More pictures from the Christmas Light parade in Palm Springs Loved this tractor!

Nov 30 2008

Well time sure flies! It’s already time to leave this Thousand Trails Park and move about 170 miles north east to Indio, which is in the desert close to where we were 2 weeks agio. We have a coupon for a $199.00 month at a Carefree park there, the regular price is $875, what a bargan! It is a beautiful park with 3 heated swimming pools that we have been taking advantage of. I’m going to swimming aerobics in the mornings.
While in Chula Vista we went into San Diego and toured the Midway Carrier. It was commissioned in 1945 and retired in 1998, the quarters on board are SPARCE! 4500 people on board, it was an eye opener to me. The same day we were there the Ronald Regan came in,with all the other ships that accompany a carrier, and the Nimitz was across the bay. On Saturday we went to La Jolla to see the sea caves and the sea lions. There were several weddings on the beautiful lawns by the ocean. I think I could live there! Our Thousand Trails park was close to one of only 3 Olympic Training centers in the country. Athletes go there for training, some for as long as 6 years. The teams that go there longest are the rowers, track and field , bicyclists and soccer players.
For Thanksgiving Norm cooked a turkey and we had a full turkey dinner in the motorhome. We ate turkey for 6 days, but it was good.
Saturday we drove to Palm Springs to see their Christmas light parade. It was attended by over 80,000 people and it was quite a treat.. I will include some pictures in the blog. Sunday we went to a tamale festival in Indio. It was a lot like the Bloomsburg fair with a Mexican flavor. We had beef, pork and strawberry tamales and some type of sandwich I don’t know the name of. There were 3 or 4 stages with Mariachi bands entertaining, a real nice event.
There is a GMC club here at the park for a rally 25 of them. They belong to a chapter of FMCA and came in for the Tamale Festival. They were all built in the 70s, 13,000 in all, and according to the couple we talked to 9000 are still in use. We toured one and it looked a lot like our 86 Classic airstream. They were made by General Motors but outfitted by various other companies.
Norm joined Massage envoy for six months. It/s a franchise and they offer $39.00 massages after you join for 6 months, AND PAY $59 for one massage per month. He thinks it’s the best thing since sliced bread.
Last night we went to a market in Indio at the fairgrounds. It was a lot like Webster in FL only I didn’t hear much English spoken. We got lots of fruit and veggies.
Hope this finds you all healthy and happy.
Happy travels
Lois

Slabtown
Nov 15 2008
Our time at Thousand Trails in Palm Desert is over now and we are moving to an escapee park in Aguanga, near Temecula. We will be visiting with our friends Bev and Lowell Kuhn who use this as their home park.
Yesterday we went with a group from the park to Morongo Canyon Preserve where we hiked in the morning and in the afternoon we went for lunch at Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneertown. Pioneertown was founded in 1946 by a group of Hollywood personalities as a permanent 1880s town for filming westerns. Roy Rogers broke ground for the first buildings assisted by The Sons of the Pioneers, from whom the town gets its name. Over 200 movies and TV serials were filmed there. There are people who live there and occasionally parts of films are still made there. On the way the mountains looked like big piles of rocks, we also saw plenty of Joshua Trees; The wild fires here are terrible. We passed sections where all the trees were burned. And the one right now has burned over 600 homes and many acres.
We are now in Jojoba Hills in Aguanga, we could see the smoke from the fires far in the distance from here.
We went to Palomar Mountain Observatory. You can see it from the park but you must drive around the mountain to get there. Our GPS said it was 6 miles but when we saw the dirt road she was taking us on we opted for the paved way of about 35 miles. The dome houses a 200 inch Hale telescope. Astronomers used to climb inside it and take pictures but now it is all done automatically and the study the pictures from computers.
We also went into San Diego and toured Coronado Island. What a lovely place to live. We were told more Admirals live there than any other city. The Del Coronado is still a beautiful Hotel. Just down the road is a state park with camping right on the ocean for $23. We might end up there after our next stop.
Norm went to breakfast with the mens group this morning.
Fri we went north to Yorba Linda to see Richard Nixons Library. It was very educational. It is located on the site of his childhood home. It is a 900 sq ft kit house built by his father. The helicopter used to transport presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford. Was also on the site.
We are now at another Thousand Trail park closer to San Diego, and we found Panera Bread!!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!Lois

pics from the desert

Top picture is the TT park we are staying at. They harvest the dates from these Date Palms.



These are fan palms at the 1000 palms canyon. We were told fan palms are the only palm natural to the area.

