A Grand Adventure! Grand Princess California Coastal Complete Photo Review 9/18-9/25

[jigger]

Nice !!

[shredie]

You look mighty sharp there for formal night!

[buffyk911]

Should be up in just a little while. It will be long with a lot of pictures, I did a lot on the first sea day. I do apologize for taking so long to get to it, I thought I would have some free evenings this past week and ended up not having that kind of time after all. I do have to work so I can cruise more, lol. Thanks for being patient with me and thanks for reading along!

 

No need to apologize, I totally understand life getting in the way of fun !!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Nice !!

 

Thanks, glad you are enjoying. I am about to cover our day in Santa Barbara here in a minute, lots more to come.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

You look mighty sharp there for formal night!

 

Ha, thanks. I don't get dressed up too often. Plus I rarely travel on cruises with that suit because it is heavy and takes up a lot of room in the suitcase but I did make an exception for this particular cruise. Sadly no lobster on the first formal night, as the second one had the lobster but I also missed it and will get into that later on as we move along.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

No need to apologize, I totally understand life getting in the way of fun !!

 

It's all good. I really do wish I was moving along faster with this, but whenever I get a free day to do nothing, something comes up or I sit down late at night and don't have the couple hours to spare to add on to this whole thing. I should be getting to our day in Santa Barbara here in just a minute, thanks for being so patient with me as I slowly work on the review.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

OK, here is the long-awaited continuation of this Grand Princess California coastal cruise review. I truly apologize that I am not getting this done faster, but here is the next part. I know a bunch of people are looking to this review to help them prepare for their upcoming cruises on this ship. After an eventful first day at sea, it was now on to the port visits that would make this cruise a unique one. So, here goes - hope you enjoy my wrap up and pictures of our day in Santa Barbara.

 

DAY 5: SANTA BARBARA

 

Well, Santa Barbara is not that huge a place, doesn't see that many ships, so there is no cruise ship dock to park at. Which means........tender. We got up around 0830, went to the lido deck for breakfast and got the normal stuff. Not too crowded up here either. We had arrived to our parking area around 0700, what seemed to be a few miles off the shoreline. Nice day also, low 80s with a touch of east coast humidity. I guess we brought it along with us, as the locals told us it usually does not get like that in California.

 

A look at Santa Barbara from the ship, at breakfast, before getting on the tender.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, we had a 1015 scheduled tender to meet a Princess-purchased excursion, which was a trolley ride that would take us all through the Santa Barbara metro area. With purchased excursions, they also give you a tender ticket with a little bit of priority so you don't have to worry about waiting in line to get a boat. I think the tour was scheduled for 1100. We purchased it through Princess, paid ahead of time (somewhere in the $50-60 range, not terribly overpriced), as we figured based on the tours offered and my mom's mobility issues, it was the best way to see the entire city.

 

You meet your tour group in the theater, give your tickets to excursion staff members, get a sticker with your correct tour group number and color, and make your way downstairs to the tender. It seemed they had at least 2 tenders going on this day, and as with some places such as Icy Strait Point in Alaska, they use ship lifeboats as tenders because they don't have the local capacity in the port to handle that type of capacity. I always said that this is the only time I ever want to see the inside of a lifeboat on a cruise, LOL. But in honesty, although it is a little cramped, it is not too bad a ride all things considered. The water was a little choppy around the ship, but everyone carefully boarded and we were on our way for a good 15-minute or so tender ride to shore. You have to pass through a large marina with lots of private boats, up to yacht size and they have to go slow due to wake concerns so it does take a little while.

 

You pass through a marina, and walk out through a dock building and to the street where we met our trolley. It is a locally-offered tour as well as an excursion (I think) but I also believe it sold out so best to get your tickets ahead of time and guarantee your seat. They ran a number of trolleys in succession from that point, you could see them around town all day long. We boarded, filled up the trolley, and were on our way. Our tour guide would be Dave, a local from the Santa Barbara area, for this tour today.

 

We began going along Cabrillo Drive, which runs along the ocean, and he told us about the beach, history of the city, and apologized for the construction that was going on in the area that kind of put an ugly face on some of the attractions. Oh well, improvements that had to be made I guess. He told us a funny story that during terrible Pacific storms, many boats in that marina wash up on shore and that if they are not promptly removed by the owners, the city takes care of it and sends the bill to the owners. You're gonna pay one way or another, lol. We rode further up Cabrillo, which was named after a Portugese man who had a large hand in the settlement of the city in the 1600s I think, and passed some normal stuff like strip malls and lots of high end hotels on the left side of the road.

