Newport Beach California 4/23-28

First Day Sunset




Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim vs Seattle Mariners at Anaheim Stadium.
Safeco Field is by far superior, but its not a bad park. Lots of M's fans were in attendance.

Ferry from Balboa to Balboa Island
Passengers cost 1 dollar, cars 4 dollars, they run three boats from 6 am to 3 am daily.

Balboa Island

Sunset on Saturday





Crystal Cove State Park







The Balboa Pier


Sunset over Newport Beach Pier from Balboa P

Beach fires in Balboa

Chinese Temple in China Town

Bronwen and I headed south for some R&R. We decided on Newport Beach, because it's close and affordable. Also, my Aunt Jean lives a few miles away in Costa Mesa. We hoped to see her, but only saw her briefly on our way to the airport Monday.

The weather was not the greatest, high 60's, but it didn't stop us a bit. In fact, we both got burned our first visit to the beach. I burned worse, and I was wearing sun block. The beach was a short walk from the hotel, across Pacific Coast Highway 1 and walk one block to the great beach.

We ate some great Mexican food while here. Even the fast food was pretty good. I will blog about that in my food blog as soon as I can.

We made a side trip one day to Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach and Crystal Cove State Park one day. On our last day, we went to the Santa Monica Pier and to Downtown LA. Our first stop in LA was at China Town. It seemed bigger geographically, not sure if its bigger in population and businesses though.

After lunch in China Town, we headed towards the city on Broadway. We went through the Theater district, Historic Downtown and the Jewelry District. It was awful, we didn't dare stop.

I am excited for my next visit to Newport Beach.

Denver trip

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This trip held a few firsts for me.

The first first was the taxi ride from Coleman dock to SeaTac.

Let me start of by saying, I have had a few crazy stories already. Once, the cab driver started racing another taxi, they were side by side doing 90 plus on 509.

another time, there were NO cabs at the ferry terminal.

Since that experience, I always make sure I am the first to get down to the taxi area.

As I was walking down, I could see the drivers through the glass doors. They saw me with my suitcase, and I could see the whites of their eyes turn to dollar signs.

As the doors opened, suddenly 10-15 drivers started shouting at me "ride sir?", "come with me sir", "right this way please". The tallest of the bunch, the alpha driver, pushes from the back through the sea of drivers, he lunges his long, lanky arm out to grab my bag. "this way sir, my taxi is right in front". I shouted "town car!". They all repeated it. The taxi drivers backed off. Now I had 6 -8 towncar drivers to deal with. I pointed at one guy and said "YOU". This did little to help. I shouted "NO FIGHTING"

We finally made it to his towncar, parked on the wrong side of Madison. He popped the trunk and it was full with a child car seat. My bag went in the front seat...

The driver then headed North under the viaduct. He turned right onto Alaska way. I assume he is going to turn back onto Madison and head up to 1st Ave, take a right and then another right on Columbia and be on Hwy 99 like EVERY driver does... Nope. He goes down Alaskan and then pulls into the transit lane on Yesler. He goes up to 1st and takes a right. Where are we going? I wonder... I had lots of time, so I didn't care, as long as he didn't turn down some alley. He finally turns on Edgar Martinez Dr and gets on the freeway... ok.

The second first was rain. It rained so hard on the way into town from the airport. I would have never had a rain jacket with me, had it not been raining in Seattle when I left.

The last odd thing about this trip was the flight home. I believe I was actually unlucky enough to be on a flight with all first time fliers.

As we boarded, I saw many, many people with multiple carry on bags. I was behind a family with small kids who, just now, as we are walking down the ramp from the gate to the plane, realize their seating assignments are all split up.

I entered the plane to a sea of chaos. No one knew how to stow bags in the overhead compartment, the flight attendants were repeating the instructions on how to stow and was trying to restow things as quick as they could. Then, the family behind be started trying to trade seats with other passengers, while the passengers behind them waited to get seated.

I was seated first, on the aisle. My two row mates showed up. A young man and woman. The man immediatley started to harass the flight attendants. Ugh..

Finally we take off. All good, then, we hit the storm we were trying to beat out of town. We had some extreme turbulence for the first half of the flight. It was really good to finally get home.