SEAL BEACH & CAMP PENDLETON

We drove 105 miles from Lake Casitas to the Naval Weapons Station, Seal Beach, CA.  The installation is very clear that there can be no pictures taken without prior approval of the commander.  This memorial to the lost submariners is located outside the station, at the entrance. 







Of the 52 submarines lost during WWII, there were 374 officers and 3,131 on board. 
This is a touching memorial, and is likely little frequented by residents of the vicinity.  It is well-kept and touches the heart.  I have the sense that WWII is so far in the past as to not be relevant to present generations.  In fact, I believe the Vietnam ‘war’ is a dim memory for many today.  Lots of people now travel to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on vacations, seems to me a slap in the face of all the lost GIs and civilians who fought to the death in that war.  Now that I am reflecting on that issue, I can’t say just when it is that we should let bygones be bygones.  Personally, later for me.


Even though photos weren't allowed, I took this one from the doorway anyway.  The RV park was in excellent condition…full-hookups, 50A service, totally paved with lots of room and quiet except for the mower and weed eaters!  They really do a bang up job of keeping everything neat and tidy.  A Par Course runs behind there where you can see it.  There was a small BX on site, no commissary.   An excellent place to stay to see Disneyland and other attractions in the LA/Long Beach area. 
One notable thing about the station is that there was an RV/car wash at the entrance to the RV park.  Having been down the coast from Astoria, OR to here, none of the parks allowed vehicle washing.  I took advantage of it for the car and the rig.  The car took $2.00 and I had extra time left.  The rig took $5.00 and we shut off the timer with some time remaining.  Try getting by that cheaply in a civilian operated wash!

Actually, not so sure it was the right thing to do unless you wipe the vehicle down after.  I did it on our way out of the park so didn’t wipe it down.  Now there are spots all over everywhere!  They use recycled/filtered water of course.  I simply didn’t think! 
This is the Lorna (E’s sister) & Dick Hall house in Long Beach.  When they owned an RV it was parked on the concrete slab, that’s why it’s there in case you were asking yourself.  When we had a shorter rig we parked there too.   It’s a pretty old house, but seems to suit their needs since they put in all new windows a few years ago.  We visited two separate times, the first time we had a nice visit with a niece, we were really happy to get to see Nancy.   The second visit we timed so we would be there when they got home from church and we went out to lunch, here:

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Know where this was? 
Wrong, it’s Marie Callenders.  Yummy pies.  I had the brunch buffet that included champagne.  After the dinner I asked why I hadn’t been served any champagne.  They told me that I had to ask for it.  Hmmm, that just don’t sound right to me! 



Dick Hall, Eloise’s Brother in law.

Lorna Hall, E’s sister.  She’ll be 90 in February.














We were able to visit our grandson Samuel Sagartz,  who attends USC (University of Southern California) as a Junior on an academic scholarship.  We’re very proud of him.  After a lunch at a place that was very noisy, he took us on a tour of the USC campus.  What a beautiful place to get an education.  His interest is in medical technology.  Also working on an interesting project.  I can’t speak smartly about it, but our understanding is that it is an application for cell phones that will provide access to campus activities.  He and his partners are in the process of signing up various functions operating on the campus.  If you want to know more about this…forget it, it’s way by us.  It started out as a class project and when the class ended his instructor encouraged him and his partner to continue with it and develop it into a business. 

                 Sam Sagartz, grandson extraordinaire



No, Grandma didn’t shrink, we just grow them big in our family. 

Below is a farmers market that was set up right there on campus.  There are lots of fountains around campus, it  makes for peaceful settings.
Here’s the famous mascot.  The Trojan.  Sam takes the ribbing from the other schools very well!




Where we parked we came across these parking meters that accept credit cards.  Never seen them before!  E and I were looking for change and not having success, Sam walked up and swiped his card, which totally amazed us! 

When we left Long Beach we moved about 50 miles south to Camp Pendleton.  Actually San Onofre Recreation Area and also State Beach. There we were parked facing the ocean with the railroad tracks right behind us.  Fortunately, most of the trains there are passenger trains so they are very short and not nearly as noisy as  freights.  The ocean seemed to mute the sound of the trains too and with a view like that, who cares anyway?