 

 

We rode into the exclusive neighborhoods of the rich and famous, I think he said Nick Cage used to live here and the founder of the Beanie Babies phenomenon, Ty Warner owns a lot of property here as well. Model Cheryl Tiegs also lives here and Dave said she is very down to earth and friendly whenever she sees her walking around the area when he passes by with tours. He mentioned that Oprah talked her way into an $80 million purchase price for the property she owns there a few years ago. He also mentioned that the city has a population of about 90,000, concentrated around the main city area as there are mountains and the ocean surrounding it on any side. There is also a university here (or multiple ones), and Highway 101 goes right through the middle of town.

 

Obviously not all the people who live there have money, so we got to see some of the other attractions and just kind of how the middle class folks live as well. We passed a place that has a skeleton of a baby whale found on the beach one time, and it was huge. Imagine how big an adult would be.

 

We also saw some of the beachfront parks that they have in town, as in addition to the many hotels and resorts, they do have plenty for the many local families to do in the area.

 

More coming....

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 5: SANTA BARBARA CONTINUED

 

We then went a little further uptown, to the old mission. It is one of 21 missions that were set up hundreds of years ago by settlers and Native Americans (IIRC) and is very historic. Good views of town from here, there is a park across the street that the locals volunteer their time to take care of. Also, the mission is completely maintained by locals these days and they do a good job with it. There is a chapel, museum and gift shop, and plenty of photo opportunities outside and inside. Just watch the flash photography in the chapel. To the north is the San Ynez mountains, and it was said that the missions were set up as to never be more than a day's worth of travel by horse from each other. We got to see another mission later in the trip, will get to that later. We were only there about a half hour, but we got plenty of good pics and saw what we wanted to see and were on our way again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, nice views of the mission, surrounding areas, including of our ship, and views of what our trolley looked like. More in a second....

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 5: SANTA BARBARA CONTINUED......

 

Once we finished sightseeing and checking out the historical stuff in the area, it was around 1300 and it was time to ride through the downtown area. Plenty of history here also. Due to building codes and earthquakes in the past, the highest building is the Granada theater, at 8 stories. It is said it was the only structure of its size to survive the last big earthquake. Neat place, on State street I believe. We got to see City Hall, lots of local banks and eateries, and passed by an urban mall. Here, we were given an option to stay on and ride back to the port area, or we could get off and walk around town some as it was still a few hours before all aboard time back at the ship.

 

 

Of course, my mom elected to stay on the trolley and ride back to the port and I decided to get off and walk around some. Just know it is at least a mile and about 20 minutes or more walking for a quick walker if you choose to get off the ship. At least it is mostly downhill. About half the people on our trolley got off here.

 

I walked around downtown some, got a few pics of the surrounding mountainous areas and walked up and down State Street, the main drag a little bit to see what was there. I did encounter a friendly panhandler at one point, haha. They are everywhere I suppose. Passed a downtown mall with department stores, eateries and everything in between, called Paseo Nuevo and walked through there some. Lots of kids who had just gotten off school walking through there as well. Saw a nice smoothie shop along State Street, almost got something in there but decided not to at the last minute. Didn't want have to have to carry around a large cup as I played tourist.

 

 

 

 

I forgot to mention that there are only three native tree types in Santa Barbara (forget what they are) and the rest were brought in by the settlers in the 1600s and 1700s. Also, during a major earthquake years ago, the mission bell was destroyed, and was not found so a new one was sent from Europe to replace it. Then the original was found and so now they have two bells at the mission, lol. Our tour guide, Dave, was really good and knowledgeable. He works full time at one of the hotels where he said he met his wife years ago and has raised a family in the same town. Says he loves it there and that they see about 30 cruise ships a year. And he said that number increases every year. We also saw some President Ronald Reagan memorabilia somewhere in the downtown area, forget where. I am sure it is just a google search away to find out where exactly it is.

 

While I walked down State Street, I wanted to charge my phone but the outlets they have every hundred feet on the sidewalk were unfortunately disabled, so no juice for my phone. Oh well. I continued the walk back, and you pass under Highway 101 and past some new building construction and bars before getting back to Cabrillo. There is also an Amtrak station right in that area. If you don't want to walk, there is an electric shuttle that you can ride back to the port for 75 cents. What fun is that though? LOL. Anyway, saw a neat sign near the Amtrak station entrance. We are used to seeing hurricane evacuation zones on the east coast, well how about a tsunami evacuation route on the west coast?

