Acton, CA for exploring Los Angeles & Hollywood

We stayed at Soledad Canyon in Acton, CA so that we could explore Los Angeles and Hollywood. Both were a bit of a drive- about an hour-ish. But, the price for the campground was right ("free").

Campsite at Soledad Canyon

The drive from Pahrump to Acton was pretty quiet without a whole lot around. My memory is failing me- we must have gotten out really late and then drove really slowly because, as far as I can see from pictures is that we stopped for lunch about 1:45 for lunch, spent 45 minutes, and then didn't get to the campground until was dark and almost 7pm. That said, our lunch stop at Dumont Dunes was gorgeous. I'd love to stay and play there sometime, but there was absolutely no cell coverage whatsoever. No cell = no work = no stay (sad face).

Dumont Dunes

Once we got to the campground, we ended up getting a really great site that was huge and fenced in on 3 sides. However, it's committed the campground party foul with the door being the low side. We needed a good 1-2 blocks on that side. Even with our step stool, it was still quite a jump.

On Roadside America, we had found that we were near a "musical road" in Lancaster, CA where they put grooves in the road and it sings. We decided to drive it at different speeds, to see how the music was affected.

The temperature difference between the campground and actual city of Los Angeles was pretty remarkable. It was forecasted to be in the low 70s at the campground but Venice Beach was supposed to be around 90. We decided that a November swim in the Pacific Ocean was just what the doctor ordered. (A neat side note, I had never seen the Pacific Ocean prior to that. Another first brought to you by this trip.) The water was cold- I'm guessing low 60s. The kids and I swam, we played in the sand, watched a boat catch on fire, and watched the sunset.

Paige and I went out into deeper water, but it was impossible to photograph

Jumping!

She got her feet wet, but THAT'S IT!

It was a very "California" experience.

And then a boat caught on fire- scary stuff!

Playing in the sand & water

Sand time! Can you guess what it is?

Sand octopus!

The plural for "selfie" is "usie".

A real sunset.

Whatever the ailment, marijuana is the answer!

Next, we opted for a double-decker bus tour of Hollywood. Our tour guide was TERRIBLE. Paige even said she preferred my dad jokes over his commentary. This was pretty neat, though, mostly, I'll never be able to tell you what we saw or where we went.

Our chariot

Mr. Terrible.

Somewhere quasi-famous

Scientology!

Chinese Theatre. And here I just thought it was a Disney prop.

Beverly Hills

Rodeo Drive

One of our stops was the La Brea Tar Pits. This wasn't quite the bubbling oozing ground like the tourism video led us to believe, but it was still worth a visit to check out. Seeing the actual dig site was pretty cool.

La Brea Tar Pits

Yeah, I moved the cone.

Close up of the tar hole

Tar site excavation

The "floating rock" was a big fat lie.

Floating Rock

I'M SO STRONG!

Then we hit some shops and made our way back home.

Shops

I'm so artsy.

Thanksgiving rolled around and we found ourselves having a good time. First was a family game night on Thanksgiving Eve. Followed by Mandie baking a most bodaciously off kilter pan of brownies (the rack was in the oven wrong somehow). And for the actual turkey day, I "cooked" dinner with Paige's help.

Crock pot ham

Paige chopped onions

Look, she's happy about it!

And now she's sad!

Filling Balls (like stuffing, not stuffed in the turkey!)

Dinner is served!

Hells to the yes, Paige and I made that.

Other than that, we did some home repairs and updates- fixed some picture frames and hung a few things- cup holder, pictures, coat hook, and over the door hooks on the bedroom closets. And the coup de grâce was converting a drawer under our dinette to be our printer cubby.

Added a cup holder

Now you see it,

Now you don't!

Here's what our printer drawer started as - just a drawer

Took it all out

"Measuring" it out

Clamps, a guide, and a jigsaw

It fits!

Hinged on the bottom

It's perfect except where it's not...

Toothbrush hanger

Moving right along, we played tourist in Hollywood again. This time we went into Madame Tussauds wax museum. We were pretty impressed at the realism of the wax figures. Logan danced his little booty off and then promptly kissed Taylor Swift's - we still don't know why.

Posed with Shrek!

Taylor Swift, moments before Logan kissed her butt

Mandie cozied up to JT (I won't lie, I decked him for making googly eyes at her)

She had the best eyes

We selfied with Elvis

We walked the strip a bit and looked at the stars. Logan was enthralled by Iron Man (and I'll admit, his costume was pretty brilliant).

Walt's Star

Neat video production RV

On the news, I had read about a road nearby that was buckling. Vasquez Canyon Road went from drive-able to not in about a week. In another week, it was completely destroyed. We finally got out to see it during it's "completely destroyed" phase and were pretty surprised at how bad it was.

Do not cross construction signs... we totally crossed.

A little bit of scale

Broken road

Us

Visting Vasquez Canyon Road was just a detour on our way to Santa Barbara. We took a trolley tour around town. It was a very pretty beach town.

Trolley Tour!

Offshore rigs

Statue

I love this tree

Daww, siblings.

I forget its name, the Monk Palace or something

The Burger Bus

Pier

Artsy Bike

Sunset in Santa Barbara

Artsy Fisherman

The back of the bathroom door is confusing!

And that about wraps up the majority of our time in Acton. Again 2 weeks didn't feel like nearly enough time for everything around. But, we had an appointment at a camper repair shop to get some new steps and a few other things done. We headed to their place and started in on a visit to Disneyland, but I'll cover all of that in another post.

A torn sewer hose is pretty crappy