Nostalgia...

As we head south, we decided we would take State Highway 99 for a change of scenery this time.

 We got a nice view of Mt. Shasta as we drove through Weed.  Beautiful mountain...

This has put us through some towns that I haven't seen in many years.  One such town is Modesto.  We decided to camp just outside of Modesto in Patterson for a couple of nights, so we took a day trip over to it.

When I was a teenager, I had an aunt who lived here, and later on, my Dad and step mom lived here for a few years.  I have some fond memories of this town.  My aunt had a huge black walnut tree in her front yard, and for many years, she would send me a big bag of walnuts for Christmas!  It was one of my most favorite Christmas gifts ever.

My Dad worked for one of the large almond growers that supplied almonds to Blue Diamond.  Modesto, and the surrounding valley has hundreds and hundreds of nut orchards, mostly almonds, but I believe, they also grow walnuts and pistachios as well.  This whole areas is the "grocery store of America".  Dairy, citrus, vegetables, fruit, nuts, just about everything...you can't go hungry here!  ;-)

My very first trip to San Francisco was when I was spending the summer with my aunt.  I was about 14, and a son of a friend of hers and his friend invited to take me to go see the city since "we were so close".  He had a little MG, and the three of us piled in...me in the way back...good thing I was small then!  What a hoot!  But, when your that young, you don't care, it's all fun!  ;-)

George Lucas probably made Modesto more famous than anybody, since he grew up there and based his movie "American Graffiti" on it.  That happened long after my summers there, so I missed the hubbub, but the town has rewarded him with a cute statue & park in his name as well has the American Graffiti Classic Car Show and Festival every summer.

It was nice to just drive down "main street" and see the changes (and some familiar buildings) and just remember my fun summers here...

...on the road in California,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

A few days in the Sierra Mountains...

Growing up in California, camping in Sierra Mountains was a natural thing to do.  My earliest memories was going to Sequoia & Kings Canyon with my Dad and brother, being amazed by those big beautiful trees.  That park was my first true love, and I've never forgotten it.  I think I've compared every park to it, ever since, just like one does of their first "human love".  My Dad was born in Inyo County at the foot of Mt. Whitney in the small town of Independence, so we visited that area, via Hwy 395 a number of times over the years, but never going any further than Bishop...so, never making it up to Mammoth Lakes.  Something I've always wanted to do!

We "almost" made it this trip...thinking we were going to traverse the Tioga Pass entrance into Yosemite...but, asking a number of folks if they "had done it" in a Class A, 35' with a toad?  We got a whole lot of "advise" not to!  So...we didn't.  We took the safe route and came into Oakhurst via Hwy 41, settled into a campground and ventured into the park that way.  We talked with a fellow at the Visitor Center about the Tioga Pass, maybe doing a day trip, just to see it...he said a lot of tour buses use it, so we probably could have done it, but as far as "scenic", there wasn't much to see...pretty dry and baron now.  We decided to skip it  ;-(

Oakhurst is only about 15 minutes from the entrance to Yosemite, but after you enter, you still have another hour of driving just to get "somewhere"!  I hadn't remembered that... It's been about 15 years since I had been to this park and Jack's never been.  The last time I was here, I had come with my girlfriends to do some whitewater rafting in early July.  The water levels were high and things were still green.  All the waterfalls were really flowing and the valleys were filled with flowers.  The California drought hadn't taken hold yet.  Today...things are very different.  The drought has been in affect for over 5 years and the Bark Beetles have decimated the forests.  Along with that, it's the middle of September and what little snow they had has long since melted, so the waterfalls were all but done.  The only water flowing was the Nevada falls, way in the distance.  The famous Bridalveil Fall wasn't even wet.  Sad.  Everywhere you looked you saw signs of how dry and damaged it all was.  The Village Road was all torn up with construction (a 2 year project) along with the Mariposa Grove where the Gian Sequoias are (closed).  The one plus was that unlike the middle of the summer, the crowds were not to bad, so we could get around and find parking at all the turn-outs without to much effort.  With the temperatures turning into the 90's, and us not robust hikers anyway, there really wasn't much else for us to see after a full day of driving the loop through the park and all it various stops.

Bass Lake is another pretty spot here in the valley.  We took a nice drive all around it, peeking at all the homes along the water's edge (wow, some of them are really squeezed in close to each other...better like your neighbors!).  All kinds of fun boats, jets skis and rubber rafts to pull behind.  Didn't see that many out on the lake...a few, but it was the middle of the week, so that probably accounts for a lot of it.  We stopped at the marina and watched some families go out and a few kayakers ready their boats.  Lovely day...made me a little envious, wishing I had a boat too.  ;-)

Another day we took the Sierra Vista Scenic Byway through Coarsegold, North Fork (where the exact center of California is) and up along a ridge looking down on Redinger Lake.  It was a pretty drive.  Not to much beetle damage there, because it was mostly Blue Oak trees and Manzanita.