Nov 4 2008

We are at a Thousand Trails park in La Quinta, about 35 miles east of Palm Springs. The landscaping around here along the roads and housing developments is just beautiful, everything is green ( a lot of watering being done), with beautiful flowers and manicured bushes and lawns. There is boocoo money here! The park seems active, I’ve already been to a photoshop class and they play pickle ball just up the street from us, The pool is warm and feels really good, We are happy here. Norm already went to a spa at Desert Hot Springs, I found a Stein Mart, all is well!
Today we went on a road trip to Anza Borrego State Park. The wind was blowing the sand all around just like the last time we were here. I wouldn’t want to stay there long in a motorhome there would be sand in everything. The desert is pretty but hostile! When we were there last time we hiked up Palm canyon to a beautiful oasis with palm trees. In 2004 a 40’ wall of water came crashing thru the canyon, taking out many of the palm trees and leaving big boulders strewn around. [flash flood]. This time we decided instead of hiking up the storm damaged canyon we would look up a hot spring Norm found in his hot spring book. It was an additional 50 mile drive to the desert north of Brawley where after driving 1 1/2 miles in the sand we came to an oasis with about 20 palm trees and a beautiful natural hot springs under the palms. It was like something out of a movie.
Most of the week we’ve been lounging around the pool. It’s been hot and sunny here.
Sat-Today we went to the College of the Desert to a street fair where we spent the morning walking around the vender’s tents. When we left there we drove up the thousand palms canyon and took a short hike thru the palms.
Sun- Today we drove to Palm Springs and drove up to the tram. We didn’t go up the side of the mountain (it was cold), but the view from there was awesome. We were both a little surprised at Palm Springs. Palm Springs appears to be older than all the communities that have sprung up to the East. There are alot of empty shops and the landscaping along the streets doesn’t compare to what we were seeing here in La Quinta.
Hope all is well with you and have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Lois

pics from LA

Oct 30 2008
Our last day in Monterey we went to the Carmel Mission where we learned we were not as smart as a 4th grader!! A fourth grade class from Sacramento was touring the mission and we tagged along with them to take advantage of their docent. We learned a lot about missions and had a great time trying to answer the docent’s questions (quietly) before the kids did and usually they had us beat. The mission was established in 1771 by a Franciscan friar, Father Junipero Serra, who had to be a really courageous explorer to come to a wilderness land and set up a community. He would walk back and forth to Mexico for needed supplies!
From there we traveled 340 miles southwest to Acton which was the location of the Thousand Trails preserve that we went to for their sales presentation. There we just took it easy and enjoyed their pool and hot tub and the 3 free nights of camping. By going there we received a months free camping at thousand trails so tomorrow we leave for the Palm Springs area for 2 weeks on Thousand trails. We just heard they had 3 small earthquakes near there, hope they are DONE.

The last 5 days we have been in Simi Valley exploring the LA area. Our first day was spent at the Ronald Regan Library which is on a beautiful setting where on a clear day you can see the ocean. He is buried there. They were featuring a special display of Nancy Reagan’s outfits. They also have a new display featuring Air Force One and a presidential motorcade. This Air Force One flew Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, H W Bush, Clinton, and W Bush. Visiting the library was a very moving and worthwhile experience I hope all of you can sometime do. Their love story was truly special!
We had heard about the Petersen Auto Museum at our region 12 rally so we went to check out their RV display. They have motorhomes and trailers from the 1930s, including a1936 airstream clipper, the
earliest one known to have survived. The museum is located in downtown LA on Wilshire Blvd on the miracle mile so we walked down the street to check out the mile. We came upon the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. The museum houses the bones that were taken from the natural tar pits located right along Wilshire Blvd. We toured the tar pits where they are still digging up prehistoric bones. It’s amazing what has been found and what probably lies beneath Wilshire Blvd. Since we were in the neighborhood we went to Rodeo Drive and went street walking.
We came back thru Topanga canyon, a curvy steep drive that rewarded us at the top with a magnificent view of the city at night.
Yesterday we decided we should see the canyon during the day so we took it to the ocean. We went to Venice beach ( I was hoping to see the muscle guys) they call it muscle beach. There were lots of surfers there but not much else, the fishing pier was occupied by older men who didn’t look too prosperous! From there we checked out the boats at Marina del Rye Harbor, now there’s a contrast!, Santa Monica was busy with people jogging and biking on the trail beside the sea, and we walked along 3rd St where the shopping and restaurants are located. It’s a beautiful area but very heavy traffic and the housing is expensive.
Halloween seems to be a big deal here. There are lots of Halloween stores and decorations at houses and today we ate out for lunch and most of the people in the restaurant were dressed up. I think they were office workers.
Well we have just moved to the Palm Desart area and it is hot here. We’re at a Panera bread to get WIFI I sure am glad we have to come here now and then! I must close and send this off. Hope things are beautiful in the east. Lois

