travel blog

California Coastline Jaunt (Part 1)

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California Coastline Jaunt
(part 1)
La Jolla Sea Lions, California Road Trip, bblogger, fblogger, travel, California, Stephanie Dawn Sjoberg, San Diego, Carlsbad
 
     We have both always wanted to live in California.  The weather makes each day so much more pleasant.  The air seems to go deeper into your body as you inhale.  The air, however, is very expensive in California, therefore at this juncture, we will be happy to live where we are, and visit the California air whenever we can.
 
     Last year’s trip, was one in which we flew in to San Francisco, and toured the coast south, as seen in the  California Road Trip  series of blog posts.
 
 
 
     We flew into San Diego to check out some tennis facilities and have meetings, and then drove north up the coastline, through La Jolla, Encinitas, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and many stops along the way. 
 
Ken Sjoberg, KS Tennis, fblogger, Luxor Living and Style, blog, California, La Jolla sea lions
 
 
     We stopped in La Jolla after a meeting, and took a few hours to enjoy the sea lion park area. You can get pretty close, and it’s fun watching them sun bathe and chill out. It smells like a zoo, but oh well. The beauty of nature was worth it.
Ken Sjoberg, KS Tennis, Spring Texas tennis lessons, fblogger, bblogger, Stephanie Dawn Sjoberg, Luxor Living and Style, sea lions, California Road Trip,
     We found a cute place to sit outside and eat wonderful Mexican food.  It also had a great view of the ocean from the outdoor seating area.  
 
     Jose’s Courtroom  had really good food and was a great place to relax and enjoy the view.
 
grand Pacific Palisades hotel, bblogger, blogpost, Luxor Living and Style, California, Spring Texas tennis lessons, press trip
 
 
 
 
     After more tinkering around, we ended up driving further north to Carlsbad, where our hotel was.  Grand Pacific Palisades  was a wonderful place to stay, since we were planning on meeting friends further north, in Newport and south in Del Mar during our stay.  
 
 
Stephanie Dawn Soberg, Ken Sjoberg, KS Tennis, The Woodlands Tennis lessons, Luxor Leasing and real estate, makeup artist, Luxor Living and Style Blog, Pacific Palisades Hotel
    I booked this trip through Orbitz.com which I’d never used before.  The funny thing, is that I’d originally booked a cute little beach front place, because the photos were so great.  After booking, only then did it occur to me to begin looking on the web for user reviews.  These days, customers can go online and post their own photos of how things really looked, so I got scared about my choice.
 
Stephanie Dawn Soberg, Ken Sjoberg, KS Tennis, The Woodlands Tennis lessons, Luxor Leasing and real estate, makeup artist, Luxor Living and Style Blog, Pacific Palisades Hotel
 
 
    I’d called the hotel,to inquire about which room we would be staying in.  The person on the phone asked “the reason for our stay” at which point I’d mentioned I was doing a blog post on the O.C., and we had other business as well.  He told me he wasn’t sure what room we would have yet.
 
    The next day, I get an email from Orbitz, asking me to call them.  It seems, the manager of the hotel, canceled my reservations, and did not want me staying there.  Orbitz was embarrassed, but very accommodating, in helping me find a better place to stay, which is how we ended up with the fabulous Grand Pacific Palisades.  My Orbitz rep said he was probably just scared of a negative review.  After that, I checked out the hotel again, and found that this manager had quite a few negative reviews on his personal behavior towards guests, so it was fortunate this happened. 
 
      Actually, I don’t give negative reviews on anything.  If someone sends me a product and I find it o be inferior…then I say nothing.  I just will not promote something that isn’t good.
 
Stephanie Dawn Soberg, Ken Sjoberg, KS Tennis, The Woodlands Tennis lessons, Luxor Leasing and real estate, makeup artist, Luxor Living and Style Blog, Pacific Palisades Hotel
     That being said…Orbitz.com was wonderful to work with after that happened.  
 