 

 

Anyway, my mom had called to tell me she had headed back to the ship around 1500, so I continued my sightseeing activities after getting back to the waterfront. Will talk about this pictured dock in just a few moments....

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 5: SANTA BARBARA CONTINUED......

 

Looking back at my notes, we got the tour for $27 a person plus tip for the driver from Princess, very affordable. So yes, around $60 for two people for the entire afternoon. Not bad.

Dave had told us that the pier here had been built and destroyed by fire a few times, so when it was rebuilt, it was much smaller than the original version. I walked out on the pier, and on it is a number of seafood restaurants and bars, a fishing pier, a car parking area, and some gift shops. Really good views of our ship as well. I walked all the way out to the end, almost went into one of the bars to try out some local beer but didn't feel like it (it was really warm out and I had been walking around a lot) and so headed into a gift shop to get some souvenirs. They had some really good fudge and chocolates/candy here but I did not get any, however, I did get a nice Santa Barbara magnet to take home. I try to get a shotglass or magnet from every new port that I visit, have a large collection at home by now.

 

 

 

 

I then headed back towards the pier as it was close to 1600 and the last tender was scheduled for 1715. It is a good half mile or so from the pier to the cruise port. I snapped this pic of the electric shuttle I had mentioned earlier, and it seems to run every few minutes up and down State Street. Lots of people seemed to be riding it also.

 

 

I walked along the public beach as I made my way back to the port, there is a bike path and a walking path here. Nice view of the ship.

 

 

I finally went back to the ship around 1600, along with quite a line of people who were also back on their way to their home for the week. Port security just checks to make sure everyone has their ID and ship card before going to the ship and the crew hands out cool towels and cups of water for people waiting in line for the tender. I was back at the ship shortly afterwards and it was lunchtime after meeting up with my mom. The late lunch was not all that great, soup, chicken fingers, tacos, etc. The desserts were OK though. Got some jello, a waffle and some sort of cake, forget what it was from the dessert stand.

 

The casino is always closed when the ship is in port - here was a shot of it empty. It was not big and I only went in one time. Deck 6 I think, mid. Maybe 7, cannot remember.

 

 

That covered the off-the-ship stuff from the day, still plenty more to talk about from the evening activities...

[shredie]

I like to take the 50 cent trolley to the small zoo in Santa Barbara. These are some great pictures of the town.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 5: SANTA BARBARA CONTINUED.....

After a late lunch, I went up to the cabin to take a late afternoon nap until it was time to go upstairs to watch the sunset and hang out in the hot tub and pool before dinner. Sunset was at 1845 according to the Princess Patter and I figured it would be perfect to stay in the indoor pool area with a soda as it was getting chilly and breezy on the outside decks since the ship was moving again (albeit not that fast). Warm pool, soothing hot tub it was and it was not that crowded. I went outside to get a few shots of the sunset and many others had the same idea as that outside deck was crowded at that time with people trying to get the perfect photo.

 

 

 

 

I stopped in the Piazza on the way back to the cabin around 1930 and watched the Chameleons play for a while. Not bad. Music most nights here, or somewhere on the ship. I also have to note that the Princess Patter is cool in that they give you weather, sunrise and sunset times, and the planned route for the day, so you can kind of pick out some landmarks or whatever if you know the area and want to try to figure out where you are. Also, they had a movie under the stars tonight, called Captain America: Civil War (I was not interested but some readers might be interested to see what will be playing).

 

It was then clean up, get changed, go to dinner around 2000. I got some pasta and oxtail for an appetizer (offered as a main also) and a surf and turf, along with a Thai noodle plate and all were good. The oxtail pasta was really good. The dessert was a walnut fruit spring roll plate and that was interesting, pretty good. Fried just like a veggie spring roll but fruit filling. Liked it. Never saw that before on a cruise. Of course Marlon kept the soda flowing and Mirabel kept trying to put pepper and grated cheese on everything, haha. The bread they put out on the table when you are seated is really good. Just don't eat too much or you will be full before your food comes. We talked about our day with our tablemates and had a good time. We were probably done by 2130.

 

 

After dinner we still had a comedy show to see....

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 5: SANTA BARBARA CONTINUED.......

 

This was my dessert....nice fruit spring rolls. Believe me, I was full after dinner tonight for sure.

