My milestone birthday weekend photos are now online

Check out this set of photos (link near the very end of this post) from two weeks ago and a birthday trip from Southern to Northern California that included stopping at several movie locations, a stay at a wonderful ocean side hotel, going to a drive-in movie for the first time in years, seeing beautiful Central California landscapes of mountains, green pastures, and hundreds of energy windmills dotting the hills for miles and miles along the way, plus eating some really yummy foods!

At the beginning of the trip, a short hop over the mountains found us climbing Point Dume at the end of Zuma Beach, the location where Tony Stark's house sits in "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2". Of course there's only brush and a few trails there because the house for the movie was created completely in the computer. Right below there is small beach where they filmed Charlton Heston finding the Statue of Liberty in "Planet of the Apes". Unfortunately it's somewhat difficult to actually find your way down to walk on that beach. I tried at least two paths; one led to a cliff that went straight down and the other would have taken me through ocean waves pounding on rocks. I hope at some point I might be able to actually walk and kneel in the wet sand where Charlton Heston did more than forty years ago. BTW, where that small patch ends and Zuma Beach actually begins is where they filmed Cornelius, Zira, and Dr. Milo washing up on shore in Taylor's spacecraft at the beginning of "Escape from the Planet of the Apes". Pretty trippy.

Up the coast from there to the tiny town of Guadalupe, we visited the vast oceanside sand dunes where Cecil B. DeMille's 1927 silent version of "The Ten Commandments" was filmed. As the production closed, DeMille, not wanting anyone to have or copy his giant set pieces to use in other films, had workers dig a giant pit to bury the Egyptian city exterior they built for the movie.

Here's an article about the man whose been trying to mount a full-on excavation of the site for almost 30 years. At a nearby historical center about the Dunes, there lay a vast array of smaller artifacts that had been dug up through the years. Really fascinating pieces along with a number of photos from the dig, as well as never before seen photos from the making of the movie. Strangely enough, an auto parts supply store just a block and a half away was also a focal point for people's curiosity about the site. The owner of the store, a really nice gentlemen, had us sign his guest book after talking about one "Ten Commandments" artifact in particular he had in his shop. That guest book had signatures of people from places near and far. Including two from Great Britain who had been there the day before to see the display of history! Pretty amazing. When we finally reached the beach and started walking towards the Dunes, it seemed like no matter how far we walked, we never got any closer. Finally we decided to head back to the car, having braved the wind and the surf for almost an hour.

Staying the night at a really nice hotel right on the ocean in Pizmo Beach, we relaxed and fine tuned our planes for Day 2.

The Towns of Harmony and Cambria were our next stops along the way. Harmony is a town with a population of 18 (so says the sign) and had some amazing history. There was a shop at the end of town that housed a glass blowing production facility with an actual glass blower making wares that the store in front sold. Cambria is a really beautiful town on the ocean where we had lunch and took in some of the downtown area.

Continuing to head up the California coast, we stopped at a movie location I had longed to see in person; the site used for the Cyberdyne Building in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day". Now, twenty years later, it's owned by a company called Mattson. And if you watch this clip of a fellow fan visiting the location, you'll hear one of the employees talk about how they've actually named several rooms after characters from "T2"! I love this!




It was really awesome to stand there in front of the building where Arnold let loose the mini-gun on unsuspecting police and where that giant fireball consumed all of Cyberdyne's records of the first Terminator and it's chip. While we walked around and took pictures, in the car behind us was the "T2" soundtrack cranked on my iPod! The only thing that would made the setting perfect is if we'd been there at night. But being there during the day was pretty amazing!

Finally arriving in Modesto, we anticipated enjoying a hot air balloon festival Sunday afternoon. However, a quick cross referencing of several websites revealed that the event's date had been mis-posted. It'd actually occurred the month before. But hey, no worries! We were having a great time, and the trip home was ahead of us. On the way out of town we saw this guy on a motorcycle wearing an Easter Bunny outfit. Must have been a member of the Biker Bunnies of Modesto! Staying overnight halfway down the coast brought us into Monday and a stop at Anderson's Restaurant. I'd recently discovered the goodness of Anderson's pea soup, and was really looking forward to enjoying a large bowl. Instead, they had a gi-normous bread bowl (pictured) that I consumed most of before calling on a box to bring the rest home for dinner that night! YUM-E!

I had a fantastic and really memorable birthday weekend, and here are the pictures to prove it! You can also go to my photo sets page by clicking the Flickr link near the bottom of the left hand sidebar. Enjoy!