Temecula and Lake Perris State Park

On Thursday, December 26, Dave and I made the 41-mile drive to Temecula.  Twenty or more years ago, we had passed through Temecula on our way from Riverside to San Diego, but neither of us ever remembered stopping there.  Maybe Temecula’s “Old Town” is new, but we don’t remember seeing any signs about it.

Anyway, now we have been there.  The shops in Old Town are cute, but even after-Christmas sales didn’t entice us.  We walked around for about an hour, then had lunch in the outdoor patio of Front Street Bar and Grill.  Dave found an old favorite on the menu, a Monte Cristo sandwich, and I ordered a cup of tomato basil bisque and 1/2 croissant turkey sandwich.  The atmosphere was great, the food was great, and the company (Dave) was great.  We both enjoyed Temecula’s sunshine.

The rest room at Front Street Bar and Grill had an interesting item which I rarely see in restaurants:

The fairly new city hall was magnificent and temporarily, there was an ice skating rink set up in front.

Before we left Temecula, we drove to Pechanga Resort and Casino to check out the RV park.  I forgot to take any pictures, but the sites were very nice with lots of room for big rigs, paved sites, full hookups, shade, and yet not so much shade that our satellite wouldn’t work.  They even accept Passport America, but only for one day.

Before we headed back to Riverside, we made a stop at Lake Perris State Park.  With Dave’s off-season California state park pass which we purchased in January while at Pismo Beach, we were able to enter the park free.  We looked at the camping area where we had stayed once in 1990 after we purchased our first motorhome.  The spaces were okay, but short, and the park only has partial hookups.  From the park brochure, I wasn’t able to determine the price of a campsite.

We parked by the lake and took some photos.  I used to make day trips here when Tim was small.  It was much closer than the ocean and was a nice beach and body of water for him to splash around in. I don’t remember ever going there after Jonathan came along!

Today we are changing sites again.  This park is getting full!  We aren’t moving far, just from site 244 to 255, but we figured it was worth it to move in order to stay two more days.  Then we will have reached our fourteen-day limit and we’ll head to Bakersfield again.