pics from aquarium

Jellie Fish

Oct 20, 2008 Monterey

Well we left the Santa Cruz Fairground yesterday and drove the 25 miles to Monterey. The Watsonville area is a big agriculture area with large fields of artichokes, strawberries, Brussels sprouts and other crops that I didn’t recognize from the road. The fairgrounds was very nice and had lots of activity. While we were there they had a horse show, a dog show, and car races. We toured a dinnerware factory called Annieglass. Annie came up with the idea to make plates and serving pieces from thick building glass, they are thick and do not break easily. They are sold at Nordstrom’s and other high end shops. We drove the 17 mile drive at Pebble Beach admiring the beautiful seashore and cypress trees and golf courses with multi million dollar homes placed among the trees. One of the tours at the rally was the Roaring Camp Steam Train Ride on a narrow gauge steam train thru an old growth forest of redwoods. We are both in awe of these trees.
At Monterey we are staying at the Elks club. It sits on a hill and overlooks the bay. Last night while we were walking the dogs we could hear the seals barking. Monday Norm drove to Big Sur to have a massage at the Esalen Massage Institute. He got to soak in their hot spring tubs located just above the surf and had his massage outside overlooking the ocean. I met with a girl we met at the region 12 rally and we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and then walked around cannery row. The aquarium is a great one, I have never seen so many different kinds of jelly fish! Also the sea otters were a lot of fun, and when you walked around cannery row you could see sea otters out in the bay.
Yesterday Norm and I punched in attractions in the gps and started searching them out. She took us to the monarch butterfly gardens in Pacific Grove. Millions of Monarchs return here each year to winter among the eucalyptus trees. We were a little early to see the millions, but they had started to return and we saw thousands. They fly as far north as Canada and lay their eggs on milk weed pods. They really don’t live long as the butterflies we saw here now are the great grandchildren of the ones who were here last year.
We also went to fishermen’s wharf where the clam chowder was the best Norm has tasted so far!
Today we will head for Carmel and turn on Gypsy (GPS) and let here guide us again.

Golden Gate

more pics from San Fran

pics from San Fran

Oct 13 2008 San Francisco
Hi from San Francisco, We have had a wonderful visit with Jim in San Fran.
We left Sacramento on the 6th and drove to Half moon Bay hoping to stay at a state park on the beach. It was full and the only other places available were 50 to 60 dollars per night. I guess it was meant to be because it forced me to search out another place to go. We found an elks club in South San Francisco where we could stay with electricity and water for $10, and it was VERY convenient to the airport, and the BART. Tue we took a 49 mile driving tour of the city that took us through the different neighborhoods and parks of the city. We stopped often to take pictures and explore. In Golden Gate Park they were flying model airplanes and running boats on a small lake. We thought of Kyle who wants an airplane that will really fly for Christmas. There are several museums and gardens in the park. We went into the Art Museum where you could go up to the 9th floor to a viewing platform where we had spectacular views; we took a quick look at the Japanese Tea Garden and walked thru the sculpture gardens.
The next day we scoped out the airport. We made TWO dry runs; it was only 5 miles to the cell phone lot and another 2 miles to the terminals. We thought we had it down, so we drove to Half Moon Bay to take in some ocean, and snoop around the many pumpkin patches. The area grows lots of pumpkins and they market them very effectively with mazes, train rides, hay rides, pony rides and anything else that the kids would like.
Thursday, we would pick Jim up at 10:30PM so we had all day to explore the city, we went to the ferry pier for lunch, it reopened in 2003 after extensive renovations costing 100,000,000. We had a great lunch there and were heading toward the Golden Gate when Jim called and said he was boarding an earlier flight and would arrive at 6:30. We headed home for a quick rest before our adventure to the airport. We made it to the cell phone lot on time and Jim called to say he’d arrived. We drove around to the domestic arrivals and drove through but no Jim to be found. I called him as we were leaving, there were several levels but we didn’t know how to get to them. Fortunately we knew how to get back to the cell phone lot and there were buses bringing folks to the long term parking area that was next to the cell phone lot. I called Jim and ask him if he could catch one of those busses and before we knew it we saw him on the bus. He had flown in from Seattle but he was at the international arrivals instead of domestic due to the airline he flew on.
Friday we took him on the 49 mile drive stopping at the museums, Chinatown, and the piers. We didn’t get home until dark. Saturday we had tickets to tour Alcatraz. We took the BART in to the city as we thought it would be especially crowded because of fleet week. We walked to pier 33 where we caught our boat to Alcatraz. The tour was great you wear earphones and take an audio tour at your own pace. Because of Fleet Week the Blue Angels were performing, and also the Canadian Snowbirds and an acrobatic team. We had a perfect spot to watch the show!! They buzzed around the island and were right in front of us over the bay. A boat parade was also planned for the afternoon, but because of rough seas around San Diego it was postponed for a day. After our tour we walked to pier 39, then to Fishermen’s Wharf for dinner. THE BART NOW SEEMED LIKE IT WAS MILES AWAY! We started walking through the city through North Beach the Italian section of the city where there were many lovely restaurants with people dinning on the streets. The city at night was altogether different and I’m so glad we walked back.
Sunday we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and stopped on the north side at a view point where we walked out on the bridge. People were there to view the parade of ships that was postponed until Sun. We walked pretty far out onto the bridge and Jim decided he’d like to add walking across the Golden Gate to his bucket list, so he left us and continued on. The parade of ships didn’t show, we never did hear why but I am thinking they still had rough seas and didn’t make it. From there we went to Muir Woods where we walked among the giant redwoods before we had to take him to the airport to return to Seattle. Smooth sailing this time!
We sure had a great visit with our son, and I sure need a day of rest before we head to our next destination, which is the region 12 rally at Watsonville, near Monterey.
Hope you are all doing well.
Lois

Dont ever want to end up here!

Blue Angels over Bay Bridge Top picture is the ROCK with guard apartments in the foreground.