went nowhere.  The history behind the house Mrs. Winchester after losing her infant daughter which put her in a state of depression. 15 years later she lost her father then her husband.  She moved out to California from Connecticut as rumor has it on the advice of a psychic.  She bought an 8 room farmhouse and starting to remodel it.  She kept carpenters busy for 38 years 24 hours a day constantly building and rebuilding this mansion.  The carpenters stopped working the day she died.  Here are some facts concerning the house.  It has, 6 kitchens, 40 bedrooms, 19 chimneys, 47 fireplaces, 40 staircases, 52 skylights, 950 doors, 3 elevators, 2 ballrooms, 13 bathrooms, 1 shower and 10,000 windows. This house is regarded as the safest house in California in the event of an earthquake.  This is due to the mansion being built on a floating foundation.  Was she ahead of her time?  Who knows. If you ever have the opportunity to see this house you too will not be disappointed.  I think that she was a pretty smart and eccentric woman.

Photos were not allowed inside the house so these are all the pictures you get.

A Beautiful Yellow ose from the Rose Garden

Font of the Mansion

Rear of the Mansion

April 17, 2016 Arrived in Monterey and a lighthouse tour and April 18, 2016 Road trip to Pfeiffer Beach

Sunday, April 17, 2016 Arrived in Monterey and Point Sur Lighthouse tour

We arrived yesterday at Monterey Pines RV Park.  It is nestled right beside the beautiful Monterey Pines Golf Course. This is part of the Naval Post Graduate School Facility. I wouldn't say it is the best we have stayed at but it worked for what we wanted to do and at $30 a night for the middle of Monterey it was ok.  Many of you know that we had driven up the Pacific Coast last year with Jeff and Amy.  We have a few things that we decided that we would like to see so here we are.

Today we started out driving down US 1 to go to Pfeiffer Beach as the internet states that it has purple sand!  As we continued down the coast we noticed a lighthouse that we tried to see before and it was opened so we stopped and found out that we were in time for a 3 hour tour.  It was about a mile hike up the rock but the guides were great.  They stopped frequently and told us about the history of the lighthouse, the vegetation along the way and we even got to see some gray whales breaching and slapping their tales.  We also saw and heard some seals on the rocks below.  By the time we finished with the tour we were starving so off to find a place to eat.  We found the Big Sur Deli and the food was fantastic.  Some local residents told us that Pfeiffer Beach wasn't all that it was cracked up to be and suggested another beach.  Locals know best so we decided that we would head home and try the beaches tomorrow morning when it was cool outside and not 80 degrees.

Monday, April 18, 2016 Road trip to Pfeiffer Beach

We left around 7 am heading to the beach.  As we came up on Pfeiffer Beach we decided to see what was there.  Well the locals were correct.  The road to the beach is a one lane road.  Lucky for us we met only a couple of cars along the way.  Road wasn't in the best of condition either. We then had to walk a small distance to the beach which didn't have purple sand and it was very small.  We continued on to the tune of 27 more miles to the next beach.  On the way we also stopped in to grab a bit to eat at the Big Sur Bakery.  It too came well recommended.  We had their bacon bowties that were delicious!!!!

The next beach was called Sand Dollar Beach.  This one had quite a walk down the mountain side but it was high tide and there wasn't much of a beach to walk.  So we headed home.  I was a little disappointed as I wanted to walk a beach.  Maybe another day but it still was a good day.  I never get tired of seeing this coast.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!!!!!

Our site

Point Sur Lighthouse

Lighthouse on top of rock

Pathway to lighthouse

SHOTS OF THE COASTLINE

a lizard sunning himself

Rocky Creek Bridge


OUR LUNCH

Bixby Bridge

Road to Pfeiffer Beach

Pfeiffer Beach --- no purple sand

A natural bridge

Bacon Bowtie

A Beautiful Tunnel ahead

April 14, 2016 Travel to Bakersfield and April 15, 2016 Trip to Sequoia National Park

Thursday, April 14 Travel to Bakersfield


We left Pahrump early and headed to A Country RV Park outside of Bakersfield, CA. We had high winds hitting us right on the nose all day. We had a piece of our windshield trim come loose and cracked our windshield. Just another day in the life of the Montgomery's. We just keep on truckin'.


Friday, April 15, 2016  Trip to Sequoia National Park

We arrived at this park about 830 this morning.  We knew that the temperature was on the cool side at the bottom of the mountain a nice 50 degrees.  It was a winding road with a lot of hairpin turns but there were plenty of pull offs to take pictures.  The river was flowing pretty fast and was beautiful.  Flowers were just starting to bloom.  We climbed up to the top at 6600 ft. to the General Sherman Tree.  It was really cold up there I think it was in the low 30's.  We took our pictures and got back into the car.  As we were coming down the mountain the clouds were upon us.  So I am glad that we got an early start or we wouldn't have been able to see the mountain valleys.  Pat wanted to see some bears but we only saw one deer. Most of the park was closed because the season doesn't open until after May 6.

Tunnel Rock

We were almost to top 

General Sherman Tree

Sentinel Tree

Clouds moving into the top of the mountain

Only wildlife we saw

Kaweah River

LOOK CLOSE  see the table and chairs on the rock

Entering the campground

Our site

April 13, 2016 Pictures from Las Vegas, NV

Wednesday, April 13, 2016 Pictures from Las Vegas, NV

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR NIECE, JENNIFER

Here are some pictures as we drove through Las Vegas.  No we were really good no gambling for us this time.

A Pretty Colored Castle

Paris

Fremont Street in the daytime

Mountain Goat

Alicia this one is for you

Stratosphere

The Famous Bellagio

April 10, 2016 Trip to Death Valley

Sunday, April 10, 2016 Trip to Death Valley

As we entered into Death Valley National Park the landscapes changed dramatically.  The mountain ranges were of all different colors.  Our first stop was a 26 mile round trip to Dante's View.  This was about a 3000 ft elevation change before we arrived at the top.  We were shocked!!!! The view was breathtaking.  You could not only see the surrounding mountain ranges but you could see the white salt flats below.  Our next stop was to Natural Bridge Canyon.  Nice 2 mile hike.  We then started to head for the Badwater Salt Flats.  In order to fully experience this site one has to walk out to the flats.  The white salt crystals were beautiful and it was blinding just like sand on the beach or snow.  Our final stop was to see Artists Palette.  This area showed us all different splashes of color.

We did want to go see Scotty's Castle but the road was washed out and damaged was done by the floods in October.  Maybe another time.

I guess what I thought Death Valley should look like wasn't even close to what it really looked like.
Very enjoyable day.

HERE ARE SOME DIFFERENT SHOTS OF ALL THE DIFFERENT COLORS

HERE ARE SOME DESERT FLOWERS BLOOMING CALL IT MEGA BLOOM DOESN'T HAPPEN OFTEN

View of Salt Flats from up high at Dante's View

Another shot from Dante's View

Natural Bridge

The Canyon leading out from the Natural Bridge

CHECK OUT THE ELEVATION LOWEST POINT IN THE UNITED STATES

Badwater Basin

Pat on the Salt Flats

Closeup of the salt crystals

Artists Palette-beautiful colors

Something we haven't seen since the New Year--RAIN!!!!!!!