San Onofre is famous for its nuclear power plant, that went inactive in January 2012.
A news account at that time:
QUOTE
LOS ANGELES -- The demise of California's San Onofre nuclear power plant began with an attempt to fix it.
A $670 million equipment swap in 2009 and 2010 went haywire, leaving Southern California Edison on Friday with two idle reactors, more than $500 million in bills and a federal decision on a possible restart nowhere in sight.
The company decided to close it, permanently. The announcement triggered a celebration among environmentalists and other critics of the nuclear power industry who argued the plant was too damaged to operate safely. UNQUOTE


That’s the nuclear plant in the background.  The picture was taken on our bicycle ride thru the State Park and on down the coast thru more of Camp Pendleton.  The old highway 1 was closed to motor vehicles, only walkers and bicycles are allowed now.  It was really nice, we did a total of 10 miles that day and were really glad to get home when it was complete.  I guess we aren’t as young as we once were. 

Dana Point was not very far from the camp.  We went mainly because there were several geocaches hidden here.  It was a beautiful day, not much smog or fog, in fact the only day that really had a marine layer was the day we left.  You can’t see it but there was a cache on one of the poles for the sign below. 


Where’s Waldo?  This is only a portion of the marina.  There’s much more and café’s and restaurants and stuff.  A terrific place to walk and find caches!  Too busy for bikes. 


So, where’s the fire hydrant?

 
 Just a few of the elephants spread around the marina.
“The world’s largest open-air exhibition dedicated to saving the Asian Elephant, a species threatened with extinction.  After stops in Milan, London, Singapore and other global destinations the spectacle of culture and creativity makes its American debut at Dana Point.”

While here, we were able to connect with Gary’s niece Becky and husband John Droigk, who live in San Diego. 

We spent a nice afternoon with them, and played some board/card games.  Eloise spent a good deal of the summer making a quilt for the daughter that Becky is due to deliver in November.


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Our site was right on the beach, with full hookups, 50A.  Couldn’t ask for a neater place.  Step out your door and you’re there!  Even as a military park, it was a little pricey, but considering it’s on the beach near San Diego, maybe $40 a nite isn’t so terribly bad.  We spent a week here, and loved every minute. 

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Yes, there was a train right behind us, but it didn’t make much noise, and it was only the Metro link that ran there, no freight.  Hardly knew when it went through!


The view out of our windshield at San Onofre Marine Base Campground, Camp Pendleton, CA


We tried to get a picture of the pelicans but they weren’t nearly as happy to have their pictures taken as the gulls were. 
The last day of our stay they were holding a surfing contest. 


Leaving you with a sunset we saw each evening we were here!

GARY’S 50TH H.S. REUNION

It just seems to go faster.  Time. 
I graduated from Nordhoff High School, in Ojai, California in June, 1963.
Classmate Charlene (Stallings) Miller reminded me that we had gone to the Ojai Bowl for a pre-ceremony for the graduating class.  Ah, yes, I remember It well, as the song goes.  Not.
The actual graduation was held on the playing field.  The band was set up on the 50 yard line.  The bleachers were concrete and filled with the families of the graduating seniors.  The chorus was assembled nearby.  As a member of both band and chorus, I and Alan Petrich, my best friend, played in the band that day, moved over to the chorus for it’s performance, then moved to the line-up for the graduates.
 
Some will likely say I haven’t changed, but I didn’t hear anyone say that at the reunion.  Possibly the glasses…
The reunion was held at the Soule Park Golf Course Meeting Room in Ojai.  There were 125 graduating seniors in the class, and 45 of them were at the function, 80 people in attendance when you include spouses. 

On Friday night there was a no-host bar designed as an ice breaker.  I was torn between going into Ventura to a square dance, or this function.  I chose the dance.  We got dressed in our dance outfits, drove 45 minutes into the dance location, and nobody was around.  Bummer.  Drove back to our RV park at Casitas Lake, looked on the internet and discovered another web site gave a different address.  Nuts!!  Now it is too late to attend the ice-breaker or return to Ventura. 

Next function was a breakfast at an Ojai restaurant.  We didn’t go.   I reasoned that the structure of a restaurant wasn’t conducive to meeting more than a couple people.  I’ve been to those kinds of functions before anyway, and once you’re seated, that’s pretty much it.  So…

Next thing was the BIG EVENT, a Saturday night catered dinner and no-host bar.  Nice decorations.   The committee really did a terrific job of organizing and executing.  I’d like to make a word here about that.  If anyone reading this blog is nearing a reunion, make an effort to contact an organizer and offer to help out in some way if you can.  Even if it is across the state/nation.  It always falls on the ones who have stayed nearby to get the reunions going.  The others seem to just reap their efforts.  I was guilty, and feel not so good about that.  I did offer to help sometime before, but too late to be any good to anyone.



The High School in Ojai uses the original name of the town.  That’s why as you see here, we were the “Nordhoff” Rangers.  Somebody long ago thought that a really cute mascot would be this ranger sitting backwards on a crossed leg horse!  It’s a challenge to defend your honor against schools who have normal mascots…but we were better for it.  Sort of like naming your son SUE.


