Palm Springs, CA - Оазис в пустыне, городок Палм Спрингс, Калифорния

Очень тёплая погода круглый год, арт. искусство, отели и спа салоны, казино, гольф, вкусная еда, представители нетрадиционной ориентации и присутствующий дух когда-то тусовавшихся здесь звёзд-знаменитостей времён Элвиса Пресли и Мерлин Монро, это лишь некоторые факторы, по которым прославился Палм Спрингс.  И этот список можно продолжать, так как действительно в этом маленьком городке можно найти много интересных вещей и чем себя занять.

Sunday walk at Balboa Park, San Diego, CA

Just a few pictures from our Sunday walk at Balboa Park in San Diego. It's a really gorgeous place. Even though i have been here many times, every time i am in San Diego i want to visit this park again. The architecture in the park is very beautiful, so just walking around the park is a pleasant experience. But there are more things to see: many different museums, lots of people performing on the street, galleries, art shows, gardens etc. And some of that i am going to share with you in this post.   

2.

Fall in Big Bear City, October 2012

Few weeks ago my friends and I spent a weekend at Big Bear Lake, CA. It's a beautiful mountain resort community located 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles and surrounded by San Bernardino National Forest.  It's a great place to visit four seasons of the year. But in today's post i will show you how it looks in October.  

2.

Orange County Flight Center, John Wayne Airport,CA

I wanted to tell you how i flew over Orange County on a small plane with Orange County Flight Center . It was a great sunny Saturday afternoon, the sky was clear, so that day was perfect for my first flight.  

Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, CA

Tuolunme Meadows is one of the most beautiful parts of Yosemite National Park and located in the eastern section of the park. To get there you will need to follow the Tioga Road for about 55 miles from Yosemite Village. In Toulumne Meadows you will find unbelievably gorgeous nature and spend great time. For tourist comfort there are: Visitor Center, campgrounds, convenience store and free shuttle to get to the hiking trail heads, in other words - it has everything for getting unforgettable experience.  

NASCAR, My racing experience at LA Racing.

In today's post i'm going to share with you my racing experience in the latest NASCAR sport car model at LA Racing race track.  It was one of the most incredible moments in my life. I love cars and i like fast cars the most. When i was young, my dream was to become a Rally WRC racer but this type of sport requires a lot of investment or  good sponsors, which was impossible for me and i chose a different profession. But the desire of speed did not ever leave me. 

Orange County Fair 2012

Every summer OC Fair is held in the city of Costa Mesa. It brings along tons of fun to its visitors. And today i am going to give you a little tour around OC Fair so you can see what is going on there.  

This year the dates for OC Fair are July 13- August 12.  OC Fair is open Wednesdays through Sundays, closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Its hours: Weekdays noon to midnight, Saturdays and Sundays 10 am to midnight. For those who haven't been there this year there is still time to go. 

OC Fair address is  Orange County Fairgrounds, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA.

OC Fair tickets: General $11, Seniors (60+) $8, Children (6-12) $6, Five and under Free. Season Passes are available.

Parking: $7, $14 preferred parking and buses

You can find more details on their website: www.ocfair.com

Once you get to the gate you will be asked to show your bag or backpack. Security wants to make sure you don't bring any food or alcohol with you. After check-in you can go to a cashier and buy tickets.  

Half Dome, Yosemite Park, CA

If you are looking for hiking or camping in the forest with waterfalls, creeks and lots of wild  animals running around then you have to go to Yosemite National  Park in Northern California.  In this post i will tell you about Half Dome Trail, another extraordinary hike in North America.  It's like I've read somewhere -  Half Dome is the ultimate Yosemite day hike - the one you can't die without doing, and the one you're most likely to die while doing. 

REI Members Sale Sunday in Tustin.

I always say that for memorable and enjoyable backpacking or camping trip you need a professional gear. It is like having a comfortable shoes for a long walk. You don't want any surprises during your hike. I always consider REI Store like one of the best places to buy reliable outdoor gear and clothes. But they are pretty expensive. Recently i found out that REI is going to do Members Only used gear sale. They usually sell stuff after returns, opened box etc. To become REI member you have to pay only $20 but you can save much more then that, a specially if you need to buy multiple items. 


IF you need any outdoor gear and you want to save come to REI Store in Tustin on Sunday June 17, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm  at 2962 El Camino Real, at Jamboree Rd., on the Tustin side of The Market Place.


Expect deals of 50-90% off gently used gear.

Store Site, Map and Direction here.

Stay Tuned!

2011 Christmas Boat Parade, Newport Beach, California

This year the 103rd Christmas Boat Parade was held in Newport Beach, California. The first boat parade was in 1908 with 4 boats, now about hundred vessels from kayaks to multi – million dollar yachts participate in the parade. They are decorated with lights, animated Christmas scenes and accompanied by music, spinning around the harbor. People who live around the harbor decorate their houses too. All this contributes to a real holiday feeling. Over a million viewers come to watch this spectacular event every year. The Christmas Boat Parade, was hailed as "one of the top ten holiday happenings in the nation" by the New York Times.

Hearst Castle, California

 (For those who didn’t read my post " San Francisco" - I recommend to start reading that post first, as the story begins there.)

But before i continue my story i want to thank Sergei Yavorskiy for providing these pictures from our trip to share them with you.

 I wanted to visit this beautiful historic place long time ago. I have been there once in Sep. 2010, but only at the Visitor Center. I didn't get inside the Hearst Castle as all tickets were sold out due to high volume of visitors. This time I didn't want to make my mistake twice and bought our tickets online in advance.
   
 We left Orange County at 7:30 in the morning after we rented a car from Enterprise. We got lucky to get an upgrade from the full size to the SUV. We got 2011 Hyundai Santafe, not a bad ride for such a road trip. When we left OC the weather was nice and clear.

 We had to be at Hearst Castle at 1:00 pm because we got our tickets for a guided tour that starts at 1:45pm. 
It took us about 5 hours to get to Hearst Castle from Orange County, CA as we had to pick up one of our friends from San Pedro, CA  who was going with us. Also, we made few stops to get gas and sandwiches.

San Francisco Nov 2011

 My friends and I decided to go on a road trip from sunny Orange County, CA to San Francisco, CA (the distance is 422mi according to Google maps if take I-5 freeway, duration 7hours). But we wanted to make our trip more memorable, so we decided to take one of the most beautiful roads in the World, highway #1 (also known as Pacific Coast Highway, or PCH) which lies along the coast. It is a little longer drive (483mi and 9hr) but the views of Pacific Ocean are totally worth it. And also we wanted to stop at the historic place called Hearst Castle.

But before i continue my story i want to thank Sergei Yavorskiy for providing some of pictures from our trip to share them with you.