Before I get going I apologise for this taking so long to get out there. My mind has been on a few other things over the last few weeks and I haven't really had enough headspace to sit down and blog. But today I'm sitting in the garden in the sun and it seems like a great time to write something.
So here it is.......the much requested final instalment of the Kinsman family holiday!!!!
PART 1 - Skiing in Utah!
PART 2 - Disneyland!
PART 3 - Newport Beach, Bumping into a Celeb and Watching Whales!
Our final location was Newport Beach in California. I chose for us to finish our holiday here because we wanted to finish with a few relaxing days on the beach. We'd never been to Newport Beach before and it looked really nice with lots of different parts to explore. Plus it was only a 20 minute drive to the coast from Disneyland so we wouldn't end up wasting time in the car.
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| Out exploring |
I'd decided (in a very reckless manner) before we even went away that I wanted to live in Newport Beach because it looked like such a great place, right on the beach, posh houses directly on the sand with fabulous views, a harbour, surfing, body boarding, sun-bathing, paddle-boarding, boats, an island to explore, shopping. What more could a girl want? Well, to say that it didn't disappoint is an understatement. Even Rog decided there and then that this would be a dream place to live. We've decided that if by some amazing freak of a miracle we become stinking rich we'll buy ourselves a place there overlooking the ocean and spend our (early) retirement mainly sitting with our feet up in the sun on our balcony, drinking mimosas and watching the world go by. If you could all keep your fingers crossed for us I'll let you come and stay in the guest room when we move out there.
OK, back to reality....
I'd booked us into a little motel that was a bit out of the way (because we couldn't afford to stay right in the centre) with the intention of hiring bikes to get around. The motel had some really great feedback online but I was still a bit nervous because it was small and family run and you never really know what to expect until you're there. Anyway, when we got there it lived up to the hype. The room was basic (as expected) but it had everything we needed, was plenty big enough for the four of us and it was perfectly clean (always a bonus). It was sunny when we arrived so we dumped our stuff in the room, grabbed some boogie boards, beach towels and beach chairs from the front desk (all free to use for people staying there) and made the 2 minute walk across the road to the beach.
It was beautiful, everything you'd expect from a Californian beach really! Big wide sands, lovely blue ocean with plenty of surfers out on the rolling waves. We even saw a couple of seals bobbing along in the surf. We set up a spot near to a lifeguard tower and settled in.
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| Sunset at the beach |
The next morning I'd booked for us to go out on a whale watching tour so we had to get up early to get some breakfast in and to make it across to Balboa Island in time for our trip. The plan had been to pop into the bike shop next door to the motel to hire some bikes and then to cycle down the peninsula and take the little ferry across to Balboa Island ready for our meet time of 11am. The trouble was that we'd been told that the owner of the bike shop is only ever there when he's not surfing, which is basically all day every day!!! Well, Jason was certainly proving hard to get hold of because every time we nipped across to see if the shop was open it was in darkness with a little dog guarding the door and barking at us whenever we approached. We decided that we'd go into the café two doors down, have breakfast and then check if Jason was around on the way back. If not, we'd have to drive down the peninsula and ditch the car somewhere whilst we went out on the boat. No biggie, just not as much fun.
So we went into the café and waited to be shown to a table. Almost as soon as we entered a big guy who was sat in the corner started talking (pretty loudly) to us. He was friendly so we talked back to him and the waitress sat us at a table just a couple of tables away from him. As we were looking through the menu and deciding what to order he carried on talking to us and some of the other people that were sat near. He was a larger than life character, a big guy, quite loud, wearing a white tracksuit with sunglasses on even though we were inside. He looked a lot like Dennis Rodman (one of THE best basketballers there has been) and the more I looked the more convinced I was. I just had to get a look at the tattoos on his arms to be sure, but I was just that bit too far away, plus I didn't want to seem rude staring at him! It's not easy trying to work out if someone is actually who you think they are without them noticing. Then Rog whispered to me "he's Dennis Rodman isn't he?" and I knew I was right! When the waitress came over to take our order Roger asked her outright and she said that it was Dennis and that he often comes into the café. HOW AWESOME!!! Dennis Rodman right there talking to us! OMG! He was such an awesome player, right up there as one of the greats.
Although we were completely star-struck (I mean, it's not your normal thing to be talking to one of the greatest and well-known sports stars in the world at 8:30am whilst digging into a stack of pancakes at the greasy spoon next to your cheap motel is it?) we'd never use that as an excuse to intrude on someone. So we spent the next half hour tucking into breakfast and telling the kids about Dennis and how awesome he was. Just before we left though Roger asked if he'd mind if we took a picture with him. He was more than happy to and we took our pictures and talked to him for a while. George asked him some questions like "who was your biggest rival on the court?" which he gladly answered and we had a general chat. I know he's had some struggles (and is clearly still going through some) but he was nothing but a gentleman to us. I truly hope that he finds some peace within himself and that things work out well for him.
