“Road Trip USA 🇺🇸 Part 3 of 6 ~We Made it to California from North Carolina” October 2024

• November 3, 2024
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

WE BE ROAD TRIPPIN to CALIFORNIA

There is always a specific vibe, as one gets close to arriving in California. I do love it. Most of the time it is excellent weather, too.

On this particular morning, we did have a marine layer that was over the beaches, that eventually burned off.  The cool thing about the location of our house, from Laguna Beach is, we never experience these marine layers, and we are only three miles away. Bonus.

Day 4  

4:30AM – 9:30AM

We drove from Quartzite, Arizona, the rest of the way to our home in Laguna Niguel. We got an early start, though the drive was easy. We just had a lot to do in a short period of time, so we made the best of our one day, there! It payed-off, because we had extra time to play, just a bit and do a sit-down meal, at the Coastal Kitchen in Dana Point, (also not far from our house) …where we planned to order their yummy pork belly, BUT, they don’t serve them anymore… bummer. Oh well, things change. We got Clam Chowder, instead. 

4 hours

247 miles

Our lemon tree was loaded, so we harvested some, to take back with us… yum!

Our place looked great and we got everything done, and still had time to take a drive down memory lane; on the Pacific Coast Highway, going to Balboa Island and Newport, and of course Laguna Beach, which we share the same zip code with, in Orange Country. We had our beach wedding there! It was so perfect!

Balboa Island is very fun. The ferry is quick. Back in the day, this was a very popular area of the famous stars. Daryl lived in this area since he was 15. He was always seeing somebody famous: Desi Arnez and Lucile Ball, John Wayne, Lloyd Bridges, Roy and Dale Evans…..I can’t even remember all the people he has mentioned over the years. But like Daryl, the locals left them alone to enjoy their own time, whether it was in a restaurant, on a boat, or scuba diving.

Our Beach Wedding was here, (gazebo) overlooking the ocean.

At the end of the day, we were filled up in so many ways, plus, we had Baloo loaded up and we spent one night in a hotel, not far from our house.

Orange County always has security, everywhere, so we weren’t too worried about our belongings in the back of the truck at that hotel, but we did have to hatch a plan, for the rest of our night stays, for the trip back to North Carolina. More on that, later.

Day 4

Stayed at Best Western

Lake Forest, California

One Night

15 minutes

7 miles

This was a fine hotel, but we usually stay our nights over at Laguna Hills Lodge. It’s our favourite, BUT, I did not make any reservations on this trip. Laguna Hills is always full, so advanced reservations are important. On this quick trip, we only got stays at the time we needed them, or in California, only the night before. We took what we could get, and that was okay, too.

Day 1

Staying in routine, we were up at 3AM, again to begin driving, back to North Carolina, by 4AM.

Click here for Parts 4 of this six Part Blog series road trip:

“Road Trip USA 🇺🇸 Part 4 of 6 ~Leaving California and Heading for The Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, then Driving thru New Mexico to Laguna Pueblo” October 2024