 

 

Princess only has a real comedy show once or twice during a cruise. I guess it is getting to be standard, as Royal and Norwegian are roughly the same. Guess Carnival is the only line that does hours upon hours of comedy at night anymore. Anyway, this cruise's comedian was Phil Tag and he was sort of funny, but nowhere near the funniest I have seen. He really included some bad political jokes (and judged by crowd reaction - I don't know if he expected some different type of reaction but whatever, I don't really want to touch that subject too much here) and quickly moved back to his standard routine. He was from the tri-state area I think, and talked about the usual comedian stuff. And the show was in the theater, which takes away from the atmosphere some. They seem to be more fun in the lounges and I am sure one of the lounges could have accommodated the show on this night. Whatever, it was something to do (the last real activity except for the club once again) and it was over by 2230.

 

I went upstairs to see if the Prego pizzeria or the bbq were open, both were closed but the bar was still open so I got myself some sort of tropical mango mocktail and it was really, really good. I also went to play a few rounds of mini golf, course beat me again. :) You can hear the sound from the movie playing on the fanavision right behind the golf course, and some people were sitting outside at that late 2300 hour to watch the end of the replay of Captain America. The ship was not moving too fast, I think based off of the map you can see on your cabin TV, like 12 knots and we were not too far from Oxnard. Surprised I could not get cell reception here, as we were clearly not too far from land all night and could see it not that far off the side of the ship. Based on the map we also did some loops out here to kill time before our port arrival the next morning in Long Beach.

 

Few things I forgot to mention - they always did a happy hour somewhere during the afternoon and evening, which was buy a drink at full price and get a second for a dollar. I never took advantage, but it was available at select bars all cruise long. They also did beer specials at the bars during the day, a different craft beer was featured and if you got them in bulk, you got a discount. I didn't take advantage of that either. Also, looking back at my patter, I see that they did have an alternative comedy show in the Explorers lounge on Deck 7 at night but it was not well advertised and I do not know how different it was from the main comedy show.

 

So, I got back to the cabin around midnight and it was time to go to sleep. Our arrival in Long Beach would be at 0800 the next morning, and we had a day-long excursion planned for our visit there. I was also starting to come down with a cold this night, so I wanted to get good sleep before the next day's activities. You know when you get that scratchy throat and headache that turns into runny nose and sneezing and I had that. I see quite a few people onboard had the same thing as well as the cruise went along, so I was not alone. I usually don't get sick on cruises but oh well. I will talk more about that when I get into our next day's adventure.

 

That wraps up DAY 5: SANTA BARBARA, hope you enjoyed it. Next up (whenever I get to it) will be DAY 6: LONG BEACH (ORANGE COUNTY), and again, we did lots there so be sure to check it out. Thanks everyone for reading along and have a good week!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I like to take the 50 cent trolley to the small zoo in Santa Barbara. These are some great pictures of the town.

 

I don't think we saw the zoo. I mean we saw the whale skeleton outside but we didn't go inside the zoo. Bummer, guess that wasn't part of our tour. I was hoping to include a good taste of different attractions around town and give people a good idea of what the general area is like. Obviously taking pictures doesn't do the panorama view of the place justice but at least it sort of shows what it is like there.

[CalLuvsCrusingToo]

Well, we can't wait any longer for the end. ;)

We get on Grand tomorrow.

Thanks anyway.

[JustJoy]

Well, we can't wait any longer for the end. ;)

We get on Grand tomorrow.

Thanks anyway.

Have a great time!!

[JustJoy]

I can't wait to hear and see more. Thanks so much for your detailed review!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Well, we can't wait any longer for the end. ;)

We get on Grand tomorrow.

Thanks anyway.

 

Man, I am sorry that I haven't been able to update this as often as I would have liked. I do hope you enjoy your cruise and at least you got to read about the first port of call and embarkation and sea day. I am posting our Long Beach port day tonight, maybe you will get a chance to see it before you board assuming the trip leaves on Sunday like my cruise did. Thanks for following along up to now and happy cruising.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I can't wait to hear and see more. Thanks so much for your detailed review!

 

I have the next part coming right up, in a little while tonight. Long Beach was a full-day port experience that covered a lot of ground and we got to see and do a lot. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading my review. I am glad to see that you are enjoying it. Still a long way to go with this voyage.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Well, finally I have returned with another addition to the Grand Princess September 18 sailing, it has been a while - too long and I do apologize for that. We had a nice experience in Santa Barbara the day before, and this fourth cruise day was our second of four consecutive port visit days. I will continue this with our visit to the port of Long Beach and our "grand" tour of Orange County, California.