We leave here tomorrow and head to Sequoia for a few days where I'm looking forward to introducing Jack to "my first love"...hope he likes them...;-)   Mammoth Lakes are still on my bucket list...

...kicking back in California,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

Welcome home!

Although San Diego CA is not our "legal" home state, it is where we spent the last 40+ years (husband) and 55+ years for me.  So, every January we come here to visit friends and family and to "thaw out" from the last couple of months of the cold, damp weather of the north.

We don't usually drive an 8 hour day, not our style.  If you follow my blogs, you know it's all about enjoying the day, so usually we drive about 4 hours, settle in and see our surroundings.  Well, we were a bit anxious to get there, so we pushed it - 8 hours!  We were familiar with the drive, reminded of the traffic (ugh) and determined to get into town in time for the sunset.  We weren't disappointed - it was beautiful!  I didn't bother taking my camera, I just dashed to the water's edge (we always stay at Mission Bay RV Park) and just enjoyed it.  I leaned against the fence and said to myself "welcome home Marie".   It was warm, the sky was orange and for the first time in weeks all I had on that evening was a long sleeve shirt.  Lovely.

Don't get me wrong, Southern California isn't "perfect", it's crowded, over-priced, noisy, has crazy politics and probably a bunch of other problems, but...the weather is heaven!  After driving all over the country, enjoying low gas prices, "normal" traffic, reasonable food prices, etc, coming back into California, especially through Silicone Valley for three weeks, it was almost a shock to our system!  There were times when the traffic was so bad that I had to close my eyes for fear of screaming - and I'm the passenger!  My daughter told me to stop grimacing and scaring her, that this was "normal" here!  I'd forgotten how awful the drivers were here!  Last night, in San Diego, there were a couple of small accidents and all of the side roads, freeways, etc were bumper-to-bumper for hours! For hours!  I remember those days, yuck, no more, thank you.  Yep, it has lovely weather.  Keep reminding yourself of that. You don't even want me to get started on the price differences on food and gas!  ha ha

But...our wonderful friends and family live here, so we get the luxury of visiting and enjoying this great weather, in January when the rest of the world is freezing (I'm so sorry).  Seeing the Zoo, seeing how the progress is going on the San Salvador with the Blacksmiths, going to lunches and dinners, seeing all the changes in the city since last year (and in our previous jobs).  Then there's always the job of weeding all the "stuff" out that we've collected along the way (how does that happen?) and taking it to storage.  Good ol' spring cleaning!  Then...we're off for the next year's adventure!

We are so excited for 2014!  Several of our friends are getting back into RVing and I think that we will be seeing them more this year, which we are really looking forward to!  We've also made some new friends along the way, who are making plans on meeting up with us as well, so that will be great too.  It's always nice to have company!  After we leave the San Diego area we are heading to Quartzsite AZ to one of the largest RV shows there is.  About 150,000 folks converge on this tiny desert town for a week to see every possible thing that you could ever even think you might want for your rig, or maybe a brand new or a used rig to buy!  We are meeting 3 other couples there for the week!  I'm really excited - both for the experience of the show, but also for the first time of being with friends camping for the week!  Cool!

This is last year at Mission Bay, it always looks the same!

Our day at the Zoo!

Jack catching up with his Blacksmith buds at the San Salvador site

 See, 2014 is going to be a great year!  Glad you are coming along with us!

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/   

Home for the Holidays...

Spending Christmas in northern CA with my daughter, son-in-law and grandson has become a tradition we enjoy.  This year was especially exciting because it brought us "full circle" from our adventure that we embarked upon at this time last year.


California welcomed us with sunshine and views of green rolling hills and beautiful Mt Shasta covered with snow.  The drive was easy considering others were also en route for the holidays, but seemed to drag on forever as we were anxious to be with our family.

Two glorious weeks went by way to fast.  The first week my grandson (who is almost 4) was still in preschool, so I got to spend a day "observing".  That actually was a lot of fun!  He is in a Montessori school this year, so it was very interesting and amusing to watch the children take out various projects to work on with numerous components, and once completed, putting them all back without the teacher "reminding" them to (like at home).  I was even served a nice tea by two of the students!  Lovely.  Later that week, Our little man completed enough tasks at home to earn the "Bat Cave" he had been desperately wanting for weeks.  He was so excited he could hardly stand it.  The fact that he had earned it was even better, making it his Bat Cave!  That was the beginning of the marathon of hours and hours of Super Hero play between he and anyone who would play with him, which most of the time, was me.  ;-)  I kept running out of the proper expressions like "holy strawberries Batman! We're in a jam!"

The special Elf on the Shelf (aka Holly & joined by his friend Jolly) joined in on the Christmas fun this year.  Evidently, "Elf on the Shelf" has been quite the thing this year with children.  Playing around while they are sleeping, but "watching" while they are awake, to report back to Santa before Christmas Eve.  Lucian is just at the right age to believe in all the wonderment of the season, so our "house elves" were quite fun.  They even had a bit of "advise" to share with him when his actions of the day needed to be addressed a bit.  Each morning our little guy would dash out of bed and run to see where his two elves were and what they had been up to the night before.  It started each day off with a chuckle. 

