From Atlantic to Pacific!

Saturday, July 28, 2007. Today we left Vegas and headed to San Clemente, the home of Jane's sister, Lanneau. She had very generously offered to house us for two nights while we accomplished two of our goals -sticking our feet in the Pacific and touring the Crystal Cathedral. This was another great opportunity to get our laundry done for free--thanks again, Lanneau! By the way, Lanneau is now in a battle against colon cancer, so please say a prayer for our gracious host for a full and speedy recovery.

Today's journey took us across a vast expanse of Mojave desert, and we saw Barstow, the city made famous in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath as the first taste of California the Joads experienced. We also saw the World's Tallest Thermometer, which we made sure to mention to Betty Jo's sister, Kathy, and her husband Bill. They love roadside attractions, and they had bragged on seeing the World's Largest Frying Pan!

We had our first taste of California freeway traffic just getting to San Clemente, and we started to reconsider one of our destinations, Rodeo Drive. Just how many hours of our trip did we want to spend sitting in traffic? Was there an alternate attraction that might be more appealing?

We started to consider our options as we steamed in normal California coming-home-from-work traffic.

San Clemente is a charming town with beautiful views, temperate weather, and gorgeous homes. No wonder people flock to California. We saw some of our most beautiful scenery there.

Lanneau lived on the side of a hill, which was accessed by a rather curvy road, but when we reached her house, what a vision! Her poolside patio overlooks the Pacific Ocean, and the view is stunning. Lanneau and her son, Christian, took us down to San Clemente's beach, and we got our pictures taken of our toes in the ocean. We wanted proof that we had traveled from sea to shining sea.

We ate supper on the patio of Cafe 207, and I noticed that almost all of the restaurants we saw had outside dining. Very few of the restaurants in our area offer this, but we do not have temperate weather all year round. We ended our sightseeing by driving to an overlook from which we could see the car lights below and the pier lights of Laguna Beach. On this day, we reached the western-most point of our trip, and we knew from this point on, our direction would be easterly; it was a bittersweet realization, but many of our favorite destinations were yet to come, so it was impossible to feel truly depressed.