Travels WithJohn and Janice

Travel blog

Every trip we've shared since 2011—filter by where we went, when we traveled, or what we explored.

Showing 15 of 236 posts

Hearst Castle on the California coast, 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens, terraces, and pools

July 23, 20138 min read2013

Dateline July 23, 2013, Monterey, Carmel, and the California Coast

Out of Yosemite to the coast and the Monterey Peninsula. The Monterey Fair Grounds RV park, set up among the horse stalls (the 'Don't Wash Horses Here' sign at our water hookup was a nice touch). A walk through Monterey, with a memory or two from a Citrix Systems conference there years ago before we were married, the night they hosted a dinner inside the aquarium. Golf at the Bayonet Course, where the PGA Championship had played in 2012. Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing, oysters on the half shell and a snapper sandwich big enough to defeat the two of us together. Carmel, the lodge at Pebble Beach, and the bagpiper walking out of the fog on the patio at Spanish Bay at sunset. Then the Pacific Coast Highway south through Big Sur, the elephant seals at their July haul-out, the Hearst Castle, the wines at Adelaida Cellars in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and an overnight high above the Malibu beach. The Reagan Library was waiting for us in the morning.

#california #monterey-peninsula #monterey

A par 3 at Torrey Pines South Course, the green sitting on a cliff above the Pacific

July 30, 20135 min read2013

Dateline July 30, 2013, Long Beach to Torrey Pines, Closing the Trip

Out of Simi Valley after the Reagan Library, down the 405 (the freeway only one person in modern history has ever been able to drive fast on, and even he was crawling). Long Beach for a city park overnight near the Queen Mary, then a Mercedes brake job that ate the whole next day. Huntington Beach, with the campsites taken by the US Open Surfing crowds, so a Marriott Courtyard instead. Janice's practice round at Sea Cliff Country Club for the USGA Senior Women's Amateur qualifier, with John caddying. A Safeway chicken eaten next to the rig in the hotel parking lot. Breakfast with Gigi Kimball at Ruby's on the pier. Monday over to Yorba Linda for the Nixon Library. Tuesday Janice's qualifier, a four-putt on the par-three 17th that pushed her into a six-way playoff, and a brutally tough second-year-in-a-row playoff loss. Then Ann and Ruth in Oceanside (who turn out to live in a beach house on the Pacific). And finally Torrey Pines, the South Course, the closing round of more than 1,600 miles down the California coast. Then east toward Arizona, with Lelia and Betty Lou waiting for us.

#california #long-beach #queen-mary

The Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, where Nixon was born and is buried

July 29, 20138 min read2013

Dateline July 29, 2013, The Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library

Out to Yorba Linda for the Nixon Library, on the grounds where Nixon was born and where he and Pat were eventually buried. A personal note for John: this was the library of the first president he ever voted for, in 1968, when you still had to be 21 to cast a ballot. The library handles Watergate up front and well, then walks you through the rest of a long, consequential life: Whittier, Duke Law, the South Pacific in World War Two, the Hiss case, the Checkers speech, eight years as Eisenhower's VP, the loss to Kennedy, the loss for Governor of California, and the comeback that landed him in the White House in 1968. The opening to China. The Brezhnev treaties. The Paris Peace Accords. The Hanoi Hilton POW flag. The long, slow post-resignation work of rebuilding. And the 1994 funeral where every living president attended, with Bill Clinton's eulogy doing the difficult work of asking the country to consider an entire life rather than only its lowest point.

#california #yorba-linda #richard-nixon

Air Force One (SAM 27000), the Boeing 707 that served seven presidents, suspended in the three-story atrium at the Reagan Library

July 26, 20137 min read2013

Dateline July 26, 2013, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum

From Malibu over the coastal mountain roads to Simi Valley, sometimes at 15 MPH around the curves. The drive up to the Reagan Library has a portrait of each president lining the entrance, opening out at the top of the hill onto an extraordinary view across the valley. Inside, a chronological walk through Reagan's life: Eureka College, sports announcer making up the play from a ticker tape, Hollywood, Knute Rockne and the Gipper, World War Two training films, the Screen Actors Guild, the GE Theater years, the slow turn toward conservatism, the 1964 'Time for Choosing' speech, two terms as Governor of California, and on to the presidency. The 'are you better off than you were four years ago' debate, the Hinckley assassination attempt, PATCO, Beirut, Grenada, Reykjavik, the INF Treaty, 'trust but verify.' And the Air Force One pavilion, a Boeing 707 that served seven presidents from Nixon to George W. Bush, suspended in a three-story atrium overlooking the valley. The chocolate cake stories, the Jelly Bellys, the shining city farewell. A long, well-told life.

