My visit to California was full of Birthdays and family time with a little time thrown in for me to do some of my favorite things and hang out with friends.  The vacation started with Stephanie’s birthday and ended with an afternoon at the beach including clam chowder on the pier – our family favorite tradition.

Sipping Daiquiri's! Happy 22nd Birthday Stephanie

Stephanie’s request was a home cooked meal by mom (with some help from her second Mom, Annie!)  We had homemade Strawberry Daiquiri’s and Ribs.   I also got a little birthday treat for my daughters birthday – pedicures and lunch with Annie.  It is such a treat to get to come home and enjoy all my favorite things that I miss.

The birthday girl and me, Happy 70th birthday mom

We had a huge party for my mom’s big day.  We were working on the party for several months long distance knowing keeping a secret would be impossible.  She knew something was up but not sure about details until Saturday morning(the day before).  It was so much fun planning and getting ready for the party without her having to help and she really enjoyed the day being all about her and her friends and family.

Mom and Dad, Karol, Mark and Me

Mom and her family - a few are missing

Then it was back to San Jose and my birthday!  Wow, 3 birthdays in only 1 week.  My birthday gift was a day in San Francisco with my girls and the production of Peter Pan. 

Stephanie, Amy and Me in San Francisco

Amy's boyfriend Nick with Amy & Stephanie

Standing infront of the Peter Pan Tent, the SF clocktower in the background

You have to have a cable car ride in San Francisco - this was Nick's first!

 My last week in California was full of great moments; Dinner with my girlfriends, a walk through Santana Row, I played golf twice, saw a few friends (not enough!), hung out with my girls and tried to relax which isn’t always easy when you are moving from home to home!  I appreciate so much everyone that takes me in when I am visiting.  I did spend a bit of time at our house enjoying the pool although it wasn’t really warm enough for me to go swimming this week!

My last day, Friday was spent hanging out with my girls in one of my favorite places, the Northern California Beach!  It was a beautiful day.

California Sunshine!

Enjoying the Day

My vacation to California was spectacular but I was ready to get back on the road with Paul & Duke whow were waiting for me in New York.  I arrived back in New York Saturday morning to some beautiful weather.  Thanks everyone in California for a great vacation – see you all soon!

2 weeks in California has been wonderful, great weather, lots of friends and of course my girls!  i arrived July 27 and spent my first few days catching up with the girls and celebrating Stephanie’s 22nd birthday on July 29th.  Then it was off to Hanford to visit my family and give my mom a 70th birthday surprise celebration.  It was really fun to see family and friends that I usually miss on my quick trips.  My mom loved her party and I really enjoyed my week visiting her. 

Returning to San Jose on August 6th to continue my vacation with my girls and as many friends I could fit in in a week.  Sunday was my birthday so Amy, Stephanie, Nick (Amy’s boyfriend) and I went to San Francisco to see the production, Peter Pan whch was really fun and exciting.  They fly a lot in this play and all I kept thinking about was I want to fly – what a feeling of freedom, to be able to fly!  We had a great seafood dinner on the pier, a ride on a cable car and then a nice walk along California street back to the pier.

I fly back to New York on Friday but not before I play a couple rounds of golf, see more friends and maybe a home cooked meal with my girls.

I have lots of pictures but will wait until i get home and upload them.  Slide show will follow on Monday.

loving California sunshine

I am back in Arizona after an excellent time in California.  Both girls are amazing and we had a really good time hanging out, just the 3 of us.  We spent the Easter weekend in Capitola where it was pretty cold so we spent some of our time inside watching the ocean from the warmth of our getaway, huge hotel room, complete with a seperate bedroom and a kitchen.  This place was at least 1 1/2 the size of my home on wheels!

What a view

Breakfast on our patio

Amy & Stephanie against the Pacific Ocean

Of course she is building a sandcastle!

Two days at the beach was all we got but it was so nice to get away and spend some time just talking, walking, watching tv, laughing and making sure we got some traditions in.  Sandcastles and Easter Eggs!

