Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel

We heard the weather might be turning rainy in a couple of days so we decided to head for the coast to be a tourist. Our first stop was Santa Cruz where we drove onto the pier and had a light lunch looking out the window. It was sunny but cooler than what we have been experiencing so far on this trip. Much of this area is in fog most of the days but today it was perfectly sunny.

Along the Santa Cruz bay is a beach side road that is lined with many restored beautiful beach homes. Some with lots of character. Many of them look out to the ocean and the pier. Once around the first point which is where the Surfing Museum is, we saw a couple of surfers but was really fun was to watch the sea otter. We continued down the road to a spot called Natural Bridges State Beach where there usedto be some rock formations that were tunneled by water. All but one have disappeared.

We wanted to drive the 17 Mile Drive which is a famous drive south of Monterey. It winds through the Pebble Beach area andthe Del MonteForest. It is a beautiful rustic beach ride where many weathy homes are situated. The famous Pebble Beach golf course runs along the beach. We stopped to see what they call Bird Rock but it was actually Seal Rock because there were many seals out there barking and hollering and playing in the water.

Before the Monterey area we went through the Salinas area where most of the salad we eat is grown. They also had acres of beautiful big red ripe strawberries and artichoke plants. We stopped by a local fruit stand and picked up some strawberries for the motorhome. YUM

After our 17 miles drive we went just a short way south to Carmel. Even the name Carmel makes me happy. I hadn't been there before and it is so sweet and charming. They saythere are more galleries there than even El Paseo in Palm Dessert has. That seemed true and we strolled through many of them. We checked out a brand new condo that was for sale in the middle of all the shops and restaurants. Only 1.8 million for 1300 sq. ft. :( Not exactly what we had in mind, but very nice. They don't have new condos in that area so this was the only one. We think this area is still too far north for us, so we aren't serious yet. We would like to spend some more time looking at the galleries though so we may go back. It is less than 60 miles from where we are staying.

Yosemite National Park

Sunday, October 26th we decided to check out Yosemite National Park. It is about 90 miles from Chowchilla, CA and a nice scenic drive along the Mercede River. We had been to Yosemite earlier in May, but were unable to stop and see anything because we only drove through. We wanted to do a hike, so we chose to do the Vernal Falls hike which was about 4 miles round trip and much uphill climbing and since we have been sitting a lot lately, we had a feeling it would be a struggle for us...never the less we wanted to do it. The weather was perfect. Mid to lower 80's. Yosemite is fabulous and beautiful. We tend to compare places like this to Zion National Park which we love to hike in. This place is just as beautiful in a different way. There are many more trees here and so it feels much cozier than Zion which has more stone landscape and less trees. Trees were nice since we hiked through them as they shaded us most of the time. We drove by El Capitan where many of those rock climbers hike vertical rock cliffs and sleep hanging from the rocks. It was very beautiful too with the changing of the fall leaves and all the fantastic colors. I'm sure this is happening at home too, but we had not been able to be around anything like that on this trip, so I'm so happy we got to see the fall colors in Yosemite.

Our hike was toward Vernal Fall which, earlier in the year, is a huge waterfall. This time of year it was a bit tired with not much of a "fall" at all, but the hike was good. We were proud of ourselves for pushing ourselves past the initial falls to the higher level climbing up rock steps that were carved and blown out of the landscape. It was a wonderful day in Yosemite.

Today we landed in Morgan Hill, CA. It is relatively close, to the south, of San Jose and from here we will check out this area extensively. Our motorhome site is nice and new and we have paid for our time here until November 9th. We will investigate more of San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel and anywhere else that looks interesting. We will start to get more serious about our searching since we are more south and that's where we would tend to want our second home to be "IF" California is the lucky State to have us.

Manteca, Lodi, Brentwood

We spent a couple of days in Manteca. It is near Stockton. Claude and I went to Lodi yesterday to visit with a couple, Leo and Ineke Volkert, who are long time business friends of Claudes. They live in a lovely home in the middle of a vineyard. They are not in the wine making business, but since they have 44 acres of Chardoney grapes (white ones) that they sell to a popular local wine maker each year. They have a man named Randy, who takes care of the grape vines and all the other chores around their property. Leo and Ineke are very outgoing and ready to retire in the next few years hopefully in the Northwest. They took us to downtown Lodi for a delicious dinner of Sushi and Teriyaki. Here is a photo of both of them and Claude just for those of you who know Leo and Ineke.