#california #simi-valley #ronald-reagan

The west entrance to Yosemite National Park, with two rocks leaning together over the road

July 21, 20135 min read2013

Dateline July 21, 2013, The Redwood Forest and Yosemite

The introduction pictures say it all. These parks are some of God's greatest accomplishments. Out of Crescent City and down through the Redwoods. The BenBow Inn for a night, with a great chance meeting at the bar with a Southern California golf pro and a kindergarten teacher, who handed us a list of courses and restaurants. The Redwood Forest itself, where a slice of wood on display tells you how many hundreds of years it takes to grow ten feet in diameter, and the Roadtrek was too tall for the famous drive-through tree (John walked it for us). Cache Creek for golf and a stop at the tribal casino, where Janice discovered the California-specific roulette they run, and pocketed a $25 gas card. Then Yosemite, the west entrance with its two leaning rocks, Lower Falls, the Wawona Tunnel View, and Saturday morning at Glacier Point, looking straight down into the valley we had driven through the day before. Then back on the road for Monterey.

#california #redwood-national-forest #redwood-forest

Sunset over Camp Wilson, Will and Cathy's place on Whidbey Island, Washington

July 17, 20138 min read2013

Dateline July 17, 2013, Washington to the Redwood Forest

Out of Coeur d'Alene, twenty miles through the rest of Idaho, then on to Spokane, where both of John's parents grew up before meeting in Seattle at the University of Washington. The Ginkgo Petrified Forest at Vantage, a stop John remembered from family drives between Seattle and Spokane as a boy. A Columbia River campsite, Snoqualmie Pass where John learned to ski in first grade, across Lake Washington into Seattle for Pike Place Market and chowder at Lowell's. The Mukilteo ferry to Whidbey Island and three days with John's brother Will and his wife Cathy: salmon, mussels, the family deer, and Janice doing the actual RV repair herself with Will helping. Then ferry to Port Townsend, Hurricane Ridge above Port Angeles for a few snowballs in July, down the Olympic Peninsula and Highway 101, across the Columbia to Astoria. Down the Oregon coast in rain, Bandon Dunes too cold to play, and on to Crescent City and the start of the Redwoods.

#washington #spokane #seattle

The Floating Green at the Coeur d'Alene Resort, the world's only movable floating golf green, on underwater cables

July 11, 20133 min read2013

Dateline July 11, 2013, Coeur d'Alene and the Floating Green

Pulling into Coeur d'Alene to look for a campground, we noticed we were right next to the famous golf course, so we turned in just to take a look. One conversation with the assistant pro later, we had an 8:50 tee time the next morning. The course was in impeccable condition, hand-watered, divots filled in by staff walking the fairways with buckets. Two fawns played across the 6th hole until their mother called them back into the woods. Then the 14th: the floating green, the world's only one, movable on underwater cables to play anywhere from 100 to 200 yards. Janice hit it and made par. Janice's verdict, after lunch: better than Pebble Beach, which she has played a number of times. On to Seattle.

#idaho #coeur-dalene #coeur-dalene-resort

Bill Fairweather's grave on Boot Hill, Virginia City, Montana, with the sign noting his discovery of gold at Alder Gulch in 1863

July 9, 20138 min read2013

Dateline July 9, 2013, Montana, Big Sky Country

South out of Yellowstone into Teton National Forest, the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Parkway with the Tetons all the way down the right side, and into Jackson, where the farmers' market was in full swing on a Saturday morning. Then north to Virginia City, Montana, a real ghost town with deep family weight: John's mother's great uncle, Bill Fairweather, was the prospector who discovered gold at Alder Gulch in May 1863 and effectively founded the place. John had last stood at Bill's grave in 1958, at age eleven. Then over to Big Sky to spend a couple of days with old family friend John Bohlinger, Lt. Governor of Montana from 2005 to 2013, the Republican half of Brian Schweitzer's bipartisan ticket. Lunch at the Montana Club in Helena. Spruce River Campground outside Kalispell, an electrical problem on the Roadtrek that needed a part to be picked up in Seattle. On to Lake Coeur d'Alene.

#wyoming #tetons #jackson-hole

Old Faithful erupting, Yellowstone National Park

July 4, 20136 min read2013

Dateline July 4, 2013, Yellowstone National Park

Out of Cody on the morning of the 4th, the short drive west into Yellowstone. Through Shoshone National Forest, in past Yellowstone Lake with its hot pools steaming along the shore, an elk in the trees. Two days of southern loop and northern loop with everything Yellowstone is famous for: Old Faithful erupting (Artemisia Geyser around the corner, easily as beautiful), a grizzly on the road, a 5:00 AM Janice drive up to Hayden Valley with John still asleep in the back, a bison herd that brought their late-season babies right past the rig within touching distance, Tower Falls, a pair of black bears crossing the road, and a Saturday morning so quiet that you could see a female elk just grazing alongside the lake. Then south to the Tetons.

#wyoming #yellowstone-national-park #yellowstone

The Eisenhower family home on the grounds of the Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas

June 29, 20136 min read2013

Dateline June 29, 2013, The Eisenhower Library and Museum

Saturday afternoon at the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, about three hours west of Kansas City. From the library wall: 'Dwight David Eisenhower was born the year the US census pronounced the frontier closed and died the year man walked on the moon. In between those milestones he planned and led the greatest amphibious military assault in history and waged eight years of peace and prosperity as President.' The Eisenhower story: West Point 1915, Fox Connor's mentorship in Panama, first in his class at the Command and General Staff School, the Philippines under MacArthur, Marshall's call to the War Department after Pearl Harbor, D-Day, VE-Day, NATO. Then eight years as President, two terms, two losses for Stevenson. Korea ended. The interstate highway system. The 1957 Civil Rights Bill. Three balanced budgets. Eight hundred rounds of golf, and a 'Truman and Eisenhower 2012' t-shirt in the gift shop that we both stopped to look at.

