Funiculì, Funiculà! Dana Point Funicular

We had a long adventure today.  First we went to an Estate Sale in Moreno Valley.  Not the best of towns, I would rate it one step above San Bernadino.  But the Estate Sale was in a good neighborhood.  When we got there about 45 minutes early, there was a small line.  We were hoping to get in in the first wave because there were a few things Elly wanted.  She also gave me instructions to get some Christmas stuff in the outside shed.  Well they let in 20 people and we were 24th in line.  Luckily, about 5 minutes later they let 6 more people in.  Elly got most of what she wanted, I got all the Christmas stuff she wanted and we bought a bed. We have to go back next Wednesday for the bed.

After that sale we decide to go to another sale in Garden Grove, about 1 hour away near Long Beach.  We goth there about 1/2 hour early but were about 50th in line.  It took about 45 minutes to get in.  We bought a few items, but there wasn't much there anyway.  We decided to take the long way home, down the coast to Dana Point and then up over the Ortega Highway (see earlier posts) to back home.

First we stopped to see the beach at Huntington Beach, but the marine layer was in and it was damp & cold.

Nice beach front houses at Huntington Beach

So we drove down through Newport Beach, Laguna Beach to Dana Point.

The Strand Beach at Dana Point.  The green lots are for sale for only $1.5 million+

  
Dana Point is one of the places we stayed when we were out here in October. I had heard that they had a funicular here and wanted to find out more about it.  "The 8 passenger rail system is a fully automated system without operators that conforms to all required regulatory codes and provides service akin to an elevator." The song  "Funiculì, Funiculà" was written about the funicular at Mt Vesuvius.  Read about it here.  The funicular was not running today, it only runs on weekends and then daily after May 30.  We will have to come back to try it.

Funicular tracks down to the beach

This is a picture from the net of the funicular  in action

After Dana Point, we took the beautiful Ortega Highway through the mountains from Dana Point to Lake Elsinore.  Here is a panorama of Lake Elsinore from one of the turnouts on the highway.

Lake Elsinore from the Ortega Highway

We were glad to get back home after a busy day of work & fun!

Oh Ya, Evan called and said that Kevin is landscaping the front yard!