Today we drove south to Chowchilla which is near Merced/Fresno. We are in a nice RV site. We have no idea what we will do while we are in this area but we'll check it out. On our way here today, we went to an area called Brentwood. It is a really nice suburb of a suburb of San Francisco. Nice, wide streets, bike lanes and a beautiful new community called Trilogy. It's one of those nice adult communities. We had fun looking around but won't be living this far north. We are finding we like the homes that are about 1800 to 2000 square feet. Two bedrooms with a den. Our next location "Morgan Hills" should give us plenty of opportunities to see several areas of interest for us including more of San Francisco for fun. Morgan Hills is south of the San Jose area. We may stay there through Nov. 9th while Claude attends an AOPA convention in San Jose in November. Tune in soon for more input.

SAUSALITO AND HIMALAYAN BOWLS

I didn't have time to enter yesterday's fun, so today, Thursday Oct. 23rd, I am catching up from yesterday. One of these times maybe Claude will try entering his interpretation of our day so you get some variety.

Petaluma is not that far from Sausalito, maybe about 50 or 60 miles. Sausalito is just north of the Golden Gate Bridge for those of you who aren't familiar with that area. It is a beautiful little marina area with a long street that runs along the San Pablo Bay which connects to the San Francisco Bay. On our way to Sausolito we took a turn for the Golden Gate National Recreation area that is directly before you get to the Golden Gate Bridge. This was suppose to have a nice 90 minute hike/walk for us but turns out more like a 30 minute hike/walk around the lagoon and ending on the beach. It was quite windy but really warm and sunny so we took the hike. We need to do more exercise, but seem to find time for everything but that.

After our hike, we headed for Sausalito for lunch. Always have to find something to eat :) and we had only about an hour until we needed to head back north to see the Himalayan Bowl guy. We randomely chose to turn down a street that headed toward the marina and drove by an old brown dark looking vacant restaurant we thought was the one for us....but nope...we kept on going around the corner and there, at the dock, was a place called FISH. We headed toward that and we loved, loved, loved our lunch. I had fish taco's, very small, fresh grilled white fish on a tiny white corn tortilla. So fresh and delicious. Claude chose the dungenes crab sandwhich that also came with a huge order of their famously delicious french fries. We both loved what we had and felt really good we had found that place. If you're ever in that area, do check it out. Not too much food, just a good amount and relaxed. You can sit outside in the sun on picnic tables if you want and look at all the boats. If you are on a budget, don't bother eating anywhere in the San Francisco area.

After we ate we still had time to cruise by the main street in Sausalito but didn't have time to stop. We headed back north again and found the Himalayan bowl man, Joseph. He has a warehouse in San Rafael. I had found his websit several months ago and he specializes in the old authentic ancient singing bowls. http://www.himalayanbowls.com/ For me, I can't tell one from the other by looking, but they do have a very distinctly different tone when you compare the new ones, to the old ones. He had some "families" of bowls chosen for me to try. There are the big ones, the middle size ones and the smaller ones. I found one set of three on the smaller side that I really liked. They harmonize with each other. But he realized they belonged to a bigger family of seven bowls which meant I couldn't get them unless I got all seven which cost about $4,000 bucks. Each bowl has a different sound, pitch or note. If you have three, you want them to go up in scale so they harmonize with one another. I don't have a clue about music but I know what sounds good to me, so that is what I was listening for. I will put two video's on this blog that Claude took of me, so you can see what I was doing to try to hear which ones sounded best to me. One of the bowls I ended up with is from the 17th century he says. Sounds very soothing and resonates beautifully. I like the three I got and I know I will be able to place them on people for healing purposes when I do my acutonics. He had big gongs too, different than the one we have in our entry. They are made in Sweeden he says. They were cool.

After that we stopped for a Starbucks then decided to go back toward San Francisco and actually cross the Golden Gate Bridge this time. So we headed south again and over the bridge. It was a really nice day so it was perfectly wonderful. On the other side we found our way to the Golden Gate Park. We headed for the Japanese Tea Gardens in the park and walked around for awhile. See some photos. By that time, we figured we should drive around the park some and ended up at the beach. We cruised around there and headed back into town. It was getting darker by then so we thought...should we eat dinner? Claude wasn't hungry, but I was so we thought, what kind of food other than sea food is popular in San Francisco. It dawned on us that it was Chinese Food. We drove by two places, both looked busy (a good sign) and so we found parking and went in. It was an authentic place, lots of aquariums of live lobster, huge shrimp, live fish and live crab all over. Everyone in there was chinese. Not one caucasian anywhere. Even the menu was in chinese with english sub titles. They were ordering some interesting looking things. It was fun to be in an authentic chinese restaurant. I carefully ordered caschew chicken and Claude engaged in conversation with the waiter, (not understanding barely a word) and ended up with Bok Chow and chicken. We liked it and were happy we went. We didn't get home till after 9:30 p.m. so it was a long day. Hope you like these photos and the videos. At this point I'm not sure what will end up on the blog today so it will be a surprise to even me.