#kansas #abilene-kansas #dwight-eisenhower

Sunset behind the arena at the Cody Stampede Rodeo, July 4, 2013

July 3, 20136 min read2013

Dateline July 3-4, 2013, Cody, Wyoming, as in Buffalo Bill Cody

Into Cody after the long drive across Wyoming. Fuel for the Roadtrek, fuel for the body (a local butcher with the best black rye we have ever had), and an early bed. The Stampede Parade on the 3rd is led by the only mounted Marine Color Guard in the entire US military, based in Barstow, California. A breakfast at Pete's Cafe that could have been a Norman Rockwell drawing. A drive out twenty miles to the McCullough Peaks Wild Horse Management Area to find a hundred wild mustangs on BLM land. And the Cody Stampede Rodeo on the 4th, running since 1919, with the sun going down behind the arena. Then on to Yellowstone.

#wyoming #cody #buffalo-bill

Camped outside Centennial, Wyoming, at the edge of the Snowy Range

July 3, 20137 min read2013

Dateline July 3, 2013, Traveling from Missouri to Cody, Wyoming

Out of Missouri toward Cody. The golf course we had on the schedule was hosting a Missouri Golf Association tournament, so we adjusted, did the Truman Library, then headed west past the Eisenhower Library in Abilene. John could not drive past Manhattan, Kansas without stopping at Kansas State University, his old college, to see the fraternity house and a couple of other old haunts. Then across Kansas to Lake Waconda in the wheat country, the largest community ball of twine in Cawker City, Ft. Collins for golf, Cheyenne for RV light repairs, and into the Medicine Bow National Forest. The Ames Monument at the highest point of the original transcontinental railroad. A campsite outside Centennial, Wyoming, found through the kindness of a bartender and a woman named Jenny. The Snowy Range at sunrise. A pronghorn antelope, the last surviving member of its family. Split Rock on the Oregon Trail. Saratoga's hot springs. And the dinosaur museum at Thermopolis, with one of twelve known Archaeopteryx specimens in the world. Then on to Cody.

#kansas #manhattan-kansas #kansas-state-university

The 'Buck Stops Here' sign from Harry Truman's desk, on display at the Truman Library

June 28, 20135 min read2013

Dateline June 28, 2013, The Truman Library

Our stop at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri was one of those pleasant, unexpectedly educational mornings. Most of us studied World History and US History in school, but unless we became serious students of the subject, the details of any one president's tenure tend to fade. Truman's tenure does not deserve to fade. The atomic bomb decision. The Truman Doctrine and the start of the Cold War. The Marshall Plan. The recognition of Israel eleven minutes after the declaration. The Berlin Airlift. NATO. Korea. The firing of MacArthur. The Buck Stops Here. And the small silver piano sent by a Holocaust survivor with her thanks. A wonderful museum, and a wonderful country.

#missouri #independence-missouri #harry-s-truman

The Grand National sign at the Robert Trent Jones Trail course in Opelika, Alabama

June 29, 20133 min read2013

Dateline June 29, 2013, Leaving Flagler Beach, Going West

Heading out west for the summer. National Parks, family, friends. The first leg runs from Flagler Beach to Cody, Wyoming for the Stampede on July 4th, then on to Yellowstone. Out of Florida, a stop in Orlando to swap a glow plug sensor, a KOA in Perry. Then a round at Grand National at Opelika, the one RTJ Trail course we did not get to with Pete and Bunny last May. Wind Creek State Park on Lake Martin. The drive through Alabama up to Memphis and on to Jonesboro, Arkansas, where Doris at Craighead Forest Park rented us a lakeside site for $10. The open country of Arkansas and Missouri, the kind that reminds you how big the country still is. Cooper's Landing on the Missouri River was flooded out, so we backed into Binder Park outside Jefferson City for the night. Independence, Missouri and the Truman Library in the morning.

#florida #alabama #arkansas

The Rio Grande crossing at El Paso, Texas, on the drive west

May 15, 20134 min read2013

Dateline May 15, 2013, On the Road Again, Janice Traveling in the RV

John became a realtor over the winter, and his first deal landed the week we were supposed to leave for the Roadtrek Corporate Rally in Branson, Missouri. He stayed home to work it. I went west on my own and added a stop that was not exactly on the way: my oldest friend Marty and her husband Jeff, in Cottonwood, Arizona. Marty and I have known each other since high school. From Flagler Beach to Biloxi (with a small detour through the Beau Rivage Casino), an overnight at a Walmart, San Antonio, Las Cruces with a fuel scare in a ghost town, a tethered surveillance blimp out in the desert, and the long beautiful drive through Tonto National Forest and Roosevelt Lake. Written by Janice.

#mississippi #biloxi #beau-rivage-casino