     Back to the trip…that night was Halloween, so after enjoying time together watching the sunset on the terrace, we had dinner at the hotel, and turned in early so we could get up the next morning to enjoy our day….(part 2 in the next blog post!)
-SDS
-November 24, 2013
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TWELVE SHOTS FROM MAUI

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    Maui was the most amazing place to me.  It seems eerily close to the descriptions of Heaven that people who have “died” and then been brought back to life, describe. 

     Beaches are wonderful and all, especially the amazing Black Beach, shown above, which was on the road to Hana.  For me, however, it was the rain forests and surrounding areas of Hana that took my breath away.

     This very narrow one lane bridge on the road to Hana was just beautiful to me. It was the lush  and colorful foliage that was most amazing.  It struck me to the core, that this is what heaven will be, and probably what the earth now, was meant to be.  When you think about the nutritional value of our fruits and vegetables declining, I assume they are not studying the samples from here.  The colors of the plant life here is so bold and intense, a sure indicator of the unspoiled ground.

        The colors on this thick, beautiful tree bark were astounding. 

     

      The stories of Heaven you continually hear, is that Heaven is the same as Earth, except the colors are better, more vibrant. This surely must be what is meant.

l    This shot was of the Oheo Pools which is a beautiful place to park and swim.

     Charles Lindbergh had a farm and was buried here and it’s now a Memorial. it was peaceful and serene, and basically is on a cliff overlooking the ocean.

     Out of the 600 pictures that we took, I’d decided on the 12 best that showed the true wonder of this magical place.  It is sometimes so hard to capture true beauty with a flat snapshot.  If you do go to Maui, you must take a tour to Hana.


     While Hana was amazing, there were other great areas as well. 


      This picture was taken from our table on the deck of a restaurant while having lunch in LaHaina.

     

     Another day trip we took together, was the drive up to the Haleakala National Park.


     It was great to be able to stop and take our time as we drove through the rural mountain side.  The temperature changed drastically from the bottom, which was around 83 degrees, to the top, which was about 50 degrees with the wind blowing like crazy, which made it feel like 35.


     

     As we made our way through the clouds, we eventually arrived at our final destination – over the clouds and on top of the mountain.


     

    That is my Maui.  It was the most wonderful time I’ve ever had, and a wonderful opportunity to see beautiful land at it’s finest, un-tampered with state.    


THE   END 

–November 12, 2012

–SDS

 
 
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CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP- SAUSALITO & HALF MOON BAY

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Half Moon Bay, Hotel      

     The next day’s adventure was only intended 

to be a late morning breakfast followed by a nice drive down the coast towards Monterrey, buy hey…what’s the rush?    

     My husband decided we just hadn’t had enough of the Golden Gate, so we had to drive over it, stop and position ourselves at various spots to get the best view. we had both been there before, but the whole idea behind this trip was just to experience things together.

San Francisco


   

      It was cold and windy so I had to resort to wearing a hat for the rest of the day. 


     A nice surprise was when he drove us to Sausalito and we hung out there, and ate lunch over looking the coastal town.  We relaxed and shopped all afternoon before heading to Monterrey.


 

    Sometime along the coast as it just was beginning to get dark, he noticed a freeway sign that said “Half Moon Bay.”



 

    There is a Kevin Costner movie we loved, “Rumor Has It” that was based around the town of Half Moon Bay, so we decided to  get off the freeway on a whim and check it out.

     It was tucked away along the coast. With  merky, cold air and fog, it was getting dark, so we decided to stay.   We were able to get to the beach just at Sunset, and found this funny sign posted at the beach.


       We found an old time styled  Main Street area and Half Moon Bay Inn.  It was another really neat place.  Nestled above a nice Italian restaurant , “It’s Italia,” it was the perfect  Inn.

    The place was amazing, we dined downstairs, where we met a local man who told us stories about Gerard Butler filming a movie there earlier this year,  called “Chasing Mavericks.”

