Final Day in California

We spent out last day going back to SeaWorld to see the animal shows. We started the day at the Polar Bear exhibit.
From there we went to the Dolphin show.


After the dolphin show we went to see Shamu!


Tomorrow morning we fly home. We had a great vacation with many wonderful memories. We are sad to see it end but are also ready to be back home.

Monday at Wild Animal Park and Sea World

Monday we headed to the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park about 30 minutes outside of San Diego. We got to see animals in a much more "native" setting.
We got a lot of great pictures of the lion cubs playing.
This was a shot of a white rhino....only about 3,000 of these are left in the world.
Here's a gorilla giving me a "thumbs up".
Marcie had a good time at the petting zoo!

After the Wild Animal Park we headed over to Sea World where we got to see some great shows featuring sea lions, dolphins, and of course, Shamu!

Sunday visit to San Diego Zoo

On Sunday we visited the San Deigo Zoo. Our first stop was the Flamingo pool.
We were amazed at the number of birds that were roaming free throughout the park including this peacock!
We spent a lot of time watching the polar bear play with his big red ball.
We were also treated to a rare view of a Panda.
We also got to see some good shots of the Gorillas.
Here is a shot of us back at the Flamingo Pond.This was one of Dave's Favorites, the Black PantherOne of the last stops was looking at the Meerkats.

Arriving in San Diego

On Saturday we arrived in San Diego. Our first stop was the Aircraft Carrier Museum where we got a chance to tour the Carrier Midway.
We saw a lot of interesting sights including fighter aircraft like this F-14 Tomcat below.

We were also lucky enough to be able to sit down with one of the carrier pilots from the Midway as he talked with us about the experience of landing an plane on an aircraft carrier, even at night!. Very interesting. The plane below is an F-18 Hornet, one that Dave flew a lot (in a video game that is).
In addition to airplanes there were helicopters on deck including the one that recovered 5 Apollo capsules.
Here is a shot down the take off catapult and the end of the carrier.

Arrival in Hollywood

Friday we drove from Santa Monica to Hollywood to tour WB studios and check out Hollywood Blvd.
This was the first stop on our WB tour. This was the actual outfit worn by Daniel Radcliff in the Harry Potter films.
This street set was used on numerous films including the movie Cloverfield. The buildings at the far end were replaced by a large green screen to show the "monster" and the rest of the New York skyline.
We stopped at several sets including the set for ER below.
A final stop on the tour took us to a room filled with actual vehicles and mockups from WB movies including the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo.
When we left WB studios we drove to Hollywood Boulevard and checked out the walk of fame and Grauman's Chinese Theater.
We got a chance to see a lot of footprints including those from Darth Vader, C-3PO, and R2-D2 below.

Taking a tour of Hearst Castle in San Simeon

Thursday we toured Hearst Castle in San Simeon. This is the shot as you enter the castle grounds.
This is the "Neptune Pool" with some interesting greco-roman architecture.
This was the view as we head towards the Casa del Grande (Main House)
Here is the shot of the main castle building. It was patterned after a cathedral.
This is the second pool that happens to be indoor. The pictures don't do it justice.

Touring Carmel and Pebble Beach

Wednesday we drove to Carmel from Monterey and saw more of the California coastline.

Once we arrived in Carmel we took the 17 mile drive around pebble beach golf course. A very scenic drive where we saw lots of seals and birds.
This is a picture of a 200 year old Cypress tree that is the icon for the pebble beach area. They actually are hoping the tree will last another 100 years.
This is a shot of the 18th fairway on the Pebble Beach Golf Course.

Heading down the coast on Highway 1

We started our day by visiting Muir Woods to see the Redwood Trees. I took quite a few pictures but the actual trees were far more majestic than you can tell from the pictures below.

After leaving Muir Woods we headed down the coast on Highway 1 to Santa Cruz and then on to Monterey. We won't be able to go much further as Hwy 1 is closed near Big Sur.

Day Three: Leaving San Francisco

We started our day today by renting a car and heading out of the city on the Golden Gate Bridge. Once on the other side we were able to take some great pictures.
Another person we ran into suggested we had out to an overlook and we were able to grab some other great shots.We then headed to the Sonoma Valley where we got a private tour and wine tasting at the Viansa Winery, voted the most scenic winery in the Sonoma/Napa area.
From there we headed to Chateau StJean Winery which had equally beautiful grounds.

Day Two in San Francisco

Today we toured Alcatraz Prison in the morning. It was an interesting experience and we really liked the audio tour.
The cells were pretty small and didn't have much privacy!
Marcie and Matt spent some time in the recreation yard with the seagulls.We were able to get some great shots of the city from before we headed back.
We took in the Exploratorium Science Museum and headed down to the waterfront to get some shots of an old three masted schooner docked there.