A special tradition

Returning to San Jose on Sunday we found a farmers market before the rain came and picked up some fresh produce for our Easter dinner of Salmon, scallop potatoes and brocoli all cooked in Amy’s kitchen! 

It was a really quick week and I didn’t get to see everyone but I will be back in a few months and make the rounds again.  Both girls are doing great and have big plans for the upcoming months; Amy is studing to take the CPA test and Stephanie is preparing to study abroad in Australia, and I get to travel around the country in my house!  Life is good.

Christmas with the family was really fun, I got to see many nieces & nephews, an aunt, my sister & her husband and of course my mom & dad and my girls!  Just like I said in my last post we would have plenty to eat – I think I ate enough in 8 days to do me the rest of this month, but then again I haven’t stopped since we got home.  I have got to work on that.  Enough!

We left my moms on New Years day for our journey home.  On our way we made a stop in Palm Springs as I had not been there before.  I wanted to ride the tram that goes up the mountain to a spectacular view.  We made it to the tram but it was already 3:30 and the crowds were surprising so we will leave the trip for another time. 

It was a 12 hour trip home as we stop often along to see stuff and to throw the ball for Duke.  We arrived home about 10:30pm to a very balmy 65% degree temperature and it has been fabulous ever since. 

Saturday was relax and reorganize day and then Sunday we played golf.  Today I played pickle-ball while Paul went on a 7 mile hike.  This afternoon I went for a short bike ride to play fetch with Duke.  And,  I gave Paul and Duke a haircut.  Tonight we are off to Square-Dance.  I miss California but this sure is a nice way to spend time.

Here is a couple of pictures from last year that I just didn’t get around to posting.  We made a trip to Yuma before going to CA and we came across this little church in the middle of a brussel sprout field.  Apparently the original farmer of the land was trying to keep his wife happy and built her a church so he wouldn’t have to leave on Sunday and could farm!  Wait, that sounds like something Paul would do so he could work on his computer longer!

A very little church - Yuma, AZ

Elvis is in the House!

Hope 2010 is all that we are all hoping it will be.  Happy New Year—

Christmas is such an amazing time; sometimes frustrating, sometimes tiring but alway wonderful.  I finally finished my shopping today with one last trip to Walmart for Paul’s gift and the crowds were very thin, not like Monday at the mall – you would never have known there is a recession by the looks of Oakridge Mall on Monday morning between 10-1!  Wow!

I am having a great time visiting, hanging with my kids and baking in someone else’s KITCHEN!  Too bad they don’t have a kitchen fairy!  I guess I will have to do the cleaning also.

Because of the holidays I won’t get to make my usual rounds of visiting but I am getting in as many as I can in 3 days and we will leave on Thursday for Hanford, CA  for the family celebration of Christmas with enough food for at least twice as many people we will have for dinner- especially the dessert, who would know that 12 people need 6 pies, fudge, cakes and cookies!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good New Years!

Paul got his first Birdie ever (or so he tells me!) There is a great city course right next to our RV park and they have all 18 holes lit up at night for golfing.  The weather is so mild here in San Diego that the course was full and we almost didn’t get on at 6:30 pm when we showed up without a tee time!  We had to wait 30 minutes to tee off and we golfed with two pretty good players.  Paul played better than I did and got a couple of pars and that birdie.  Me, I got only a couple of pars and lots of bogey golf.

Before golfing we spent the afternoon in Old Town San Diego which has a Historical State Park with some interesting buildings and some good history about California and San Diego.  Most of the town area is very commercial and has an abundance of Mexican restaurants.  The big tourist draw is they all make tortillas by hand in the front windows!  We found a nice little patio to sit and have a margarita and a $2 taco during Happy Hour.  I tried the Potato Taco.  It was very good and I will be trying to recreate the taste at home; mashed potatoes with sour cream, cheese & jalapenos, top that with shredded lettuce, cheddar cheese and a little salsa served on a soft, warm corn tortilla.  Yummy!!!

