California Vacation
June 19 - 29, 2014

Late June, 2014 we spent 10 days in California with Bonnie and Bill's relatives:  Joanne & Dale and Jim & Pixie.  During our visit we visited the Blackhawk Plaza shopping center in Danville (31 miles east of San Francisco), the Avenue of the Giants (244 miles north of Danville), Eureka, Ferndale, Monterey and the Hearst Castle in San Simeon.  We drove our own car from our Tucson home throughout all of our stops in CA, then back to Tucson for a total of 2,636 miles.

Interesting facts:  When we left Tucson the average gas prices were about $3.35/gallon.  Throughout our trip, the cheapest gasoline prices we saw were in Danville where the price was $4.43/gallon.  As we were driving through CA, we were flabberghasted at one of our fuel stops where the price was $4.89, but this was nothing compared to the $6.00 we later paid for gas on the Pacific Coast Highway between Carmel and San Simeon!  While driving back home on Interstate 10, we got a chuckle as we crossed into Arizona and watched the gas prices drop $1.00/gallon back to $3.35 and the speed limit increase 10 MPH!  :)

The following 115 photographs represent the best of the 462 pictures that were taken by Bonnie and I . . . enjoy!

(Click on small pictures to enlarge)

The first 5 pictures were taken at the Blackhawk Plaza in Danville, CA.		Mama and her babies?		Joanne, Bonnie & Pixie.
The next 36 pictures were taken at the Avenue of the Giants, starting 244 miles north of Danville.  The Avenue is 31.6 miles long with huge redwoods throughout the entire drive!		This is our chariot, a 2012 Toyota RAV4.  It performed perfectly during the entire trip.	Joanne.	The redwoods were spectacular!
	This redwood had been burned twice, but the tree still lives!
			Bonnie at the Founder's Tree.
Redwood sculptures.			Jim, Pixie, Dale, Joanne, with Bill in the back row.	Bonnie in the back row.
				Bonnie holding up a redwood.
				Another redwood with its interior burned out.
The Eel River, located in the Valley of the Giants.  The river is loaded with lamprey fish, the river got its name because of this fish's similiarity to eels.	The next 6 pictures were taken in Eureka.
		The next 12 pictures were taken in Ferndale, known for its many Victorian homes.
				The next 6 pictures were taken at the Pacific Lumber Company railroad museum, located in Scotia.
	Redwood pillars in front of the museum.
The next 6 pictures were taken in Monterey Harbor.
	The next 13 pictures were taken along the 17 Mile Drive, starting just south of Monterey and running from Pacific Grove to Pebble Beach.	Monterey pines.
The famous Lone Pine.
		Is that a seal or a rock formation to the right?	That's a lot of blubber!  :)	The next 8 pictures were taken at or near the Monterey Bay Aquarium, duh!
		It's feeding time!
		The next 8 pictures were taken at Monterey's Cannery Row, located adjacent to the Sea Aquarium.
		I liked the looks of this sign!	Life is like a box of chocolates.  :)	Great food!
The remainder of the pictures were taken at the Hearst San Simeon Castle.	The main house.			Why is the pool dry?
Guest house.	Another guest house.	Great view!
The dining room.	This intricate roof was in the game room.	The indoor pool.		The indoor pool was covered in these intricate designs made of gold foil!

You may use any of the above pictures for any purpose and may do so without giving me credit.  Note that these pictures have been downsized for those with slow connection speeds.  If you'd like copies of the original JPG pictures, send me an E-mail telling me which pictures you want and I'll be happy to send the original pictures to you at no charge!