     As we drove around the next morning, the real estate agent in me was curious as to the average price of a home there, compared to Texas and I learned that generally what you would pay $300,000 for in Houston, would cost you over $1,000,000 in Half Moon Bay.  $300,000 would possibly by you 2 bedroom condo with 1200 square feet that you don’t really want. Yes, Texas has it’s advantages.


     An early morning stroll on the beach is where we met Patty,who took this picture for us. A friendly woman whose husband died a year earlier – right as they were retiring, taught us a lesson about living for now, because who knows about tomorrow…and then we were off for more coastal touring as we headed towards Monterrey !

(Monterrey and Carmel – to be continued!)

-September 5, 2012

–SDS

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DAY ONE: CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP BEGINS!

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San Francisco Bridge, california road trip, travel blogger

     So, with no itinerary in mind, we flew in to San Francisco to begin a week long jaunt along the California coastline !  No hotel reservations… nothing but a ticket back home one week later.  The plan was to end up where we wanted, when we wanted and not be tied down to a schedule.


     This enabled us to stay at some great places, and get some last minute great deals! ( We also learned what to NOT ever do again!)


     So there will be a chain of blogs on this trip with photos , videos and other snippets of information on some great places and things we came across from Sausolito to Carmel !

     Our plane arrived in San Francisco on Day One of our journey , around one, and that was after a two hour delay!  This gave us plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the day in San Francisco before heading on to the next stop, the following afternoon.

     After picking up the rental car, we headed straight to Fisherman’s Wharf for lunch and then decided it would be romantic to take a freezing cold, windy boat ride underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, and viewing Alcatraz up close and personal.

     

  

      After the boat ride, we strolled around a bit, snacking on street vendor clam chowder and crab and people watching.

     

     After hanging around there a while, we decided to seek shelter and find a hotel. Unfortunately, the America’s Cup race was being held in town, so most places were either sold out, or had raised the pricing due to the busy weekend, UGH!

     So, the point here, is that you should check out any events that are being held in town, and that will let you know if there will be issues finding lodging.

     As we drove around, we decided to stop and take photos of the famous Lumbard Street and then hit China Town (my husband LOVES asian food) before ever finding a hotel…..

(to be continued in next post!)

August 31, 2012

–SDS

 

 

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Day 1 of California Road Trip!

luxorlivingandstyle
California Roadtrip Begins

     
     So, with no itinerary in mind, we flew in to San Francisco to begin a week long jaunt along the California coastline !  No hotel reservations… nothing but a ticket back home one week later.  The plan was to end up where we wanted, when we wanted and not be tied down to a schedule.

 
     This enabled us to stay at some great places, and get some last minute great deals! ( We also learned what to NOT ever do again!)

 
     So there will be a chain of blogs on this trip with photos , videos and other snippets of information on some great places and things we came across from Sausolito to Carmel !
 
     Our plane arrived in San Francisco on Day One of our journey , around one, and that was after a two hour delay!  This gave us plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the day in San Francisco before heading on to the next stop, the following afternoon.
 
     After picking up the rental car, we headed straight to Fisherman’s Wharf for lunch and then decided it would be romantic to take a freezing cold, windy boat ride underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, and viewing Alcatraz up close and personal.
 
CALIFORNIA 026
California Road Trip – DAY ONE – San FranciscoPersonal BlogTravelLuxor Lving & Style Blog

     

 
  
      After the boat ride, we strolled around a bit, snacking on street vendor clam chowder and crab and people watching.
 
     
 
     After hanging around there a while, we decided to seek shelter and find a hotel. Unfortunately, the America’s Cup race was being held in town, so most places were either sold out, or had raised the pricing due to the busy weekend, UGH!
 
     So, the point here, is that you should check out any events that are being held in town, and that will let you know if there will be issues finding lodging.
     As we drove around, we decided to stop and take photos of the famous Lumbard Street and then hit China Town (my husband LOVES asian food) before ever finding a hotel…..
(to be continued in next post!)
August 31, 2012
–SDS
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