 

DAY 6: LONG BEACH (ORANGE COUNTY)

 

Like I said, I got to sleep at a decent time the night before because I knew we had an early port day in Long Beach and wanted to be fairly rested for it. I was also beginning to get a full-blown headcold at this point and that also takes a lot out of you. Hate being sick on vacation but will take some runny nose and cough over a flu anytime. At least you can still function with a cold and the flu would have made the majority of the rest of the cruise a total loss based on past experiences. Anyway.....

 

We arrived at the port of Long Beach at around 0700, again the normal southern California weather - clear and probably around 70 degrees on this early morning. I had cruised out of this port before on the Carnival Sensation so I had an idea of its layout and the fact that it is near absolutely nothing at all, so we made sure to book a really good ship-purchased excursion for this day. About the port - other than the Queen Mary next door (will get much more into this) and the neat heliport, you are at the minimum, a long cab ride from even any type of downtown.

 

During our extensive pre-cruise planning, we mulled over what tours we wanted to maybe do in this port, and chose the one that is advertised as a tour of Orange County. Yes, it was the most expensive (like close to $150 a person or so if I remember right) but it also allowed us to see a lot of stuff, it was an all-day thing with lunch included on an air-conditioned bus and a knowledgeable local tour guide crew. We made sure to book it early on as space was limited and we wanted to make sure we could get on the tour. Yes, I have had tours that I had my heart set on in the past that sold out because I did not book them ahead of time and assumed there would still be space left when I went to book them onboard the ship. Moral of this story.......

 

Anyway, we got off the ship at 0700 and as you may know, it is quite a long walk across that boarding bridge and through the dome and port building, then outside and across the street to where the bus tour met. For me, 10 to 15 minutes, for slower walkers, quite a while. Make sure you leave yourself extra time for any excursions you have here that you booked through Princess. Note that this port is owned by Carnival Corporation I believe, which is why the Carnival owned lines dock here and I don't think any others do. You can see all the checkin infrastructure in place that was not being used on this day as you walk through the dome.

 

Anyway, we met up with our tour staff, exchanged tickets for stickers and followed our group from the theater to the bus at around 0800, after getting room service breakfast. We boarded the bus, and were greeted by our driver, Ernie and our tour guide, Susan. This tour would last approximately 8 hours, and would take us all over the place. Once everyone was on around 0830, we were on our way. We left the port area, which includes a park I think and made our way out into the heavy AM rush hour traffic in the Socal area. Well, they kept noting how awful the traffic was but keep in mind that it is a weekday for everyone but us, rush hour and of course traffic on Interstate 5 (I think) was going to be bad. One thing they have going for them that we do not have in the Philly area was HOV lanes, dedicated lanes for vehicles with more than four people I think. Think of carpool lanes. The HOV lane was crowded and slow but not as bad as the regular travel lanes. Just don't get caught in a HOV lane if you don't have enough people in the car. Big fines. Anyway.....

 

 

 

I deal with traffic worse than that pretty much every day so it is nothing to me but reputation and everything - guess they feel people want to experience that and made note of it. But as we rode along, Susan told us a little about Orange County. It has a population of 3.5 million I believe, and the average income is $200,000 a year with an average home price of $600,000. Obviously there are a lot of rich people with mansions here so that does skew the average some but it does cost quite a bit to live in that area however you look at it. I think she said it is one of the most populated counties in the entire country. Also, as we rode along through some scenic mountains and hills, Susan called the restaurant we would be going to for lunch to plan out what we would be getting for our meals.

 

After about an hour, we arrived in San Juan Capistrano, a town down the way a little bit, a very historic town to be exact. We let off outside the historic mission there, and would be spending the next couple hours there to take a tour of the grounds and rehabbed attractions inside them. This was one of the Catholic missions from back when the area was settled, and is very old. It is no longer in operation but it is still maintained and is open for tours. We got little audio players and were able to take a guided tour of the grounds with audio narration of specific spots in the mission if we wanted more details. Lots of photo ops here.

 

The first few photos here are of right near the entrance, then of a typical dining room setup. There were about 50 locations of interest here, and a few dozen places where you could listen to audio commentary from descendants of the people who lived here about what you were looking at. Pretty neat.

 

 

 

 

More of the mission coming....

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 6: LONG BEACH (ORANGE COUNTY) CONTINUED.....

 

More of the typical living arrangement in the Mission. I believe there were a lot of people who passed through here and the 21 Missions in the area as the region was being settled many hundreds of years ago.

