California Makes Everything Better

After some much needed relief from the Arizona debacle, my friend Bret and I hopped a jet to Los Angeles. I had never been to California and knew I just had to make the trip while out west. Our final Destination was just north of Malibu at a campground called Thornhill Broome Beach. It is the only place on the California coast that you can camp right on the beach. We arrived after sunset, but I was able to snap off a few of many pictures to come. After scouting over a camp site or two we headed into Oxnard California for some supplies. This is where we felt like fish out of water. Everything was so busy. We had to just take everything in stride. We finally made our way back down to our campsite, we set up everything and were fast asleep in our tents in no time.
The next day, I was up at 5:00AM watching the sun come up over the mountains that lined the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). Just like Arizona, the sunrises and sunsets were amazingly colorful and always worth getting up for to see. I was a little sore the next day but my back and feet were hurting the most. I was lucky enough to have an inflatable mattress to lay on the entire trip. We were quick to set off to explore our home for the next few days. We made a beeline to the closest Starbucks in Malibu for a Venti 1/2 decaf Mocha with whip. These were breakfast and possibly lunch for the next few days.
After some caffeine, we drove around checking out a few beaches. Our first stop was El Matador Beach. I had read it was an awesome beach and all the reviews didn't lie. I had a little trouble walking down to the beach as the decent was a little steep. Anyway, the beach is beautiful. Turns out a couple of days later Maria Carey was on the same beach shooting a music video. We never saw her and actually didn't know why there was such a security presence and what all the movie production vehicles were for. We even saw paparazzi staked out on top of their vehicles with long telescopic camera lenses. We asked some locals and they said it was so common that they ignore it anymore.
In fact, they were shooting a commercial right at our campground and the surrounding areas including the PCH. They had been shooting for a couple of days and we didn't know what they were doing until we were caught at Point Mugu by the camera crew and couldn't leave. We asked them and they said it was a commercial for Nissan. They had the entire Nissan production vehicles lined up driving up and down the PCH for shots to be used in the commercial. The first day we noticed this, there was a helicopter buzzing our campground at 6:00AM and the surrounding canyons and beach for camera shots.

We were out driving one day and we took a wrong turn and ended up down by Malibu High School. It was there I spotted Bruce Willis driving a Black Mercedes. He had a couple of other people in the car with him. Looked to be kids. Anyway, I wasn't sure it was him at first, but the more I thought about it, and when I talked to other people, they said it was him. Apparently they see him all the time in Malibu. There was no mistaking that face.

After El Matador Beach, we ventured down to La Peidra beach and took a look at the wonderful views the coast had to offer. All day we ventured up and down the PCH taking in the stunning views of the coast. The nights came quick and at times we found ourselves still on Ohio times and we were eating dinner at 3:00 and in bed by 7:00. We felt like old people.

I was finally here. The place I have wanted to visit since a kid. Now, I felt like that kid again. All we had were the coast, mountains, and all the views we wanted. What else could I want?

After a couple of days, my feet and back were feeling up to walking a little and I decided I wanted to walk on some trail. We went right across the street and walked the La Jolla Trail to the campground. In all, it was about a 5 mile round trip. I loved this trail as it was an unimproved trail with a lot of narrow rocky sections and drop offs. We saw signs warning of Mountain Lions and Rattlesnakes. We didn't see any, but we did see a few caves that could have been home to anything. I ended up getting a little sunburned that day and was thankful the next day brought cool winds as I had to wear a long sleeve shirt most of the day.

We went down to Point Dume and had a blast looking out into the bluest water I have ever seen in person. I was a little bummed that the Pacific Ocean was so cold. We had warm days that we could have went swimming, but apparently the Ocean around there doesn't get above 64 degrees. About all I could do was wade around in the water. One day we were there I decided to wash all my dirty clothes in the ocean.

You'll have to look through my California pictures but there are a few shots of my California Laundry Service and me getting nailed by a huge wave coming in on the beach. The seafood was a must have. I really love North Carolina style seafood and just had to try what the West Coast had to offer. We stopped at Malibu Seafood which did have decent food. By far, our favorite was Neptune's Net. We went there two days in a row. I had the Neptune's Platter. How could I not? The next day was a Lobster Roll which was incredible.

I was really astounded by how friendly everyone was. I think this is due to how incredibly awesome California is. I love this place, and I cannot wait to get back there. We had not one incident with anyone. We did witness our shuttle driver to LAX nearly go "Postal" on a driver of another car who cut her off. So funny.

We had a total blast in California. Absolutely no stress at all. I had never slept so good in my life. I went to sleep and woke up to the surf crashing on the beach just 30 yards from our tents. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Seemed everything fell in place for us.

Every morning, I walked out of my tent and watched the marine wildlife go about their daily business. I saw Sea Otters, Dolphins, Sea Birds of all sorts, Starfish, etc. The first morning I woke up to watch the sunrise, I saw just 40 yards from me, a head pop out of the water and then quickly disappear only to resurface 50 yards away. It was my first Sea Otter spotting. Totally awesome. The dolphin sightings were so common throughout the day. I was so glad we didn't see any snakes or Mountain Lions. Totally cool with that.

California has a lot to offer and I am sure it will quickly become a mecca for me with Ultra races and vacationing.

Okay, this Blogger tool totally sucks. For some reason, it won't let me move my pictures around. I have wasted so many hours trying to type this up and add pictures. Please see the links below for all of my pictures. I am warning you, I took around 1400 pictures, plus they are no longer in order.

Arizona & Javelina Pictures

California I Pictures

California II Pictures

California III Pictures