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Old 1 Apr 20, 09:24 PM  
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cornishfrogboy
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Join Date: Nov 10
Location: Falmouth
CANCELLED 05/07/20 Second attempt.. Arizona and California August 2020.

We are used to these things.. Cancelled by the Volcano, Cancelled on an Egypt vacation due to the bomb over the Sinai desert and now this!

Well it’s 01 April (appropriate). It’s the wife’s birthday and we should be in San Francisco right now. It’s been a terrible year, with my Mum passing away and now this problem with the Chinese eating bats in order to wreck the World economy (or something like that).

Still, life goes on and I have all but been refunded with just a few more promised refunds to go. Life goes on and so does my planning.

I believe that 19 Aug this year is realistic, otherwise there will be no economy, no jobs, no hope and the bitter realisation that they cure’ was in fact worse than ‘the virus’.

I realised that with all these credit notes floating around, the airlines will likely ramp the 2021 prices through the roof in the full knowledge that nearly all of the disappointed 2020 travellers are desperate for a vacation and tied to the airline company that issued the note.. The cynic in me sees this as a licence for these companies to name their own price as all those credit note holders will be in a ‘use it or lose it’ situation. That is why I abruptly refused a BA credit note. That is why I have booked for later this year (all on free cancellation and nothing up front other than the airline tickets with American, which are adjustable in location and dates for a year from August 19.

All Hotels are booked with nothing up front and free cancellation up to 2 days before occupancy.

The car hire has free cancellation and refund.



With no more ado... the plan!

__________________________________________

We are a family of Husband, Wife and boys of 17 and 14, who like to travel light... as in hand baggage only. We love travel and particularly like multi centre, intensive vacations, either in the US or Europe. We are also totally theme parked out after 10 USA visits.

We visited California in 2018. It was a disaster as the main attraction, the Pacific Coast highway was blocked by a mudslide. We resolved to return... and in Easter of 2020. That has now stretched out to August 19.


The infamous PCH Mudslide that took so long to sort out. In the end they built a new road over the top of it!

Our previous trip is subject of trippie ‘California N to South at Easter’ and may explain the planning for our itinerary and what would seem some very strange omissions.

With all that has happened, we thought we would not for the first time ‘go unusual’. There is a very famous desert boneyard of stored United States Military aircraft at a location called Davis Monthan AFB in the Arizona Desert. I have never been in a desert and never been to Davis Monthan a location that is currently no1 on my World bucket list. It was a no brainer! Nearest airport is Phoenix and you can get there direct, fly out of San Francisco 19 August to 02 September £1995 ... kerching! Now what?

We sat down and worked out the ‘must sees’. We did not like LA last time and had no intention of seeing more than we had to this time. We also figured we had reasonably well covered marvellous San Diego.

We settled on 2 nights in Tucson, 1 night in Phoenix, 2 nights in Hollywood, 2 nights at Pismo Beach, 1 night at San Simeon, 2 nights in Monterey and 4 nights in San Francisco (well, Emeryville actually).

And now the finalised plan...

Tuesday 18 August, drive up from Penryn and spend the night at Premier Inn Bath rd, LHR.

Wednesday 19 August fly 0930-1230 LHR to PHX. Arrive and pick up hire car before driving straight to Tucson AZ.
Stay at Homewood Suites, Tucson after going out in evening and eating. Hotel has 3 double beds plus complimentary breakfast.

Thursday 20 August drive to Pima Aircraft Museum and see it before booking their open sided bus tour of the boneyard.


Pima Museum.


B52s in the Boneyard AMARC


General view of part of the boneyard.

Friday 21 August. A day trip to Tombstone (an hour away) to see the scene of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corrall, Boot Hill etc and also a Horseride with ‘Tombstone adventures on Horseback’, visiting a derelict Silver Mine before a drive to Phoenix (3 hours), arriving late afternoon and staying in the Home2 suites by Hilton. (2 queen beds, sofa bed and Complimentary breakfast).


Main Street Tombstone .


