Holiday to Pacific West Coast in Jun 2012: Day 7 – San Diego to Oxnard

By Nige on Sun 10 Jun 2012 at 22:00
Type: Post
Story: Holiday to Pacific West Coast in Jun 2012
Tags: Dana Point | Hilton | Huntingdon Beach | Laguna Beach | Long Beach | Mustang | Newport Beach | Oxnard | Redondo Beach | San Diego

Jet lag wearing off now – woke at around 6am.  Vick wanting to watch the tennis so it’s a late start on the road.

Breakfast at Homewood Suites is nowhere near as good as Hilton Garden Inns.  It’s a bit of a fight to get anything, the food is nowhere near as high quality, and there’s not that much choice.  The rooms are far better though – you get a full kitchen, there’s a separate lounge and it would be better for families.  This Homewood Suites is well located and has great service, so happy we made the right choice to come here for our San Diego “leg”.

Once Djokovic had got one set back Vick gave in and accepted we need to make a start.  In the end the game was abandoned due to the rain – they are resuming on Monday morning (come ON Rafa!)

This leg was always going to be a long one – 180 miles or so through all of the beach areas of LA.  We picked up Highway 1 at Dana Point, and will follow this road all the way until we pick up Highway 101 at Leggett.

The first stretch through to Dana Point was fairly uneventful – we were cruising on the I5 so made good progress.  Note during this stage Vick didn’t allow the hood to come down since it was too cold.  Once we came off the I5 we slowed down considerably.

Our first stop was at Laguna Beach where we found a Starbucks, and the sun came out.  We watch the beach volleyball games and enjoyed the warmth.  We filled up with fuel and opened up the hood and we were back on our way.

We went through Newport Beach, Huntingdon Beach and Long Beach before cutting across following Highway 1 to Redondo Beach.  That stretch seemed to be a large industrial park – it wasn’t very pleasant.  We did briefly stop at Taco Bell for lunch, and then we slathered up in sun cream to finish off the trip, but still got burnt arms and both have white horizontal lines on the sides of our faces.

We reached Oxnard at around 4pm where Vick informed me that we had stayed at the hotel before, and we had been to a restaurant down the road before.  I couldn’t remember any of that.  I suspect she has been on a holiday (or two) without me… No, you were with me, you just can’t remember anything – just ask Jax and Albert!

Once checked in we visited the pool, and it was Bl**dy freezing.  You wouldn’t get this in Palm Springs!  Vick was a hero and managed to get in and do a few lengths (Girl Power!!)  I checked out the temperature of the Spa so that it would be ok for Vick when she had finished her lenghts.  Well someone had to do it!

We dined at the Outback restaurant (which we had apparently dined at 6 years ago), and had some good food to finish the evening off.

Stats for Day 7: 185 miles.

Plan for tomorrow is to watch the footie in Oxnard and then drive to San Luis Obispo.  Note how the footie is sacrosanct but the tennis can be missed.   Just wait till Wimbledon, Mr B!!!  I’m gonna get stroppy…

Follow the whole story here: Holiday to Pacific West Coast in Jun 2012