Late Summer Beach Trip…Day 4, Sunday

Up around 6 a.m. and it was still deeply overcast but rain had stopped.  Breakfast at home and then off to church.  We picked up lunch at the #1 ranked restaurant in all of San Diego, Phil’s BBQ.  Yep, a  BBQ joint is #1 in 4040 restaurants. 

Our daughter headed off to LA to pick up our son-in-law from the airport.  He had spent the last eight days with family and on business and now they are heading for Palm Springs for a three day conference and we have our grandson.  Spoil the kid time! 

Took off in the evening for a three mile walk to explore the area.  Many expensive condo’s, apartments, golf courses sitting below UC San Diego.  Sweated through my clothes in the high humidity.

Quiet evening with grandson and day four ends. 

 

Late Summer Beach Trip…Day 3

Saturday a catch up day.  Took my grandson on a walk…mile…to his favorite bakery, Rose’s Donuts where we loaded up with croissants and donuts of course.  Overcast, 70 degrees and there was a bicycle race on the front street of the condo.  Bicycles are  big in San Diego.  Washing clothes and grocery shopping and eating in today.  Think I will look for place to eat tonight though.  

Can you believe it?  It rained most of the day here in San Diego.  Never saw the sun and with the temperature around 78, it was humid.  We headed out late afternoon for a top restaurant in the University Heights district called Carnitas Snack Shack. It is ranked in the top 20 out of 4000+ San Diego eating places and the food is great!  All swine all the time except for one duck dish.  You eat outside and there is a new menu every day based on availability of fresh local food.  The eating area is full of raised garden of vegetables and flowers.  Fun place.  

We then drove to the South Park area of town and talked to the folks walking their dogs and restaurant owners looking for customers.  Lots of small shops and restaurants that felt very safe.  Heading back there one day soon. 

Very kick back day in preparation for taking over full time responsibility for our eight year old grandson for the next 4 days. 

 

Day 2-14, Minnesota Trip 2014

No pictures as this trip ended up to be a working time with family.  Our 4000+ mile trip really was quite pleasant on the road except for the weather.  The Honda CRV gets great gas mileage…about 34 miles per gallon overall.  Comfortable vehicle for a small car.  No close calls.  Lots of bad weather including tornados and hail storms.  Add some of the heaviest rain I have ever driven in. 

The stay in Minnesota attempting to work with family was less comfortable and successful.  One must expect there are times that what is best for everyone not always works out no matter how logical it is. 

Even though I am nearly 70 I am still learning. This trip learning experience? When you have children who love and want the best for you.  When you have children who know about the resources and how to use them. Things do not workout due to lack of trust.   “Old Age ends up being a sad source of irony.” 

 

May 2014, San Diego Day 4

Homeward bound.  The cool weather and the firefighters have the set fires pretty much under control.  Nice drive home in right around 3 hours.  Great trip. 

 

May 2014, San Diego Birthday Trip, Day 1, 2

Risa’s B Day and with the kids now in California for the very first time in 8 years, it was time to visit them and celebrate.  Celebrate a birthday and tour San Diego.

DAY 1

To San Diego by car.  186 miles.  Gas $4.06.  It was a Friday noon when we backed out of our drive way and stopped at one of our local fast food restaurants and split a patty melt and fries.  You heard the word split as that was more than enough for us even though we could have eaten the whole thing.  Gotta be good once in a while. 

We expected bad traffic on this trip but not the way it turned out.  Very light traffic through the Antelope Valley, moderate traffic through San Bernardino area and and that continued all the way into San Diego.  Going out of San Diego was a different story.  Forty miles of bumper to bumper going north for the poor saps. 

The 40 miles were filled with smoke from the 10 brush fires around San Diego.  The green’s were screaming global warming but now it is coming out that at least eight of the ten were set.  Must be global cooling of some one’s brain.   

Risa had big steaming bowls of tortilla soup waiting for us when we got there.  Not a bad day at all considering that all of our driving was in infamous SoCal traffic. 

DAY 2 

The kids live in a condo near the heart of San Diego just below UC San Diego close to their work.  It is surprisingly quiet there but not as quiet as our foothill hide-away in the Antelope Valley.  However it close to everything.  Breakfast on Mission Beach at the Mission Restaurant.  The Pacific ocean on one side…one block and one block on the side the San Diego Bay.  Not a place to be if a tsunami comes in but.great food!

The girls take off shopping and a snack at a French Bakery in downtown and the guys load up the bicycle’s and a 12 mile pedal to the embarcadero.  Two hours touring the “Surprise”, “Star of India”, and two WWII submarines. My eight year old grandson put me to shame!