 

 

 

There was a large courtyard in the middle, and it was neatly manicured by either employees of the complex or volunteers, not sure which but they keep it looking great and they were out working that morning. Fruit trees, other vegetation and what looked to be cactus in this picture. Surrounding the courtyard was the welcome building, the store room, complex, living quarters complex and the chapel area. Each stop had tons and tons of stuff to read about, take pictures of and listen to commentary about. Amazing how people lived hundreds of years ago.

 

 

 

Between buildings and a little down the terrain, was a bit of a garden with all kinds of managed plants growing and next to it was what I think was the blacksmith area. They made tools for the people who lived there I think, neat setup.

 

 

 

Even more mission pictures coming....

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 6: LONG BEACH (ORANGE COUNTY) CONTINUED.....

Here is the courtyard, you can see a person working on maintaining it in the distance. I also forgot to mention that Susan did say due to the lack of water and rain in the area, car washing is heavily regulated as is use of water for things like watering lawns. I don't know if this place has some sort of exemption from that or what but it seems like it is watered pretty much every day.

 

 

Next to this courtyard was the chapel, at least one of them. I want to say this was the replacement one, the original stone one was destroyed (not rebuilt) and I think some parishioners were killed in a massive earthquake that hit during service. It is understood that this chapel is still in use as there is a Catholic school in the area and there is a Mass every morning I believe. It is very small but there are hymns playing constantly and you can light prayer candles if you would like. You can take pictures but be mindful that you are still in a church when you go in there.

 

 

 

This was part of the yard outside the church, near the outer wall of the property. Some of this area beyond that fence is closed off to the general public and perhaps some of the compound is still in a state of restoration.

 

This is the original stone church that was destroyed in the earthquake hundreds of years ago, it was not rebuilt and is still in this state today. There is a lot of audio commentary about this and how it was believed that the fateful day of the earthquake happened and the horror of it all.

 

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 6: LONG BEACH (ORANGE COUNTY) CONTINUED......

More of the church ruins.....

 

To contrast the history, this is the area just across the street from the mission. Modern 2016 America.

 

 

So, after turning our audio players back in and stopping in the gift shop to get a few souvenirs (bookmark, fridge magnet - proceeds from that and other donations go to keeping the mission restored), we met up at the gate and re-boarded the bus for the continuation of our tour around 1100. We got back on Interstate 5 and headed through some rolling hills and mountains as we headed to our next stop, which would be Laguna Beach.

 

 

 

 

We got to Laguna Beach around noon-ish, and rode along the oceanside and to our lunch spot in the downtown area. Here is a preview of our lunch experience....

 

More about Laguna Beach in a moment....

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 6: LONG BEACH (ORANGE COUNTY) CONTINUED....

 

I forgot to mention that the bus did have power ports for people to charge their electronic devices. At least our seats up front did. Good thing, because being out for the entire day and using the phone to text home, surf the web and take some pics would surely drain the battery and I wanted to make sure I had enough power to get through the entire day.

 

We went to lunch at a place called Las Brisas, good upscale cuisine with a great view of the ocean and surrounding areas. I got pasta with mussels, shrimp and scallops I think, and they also offered fajita/enchilada and some sort of spicy chicken along with flan for dessert. It was included in the tour price, I think alcohol was probably extra. Sat over a nice lunch with other folks on our tour from all over the country, with nice views out our window of the ocean and the hillside we were on. Our waiter also accommodated me when I told him I did not want a side salad with my lunch and he brought me a really nice fruit plate instead. We were in here until about 1330, and it was back outside after some sightseeing of the oceanfront and to the bus for the next stop on the tour.

 

 

 

Crazy dropoff from the hillside to the ocean here, there was a nice viewing gazebo with a panorama view of the ocean and beach. Some really upscale homes up on that hill a mile or so from the water. Guessing some great views from there and I think Susan said there were some famous people who lived here but I cannot remember. I also forget what she said the population was of Laguna Beach. Neat place though.

 

 

 

 

The entrance to the restaurant.

 

We waited outside for a while for Ernie to come back with the bus as he had headed out of the area to park and wait for us, but had some issues with getting back to pick us up the way he had dropped us off so he had to find an alternate route to get us. By 1345 we were on our way again. Laguna Beach was nice, it wasn't what I pictured it would be like based on what I have heard about it on TV though. Thought it would be more like the beaches we were about to see......surf city USA and stuff like that......

 

Coming up.....a ride up the Pacific Coast Highway....

[shredie]

Fabulous! Since I live here, the idea of a tour seems funny, but you got to see some great stuff. I haven't been to Capistrano in ages.