2015 - July 29th-August 1st - Summertime with Kendall & Jordan

Our final Grandchildren visit starts with Kendall and Jordan's four day stay with us for new adventures and fun. We picked them up in Murrieta and headed out with our day one stop in the City of Orange. First on the list was lunch. We chose The Watson Drug Store in historic downtown Orange to dine because of the fun atmosphere and the uniqueness of the great food in a drug store! Watson's was established in 1899 and is the oldest on-going business in the City of Orange. Watson's has been used in many films, TV shows and commercials. We ordered up our meals and enjoyed everything from food to atmosphere!

We walked through the many old shops in town and enjoyed seeing the unique offering of those establishments. The center of the city has a small park with this beautiful fountain in the center of the round-about.

Thursday, we started our adventures to Orange County and the beaches in Laguna. We had run across a site that showed a "hidden" beach in Laguna with a unique structure that we had never been to. We were off to discover Victoria Beach! Driving down Pacific Coast Highway south from Laguna Canyon Road (which is a beautiful drive through the Canyon!) we found a parking space on PCH and Victoria Street. Victoria Street is a neighborhood of beautiful homes on this narrow street. The homes themselves are spectacular to view. We walked down the street looking for the relatively hidden staircase between two homes that go to the beach as we had read on-line.
               
                   
                                             
One of the most unique and mysterious landmarks of Southern California is the tower that stands at the base of a cliff in Laguna Beach. Here is the story behind it: The structure, known as “La Tour” (French for tower), is a 60-foot castle-inspired tower. It was built at the same time as the house at the top of the bluff, in 1926, and was used as a way to get from the house down to the beach below, which is a beautiful stretch of sand called Victoria Beach. The beach tower is made of poured concrete with an ocean stone foundation and cone-shaped roof made of shingles. Several narrow window openings in the tower wall allow light to pass through to the wooden spiral stairway inside. This is how the home-owners accessed the beach. The house, known as the “Norman House” due it’s Norman-style architecture, is itself a landmark of Laguna Beach. It was built for California State Senator William Edward Brown and his family and used during summers and holidays as a retreat from their Beverly Hills home. The inspiration for the design of the house and the tower can be traced to the time Mr. Brown and his wife, Mary Eleanor, spent in France at the end of World War I, where they were part of the war relief effort. In fact, many Americans that spent time in France during WWI were inspired by the chateaus and castles of the region, and upon returning home to the United States, built homes during the 1920s that emulated this style. The Norman House is one of the few remaining examples of this on the oceanfront of Southern California.
               
                         
               
                                          
Another mysterious structure that sits just to the south of the tower is the partially buried cement wall that once formed a circular pool. While the pool has partially filled up with sand, water still collects here when the tide is high enough for waves to crash in on it. It is believed that Mr. Brown is also responsible for building this structure.

               
Along the cliff bluff, the girls found a cave too.
               
Victoria Beach is a beautiful beach to spend the day. There are no facilities on the beach, so for young children there could be "potty" challenges. From the far south end, there is also access to the beach but we did not explore that route. The Victoria Street access is closest to the "tower", but limited parking, a little hike to the stairs and then descending down to the beach are to be expected.

We headed back to downtown Laguna Beach as our stomachs were telling us it was lunch time. We decided on having lunch at The Greeter's Corner Restaurant next to Main Beach. For many years, Eiler Larsen was known in Laguna Beach to be the unofficial greeter to all that passed through town. He would stand on the corner every day and wave to the cars as they passed and greet people on the sidewalk. Outside of the restaurant is a statue dedicated to Eiler and his years of greetings. We enjoyed sitting and overlooking the beach while enjoying our lunch.
               
 
Walking around Laguna Beach looking through shops and enjoying people, we came to The Laguna Beach Water District Building. It is a gorgeous old adobe building with a wonderful garden. Not a bad place to have to show up to work in!
               
               
Laguna Beach is an artist town with many shops of original art from paintings to sculptures. In that artsy tradition, many of the buildings are unique as well.
               
                               
After strolling through some of the streets and taking in the sights, we came back to Main Beach and walked the beach and the parkway.
               

