Southern California

12/24/2019 Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Here’s one of those life lessons that I’ve learned on this voyage of our; when you visit a place that has the words “Presidential Library” after a former president’s name, you are NOT going to an actual library. It may have meant that at some point in time, but certainly not now. What is does mean is that you are going to a _museum_ that celebrates that particular individual’s life and accomplishments.

….and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is quite the “museum”. Amazing location in the hills above Simi Valley, amazing building from an architectural stand point and amazing displays of all sorts of stuff from the Reagan’s life.

Step 1, explain what a teleprompter is to your kids. Step 2, sit back and laugh as they attempt to use it for its intended purpose!

This is supposedly a perfect, 1:1 scale, replica of the oval office when Reagan was in office.

Since we are here during the Christmas season, they were having an extensive display of Christmas trees that were decorated in a theme that celebrated all the countries that President Reagan visited.

We saw “Air Force One-Half” back at LBJ’s ranch in Texas and now we get to see Air Force One. Ronald Reagan was the last president to use this plane before it was upgraded to the 747 that we all know today.

….and guess what else they have, a Helicopter (a.k.a Marine One). Grant probably knew that back in the parking lot while we were parking the car. We think there is a good chance that he smelled it!

…..and today, Santa is the pilot!

And let's not forget the Reagan's fondness for horses!

….and a special treat for nerds like me, an ultra rare opportunity to see a F-117 “Nighthawk”. There are only 2 of these on display to the public and this is one of them! Yay! Very cool planes that are the predecessor to the B-2 Stealth Bomber that we see on the news from time to time.

…..and Val is SUPER excited to see another F-14. I can FEEL her Inner “Maverick” and “Goose” being channeled right now!

12/25/2019 Christmas Day. Well, another Christmas day has come to the RV and the kids are pretty darn excited and semi-baffled as to how Santa delivers without a chimney!

Dylan has been hoping for Hershey’s Spread for years now because Nutella has nuts and that’s a no-go for Dylan.

Grace finally got new earrings to replace the starter ones she had when she got her ears pierced. Predictably, they are bunnies!

Grant got the Dinosaur he REALLY wanted….and it promptly ate his Paw Patrol characters….

….and washed them down with a frosty beverage.

12/26/2019 Channel Islands National Park. Visiting this National Park is a tad “interesting”. The Visitor’s Center is on the mainland (in Ventura) and it’s a nice place with lots of information and an observation deck to look out over the ocean to the islands, BUT the main attraction is really the islands themselves.

You CAN visit the islands and you CAN (tent) camp on the islands, but you need permits and time and of course, we have neither of those things. We did elect to the take the boat ride though, which they bill as a whale watching tour. We were out on the water for darn near 3 hours and while we did not see any whales, it was a great experience.

We DID get to see dolphins! Started very early in the trip just outside the harbor where they were swimming alongside the boat….and I mean RIGHT ALONG SIDE the boat!

…..and then LOTS more of them out in the open ocean!!! Basically, everything you see in this picture that looks like a white cap, is a dolphin. There had to be a hundred or more in this group. It was really neat to see.

There were several times where we hit some pretty serious chop and I got a kick of trying to capture a picture of the spray off the bow of the boat.

Here is Dylan trying to catch his dinner.

Back in the harbor just in time for sunset.