Crazy May 2022 (06-10-22)

 We started the month of May in Fresno,  CA hanging out with Paul’s fraternity brothers. 

From Fresno we were headed to San Diego to meet up with Paul’s brother and his wife for the Zydeco festival, Gator by the Bay.  We had a couple of days to kill on the way there, so we stopped north of L.A. and invited our daughter Jess to join us at 6 flags for the day.

I am glad Paul is willing to go on all the crazy rides with her, because I can only handle  a few roller coaster rides in a day.

Down in San Diego, the Zydeco Festival was in full swing when we got there.  We stayed at the same RV resort as Paul’s brother and were able to do dinners together, and Uber to the festival. 

We met up with Sue’s son Shad, his wife Amy, and their son William.  William had never had crawdads, but once he tried them, he was immediately hooked.

The festival has 7 stages, all with live music happening all day long.  There are tons of food vendors, and every day at 2 pm there is a parade through the festival grounds.

From there we headed home for a couple of days- just long enough to enjoy one day on the lake. 

 Then we took off again to meet up with Paul’s brother and Sue again, this time in Laughlin NV , where their RV club was staying, and we all enjoyed a river boat cruise.

Las Vegas is the nearest Costco to us, and I needed new glasses, so we headed there by way of Boulder City, NV.  Boulder City is near the Hoover Dam, and we had never taken a tour, so we thought it was about time. Actually, Boulder City was built to house the thousands of workers who built the Boulder (now called Hoover) dam.

In 1905, much of the Imperial Valley was destroyed by the flooding of the Colorado River. Part of the solution to keep that from happening again, was the building of Hoover Dam. Between 1930 and 1934, the dam was created, and it’s creation in turn, created Lake Mead.

Glasses ordered, we headed home to get ready for Memorial Day weekend. Since we’ve had the house, every Memorial Day Weekend, my cousin Linda from Phoenix brings her friends to party in Havasu.  This was our first year back since Covid, but my cousin couldn’t make it.  No worries, her friends came anyway!

They are a wild bunch, and always fun. 

They party hard and yet two mornings the women convinced me to get up at 5:30 to go hiking.

 

I took them to one of my favorite hikes- SARA'S Crack-a nearby slot canyon. The guys were off mountain biking by 6 am as well.

Back from our outings, we  packed up for the day and took off

 on the boat....

...one day taking it up river to a restaurant...

 

and another day just lazing around on the lake.

If you had asked us that weekend when we would be leaving Havasu, we wouldn’t have had any idea- but the minute the group left for home, we started cleaning and packing.

At the last minute, we decided to drain the pool again, so it would have softer water for the summer. We had to do as much of it at night as we could because the high temperature can crack the plaster.

One more, momentous thing happened in May.  Paul sold his jet boat. 

It was no easy decision, let me tell you- he helped build the boat just after graduating college, and has a million happy memories of using it.

As soon as they heard the news, his fraternity brothers started sharing memories and pictures (yes, that's my husband leaning on the boat).

 

 

We haven’t used it in a very long time however, and it was time to sell it to someone who would.

The Rest of May (06-02-2019)

Paul and I both like Zydeco music, but he has been really enjoying it more lately. His brother and sister-in-law attend a Zydeco festival in San Diego every year, and this time, we joined them.  They have a new Class A motor home, and we took our truck camper, and met up at the RV park closest to the festival. Tom and Sue were also in the company of some of their friends.
It was Tom's birthday that weekend, so we celebrated with dinner and dessert- but not cake.
The whole weekend was great-and we really enjoyed the festival.

They had 6 stages set up, all with some kind of music playing, all day long.

 Several of the stages had large dance floors that were very crowded all day long.














Rather than bringing food, we ate at the festival. Paul and I decided to try East African food, and we were both impressed!  Of course there were plenty of Cajun options as well.  No need for anyone to go hungry.










We were back home barely in time for my actual birthday.  Our daughter Jess was able to come for the weekend and although Stephen tried, he couldn't make it- but he did send a package full of T-Mobile stuff (his employer) and lots of New England Patriots things.



Jess paid me back for all the treasure hunts I made her go through when she was young, and at the end, was a giant Jenga game for the yard.

What a perfect gift.

To make it even better, she left us with the wood engraver, so our guests can engrave a block to say "I was here".

Of course, she and I found plenty of errands to do while she was here!

Before we knew it, she was gone and we had a few days before Memorial Day weekend.









  We made an effort to use the boat and jet ski, since the weather was finally good enough to get out on the lake.














I guess the ducks enjoyed the better weather too.












Our 4th annual Memorial Day weekend get together with my cousin Linda and her friends was, as usual, a great time.













They bring everything they need for the weekend, including a boat. We did use our boat one day, and one day we all went on their boat, which is nice for Paul because then he has no responsibilities.










In between boating the guys used their mountain bikes, and the women did some hiking. We all did some eating.










 And of course, we spent plenty of time in the pool and hot tub.

The end of Memorial Day weekend is our cue to start packing.  Usually by early June the temperature starts reaching 110 degrees. This year it didn't, but we still had plans to leave.  The yard looks so empty when it's prepped for the summer!