billbauer

Sorry about no post yesterday.  As we headed north into Big Sur, internet connectivity dwindled to near zero.  The text part of emails were generally received but html messages and web browsing was out of the question.  I will catch you up with day 3 (Tuesday) now and, hopefully, post day 4 later this evening. We were up early on Tuesday morning and headed to the dock for our whale watching excursion.  Alas, when we got there we were told, "oh, your cruise has been canceled."  Thanks for the notice.  Maybe we will try to do this "on the way back".  As we travel north along Highway 1, we encounter things that just don't fit with the current day.  So we just say, "we'll do that on the way back".  And maybe we will. We also discovered at breakfast in the hotel this morning that there is "a cruise ship in town!"  This is cause for celebration in Santa Barbara.  Streets were closed.  Police were all over making sure that the bic...

After poking around Malibu this morning we headed on up Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, toward Santa Barbara and, after searching and searching for a non-existent tourist information center, we stopped at a beach near the Channel Islands got our feet in the sand and stood in the ocean and let the surf crash over my feet. As you can see, the weather is beautiful.  We don't have any shots of us actually driving on the Pacific Coast Highway because ... well, I am driving. After arriving in Santa Barbara, we find an "authentic", according to Julia Childs and she should know, Mexican "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant for a late lunch.  It wouldn't be complete without a Dos Equis.  After taking a stroll on Stearns Wharf we overnight at the Franciscan Inn, just off the wharf.  This hotel was recommended in a guide book and seems to be an excellent hotel ... for 1975.  It is just fine, clean, nicely done.  It just hasn't been update...

Our flight to Los Angeles, luggage and rental car went without a hitch.  After a short stint on the 405 and the 10, we hit the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica and headed toward Malibu.  It is a relief to get out of the hustle/bustle of LA/Santa Monica and get to the quiet of the hills above Malibu.  Tonight, we are at the Malibu Vineyard Guest House which we found on airBnB, our first airBnB experience.  It is great ... a private suite with full kitchen, living room, and a private terrace overlooking the vineyard. I couldn't wait to change out of the my "Minnesota clothes" and settle in on the terrace. And Beverly as well. Tomorrow we have no reservations and no specific plans except to head up the Pacific Coast Highway.  Bev will look around.  I will drive.

The first leg of our "road" trip is a flight to Los Angeles. I love TSA Pre-check!  It's probably old hat to others but it is relatively new to me.

The Bauer travel blog is going active again.  We are off on Sunday for our ten day Pacific Coast Highway road trip from Los Angeles to (at least) Monterey through Malibu, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Simeon, Big Sur and Carmel.  Big Sur is clearly the highlight here.

We arranged to have taxi meet us at the hotel at the very early hour of 7am for a trip to the airport. We make it to the Air France lounge, the biggest and best airport lounge that I have encountered. We make it home without incident.  The entire trip was very smoothly.  Every reservation worked.  All of the luggage arrived.  The barge trip was wonderful. Thank you, Chris & Chick, for inviting us along on your adventure.

On our last full day (Saturday) in Paris, we take the RER train out to Versailles getting an early start at the hotel breakfast and an early train to arrive well before the 10am opening time.  We are in line twenty minutes before opening and there is already a huge line.  And this is the "priority" line with the Museum pass.  It seems everyone out here has a Museum pass.  This picture doesn't do it justice.  The "line", actually lines as the line snakes back and forth at least four times.  We actually didn't do too badly taking only about an hour to get inside. And that was the good part.  Once inside the tour of the Palais is terrible.  While we hoped for views like this we instead had view like this. It took at least another hour to be shoved and pushed through extreme congestion.  It was impossible to get a real feel for the palace with the sheer number of people.  And there is only one way out.  It is sort of like a ...