Christmas soon arrived and was filled with all the laughter and glee that one hopes for.  I got such a kick out of watching Lucian open each present, very slowly then attempting to play with it, not even thinking about all the rest of the packages still waiting to be unwrapped!  He soon got into the rhythm and made a great "mailman" as he called it as he passed out every one's packages.  Afterwards, like all children, he took great pleasure in kicking and tossing all the ripped paper and boxes!  Tradition continued with my daughter and I in making the simple crepes my mother (and her mother before her) made for breakfast.  My son Aaron even sent me a picture & text showing me that he had fixed some too, even tho he was in Texas!  It made my heart smile.

Fun activities were tucked in here and there as well.  We did an all-family outing to see the new Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away 3-D movie that was a great success with all of us enjoying it thoroughly.  We also had the opportunity to visit the NASA AMES Exploration Center, where Lucian showed me all around and how he is going to go to Mars someday and grow carrots.  We got to see a film about the recent Mars landing along with various exhibits that we could touch and look into.  Very fun.  My daughter and I got to have a special night out together.  First we went to "officially" purchase her new washer & dryer.  They had already picked them out, now came the time to do the actual buying!  That completed, we went to the theater and bought tickets to see Les Miserables.  It wasn't due to come on for another 90 min. so we went to a tequila bar nearby and shared a Margarita, chips & salsa by a nice heater and listened to live music.  Lovely.  We had seen the play together, so had wanted to see the movie together too.  Special night.  Lots of laughter and love = good memories to cherish.  I even got some lovely time with my daughter's friends.  First, tea with her neighbor and then a lovely Christmas Eve gathering.

It seems like every holiday family gathering has to have a hiccup or two as well, so did ours.  Both grandson and daughter have been enjoying running and have entered a few 5k/1k runs.  They had signed up for one to do while we were in town so we could watch and cheer them on.  The run location was a bit of a drive away and very early, so we left at o'dark early.  Once checked in, it was a matter of waiting for the start time, and so a hope for a short nap.  It was raining, cold & windy.  Not what you would call a lovely day.  Top that with an antsy little boy, who just couldn't settle down, mix it with a mom who was tired and what you get is a recipe for failure.  The decision to "go home and forget the race" was made after a lot of tough thought.  Later in the week, the very old plumbing started to show their age.  It seems they do this more in the winter, and more so this winter than ever.  They continued to back up and cause poor Seth (and Alissa) awful, messy work again and again.  It was time to call the plumber and talk about new pipes.  Oh the joys of "home ownership".  Ugh. 

Alas, the time to leave finally had to come...it always does.  One thing I learned tho, was that I can't go a whole year again without visits, so this coming year there will be some short trips (some probably flights) back for the much needed and loved hugs and giggles.  There's nothing quite like it...  

...on the road in California,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

Funky, Fun & Delicious!

Kay, being an old and dear friend, who knows me well, says, "I've got a great couple of places to take you! We'll leave the guys here, and just the two of us will go have some FUN!" So off we went! First direction, back to California! "Tecopa" to be specific. We "checked out" the options for the various "hot springs", but turned up our noses and drove on to China Ranch Date Farm. THAT was the real beginning of our adventure! You practically need a 4-wheel drive to get there, but Kay knew the way, and v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y drove through the soft rocky road to the ranch. All along the "road" are steep walls of gypsum that had been mined out long ago, leaving a pretty interesting entrance to this place, I must say! We finally reached the "entrance sign" so I knew it couldn't be much further, then turned a corner, and WOW, rows and rows of beautiful date palms! Now, it's not like I haven't seen date palms before, but I can tell you, I haven't seen any with clothes hanging in them! What a hoot! Instead of burlap bags or other "plain" material to cover the dates until picking time, they use old clothes! Guess it's easier? cheaper? a good marketing idea? Anyway, it does make a good "impression", that's for sure!

After driving around enjoying the trees, we went over to the "store", such as it was. Nothing about this place is "fancy" that's for sure. But one this is for sure, the dates are plenty, the variety is huge, and the taste is wonderful! They make date shakes (of course) and bread (all day, every day) that I couldn't resist (sorry Jenny Craig). A few other fun little "sights" to see and chuckle over and off we went, on to the next "location" of my surprise adventure!























































































A few miles away, we came to this little, I mean little town called Shoshone. We missed the museum being opened, but I still had a good time walking around and seeing "everything". The BEST was this art! There really wasn't any signs up about it, and the best I can gather from my research, is that it must be left from Jill "Lady Buffalo" Thacker, who was commissioned to weld the names of local mines onto a railroad rail for a footrest at the base of the bar next door. Maybe it was her, maybe it's just a "local artist" expressing them self, but I got quite a chuckle out of seeing all these just lying about in the desert!













































































We decided that was enough fun for one day and took the poor van in to be washed before we brought it back to the guys! A fun day had by two happy gals!

...kicking back in Nevada, Marie