A Week at Newport Beach and surrounding area.

Tuesday, February 18th

All packed up and on the road from North Joshua Tree BLM shortly after 10am. This way we should miss the LA morning traffic. We made it in just over 2 1/2 hours to Newport Beach RV Park and Marina. Traffic was steady, heavy but kept moving. Going from 2 lanes up over the mountains to 8 lanes on the other side was a bit disconcerting after so many weeks in open areas of the USA. Highway 60 to the coast was down to single lane over the mountain as they are doing a major upgrade and widening the highway, pretty skinny in some areas with cement abutments on each side of the one lane. Ray's suburb driving kept us safe. :)

Coming down into Riverside over the mountain on Highway 60

Pulled into the RV Park and pulled into our spot. The spots are very tight here. The stupid sewer is integrated into the light/electric/water post so it's much higher than usual which inhibits draining somewhat. Add to that, we had to put the services under the coach to be able to go face in for the view. Oh well, we have a spot with grass for our use in front of us which Freya is really enjoying.

View from our front window of the coach.

After set up, we were starving, so off to find a restaurant/bar nearby. The Fly'N Fish Oyster Bar and Grill and Balboa peninsula is the spot, about 15 minutes away. OMG the seafood is fantastic. We even ordered 6 Fanny Bay raw oysters from Vancouver Island and they are delicious.  I never eat oysters as I have not like them each time I've tried them but here wow! The restaurant is located  right on the beach.

What a yummy lunch with great beer.

After lunch it was time to put my feet into the Pacific Ocean, right across the street from the restaurant.

Balboa Beach my feet are in the water, even if I have my running shoes on.

Newport Pier

Back at home with full bellies, Ray took Freya for a walk along the path to the marina. He will be taking pictures all week. lol

Walkway over swimming lagoon so you can walk a "circle tour". 

Fishing Pelican

Spent the rest of the afternoon until dusk sitting outside enjoying the view before coming in for the night. Ray heated up some leftovers for himself. Once it was dark outside, Ray took his camera and tripod outside for some reflection shots on the lagoon.

Looking back towards our campsite.

Looking towards the resort

Wednesday, Feb 19th

Woke up to high level fog. Sure is warmer here overnight ... even with the A/C on I was warm. We are on the direct takeoff route for the airport close by so it's quiet noisy until after 11pm when it seems the planes quit flying, probably an  city ordinance here in LA. I even opened my window but it was still warm outside.

Ray and I started our morning using the clubhouse hot tub. A great spa for Ray, warm and hard jets.

Today we went up to Huntington Beach to pick up Freya's meds at Walmart. We also stopped at Huntington Dog Beach first so that Freya could lose all of the desert dust. lol The surf was up a bit so did not want her to get too deep. Unfortunately for her, she hit a low spot caused from the surf as she was running and one second only her belly was getting wet and the next she disappeared and was completely under water including her head. Pretty funny. Served my purpose though. :) She has been completely dedusted!

Huntington Dog Beach also a surfing beach.

Oil Rigs

What happened Mom? and where is my stick?

Thanks mom for finding my stick.

Lots of people enjoying the beach with their dogs. Gorgeous day.

Walkway above the dog beach

Huntington Beach is sure a long beach, seems like it goes for miles. After shopping we headed back to our campsite and after dropping Freya and groceries off decided to go for lunch at the Bistro here on site. We were very disappointed with the food. Ray and I decided to have their scallop ceviche and share fish tacos. Everything was spiced so heavily you couldn't taste food and we could not eat it. We didn't eat any of the ceviche and managed to swallow a taco. They kindly took off the ceviche off our bill. I had made reservations there for a dinner and a Sunday brunch ..... cancelled!

Here are some pictures Ray took from there though of our view and some of the houses. Great location, terrible food, at least for us.

These two pics were before we got our food. lol

I really loved the Fly'N Fish place we went to yesterday. When we were there I found out that they have a Happy Hour with really great prices ... much cheaper for things than we paid for so we decided to go back for an early dinner. I got my own plate of oysters for $9 instead of $22 yesterday, as did Ray and we shared some more calamari and a cup of chowder. Of course we had their delicious beer on tap too. Great food and 1/2 the price we paid yesterday. :)

6 Bluepoint oysters ... yum

We took a moment to sit on the seawall and listen to the ocean for 10 minutes before jumping into the car. Back home to Freya and then sitting outside enjoying the rest of the afternoon. Ray had leftovers for his second dinner. :)

Thursday, February 20th

Woke up to fog this morning but by 7 it was already dissipating. I stayed in bed a little longer waiting for Ray to get the coffee on. lol Freya stays in the bedroom with me, not ready to get up yet but needs to keep "an eye" on her Dad.

Today we will drive south to San Clemente after the morning rush hour.

We left about 9:30 am, waiting for the fog to dissipate. I drove us down Highway 1 (can it be called a highway when there are so many traffic lights?) stopping at various beaches for Ray to take pictures. Parking fees varied from $6 for an hour to 75 cents per hour. Strangely enough, the most expensive spots had the least interesting scenery ...

We found a street parking spot downtown Laguna Beach with a meter and spent 50 cents. Just down the road was the entrance to their "Main Beach". Absolutely gorgeous. For a Thursday morning, lots of activity on the beach.

We were parked on the street in front of this patio restaurant that specializes in seafood crepes. It was too early for lunch so we passed on it. They also have a french bakery on the front side.

You think it might be a little windy here at times? Look at the trees!

Lots of flowering bushes ... spring has sprung here!

Back in the car to the next stop, Aliso Beach Park. Parking was only 75 cents for the hour. My foot was a little sore so I took my chair out of the car and enjoyed watching the ocean while Ray went and took some pictures. This was my most favourite beach that we stopped at. Glorious blue water. Very peaceful. Spent an hour just chilling.

We noticed another coast access point and drove down to see, 1000 Steps Beach. Turned out to be a free parking lot high above the beach with very expensive houses below the parking lot. Gorgeous views though.

Continuing further down the road the next park was the Doheny State Beach. This spot was $6 for the hour and Ray had a very hard time finding anything he wanted to take a picture of ... we were in and out of there in 10 minutes.  They do have very fat squirrels.

One fat squirrel! 

Oh and a few surfers

We were both getting hungry so decided to continue further down the highway to San Clemente. Managed to find a parking spot really close to their pier for 75 cents per hour. The fog had really come back in, so we decided to eat at their Fisherman's Wharf Oyster Bar and hope that the sun would break through by the time we had finished eating. One side of the pier is the Fisherman's Wharf Oyster Bar, where we ate, and the other side is the full Restaurant and Bar. Mostly the same menu just more expensive entrees in the restaurant.  I had a bucket of fresh mussels, about 30 of them and they were delicious. On the side, a bowl of their clam chowder that also was wonderful. Ray was able to get 3 pieces of Halibut and Chips for a reasonable price and it was great also.

The sun did manage to come out so we walked the pier after lunch and Ray took some more pics. As cool as it was there were some "young bathing beauties" in their skimpy bikinis ... we are definitely in SoCal. lol

They have huge lifeguard stations all along these beaches to watch out for the surfers and swimmers.

That was our trip so we turned around and headed back to Newport Beach. Another lovely day. Spent the afternoon outside in the sunshine. The sites next to us have all filled up for the weekend and is kind of like a "dog park" with everyone's dog and kids running around. Love it. Really enjoying this area and eating tons of fresh seafood.