Boot Hill and the Clanton, Mclaury graves from the famous O.K. Corral gunfight. Where Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil and Doc settled some scores. It were called ‘justice’ in them days.





General views of Phoenix with desert and mountains surrounding.

Sat 22 August. A long 5.5 hour drive plus stops to Hollywood, hopefully taking in lots of space, desert and possibly the Joshua Tree National Park, if we want to see more desert. Arrive at the Tilt hotel where we have.. (3 double beds plus complimentary breakfast). This puts us a 15 minute walk from the Universal front gate and 31 minute walk from the Warner bros studio tour.

Sunday 23 August. Universal studios for the whole day. We will concentrate on the things that are not duplicated in Orlando (been around 25 times), and then hopefully do some favourites. This day will be subject of planning in the coming months, but will most certainly involve Margaritaville! That planning has been greatly helped by ‘Tweety1’ who very kindly has forwarded me park maps of both Universal and Warner bros.






The wonderfully restrained frontage of Margaritaville.

Monday 24 August. This will be our Warner Bros Studio tour day and whilst I feel sure that we will see some wonderful things.. there are 2 that will top the list (answers on a postcard please).
Following this, it will be the usual unpleasant drive around the perimeter of LA (horrible place IMHO), then onwards to Pismo beach lighthouse suites (2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and complimentary breakfast). This was taken in preference to one of my favourite hotels in the world (Madonna Inn), so it betta be good!






Tuesday 25 August at Pismo Beach. No real plans yet, just a long walk around and sightsee with a possible horse ride for Mandie and the boys if she doesn’t get one on the long drive from Phoenix to Hollywood. Hopefully we will get in the water also. This bit needs more research.








Wednesday 26 August is another lazyish day. Probably a morning in Pismo beach, then a drive to Hearst Castle and an evening meal in San Simeon before checking in to the Quality Inn (2 Queens and a roll out bed plus complimentary breakfast).






..and we may even have another look at the underwhelming Elephant seals as we pass.

Thursday 27 Aug. My no1 day. The big drive!
Bixby Bridge, Pfeiffer State Park, Big Sur/ Partington Ridge, Point Lobos.. all hopefully with a picnic if we can find a store. We will then go through Carmel
We conclude this hopefully awesome day by checking in to Springhill Suites, the Dunes, Monterey. This is a little out of town, but we have been there before anyway, I don’t drink much so driving is not an issue.. and we have 3 beds plus complimentary breakfast.


A wonderful PCH view.



Bixby Bridge.


Pfeiffer Burns State Park.


Partington ridge.

Friday 28 August. Well this is a day of choices.
1. If there are Blue or Orcas in the bay within the bay, then it is a Whale Watch.



2. If sightings are few, then it is the aquarium.


It may even be both and then a meal on Cannery Row.


What a dull day!

Saturday 29 August. This is a drive, a drive through Santa Cruz and then on to Oakland Int Airport where we say goodbye to our hopefully trusty steed (car). We will then taxi to The Hyatt in Emeryville where we have a bay view room. Importantly there is a BART just up the road. We would have liked to have stayed in SFO, but if we were honest with ourselves, prices are seriously overcooked for decent accommodation. This one worked out at £257 per night.. In August. Of course we have... 3 beds and complimentary breakfast!


The Hyatt.


The view (and room)

Sunday 30 August. Well, it’s a trip on the BART Under the bay? and then a walk around the Embarcadero to Fishermen’s. Here we will pick up ‘The Love Tour’.. a 6 person VW air cooled, hand painted and with 60s music and a shag pile carpet. It takes you on a 2 hour tour of SFO that includes Haight Ashbury, The Golden Gate etc. Can’t wait!


Love tour bus.

After, it’s the cable car up to Union Sq as we never fully did it justice last time. Then it is the SFO Ghost Hunt around the Nob Hill area with ‘Christian’. We had booked this for March and when it was cancelled, not only did he cancel and refund, but he gave us a code to do it for free when we returned!


Christian’s ghost hunt.

Then it will be back to the Hyatt.