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| Our friend Dennis |
Anyway, so after our bellies were full we walked back to the motel, popping to the bike shop on the way, but still no sign of the elusive Jason! The car it was then.
So we made our way to the whale watching meeting point on Balboa Island taking the ferry across Newport Bay (which was really cool!). We met up with Captain Ryan and a lovely lady who was coming on the trip with us and off we went.
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| Leaving Newport Bay |
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| Out on the ocean waves |
The experience that we has was truly amazing. I'd purposefully booked us on a small boat (basically a motorised blow-up dinghy) so that we could move quickly, be more responsive to the movements of the wildlife and could get up closer to them. I'm so glad we paid the extra money because it was brilliant. We saw some of the other boats out whale watching and they were really big with about 60 people on them. Ours had just 6 of us in total and we could move way faster than they could. we had the most fabulous couple of hours, exploring the coastline and following pods of dolphins and tracking down whales. We saw some amazing sights- loads of dolphins, sealions, seals (even a really cute baby one) and four grey whales. We came across two adult whales who were moving in the wrong direction. They were headed south instead of north and Ryan said it looked like one of them was ill so it was taking them longer than usual to make the migration down to the breeding grounds off Mexico. Then we saw a mother and baby travelling together northwards to their feeding grounds off Alaska. We spent ages gently following them and watching then surface every now and then. It truly was a fantastic experience and we Ryan was great at teaching us about all of the creatures we saw and how to look out for them. We thoroughly enjoyed it. If you're ever in the area I strongly recommend you hunt down Captain Ryan and go out on the water for a few hours with him. You won't regret it!
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| Being waved at by a seal! |
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| Feeling chilled out on the water |
After such a brilliant morning we had a bit of a walk around Balboa Island and Newport Peninsula, stopping off for burgers and ice-cream at the end of the pier and generally taking in the sights and sounds of the area. It was fun being nosey at all the big houses and wondering who lived in them.
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| Famous ice-cream shakes at the end of Balboa pier. Yummmm! |
When we got back to the motel guess who was in?! That's right, Jason!!! He was the epitome of a Californian surfer. Long hair, full on tan, proper laid back. He told us he hadn't missed a day of surfing in 3 years. I can't even imagine how awesome that would be! Anyway he sorted us out with bikes and told us to just bring them back when we didn't need them anymore.
So last few days were spent cycling around, exploring, sitting on the beach, eating more ice-cream (we weren't even bored of it yet!)... you know the drill.... and it was quite fabulous. Really relaxing and enjoyable.
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| Fun at the beach |
On the last day we decided to drive up the coast towards the airport instead of taking the direct freeway route. We drove through all of the beach towns and got to stop briefly at various points and have a look around. When we got to Long Beach we made a quick detour round to the harbour because we wanted to see the RMS Queen Mary which, for those of you who don't know, is a retired historic British ocean liner (and it was the grandest one in the world at that!) and World War II troopship. I really wanted to take Roger to see it because his Grandad once told us a story about it when he was in the Navy. During the war the ship was converted from a passenger ship to a troopship and it ferried Allied soldiers across the Atlantic for the duration of the war. It had been stripped of all its luxuries and painted grey and it was the largest and fastest troopship to sail. Roger's Grandad told us that he was part of the Queen Mary's crew as bosun's mate, which meant that he was involved in maintenance and repairs of rigging, anchors, cables, painting, etc. Somehow (and we never did really find out the reason) on one of the journeys back to England from the US Roger's Grandad found himself at the helm, steering the ship for about 20 minutes even though he'd never had any training and certainly wasn't the correct rank. He was really proud when he told us that story before he passed so I knew that we had to go and have a look at The Queen Mary whilst we could. It was really cool to see such an awesome sight and know that Roger's Grandad had steered it through the Atlantic.
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| The Queen Mary |
Our final stop was Santa Monica and had a mosey around the pier and promenade (as you do) before heading to the airport.
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| Santa Monica, with the famous pier in the background |
We had such a lovely time an we were sad to see the holiday come to an end but it felt like we'd been away for ages and we'd done so much. We'll be looking forward to skiing in Utah again next year and we're currently planning which city to explore next. The frontrunner at the moment is San Diego because we've heard so many good things about it. If you have any great suggestions let me know!
That's it for now. I hope you've enjoyed my little peek into our family holiday! Now I'd better get booking the next one......
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| Feeling relaxed |
