Closing out 2023 (01-20-24)

 The months of October, November and December flew by in a blur.  We had to make several trips back and forth from Arizona to El Paso, as Paul’s mom was declining rapidly.

On the way to and from we broke up the long drive by stopping to do some hiking and visit friends.

Our friends Tom and Dianne live about halfway, so we usually stopped to visit with them. On one visit we explored Ramsey Canyon Preserve, where we spent an enjoyable few hours hiking and watching the hummingbirds.

On one of our visits we got out the black light and went hunting for scorpions- and even found a couple! For those who don’t know, scorpions light up at night under a black light.

Thanksgiving was also spent at Tom and Dianne’s, on our way to El Paso.

After a few days with his mom after Thanksgiving , we backtracked and headed to Los Angeles to see our daughter Jess. We had booked a spot at a county park on the beach, one of my favorite places to stay.

I miss living near the ocean, and as soon as we arrived I went for a walk- as my daughter, the stalker, figured out haha.

Originally our trip was planned because Jess bought tickets for her and I to see a live show of Mamma Mia at the historic Pantages Theater. The show was awesome!

As it turned out, it happened to coincide with Jess and Justin’s move into their new apartment. They had hired movers, but it was still great that we were able to be there and help them organize and get settled in.

Once we left Los Angeles, we took a deep breath, enjoying the ambiance of Lake Havasu. It wasn’t long though, before we felt we needed to be in El Paso.

We knew this was likely to be our last trip, and we were not wrong.  On December 16, about a week after we arrived in El Paso, Gerry Porter, Paul’s mom,  passed away.

She had an incredible 93 year run, and just months before her passing, was enjoying life, and playing bingo-her favorite thing to do . We were very glad we were able to be there for her.

Taking care of everything that needed to be done didn’t take as long as we thought it might, and we made it home just in time for Christmas. It’s always nice to see London Bridge all decked out.

 Our friends Brad and Marilyn were there ahead of us, and Liz and Randy arrived before New Years. It was a quiet year, but we still had fun!

Late Winter, Late Spring (05/05/22)

You will notice that it is now June, and I am writing about February- April.  I am not a fan of blogging much when we are at the house, so I put it off, and off, and off, and here we are in June. The problem is, now that Paul and I are on the road for the summer I WANT to write about what we are seeing- but I have to finish other posts first. I also discovered part of my problem- ever since I got my iPhone Pro, I take most of my pictures with my phone.  That means I have a LOT more pictures to sort through in order to find pictures for my blog.  Very annoying, so, this summer I am back to using my camera. Anyway, to continue:

This year, winter lasted a very long time before springing into spring- the weather was cool, and windy almost every day.  That meant no heating the pool until later than usual, and very few days on the boat.

We did manage to have a good time though- here is what I remember of it:

February brought the fireworks extravaganza, back after a two year hiatus due to Covid.  We booked our usual RV site, and spent a lot of time watching the fireworks.

Our friends Debbie and Al, from Michigan brought their RV and visited for a while…

Our daughter Jess, who lives in L.A. has asked us for years to come to L.A. for her birthday but we hate driving in L.A. so much, we always put it off.  Well, this year I found an RV spot right on the beach, available for her birthday weekend.  We took the truck camper and towed the Jeep, which made it a little easier to deal with L.A.. Once we had our site, we told her the weekend was hers to plan and we would be up for almost anything. 

Our first night there, we went to one of her favorite restaurants (one with the strangest items on the menu, but then, I am not from L.A.) 

 

We shared several plates and had a glass or two of wine.

Saturday was “the big day”. Her 32nd birthday, and the party that goes with it.  She wanted to have a bonfire party on the beach behind our camper. She invited about a dozen friends, and the original idea was that we would make dinner and margaritas.  As used to entertaining as we are, feeding 15 or so people  100 yards from our rig made no sense.  So, we did make the margaritas, but we ordered food from a Mexican restaurant.  The weather was perfect for a beach party and everyone had a great time.

The highlight of my weekend was meeting this guy.  Noah was 9 months old at the time, and SO adorable. He had never touched sand before, so I was fascinated watching him learn about it.  At first he tried to get it off his fingers, but within minutes, he was sifting the sand through his fingers and watching what happened.

He also enjoyed playing cornhole.

After sunset, Jess  and her friends left to go out and hit the bars, and Paul and I got to relax.

Sunday was a quiet day- we spent some time at her apartment, where Paul could handle some “Daddy Do’s” and then we had dinner at the camper before leaving for home the next day.

There is always something going on in Havasu, and March was no exception.  In addition to our usual outings, we attended the rodeo for the first time.  Quite fun!

We also attended Mustangs VS Camaros at a local restaurant.  The owner of the restaurant drives a 1968 SS Camaro and invites all Mustang an Camaro owners to come show off their vehicles.  

Of course we had to bring Thelma. 

Paul and I took the camper and Teryx to Alamo Lake State Park- its only about 3 hours from Havasu and has some really cool off road trails.  We spent a fun few days taking the Teryx through some slot canyons. 

At one point we got into a bit of a pickle, trying to head up a steep incline.  We had to back down, which put the Teryx on very uneven ground. So, it was time to get out the winch, to make sure we didn’t tip it.