We made it to San Diego on Tuesday and found a really nice park near Mission Bay.  This park is very popular and I could see how it would be crazy in the summer but in November it is beautiful. They have a nice little dog park so Duke gets to play ball!  They are picky and don’t want the dogs on any of the landscape which is unfortunate because we got this really nice site that is very private and has some lawn – whoops, Duke loves to roll on the grass and do his business.  We spent Tuesday being on vacation where Paul spent the afternoon relaxing in front of his computer and walking around the park.  I spent my afternoon lounging by the pool and reading another novel.

Today we took a drive out to Point Loma and down the Silver Strand to the Mexican boarder.  At the end of Point Loma is the Cabrillo National Monument which was open today and free (for Veterans Day).  It was very busy out here because you go through the Naval Base to get to the point.  The views were pretty amazing although it was a little hazy today.

Looking towards San Diego International Airport

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

Point Loma Light Station

The lighthouse is quite a ways up the hill and you couldn’t go into it so we opted to look at it from the monument.  When we got home and I downloaded the pictures I realized I was taking a picture of a BRIDE & GROOM!  They are on the far left of the lighthouse and the photographer is right in front of them holding those umbrella things for lighting.  I think I have a better photo than he is going to get from there cause he has nothing in his background except haze and water – not usually a good backdrop!

Next stop was a picnic and we chose a nice little park near downtown -actually right across the street from the airport.  It was called Richard Block Cancer Survivor Park.

Survivors

This art was pretty cool.  The statue’s in the back  are 5 victims and the 3 in front are the survivors that have made it through the maze.  Powerful!

Sourdough Bread - Yum!

It seems these days that Duke is more human than dog; he eats with us, goes siteseeing with us and still sleeps with us every night!  Look close, Duke is licking his chops.

Along the bay the city was having a celebration for Veterans Day and the US Midway was in dock for visitors.  We didn’t even know about it and were just driving past and saw it.  Better planning next time!  We did get to see some interesting public art.

Baseball Bats

Art for Duke!

Dancing Kids

Onto to Coronado Island and down to Silver Strand which is just a long sand berm that has a road on it!  There is a state park and the beach goes on forever.    Our last stop was at Imperial Beach for the sunset.  It looked like it was going to be a good one and then the foggy haze showed up!  It was still pretty impressive but the potential, ahhhhh……

Another day in paradise.

I received these photos today from my friend Joanne Wall whose son Jason is the pilot in this plane  flying over Afganistan.   These are photos of Jason refueling over the white cap mountains of Northeast Afghanistan along the border of Pakistan.  Jason just returned safely to the US from his mission in Afganistan  Thank you Jason for protecting my freedom.

We left today about noon and started down CA-101 towards San Diego.  This road I have been on many times traveling to Santa Barbara to visit Amy over the past 4 years and it always takes my breath away when you come upon the site of Pismo Beach going South.  It is the first site of the ocean and it is spectacular.   As we were coming into Santa Barbara we roll down our windows to take in the breeze and the fresh air.  Driving in a 36′ home on wheels made me laugh cause it felt like we were in a convertible with the wind whipping through my hair!  Now that would have made a great commercial.

We decided that we are going to take our time and really enjoy the coastline so we stopped for the night at a place along the hwy that we have looked at many times saying we should stop and never did.  We are sitting along hwy 101 on CA-1 and you cannot here the cars for the waves!  The waves are crashing about 20 feet from my front door.

From my kitchen window

The sun slowly dips into the sea

Part of this whole new lifestyle we have found ourselves in gives us lots of opportunities to do things we didn’t have time for when working 5 days a week or more.  Friday we left Morgan Hill heading south to Paso Robles.   As we are approaching Salinas Paul calls up an old friend and gets them to meet us for dinner in 30 minutes!  It worked out and we got to see 1 more friend before we leave the state.  We arrived in Paso Robles about 8:30 at our friends Dennis & Elizabeths. 

Saturday morning Dennis treated us to breakfast at fabulous golf resort and then Paul, Dennis & I went golfing.  I am really enjoying the opportunity to get out there and hit the tiny little white (well mine are usually pink!) ball.  It is a very interesting game.

So far we have only traveled about 150 miles but we have 10 days before we need to be in Arizona.