Then the Birthday Dinner.  We all met at home, got cleaned up and headed out to the Cheese Cake Factory.  Immediate seating at 4 p.m. on the patio with 72 degrees and a cool ocean breeze.  What a life.  Good food and service. 

 

25 Straight Days Over 100 Degrees

Its 6 a.m. in the morning and and I am sitting out side drinking my coffee looking at my  little slice of heaven.  Its 78 degrees and the birds are singing, the neighbors are stirring, and my mind is the clearest of the day.  Today is the first day it is not supposed to get over 100 degrees.  Twenty five straight days over 100.  Love the high desert foothills at 2900 feet with 6% humidity.

 

Nope its not global warming, it the high desert.  Darn, that humming bird just buzzed me again, no coffee for you.  Add to my “to do’ list today, fill the feeder.

 

Poland/Switzerland, Day 7, 8…Montrose, Switzerland

We landed in Geneva, Switzerland last evening…I mean thumped in and the majority of the passengers were green.  The flight path from Amsterdam climbs over the Alps and then the plane dives into a valley that is surrounded by huge mountain ranges on both sides and ends with a wall of rock.  The winds throw the plane around as it maneuvers at the end of the valley… plane turns…and then it bounces in for a landing in the rain.  Luke, Risa, and Alex are running in the rain toward the rental car building.  

It was in the low 40’s F and cloudy.  For the first time in 7 days, were were dressed correctly in coats and warm clothes.  We rented a van and loaded up and headed off along Geneva Lake for 50 miles or so and made a stop at the COOP grocery store for tea, bread, cheese, yogurt’s and milk for breakfast. That really tasted good this morning.

We had a GPS from Luke and Marisa’s friend and it took us right to our apartment overlooking the lake and the Alps.  What a view this morning.  A camera cannot take it all in. 

We unpacked in the 3 bed room apartment and I made a pot of soup with fresh bread and of course a sweet.  Slept well last night. 

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We really got a good view of our apartment this morning.

 

Great place to live for 5 days. 

After breakfast we headed out for a long day!  First to the Castle Chillon.  Built back in the 12th century it was a great tour.

We then headed off to Gruyere about 30 miles from our apartment.  We toured a cheese factory, a chocolate factory and ate a $105 lunch.  Switzerland is not  cheap place to eat out.  Nice lunch though. 

The cheese factory is a special place as it was where the first Gruyere cheese was made.  It is a powerful and delicious cheese.  The cows that provide the milk are all around the factory.

We then headed off to the famous Nestle chocolate factory.  My stomach hurts.  Great tour with as much chocolate a human could eat. 

Finally home again and grocery shopping for the next 4 days.  Happy birthday daughter Marisa.  We enjoyed spending you B-day with you in Switzerland. 

 

Packing Day and Checking the Weather

Our packing lists are done and packing time is upon us.  We have done this so many times that  it’s second nature for us.   The 10 day forecast for Switzerland is 60 high-40 low, and rain, rain, rain.  Guess that answers the “Desert Dog’s” question about a rain coat and umbrella.  Just checked the temperature here in Palmdale, 42.

Mary;  should we take any shorts with us on the trip?

 

Brothers Traveling Together 2011…Day 10

We left at 0510 from Winnemucca, NV and the car was covered with ice.  The temperature was 30 degrees.  We ate a great breakfast and then head out.  Fastest 515 miles of the trip even with a stop in and Schatt Bakery.  We were home before 4 PM and filled up with gas and washed the car.  Great trip and glad to be home. 

Taking Dave to LAX tomorrow.  Leaving here at 7 AM.  

 

Brothers Traveling Together 2011…Day 8

Up at 630 AM and down to Vern and Kathy for breakfast.  Dave, Vern, and Kathy headed out fishing and caught 5 more steelhead while I headed out to Moscow, Idaho and the University of Idaho.  On the way to Moscow, I took some photos of the confluence of the Clearwater and the Snake rivers as they meet in Lewiston, ID. 

Lewiston is dominated by a huge pulp plant.  The sky opened up and it started to rain on my way to the U of Idaho.  It was a very nice campus with a mixture of new and old buildings that were very well kept.  The people on the campus treated me very well and I enjoyed touring the basketball facilities.  One of our basketball players, Jason Johnson, is touring the campus this month.

 

I headed back to Vern and Kathy’s place and we took an hours rest and then headed to the Nes Perz Indian museum. Very interesting .  Went out to eat at the Rooster Restaurant in Clarkston, WA.  Good food.  We are about packed for our trip home tomorrow.  We could see the moon through the clouds as we headed to the boathouse.