Day 19--June 21--Huntington Beach and the Pacific Ocean

Well, we finally made it ALL the way across the United States and put our feet into the Pacific Ocean.  It was cold!!  

Huntington Beach is a pretty place, but it still doesn't compare to Kill Devil Hills.  The major difference is the long stretch of sand from the plaza to the ocean. 

There was a large plaza where people could park, restaurants, and sidewalks for people to ride bikes on, walk their dogs, etc.  So from this sidewalk all the way out to the water was about 600 feet.  At Kill Devil Hills you walk over the sand dunes, and the ocean is so close. 

We ate lunch at Dukes, a restaurant right at the edge of this long stretch of sand. Our table was right at the windows overlooking all the activities on the beach, on the pier, and in the ocean.  Our food was SO delicious!  We enjoyed our time there very much. 
The ride back was......well, you describe it.  Take a look at the pictures.

Paul is such a good driver.  Of course, it helps when I knit and DON'T watch the traffic, especially since the brake on my side of the van doesn't work at all, but I still keep trying it quite often.
Once we left the road with all this traffic, the going got a little easier.  We took a longer way around to get back to our resort so we could go through Joshua Tree National Park.

  It never ceases to amaze me how different all these mountains are that we're seeing.  In this area there were so many huge rocks in all sorts of configurations. God's work is so amazing! 

The Joshua Tree is a type of cactus that grows in this park.

We had a very good day: riding, sitting on the beach, watching the Pacific Ocean, having lunch,  looking at beautiful mountains.....TOGETHER.

Charity asked me last night if we were getting tired of each other yet.  I told her, "Of course not!"  But then I added, "Ummm, maybe you should ask Daddy that question also."  He assured her, too, that we were indeed NOT tired of each other.  (I was listening from the other room to hear his reply.) 


Oh, remember the other morning when I showed you the ice on the windshield and the temperature showing 30 degrees?  Well, today, our temperature gauge on the dash showed 111 degrees!  What a difference a few miles makes, huh?

Tomorrow we travel back over the same roads we traveled today to visit the San Diego Zoo and to meet up with Ray. 

Another good day is in store!