October Nor'easter

Tractor from bedroom window

It was your typical Nor'easter.  They are called that because as the storm comes up the coast, it inevitably moves out to sea.  Once out at sea, the counter-clockwise winds pick up moisture from the ocean and dumps it on us.  The winds come from the North East (like from Maine and Nova Scotia!).  The tides get really high and the winds howl.  Once in a while these are fun, in February, but not in October!

Pool Area

Yes, we lost power last night around 8PM.  I had to pull out the generator and hook it up because we figured we would be without power for at least a day and we really wanted heat!. Cable, Internet and phone worked until about 11PM.  Then it went out too!  Some tree must have taken it out.  We awoke to our version of "Winter Wonderland" except it not even Halloween yet! The views out of our bedroom window show around a foot of snow on my tractor and pool.  All the trees have winter frosting on them.  It is beautiful, but again, its only October!

Backyard after snow.

12 1/2" of snow

 

Driveway blocked by trees

I got dressed on went out to see the damage.  We got a little over a foot of snow.  The driveway was blocked by a few fallen trees and our road wasn't plowed yet.  It was pretty though! 

I decided that if we ever wanted to get out, I would have to get those trees off the driveway.  I started the tractor and was easily able to move the fallen branches and bent trees off the driveway clear the driveway. 

We also went for a little walk and found out why weren't plowed out yet.  Down the main road, there were two or three trees across the road, 1 telephone pole down, and all the wires, electric, cable & phone were in a tangled heap.  Looks like at least a day or two of running the generator.  May need more gas!

Elly said "we are sooo done!"
 
(Hint:  click on the picture for a better view!)

WTF! Snow for Halloween?

Cuurent Temperature. This is what we came home for?

Ok, ok  whats going on here?  Last Saturday we left 90 degree temperatures in California and flew back to Massachusetts.  Since we got here we have had rain, snow flurries and now they are predicting 12-15 inches of snow for tomorrow!

Snow Flurries Starting

Today we had to run around and put all the lawn furniture away, put away the hoses and pick up things around the yard that would get lost under a foot of snow.  I hope we don't lose power.





Its just flurrying here, but I hear in CT that it's snowing.  I am sure it will get here soon enough!

Victoria Ave and In-N-Out Burger

Victoria Avenue

Friday was our last full day in California as we had to fly on Saturday at noon.  We spent the day see the last few sights that we missed during the last few weeks. These included a drive down Riverside's historic Victoria Avenue.  this 4-mile-long botanical and scenic parkway, which was created in 1892, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is dotted with palm trees, citrus trees, rosebushes, benches, and even a convenient bike trail.

In-N-Out Burger Menu

On our way home (just around the block) we ate lunch at the In-N-Out. Although it was just across the street from McDonald's, it was packed!.  There was nobody at McDonald's.  The menu is sparse, Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Fries & drinks. That's it!.

We got two hamburgers, lettuce & tomato only, fries & a drink.  For a moment I thought we were in Fairfield as the burgers tasted just like The Duchess.  Now, if they only had hot dogs!.

Palm Spring Village Fest

Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs

We got to Palm Springs around 2:00 today.  It was hot and there was hardly anyone around.  All the stores and restaurants were open.

Mexican Restaurant

We decided to take our cousins recommendation and eat at the Las Consuelas Terraza mexican Restaurant.  The food was excellent.  After lunch we decided to do some souvenir shopping.  After walking around and shopping, we saw cars and trucks pull up to the curb and start unloading boxes, tables and awnings.

Village Fest

Every Thursday evening the main street of Palm Springs is closed down for the Village Fest.  It is a 4 block long flea market, craft fair, and food court.  All the stores and restaurants stay open late, many of the restaurants have live music.

It was interesting to see the town transform from a deserted down town area to a jam packed party atmosphere!  

Vendor's Pet Pig

 



There were some interesting craft items and one vendor even brought along her pet pig.

More Temecula

Typical street in Harveston

Another typical street in Harveston

Lake Harveston

Today we decided to see more real estate in Temecula.  We first stumbled upon a community called Harveston.  It is a planned community of 21,000 homes with a lake in the center of the community. It was real cute!  It seemed like a lot of young families.  It was built in 2003-2004 and we think that it would be a good place to rent and use as a base to explore the area further.


All the houses are really close together.  It seems that all planned communities are built this way.  But the pluses are that there ius no yard to take care of and there are many walking paths, beautiful scenery, community center with large pool, and minutes away from the store.  It was also extremely quiet and peaceful!.  We liked that.   We stopped at a realtor and had a great discussion with the two owners.  They suggested that we check out three more areas: Morgan Hill, Crowne Hill and especially Meadowview.

Kitchen & Dinette in the Model House in Morgan Hill

First we drove over to Morgan.  Again it was a planned community with homes built by a few national known builders.  There was a Open House so we decided to go inside.  The realtor was born in Pittsfield, MA!.  The house was the model with over $100,000 in upgrades.  It was a 4 bedroom ranch style.  Elly just loved it!.  It had everything she needed.  She wanted to tell the realtor to leave so she could start living in it.