When the canyons got too narrow, we explored them on foot.

In April we started making tentative plans for the summer, and it didn’t include heading to the east coast, so I flew out for a week to spend time with my son and my siblings. I do love flying into Boston.

Stephen and I took some day trips to our favorite places- including Gloucester- where we used to spend a lot of time when we had our boat in MA.

Easter Sunday was spent with my siblings- this was my first time seeing them since Covid.

Back home, it was Jess’s turn to visit us.  She brought several of her friends for a party weekend at the PPP.

We ended April with a trip to Fresno CA, where Paul went to college, and is still friends with many of his fraternity brothers.  We were celebrating 75 years of Sigma Chi, and 100 years of Sigma Tau, the original fraternity.   We had a great time celebrating with them.

And then it was May- but May deserves its own post.

Los Angeles (03-09-14)

It’s very nice having at least one of our kids living someplace that we can visit during the winter. Although Los Angeles is not our favorite place to visit- (lots of people, millions of cars, narrow roads) it’s worth it to be able to stop by on a fairly regular basis to see our daughter.

The last time we were here, we went hiking with Jess, and I figured we’d try to do that again, but the weather forecast called for temps in the mid 80s so we decided to take to the water instead.

Jess and Geoff and Paul and I headed out on a beautiful sunny day to get some kayaks. Since it was off season the kayak rental place wouldn't make a reservation, so we had to wait over an hour for the boats.

Once we had them, we paddled around the Marina Del Rey area for a while before stopping at a beach to eat the lunch we had packed.  This is the first time Jess has ever kayaked, but she did great.

We also managed to meet up with Paul’s brother Tom and his wife Sue for an evening, and we went to P.F. Chang’s for dinner.  It was my first time eating at this restaurant chain. Great food!

One more dinner out during our short visit- Jess and Geoff took us to one of their favorite restaurants-Gyu Kaku- a Japanese Barbecue. It was a bit noisy, but I really enjoyed the interesting dishes, the pace, and the cooking of parts of the meal right at the table.  Luckily they knew what they were doing, because Paul and I wouldn't have had a clue how to order from the menu.

We crammed a lot of activity into a short, 4 day visit.  Much too soon it was time to leave, and we headed north to Pismo Beach, where we’ll meet up with some friends.  Next week we land in Fresno for 6 weeks, partly to prep the truck camper for our trip to Alaska.  I’ll take advantage and fly home to Boston for a week while Paul works on some projects.

More time in Los Angeles (12-17-13)

I was pretty happy to move a little further south, where the weather forecast called for temps in the 80s, but of course part of my happiness had to do with the fact that we’d be spending more time with Jess.
Originally we were only going to be here for two days, but she ended up with vacation time, so we stayed a few days longer and delayed our arrival in San Diego.


 
The first order of business was to decorate for Christmas.











Jess was a great help, when she wasn’t hamming it up for the camera!

I think Dozer likes the tree because it gives him a new corner to hide in.

Every year we add a few more Christmas decorations, but I think we are getting close to being done buying.

  When we had the  house, we had 27 bins of decorations.  In the RV we have at least two. That’s a lot when you consider how small our basement is!

Once the chores were taken care of, Jess couldn’t wait to take a spin on Paul’s newest toy. It only took her about 2 minutes to get the hang of it and ride around with the throttle pinned.













The last time we were here, we had great plans to do a bunch of hiking.  Well, that never happened so this time we made more of an effort to get out there.  

Our first day in L.A., Jess was working so although not quite a hike, we walked with her and the baby she nannies for to the local mall- The Grove.  He loved watching the dancing fountain!

Just in case we ran out of time (or ambition) again, we started our hiking adventures with one of the hikes unique to Los Angeles.  We hiked to the Hollywood sign!

The trail is well traveled, of course.  Its very wide, more like walking up a street than a trail, but its almost two miles in each direction, with great views of the city along the way.











Here’s the view from behind the sign:





 
Although that was the only hike we had a chance to do, we did go for a fairly long bike ride.  I think the head wind made it feel even longer, plus I discovered halfway through that my rear brake was stuck “on” so I got a better work out than the other two!

The bike trail runs along the beach for much of the time, making the trip much more enjoyable. Our destination was Venice Beach.

Lunch at the Venice Ale House

Venice is one of many beaches in the area that cater to the tourists.  With the weather in L.A. being picture perfect so much of the time, you see some unique things on the beaches. Of course there are the many open air restaurants, and the usual vendors along the boardwalk.

There are also some unusual sights, including a piano player serenading all of the shoppers, and a full outdoor gym, typical of what you would find indoors.








Jess warned us that although Venice Beach is “ok” during the day, it is definitely not someplace you want to be come sunset, so after a short visit, we took off for home. With all the warm weather, we tend to forget that the sun sets at about 4:30 in the afternoon.

The trip back was made more interesting by the views of the setting sun along the way.  All in all it was a great day.

Dozer also enjoyed his visit to L.A.   He loves finding new places to sleep and was very pleased to find the empty shopping bag that was left in the living room.

Apparently the pigeons in L.A. are not familiar with cats.  This one wandered around in front of our rig for quite a while.  Dozer probably would have enjoyed  himself a lot more if he hadn’t wrapped himself around the post, and was actually able to reach the bird.