Monday 31 August will be a 6 flags day if it is open.

Tuesday 01 September is a return to SFO and then a day spent cycling, Lombard Street, Golden Gate Park, Sutra Baths, Golden Gate, Bonito Point, back over the bridge and then along the bottom to Fishermen’s.. phew!


Golden gate park.


Bonito point.

Wednesday 02 September is travel home day. We do not fly until 1930 and we have not yet worked out what we will do. We will of course have our travel bags and be on the wrong side of the bay bridge as we fly out of SFO. We are of course hand baggage only, but still a little cumbersome. I might get a quick trip to USS Hornet at Alameida in the morning.

This vacation would not suit everybody, but as I said, we saw most of the ‘must sees’ last time and this is about covering things we missed. It is a fair bit to cram in, but hopefully rather relaxing!
__________________

2005 onwards.. lots of times!

Index of all my Trip and Pretrip reports..https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...6#post15662196

Edited at 09:47 AM.
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Old 1 Apr 20, 09:28 PM  
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Libby29
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oops Read it again. Good luck I’d be unsure whether to fly quite so soon
I stayed in the Madonna hotel years ago, it was lovely
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Old 1 Apr 20, 09:31 PM  
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cornishfrogboy
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Originally Posted by Libby29 View Post
oops Read it again. Good luck I’d be unsure whether to fly quite so soon
I stayed in the Madonna hotel years ago, it was lovely
Under construction at the moment. Give me an day and all will be revealed.
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2005 onwards.. lots of times!

Index of all my Trip and Pretrip reports..https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...6#post15662196

Edited at 10:38 PM.
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Old 2 Apr 20, 01:37 PM  
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cornishfrogboy
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All now complete, edited and available to read...
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2005 onwards.. lots of times!

Index of all my Trip and Pretrip reports..https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...6#post15662196
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Old 2 Apr 20, 11:30 PM  
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pinktraceb
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Sounds like a fabulous trip!
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Old 3 Apr 20, 08:27 AM  
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Mary A
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Sounds amazing!
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First visit 1989, last visit March 19. Next holiday Washington, Key West & Orlando May 20. Planning Hawaii for March 21
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Old 3 Apr 20, 05:25 PM  
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KayLouise
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Sounds brilliant 😊
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Old 3 Apr 20, 09:51 PM  
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cornishfrogboy
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If it falls through, we cancel and rebook.
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2005 onwards.. lots of times!

Index of all my Trip and Pretrip reports..https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...6#post15662196
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Old 4 Apr 20, 09:26 AM  
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Omega1
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Brilliant itinerary. We’ve been to most of the places but not all in one trip. We love Tombstone, it’s really atmospheric and the gun fight is fun. The Davis Monthan AFB is huge - mile after mile of obsolete/ mothballed aircraft. I read somewhere that when the big nuclear bombers were dismantled they were left in situ for a time ( a kind of aircraft skeleton) so that the Russians could verify their destruction using their military satellites. Not sure if it’s true but it’s a good story. Fingers crossed for August.🤞
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Old 4 Apr 20, 09:36 AM  
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cornishfrogboy
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Originally Posted by Omega1 View Post
Brilliant itinerary. We’ve been to most of the places but not all in one trip. We love Tombstone, it’s really atmospheric and the gun fight is fun. The Davis Monthan AFB is huge - mile after mile of obsolete/ mothballed aircraft. I read somewhere that when the big nuclear bombers were dismantled they were left in situ for a time ( a kind of aircraft skeleton) so that the Russians could verify their destruction using their military satellites. Not sure if it’s true but it’s a good story. Fingers crossed for August.🤞
Re the dismantling of the B52s, they were chopped with a huge guilotine. If you google earth the boneyard, you will see them on the ground with their wings alongside.
This was part of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), agreed by R Reagan and M Gorbachev. The Russians can thus see by satellite that the aircraft are beyond use.

Let’s just hope we get there!
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2005 onwards.. lots of times!

Index of all my Trip and Pretrip reports..https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...6#post15662196
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