Los Angeles – King Gillette Ranch, Lions and BBQ with Old Friends!
We are on a 7,000 mile Great American Road trip. You can catch up on our last post: The Most Expensive Gasoline, Lincoln’s 6th Birthday and Visiting with Grammy & Family! here.
The drive from Temecula to Los Angeles crosses a vast city scape of highways. The Californians sketch is a recurring sketch on SNL. In it they hilariously explain how they navigate the city in stereotypical Los Angeles fashion.
We stopped at a Friends house in Yorba Linda on the way in.
Santa Monica Mountains
During our visit we met up with some old friends at King Gillette Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains. The boys earned their 11th Jr. Ranger Badge!
King Gillette ranch is named after this guy who sold a bunch of disposable razor blades and made a boat load of money in the early 1900’s. His estate finally ended up donating the land back to the City for preservation.
The temps ran up into the 100s’ in the Valley and in the foothills of Santa Monica mountains where we hiked. We are ready for those cooler coastal temps!
Fancy Living at Marriott
In an earlier article on this blog entitled, “5 Proven Tips to planning a kid friendly Road Trip” tip #4 is treat yourself to a hotel every now and again. And that’s exactly what we did. We cashed in some hotel points and a used a Friends free hotel voucher to stay at the Marriott. Hilariously, we booked two different Marriott’s within a mile of each other!
Friends BBQ & Blake’s 40th Bday
In my early days, I had a blog called “Bros Down In Europe” which documented my travels on a few Europe trips. It is now defunct, but all the memories live on. Some of those memories were made with these guys: Blake, Phil and Aaron. Friends from my time at the University of Arizona.
We stopped by, had our kids and wives meet & hangout with each other, and had a good old fashioned BBQ. Good times.
During the BBQ, Lauren had arranged to have a birthday cake for Blake who turned 40 on June 27th. Happy Birthday, Blake!
(if you are Blakes dad, this did not actually happen)
With two cities filled with Friends and Family, a bittersweet departure to our next destination: Morro Bay, California. See you in the cooler temps!
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A different Marriott each night? Hilarious after any frustration or confusion settles, I am sure. The car and the lion photos are stellar!
I am glad that both you and Cassy were able to hook up with old friends and I looks like the kids got along as well. A well deserved stay at a Hotel was obviously welcome for all. Glad to see the trip is still fun.
It was great to see the pic of all the boys. You lucky guys look just like you did in U of A days! Blake, tell your Mom “Hi!”. I loved sharing our blogs on “Bro’s Down in Europe”.
11 badges—Wow! Quite an accomplishment! I wonder who is going to sew them all on the vest! 😜😘
Awesome that the wives meet and the children have have some play time. Thank you for posting your adventures
Racking up those Junior Ranger badges! Way to go boys!