The Meadow at Meadowview

We got some info and went to Crowne Hill. Crowne hill was nice also with larger houses and a little more land.  But we liked Meadowview the best.


Meadowview is a community where each house was built independently and had a liitle more land.  Some people had horses and other animals.  This was impossible in the other communities.  The center of the community was a large open space hill (i.e. the meadow?)  We drove around here for a while, its like a maze of streets.  They even have signs directing you the the Meadowview exits!

Next we drove to Skinner Lake.  Its a big lake in the middle of the mountains with camping areas, boat rentals, splash area for the kids and fishing.  Even though it was over 90 degrees, the place was empty because summer is over.  They have a balloon festival in June.  We left Lake Skinner, bought some pies (Julian Pie Company) from the Baron's Supermarket and left for Riverside.

Temecula Wine Country

Antique shop in Temecula

 Everyone said we would like Temecula. They were right!  As we entered Temecula we headed for the Old Town, It is a cute downtown area with restaurants and antique shops.  First we we to the Old Town Antique Faire.  They has nice items and they also had customers..One thing we noticed is that all the antique shops that we visited in California has real live customers.  In New England, our antique shops are of devoid of any paying customers.  What a treat to see paying customers!

Rosi's Cantina Mexican Restaurant

We were hungry and chose Rosa's Cantina.
Its sort of like a mexican McDonalds. You order at the counter, get your food and drinks, get your utensils and salsa, and seat yourself.  It was excellent food.  We are starting to really enjoy mexican food!

Leonesse Cellars Tasting Room

After lunch we dicided to head to the winerys, There are lots of wineries in Temecula and we decided to sample a few of the smaller ones.  We stopped at Keyways, Oak Mountain Winery and Leonesse Cellars.  We bought two bottles of wine to bring back with us, but overall the wine was not that great.  Elly alway said that she doesn't like California wine, but there are about 30 more Temecula wineries we need to try.

View from Vacant House

After visiting the wineries (we drank enough wine) we decided to drive around the wine country and see the scenery.  We stumbled upon this vacant house up on a hill  for sale and drove up to see it.  What a view they had!

Vacant house on Hill

Embassy Suites Temecula

After getting lost a few times down dead end streets, the GPS is not always right, and even seeing a real live roadrunner, we decided to find a place to settle in for the night and get some dinner.  We stayed at Embassy Suites in Temecula and ate at the Black Angus Steak House at the Temucula Town Center.

Ranch Cucamonga

Homecoming Outdoor Fireplace

Just north of Riverside are the towns of Rancho Cucamonga & Upland (formerly known as North Ontario),  We decided to check out the rentals there.  There is a planned community in Rancho, much like the ones in Irvine, calls Terra Vista.  We visited a few condo complexes contructed and managed by the Lewis Companies.

Pool & Mount View

Kitchen in the Model Condo

Elly fell in love with a place called Homecoming.  They had a main community center with a pool area that would rival any resort, plus they had built in gas grills and an outdoor fireplace that residents can reserve for the evening.  Indoors, they had a movie theater, library, game room with pool tables, craft room, and a business center complete with computers.  This place made the top of our list so far.

Victoria Gardens Town Center

After driving around and looking at other condos we stopped to eat at the "Town Center" called Victoria Gardens.  Its is like a down town area combined with a shopping center but everthing is brand new.  We ate outside at the California Pizza Kitchen.  Everyone dines outside in California

House at the end of the Road

Old Building on Route 66

We drove up to the foothills in Upland, this is where the road stops.  There is quite a view from the houses there.   We headed back to Riverside on Route 66.  It is not called Route 66 anymore but there are historic markers along the way.  I took a picture of one of the old building still there on the old Route 66.

Irvine & Orange

Doheny Campground

After breakfast we decided to take a walk on the beach before we headed out again for today's adventure.  We walked across the street through the Doheny State Park campground to the beach.  Had to test the temperature of the water again.  Yep, its still cold, just like Cape Code in June.

Steve on Capistrano Beach

Elly on Capistrano Beach

After our walk on the beach we decide to head out for Irvine.

Woodbury Town Center in Irvine

Irvine is the city with the lowest crime rate in the country. and one of the best places to live in the USA.  Irvine is a planned city with a few communities like Mission Viejo.  There is no "downtown" or main street like most New England towns or cities.  Instead they have "Town Centers" which is a shopping plaza with everything you need located there.  Each community in the town has it own Town Center.  Again we went to a realtor to get locations of rentals in the area and drove all around Irvine.  It was nice and clean with less traffic that Mission Viejo.  One of the women we chatted with called it "paradise'.  We agree it was nice and could be on the top of our list so far for potential area to revisit or rent in.

Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen

After our excursions, we set out on the crowded freeways, during rush hour, for "Old Town" Orange,CA. beacuse someone told us that there were a lot of antique shops there.  They were right!  The four main streets that emanate from the traffic circle in Orange are loaded with antique shops!  We shopped until we became thirsty and stooped in Gabbi's Mexican Restaurant for a beer.  It was real hot and the beer gave us our second wind.

Old Town Orange

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Restore Vintage Stove in Orange

One of the shops has some real nice restored vintage stoves.  After the shops closed at 5:00, we headed back for Riverside.

Mission Viejo & Dana Point

Started the day traveling to Mission Viejo.  We took the back way around through Trabucu Canyon and Robinson ranch.  The road was like a tunnel with canopy of oaks and sycamores hanging over the road.


 

Rancho Santa Margarita

We thought we we out in the middle of nowhere, but after we took the road that brought us up and over a winding hill, we turned the corner and there was a massive planned community with supermarkets, condo complexes etc!  It was shocking!  This is the community of Rancho Santa Margarita.

Lake Mission Viejo

We drove around there for a while and the went to Mission Viejo (just down the road).  We stopped in a realtors office looking for rentals.  He gave a us a few printouts and we proceeded to find the addresses that we on the listing using the GPS om my Xoom.  This is a great way to see the area, driving through developments, shopping complexes, condo complexes, etc.  With the Xoom we don't get lost.


Mission Viejo is broken up into a few communities each with their own amenities and fees.  We though the nicest was at lake Mission Viejo.We also drove around Alisa Viejo.  Both communities we very nice, clean and safe.  But there was a lot of traffic.  Where did all these people come from?

Double Tree Inn and Dana Point

Dana Point Harbor

We were getting tired and decided to head to Dana Point/Capistrano Beach again for the evening.  We chose the Double Tree Inn to stay the night.  They sure do add one the fees.  $22 for parking where you park yourself or us the Valet, plus local taxes, state taxes etc.

It is right across the road from the beach and the Doheny State Park Campground.  After checking in, we went out for dinner at the Harbor Grille Seafood Restaurant.  After Dinner we decided to call it a day.

Rose Bowl Flea Market

The Famous Rose Bowl

When we planned this trip, we arranged it so we would be in SoCal so we could attend the World Famous Rose Bowl Flea Market which occurs on the 2nd Sunday of every month.  Pasadena is only about an hour from Riverside so it was easy to get to on the Freeways.  After finding a place to park, (parking is free) we started our antiquing adventure. 
 

A "herd" of metal farm animals

The flea market is huge.  Probably not a big as Brimfield, but it would take more than a day to see it all.  Luckily it is separated into a few areas (new stuff, antiques, Vintage clothes, etc) with each area designated.  We spent most of the day in the antiques & furniture areas.  If we lived locally, Elly could have bought a few items for decorating or re-sale.  She fell in love with an industrial looking kitchen table on wheels.  The prices seem in line with our antique prices back home.

A scene from the flea market

It was fascinating and very Hot!  Drinking water and staying hydrated was mandatory and it seemed everyone sold cold bottled water.

When we couldn't walk any more, we decided to leave after a fun day antiquing.

IE Food Truck Fest

Today we took Evan to the Ontario Airport for his 12:00 flight back to Boston.  After we dropped him off, we went over to the Citizens Business Bank Arena parking lot for the Inland Empire Food Truck & Brew Fest.  It was basically a huge parking lot filled with food trucks. There was every type of food available from burgers, Taiwanese, Filipino, Lobster Rolls, Vegetarian, Grilled cheese, etc. 

www.greenzonwheels.com

Non Nom Sandwich Truck

 

Long line for Grilled Cheese

The longest line was at least an hour long for the grilled cheese truck! Go figure!.  There were also a few micro-brewerys selling their beer and live music.  It could be a full day event, but you may gain a few extra pounds if you decided to try even a few of the trucks!  We had lobster rolls, micro-brewery beer and hot & spicy chicken fingers.

It was an event worth revisiting if we are ever in the area again.  I think they have it twice a year.

Palm Springs

Windmills on I-10

Today we went to visit Palm Springs. The drive through the San Jacinto Hills on the winding Moreno Parkway was a very scenic. As you approach Palm Springs on I-10, there are hundreds of windmills generating electricity for the valley.

View to the Valley Station from the Tram

The first attraction in Palm Springs is the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. It is the World’s Largest Rotating Tramcar. You first drive up the mountain to the Valley Station located at an elevation 2,643 feet. Then you take the 10 minute ride to the Mountain Station – elevation 8,516. The floor of the tram car spins giving you a 360 degree view of the Chino Canyon and Palm Springs. You could see all the way to the Salton Sea.

View from the top. Palm Spring below

Once on top you can explore the Mt. San Jacinto State Park or have lunch or dinner at the restaurant. When we went, the temperature was 95 degrees at the base and 40 degress at the top.

Elly resting during our short hike

We had a very nice lunch and then took a short hike before we left for the tram ride down to the heat.