This blog covers October 17, 2002 - November 30th, 2002 where we finally make it to southern California for Disneyland, Sea world, Halloween and American Thanksgiving. We also take a big step and head into Mexico!
Welcome to Newport Beach
It had been nearly a month of moving and many rolly anchorages since leaving San Francisco, and we were ready to stay put for a while. Newport Beach, we had heard, was very cruiser friendly, comfortable, and affordable to stay. Being a harbor well-protected from the Pacific ocean swell, we could finally look forward to comfortable nights on a mooring ball.
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| Sign at the foot of the huge municipal pier. |
Thursday October 17, 2002 - Welcome to Newport Beach
When we arrived in Newport Harbor, we went straight to the Newport Harbor Yacht Club. It had reciprocal privileges with our club back home and offered us a couple of free nights moorage in addition to the use of their facilities while in the area.
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| Newport Harbor Yacht Club |
Saturday October 19, 2002 - Free loaner car!
Shortly after arriving, we reconnected with our cruising friends Al and Monica and their kids from s/v Evolution. We all went to for supper at BJ's Pizza, where we were also joined by Al's cousin Ken and wife Keri, who live in the L.A. area. Ken & Keri graciously offered us the use of one of their cars, an ex-police interceptor, while we were in the area and to get us a deal on a hotel room for Disneyland through Keri's employer, Sheraton Hotels. WOW - what hospitality! Here Chris has some fun in another one of Ken's toys :-)
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| Chris in a Porsche |
Newport's 6-mile beach is located on the Balboa Peninsula, whose other shore forms part of the 3 mile long Newport Harbor, were TIOGA was moored. As you might imagine, the beach and peninsula hop in the summer time and getting your car off, we had heard, might take you hours at the end of the day on a hot summer weekend.
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| View of Newport Beach from the municipal pier |
Joel and Gerrit have a blast being reunited with the kids from s/v Evolution.
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| Beach day after school. |
Monday, October 21, 2002 - Mission San Juan Capistrano
We took a day-trip south from Newport Beach to the San Juan Capistrano Mission, where the swallows return mid-March each year like clockwork. Founded by Fr. Junipero Sera in 1776, it is the site of California's oldest building, a church.
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| Entrance to San Juan Capistrano Mission |
Interior courtyard at the mission. Inside the Mission are beautiful courtyards and gardens. Displays depict the history of this mission and the 20+ other Franciscan missions dotting the California coast. Other notable missions include Mission Santa Barbara, founded 1786 and completed in 1820, which is one of the best preserved.
October 22 through 25, 2002 - Disneyland MINI-TOUR See Log 5A
It's hard to save money getting into Disneyland. Most of their marketing efforts are aimed at getting you to spend more time in the park where you'll buy their merchandise and eat in their restaurants and kiosks. As such, we purchased the promo-of-the-day, a 5-day pass for the price of a 3-day pass, and spent 4 days visiting both Disneyland and the adjacent California Adventure Park.
See Log 5A - Disneyland Mini-tour!
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| Sheila, Goofy, Joel, Gerrit & Chris in Disneyland |
Wednesday, October 30, 2002 - Hollywood
We decided to drive to L.A. for a day to see parts of the big city. At one point along the way, there was 14 lanes of traffic - a lot for us prairie folk! We drove through UCLA, Beverly Hills, Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood. Here in the picture is Rodeo Drive, where if you have to ask the price, you shouldn't be shopping.
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| Rodeo Drive |
5:48pm October 31, 2002 - Ready for Halloween
We spent the days leading up to Halloween making decorations, carving pumpkins and searching out final costume requirements. The boys knew exactly what they wanted to dress as and boy did they look scary!
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| Final Halloween preparations. |
6:30pm October 31, 2002 - TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!!!
After a day of "Is it time to trick or treat yet?" we hopped in our dinghy to go to Lido Island, one of three opulent islands within Newport Beach harbor. It was beautifully decorated with all sorts of spooky decorations. We mixed in with the many other families out and about, some traveling via scooters, golf carts and bicycles. The boys eagerly reaped their rewards, and this being our first Halloween with Gerrit on an insulin pump, they were able to indulge in their rewards also! Oh! Another unique part for us was.....no snowsuits!!
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| Lido Island haunted house! |
Friday, November 1, 2002 - Dinner at The Cannery
We were treated to a great dinner at one of Newport's finest seafood restaurants by Serge C. of Animas Corporation and his daughter Mayan. We had to laugh as valet parking was in full swing when we arrived in our x-police interceptor. Fancy cars arrived, people flowed in and out in their dinner clothes. Yikes, after a long day of errands in greater L.A., we still hadn't even changed yet. So when we declined the valet's offer to park our car until after we had changed, we got some very strange looks!
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| Sheila, Joel, Mayan, Gerrit, Serge, Chris at The Cannery |
Sunday, November 10, 2002 - departing Newport Beach
After over three weeks in Newport Beach, it was time to move on to San Diego, our final US port-of-call. Here, a beautiful schooner passes by. We had a great time in Newport Beach and superb hospitality.
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| A schooner sails about Newport Harbor |
November 12-13, 2002 - SeaWorld See Log 5B for a MINI-TOUR
SeaWorld was an overnight sail from Newport Beach. We anchored nearby at Mariner's Basin at Mission Beach in a beautiful park-like setting. Seaworld was a short dinghy ride away. The price for a two-day pass was only a few dollars more than a single-day pass, and we were glad we got it - a great place to visit in our opinion. Log 5B is a MINI-TOUR of pictures from the park!
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| Seaworld entrance banner |
Friday, November 29, 2002 - Day after a great Thanksgiving feed.
We had the pleasure of spending the U.S. Thanksgiving with Michael & Ginny and their two kids of the sailing vessel Atalanta, along with Michael's parents and family at his parent's house in a 'burb' of San Diego.
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| Pam, Sheila, Roger, Ginny & Michael |
5:05pm Sunday, December 1, 2002 - Time to tackle the Mexican Baha's Pacific coast
A sailboat heads into San Diego harbor as we depart, at last bound for MEXICO! We had spent about 2 1/2 weeks in San Diego, getting provisions and supplies as well as completing boat projects before heading south into a country foreign to us and in which the viability of provisioning and obtaining supplies and spares was a big unknown. Traveling with s/v Atalanta, we begin our second offshore passage, this one expected to take us 4 days and south to Islas San Benito, a small Mexican island group.
Join us in Log 6 where we set our first foot in Mexico via sailboat.
