Huntington Beach, California

We moved from Yuma, Arizona, a week ago on the 4th of March.

Sunsets in Arizona are amazing but we have been wanting to visit California to visit family and were anxious to see it from the bottom to the top. We started on I-8 out of Yuma and came West to El Centro. From there we traveled up to I-10 and then West into Palm Desert.

It was an easy drive through the desert of about 160 miles. We arrived around 2pm and found a nice spot to set-up in. All of the 30 amp spots are pull-thru, which is nice. A little snug but enough room for a picnic table and some chairs.

We spent the first week (of two scheduled here) just looking around Palm Desert. We found the local Walmart and, to our great surprise, a WINCO grocery store. WINCO was our favorite when we lived in Haltom City. Our house was a couple of blocks away and it was convenient. Good prices, great bulk items and I liked the meat when they would have sales.

We found that much of California is shut down with regards to dine-in. Plenty of places offered take out or delivery. That was ok for us because we need to eat our own cooking to conserve our fixed income. It's nice to have a source for ingredients fairly close which we did NOT have when we were camping in the desert.

We were shocked at the prices here. Diesel was $4.15 at the first stop we made here. That was a big jump from $2.68 in Yuma. We did find a few places that had under $4 prices. That will be our task from now on, use our phone apps to find the best price.

After being here for a week we decided to make the trek to the beach. I grew up on the beaches of Southern California but Tina has never been to the West Coast. The drive from Palm Desert to Huntington Beach was just over 100 miles over 4 to 6 lane roads. Not a deal breaker since it will be all new for her. She kept quite busy with her phone camera recording everything she saw.

We made it to the beach around 1:30 after stopping at a store for lunch fixings. We bought ready-to-eat sandwiches and snacks. Once we got parked we sat there for a bit and enjoyed the scenery along with our lunch. The weather was beautiful. A little chilly and breezy but not bad with a sweater on.

It's pay to park near the pier. $4 for two hours. We walked to the pier and out to the end, which is quite long. In the summer you can hardly see any sand it is so crowded. In the picture above you can see Long Beach in the distance. Giant container ships sit offshore waiting to be unloaded and loaded. Extremely busy port.

There is a great deal of off-shore drilling taking place really close to shore.