To finish our excursion, we had to stop at Laguna Beach's own Candy Baron for some treats before getting on our way back to Lakewood!
Leaving Laguna Beach, we stopped by Rogers's Gardens in Corona Del Mar. We had been there many times over the past 37 years to see all of the plants and grounds which are spectacular, especially at Christmastime when the displays exceed any in Southern California. But just recently we ran across an interesting article on unseen things locally and discovered that the original Disneyland Bandstand was at Roger's Gardens ... who knew? With this interesting trivia, knew the girl as well as us would surely enjoy seeing it. The Original Disneyland Bandstand is where Mickey Mouse led his 16-piece band the day Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955. The Bandstand's first home was in the middle of Town Square, Main Street, USA. Right before Disneyland's Grand Opening, Walt Disney noticed that the Bandstand obstructed the view of from the Disneyland Railroad Station to Sleeping Beauty's Castle and had it moved to Carnation Plaza Gardens. In 1956, the Bandstand journeyed to what is now New Orleans Square to be used as an entertainment venue. The Mouseketeers performed here daily during Easter Week 1958. In 1967, the Bandstand was retired to the "backstage" area just prior to the debut of New Orleans Square. In the mid-1970's, Roger's Gardens acquired the Disneyland Bandstand and moved it to its present location, where it serves as a special place for visitors to stop and bask in the beauty of the gardens. During the holiday season, Santa holds court inside the Bandstand, listening to children share their Christmas wishes under the lights of the Original Disneyland Bandstand.                                                
Everyone enjoyed the flowers and garden displays as well as the unique gifts available in the retail store. We all had a lot of fun visiting Roger's Gardens!
Friday was our day to adventure North up to Malibu to visit for the first time The Getty Villa. This is one of the "things to do" in Carrie's book "100 Things to Do in Los Angeles Before You Die". We have had this on our bucket list for awhile and with Kendall & Jordan's love of museums, this was the right fit! We ventured up through LA and got onto the beautiful northern stretch of PCH to go to the Getty Villa. We had been to the Getty Museum awhile ago, so were looking forward to the Getty Villa. Both Getty's are free, just pay for parking (if you choose to go to both in one day, the parking is valid at both ... a real 2 for 1). The original Getty Villa house is used for office and storage now since reopening in 2006. The Getty Villa now consists of acres of museums and gardens. We were expecting a house, so this was a surprise to us. It is gorgeous with so many pieces of art. On our architectural tour, our docent said that J. Paul Getty did use the museum as a villa with the first portion public for guests and the further into the building, the more private it became ... although all areas were for guests as well. At one time some of the rooms were evidently used for sleeping quarters and food preparation. It is sort of mind boggling to see that function in the present state as it stands today.
                               
The tour was wonderful giving clarity to much of what we saw. The gardens, pools, artwork, even the building colors were well explained. This is some of what we saw with more in the photo album link at the end of the blog:
               
                   
       
       
               
The girls even had the opportunity to try their hands decorating bowls and vases in the family fun center.
                               
All of the museum rooms, outdoor areas and gardens are spectacular making for a fabulous visit to The Getty Villa.
                                               
After taking in a few hours of exploring the Getty Villa, it was time for a late afternoon lunch. We wanted to find a place on the ocean side of PCH so we could take in the magnificence of the ocean view while dining. We headed south and came upon Duke's in Malibu. Our quest was solved. We had great conversation and wonderful food with the ocean shore through the window.
                   
                   
What a wonderful day! So much fun and sharing with Kendall & Jordan .... memories in the making!!!

Our last day took us to our local Rancho Los Cerritos for adventure. We had not been there since Eric's Cub Scout Pack did a bike trip when he was around 9 or 10 years old. Part of the fun of having grandchildren is repeating sights that we shared with our own children those oh-so-many years ago. We had a great time, once again learning and seeing a lot. The Rancho is very well maintained and our docent was excellent. Rancho Los Cerritos is only less than five miles away from our house so it was great to see once again after 25+ years!
                   
                   
                                   
Carrie came by in the afternoon with Ruby to see Kendall & Jordan. The girls entertained Ruby with reading books, giggling, doing hair styles and having other great "big cousin" -- "little cousin" personal time.
               
The days went by too quickly ... we all had a great time for this summertime vacation period with Kendall & Jordan. There are many more pictures that are all captioned in the album for this section that can be clicked on this link.