School colors were blue and gold.  Yep, that’s our mascot in the center of the cake. 




Gary and Gale










Carol Whiting left and right with Henry Baugh



Charlene, still blonde after all these years!




Someone decided that there should be a group picture of those who went to each of the areas’ elementary schools.  I’m with the group of 16 who attended Meiners Oaks Elementary.  My first school, Santa Ana Elementary is located underneath Lake Casitas!




Orrin Dolan and wife look at all the old photos and captions on the walls

                                   
                                   


.Orrin












Elaine (Garriga) and husband John                              Elaine



I picked these people pretty much randomly from the ones taken that night by Eloise.    She didn’t have too much fun, but she took a lot of pictures!!  Thanks luv.   She made the comment that if the spouses/dates of the graduates wore different kinds of nametags, she might have been better able to relate. 

I had loads of fun reconnecting with classmates!  None of my personal circle of friends were at the reunion.  Two of them had passed on to a ‘higher’ high school.  Others have their own issues.  Since I had only attended one other reunion (my 30th) I can hardly throw stones!  It would be terrific to know what their stories are and how they are getting on.  But even though I wasn’t in the  circles of those at the reunion, it didn’t really matter.  We were all simply old, and H.S. cliques  were long forgotten.


We had long ago arranged with my sister-in-law Sharon Cunningham to park at her place, which is only 7 miles from Ojai.  When we looked at google maps shortly before we to arrive, it was clear that no way were we going to fit either on the driveway or along side.  We had been there while my brother Gordon was alive, but that was in a shorter RV.  So we looked at the park at Camp Comfort, but couldn’t get solid information about it.  We decided to stay at the RV Park at Casitas Lake, also just a few miles from Ojai.  The pamphlet said the lake provides 50,000 people with water, on 2700 acres.  Swimming is not allowed, but boats are okay if they are 11' minimum to 26' max.  Pets are not allowed within 50' of the lake.  I'd say good luck enforcing that one.  We were able to spend some time with Sharon, but she was leaving for a 2-week trip to China right after we got there!

For those of you who might like to stay here, they have a web site that will show a picture of every reservable site HERE.  Actually, this link will just take you to the "Bass" campground loop.  By clicking on the "details" icon, it will tell you size and price.  You can navigate wherever you want on the main site.  Click on each small picture to see the actual site.  In our case, we picked one that looked fairly level, B52, and looked like the trees wouldn't be in the way of our satellite reception. We booked on line without a hitch.  Well, I'm sure glad we didn't come in after dark, because while backing in we discovered there was a large tree limb that hung down to about the 11' level.  Just guessing.  Our rig is 12'10".  It just wouldn't have fit.  In the dark we would have torn something badly!  When we asked for an alternate site they were very gracious and accommodating.  But, it might have been a real problem finding an alternative in the heavy use season....just sayin'.  

Another minor detail while talking about the campground.  There is a sign saying no re-entry after 9 P.M.  We got concerned that we might have to park outside the entrance and walk in, so we went into the office.  They explained that somebody was on duty all night, and all we had to do was call the number printed on our receipt, and someone would open the gate for us.  It worked when we returned after hours, without a wait at all. 

This is what it was like at our site:
 
Lots more room than the one at Vandenberg AFB.  This is the other side and my nearest neighbor



I took Eloise on a drive around the area where I grew up.  This is the house I lived in from the time I was 10 until I left home at age 18.  (Just a reminder, you can single-left-click on any picture to enlarge it, click the back arrow to return to the blog):


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My father learned to break rocks and make walls while he was in the CCCs in MN.  He was proud of his ability.  This lady in the center of the picture is the current owner of our old house, a Mrs. Erickson, and she explained to me when I approached her that they had hired some people who recognized the work of my father, and knew him.  They told the owner that they would be able to copy his work when they made the rock wall you see in the foreground.  You can’t really see my fathers work there in the background, but I am very sure he would have approved of the new wall!  Mrs Erickson asked if I would like to see inside, but I declined.  She was very nice.   That palm tree in the center picture was eye level when I lived there!




Well, so it’s back at Casitas Lake.  That’s  a disk golf hole there on the left, and a wee bit of a finger of Casitas.


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Hadn’t seen one of these portable 'holes' before.  There was a league of ‘golfers’ playing a very tough course there in the hills around the lake.










Okay, that was my reunion and my visit to my childhood environment.  Really glad that I went.  Eloise was a very good sport!  Thanks everyone for coming along on my journey.