Which way to the beach?

We started our last day in California visiting the oldest McDonalds restaurant in Downey.  This McDonalds store was the blueprint upon which Ray Kroc built his empire beginning in 1955.

A museum was added in 1996 and includes a lot of interesting McDonalds artifacts.

The day was gorgeous with temps in the mid-70's.  We decided to head straight west to Hermosa Beach. There we found ample parking near the water and decided to check out the water temperature.  Pam declared the water warm enough to swim.

Bill on the other hand disagreed.  It was cold!  Brr!!!  We did see people swimming and surfing and others sun bathing.  We also saw a number of dolphins off the coast of downtown Hermosa Beach.

We later drove down the shore to Palos Verdes and Palos Verdes Estates to check out the house and the breath-taking views.  The picture below captures the ocean, downtown Los Angeles and the mountains in one take.

We stopped at the Point Vincente Interpretive Center, a museum and park popular with whale the watchers.  Below are a group of serious whale watchers.  Through the first 6 days of January the watchers have spotted 13 southbound whales.  Last month there were 454 whales spotted headed south, the largest monthly total in 30 years. Bill was allowed to view one of the whales after striking up a friendly conversation with one of the retirees with a very powerful scope.

To the south of the San Vincente Interpretive Center was a magnificent view of the San Vincente Lighthouse with San Catalina Island in the background.