The Elephants of Dana Point

Hello and Welcome!

Lee and I took a respite awhile back in Dana Point, Ca, as a surprise to Lee. It was short but relaxing. I, coincidentally, picked the very hotel Lee and Chelsea were going to visit the week before to see the Elephants.

The Elephants:

My Favorite.

 
Looking at these makes me want to paint my own Elephant.

Thank you Lee for a great respite! You rock my socks!

Our Engagement Weekend at Avila and Pismo

I have to admit from the start, I failed at getting the most important picture...Lee with her ring. Ouch! That's pretty bad.

I asked Lee to marry me at the Hungry Hunter. The manager brought her ring on a desert dish, hidden by a bowl, surrounded by chocolate. She said, "Yes," after what seemed like an extremely long period of time. I thought I was about to get punked, it took so long.

We spent the rest of the week with smiles miles wide, giddy as kindergartners (I know it's school boys but girls can be giddy too.) We called each other fiancee/fiance all weekend.

We had a great weekend even without a picture of THE RING!

Take a look.

The shore line along Avila.

Tom "Cruz" stopped by Mr. Ricks.

No wait for clam chowder here.

You have to wait here. The bomb chowder. Don't order anything but the Clam Chowder with crab. YUMMMMMM!!!!

Is my hair okay?

Out on parole.

Okay, a small shot of the ring.

This family was straight faced as they waited for a friend to take their photo. So I started running in front of them snapping away yelling, "Work it, Work it!!" The shot is priceless because of the smiles!

It wasn't $700 a night, like some of the places in the area, but we slept just fine.

Photo blogging the photo blogger!

They made about 6 batches while we were here. Fresh and delicious.

Don't leave Pismo without trying these rolls. Get a cream cheese frosting and pecan sticky bun. Get here early or plan on waiting. The line can get as long as half the block, I've been told.

Incase you don't know where to find Old West Cinnamon Rolls.

So Beautiful!

And full of fun!

As we left the 101 and headed East on the 166, we listened to some good music while enjoyed the beautiful views of the canyon. Epic!

New Cuyama, scary! Lee kept thinking about Pulp Fiction. She was sure we were going to be kidnapped if we didn't hurry.

Enjoyed a cover band here at Mr. Ricks.

Lee's smiling! Weird, right?

Awww!!!

Oildale

Hello.

I'm still getting use to the humor of Bakersfieldians. "Oh you have to check out Oildale." Yeah, about that.

This photo probably says it all. Notice the price of gas when this station was demolished. Oh for those days. Sadly the images don't get much better.

History Oildale was founded in 1909 when Samuel Dickinson subdivided his land.[3] The first post office opened at Oildale in 1916.[3] Most of the original U-2 spy planes flown out of Groom Lake were built at a secret factory in Oildale disguised as a tire factory, just west of Meadows Field Airport on Norris Road.

I found some trains outside a cotton mill.

Make a great day already!!!