Tag Archives: california
Spice Up Your Holidays with a Tamale Party
Do you need some spice in your life? Here’s a festive holiday idea!Whether it’s a tamale party or your own special holiday tradition, please be sure to get together with family and friends this year.
Enjoy each other… CONTINUE READING >>
Glamour + Camping = Glamping on the California Coast
Your GypsyNesters take a Glamping adventure of a lifetime up California’s Pacific Coast Highway!Follow us from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara to Beverly Hills – yes – Beverly Hills, as we discover what the Glamping Life is all about!… CONTINUE READING >>
California Road Trip!
We headed up the California Coast – GypsyNester style – finding the wildest, wackiest and most ginormous stuff along the Pacific Coast Highway… CONTINUE READING >>
Peering at the Pier in Santa Monica
Have you ever wondered where Route 66 ends?Rather than dumping travelers into the Pacific Ocean, Santa Monica offered a better solution – a pleasure pier.
The pier is actually two... CONTINUE READING >>
Amtrak 15-Day Rail Pass Live-Blog – Week Two
Week Two of our crazy 15-day Amtrak Rail Pass. See the Rockies by train – the only way you can see these views unless you are whitewater rafting! Veronica washes her hair with oatmeal, we see a haunted train station, view of the Pacific and the mountains from the dome car! Tour of the bathroom anemities and meet the coolest Amtrak employee ever- Ellis the Cafe Guy! Tons of video and pics!… CONTINUE READING >>Ellis, the Cafe Guy, Shows Us Around the Cafe Car on the California Zephyr
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Ellis, “The Cafe Guy,” Amtrak’s coolest employee, shows us around his domain. The Zephyr, like all of Amtrak’s long haul runs, has both… CONTINUE READING >>
Amtrak 15-Day Rail Pass Live-Blog – Week One
Week one of our crazy 15-day Amtrak Rail Pass. Chicago to California via Santa Fe. Ride along with us as we show you the ins-and-outs of train travel, eat in Santa Fe, hang out with Michael Jackson in Hollywood, and get caught in a wicked storm that stopped the train! Loads of video and interviews, including David’s “tour” of couch seating… CONTINUE READING >>San Diego, Padre
San Diego could have a massive inferiority complex, being overshadowed by its giant neighbor to the north — like a redheaded stepchild, but it doesn’t. No need to — the beauty and attractions have so much to offer.We discovered San Diego while driving down from that sprawling metropolis above, our buddy Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo found it by sailing up from Mexico.
Although Portuguese by birth, Johnny C. was working for Spain on a find-a-shortcut-to… CONTINUE READING >>
Panda Has a Bamboo Lunch!
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Lucky for us, both Su Lin and Zhen Zhen were out having a bite of bamboo when we got to Panda Canyon. Only four zoos… CONTINUE READING >>
I Love LA
“I love LA” certainly has a better ring to it than “I love El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciúncula.” Maybe that’s why the name has been shortened over the years to the point that now it’s just two letters. This gives Los Angeles… CONTINUE READING >>Finding the Real Hollywood
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The GypsyNesters go on a quest to find the Real Hollywood! What they found… CONTINUE READING >>
Catalina Cart Blanche
“A rose by any other name…” No doubt ol’ Bill Shakespeare didn’t know Catalina from Capulet but the little island off the coast of California sure has had its share of monikers. The Tongva, dating back to 7000 BC, lived on the island and called it Pimu. Portuguese explorer and serial-California-stuff-namer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo dubbed it San Salvador in 1542. In 1602, Spain rechristened it Santa Catalina. Today, it’s Catalina Island or just plain Catalina… CONTINUE READING >>A Dollop of Danish
Take Native and Spanish influences, intermix with ingredients from across the Pacific, add a dash of good old American cowboy western and…Eureka!, it’s California. Diversity aside, we never expected to stumble upon a big dollop of Denmark right in the middle of Santa Barbara County. Eureka!, it’s Solvang.Here’s the scoop: A few Danish teachers got sick… CONTINUE READING >>
Bull Elephant Seals Fight For Territory
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Bull elephant seals fight for territory on the Elephant Seal Beach near San… CONTINUE READING >>
Sur. Yes Sir!
Waves crashing against the craggy coast, mist drifting up mountains that rise abruptly from the sea, bridges impossibly clinging to cliffs — we’d seen …CONTINUE READING >>Baby Elephant Seal – One Day Old!
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Baby seal born on the Elephant Seal Beach. Baby and mother have a visit from a bull and things get… CONTINUE READING >>
Going Coastal
While traveling, periodically preconceived notions are blown totally out of the water once a place is visited in person.Our most recent notion deconstruction locomotion occurred along a rocky stretch of the California coast just south of San Francisco.
Carmel-by-the-Sea, as anticipated, is a … CONTINUE READING >>
What in the Sam Hill is a Yosemite?
OK, show of hands. How many of us first heard of Yosemite from Looney Tunes? C’mon, reach fer the sky fragnabbit! On those childhood Saturday mornings Yosemite Sam introduced us to the name but he had nothing to do with the National Park. Friz Freleng just liked the plumb western sound of California’s premier park for his loud-mouthed, sourdough, going-off-all-half-cocked, six-shootin’ little fella. Fifty-odd years of Saturdays later yer flea bitten GypsyNestin’ varmints finally met Sam’s namesake… CONTINUE READING >>The San Francisco Treat
Growing up all we knew about San Francisco was that it was really cool. Eric Burden sang about it, Otis Redding sat on its dock of the bay and it required flowers in your hair if you were going there. Sure Tony Bennett left his heart there but Jimi Hendrix left his guitar, on fire! Well… it’s true, it’s true, it really IS cool.
We rode the subway under the Bay into town (comforting ourselves with the knowledge that the odds of an earthquake rolling through while we were underground were minimal)… CONTINUE READING >>
Massive Redwoods! “Tree model” David!
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Impossible to show how big the Redwoods are on film? Nope! This… CONTINUE READING >>
Ewok-ing Through the Redwood Forest
Timber! For over one hundred years that dreaded cry filled the forests of the northern California coastal region. Redwoods over three hundred feet high and a thousand years old came crashing to the ground at a frightening pace. Over two million acres of these majestic trees were reduced to a few groves.Thankfully the State of California stepped… CONTINUE READING >>