Sanoma, Yountville, St. Helena

Today was the funnest day yet. We had been to Napa once before, but only drove past Yountville and St. Helena in the Napa Valley. I was really excited to be able to get into the little towns a little and check out some of the wineries. It is so beautiful in the Napa Valley. Many of you already know this, but it really is a magical place and so full of charmth and a big blast of Italy. Everywhere you look there are rows and rows of perfectly lined up fields of grape vines delicately tied to wires which are now turning from a cheerful green to golden brown. The wineries are amazingly constructed. Some very old with rock walls like a castle. Some more modern looking but all rich with culture. Sometimes they have their cellars tunneled underneath hillsides. Everyone around hear breaths and lives wine so, for me, that is not what I am drawn to but the culture is intriguing and magical. I don't drink alcohol but Claude does enjoy some wine, mostly the sweeter Reisling type of wine.

We first drove to Sonoma and that was adorable. There is a Plaza there in the heart of town with a big tree ladden park in the middle. Shops and restaurants rim the park on all sides. We chose to have a late breakfast/lunch at the Sunflower Cafe. The best part of it was that we got to sit outside in the cozy, sun filled patio under a big shade umbrella alongside arbors. I had an omlet (spinach and goat cheese) and Claude had a breakfast sandwhich. It was good but not fabulous. After strolling around for awhile, we headed toward Yountville. Yountville is about the most pristine and perfect little town anyone could ever imagine. It has one main street with a side walk and it is so quaint and friendly. There are winery stores, shopping and restaurants everywhere. The residential streets that run near town are picture perfect pristine little cottages and craftsman style homes with white picket fences and rose bushes and hanging grape vines. We stopped to take a photo of a community garden right off the main street (see photo) where people can have a plot and tend to their gardening. It is really sweet. We headed North from there and as you drive along, you drive by one big winery after another. We turned into one where it looked like there were a lot of people and wine tasting. It was a beautiful old building (see photo) You can go into the store there and buy wine and cheese and picnic things then sit out in the garden and eat and drink till you pass out if you want. Nobody does that because everyone is really well behaved and proper. Claude chose a tasting of six different wines. See him tipping the glass! They gave him just enough to get a good flavor, not too much. He bought a bottle of some sort of some Reisling that he really liked.

I wanted to find a culinary school I had noticed the last time we had driven past this area and couldn't stop. We headed north some more, past St. Helena and found the Culinary School. It is the Culinary School of America and very cool. (see photo) My sister Cathy would love it there. We went in and saw where they have cooking demo's (not till Friday) and lectures for the students who learn and practice right there at the school. It is an ancient old stone building with lots of old charm. There was an amazing kitchen store in there that had all kinds of wonderful kitchen gadgets, pricy chef pots and pans, quality cooking utensils and gobs of cook books. Claude bought a very sharp knife which he is going to love. Once you go up one road, you have the option of coming back down the other side on another winery lined road. Everywhere there are miles of grapes and winery after winery.

Claude wanted to check out the MUM winery so we went there. They specialize in sparkling wines. It was fun. He got three samples of sparking wines "sweeter wines" and I got to have a sparkling non-alcohol Chardonay that was so tasty. I bought some to go and Claude bought two bottles of what he liked. It was really fun.

We went back to Yountville for dinner. We chose to eat at a place called Bouchon. It was suppose to be really good according to the tour book. We got to sit at a little round table outside at the front under the awning just as the sun was setting over the hillside. It was warm there and so comfortable. We ordered al la carte (I won't show food photos) Claude's main dish was a halibut dish and my meal was the "muscles". It was fun just being out on the sidewalk, warm eating our meal.

Tomorrow we get to go to hear and see the Hymalyan Singing Bowls. I made an appointment with the guy who has the ancient bowls. He doesn't have a store, only a warehouse. I am very excited about it and hope to buy a "family" of Tibetan singing bowls, the antique authentic ones. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow. We may see Sausalito tomorrow too.

Petaluma, San Rafael, Fairfax Monday

What a perfect day today was! Thank goodness for correcting things with ease. We woke up today and the things that were broken or messed up yesterday are mysteriously fixed. The electrical on the coach is working fine...Claude took another try at the breaker this morning and tadah..fixed. The printer works now too thanks to a call to our computer guy who helped us reconnect. The GPS loves it here and has worked perfectly all day without a hitch. We didn't get lost even one time. It was an amazingly perfect day.

We are sitting in a KOA in Petaluma. You may ask...why Petaluma??? Well, that's because it's the only place we know of within about 100 miles that can fit a motorhome like ours. It was a tight squeeze cuz there are mature trees here, curvy narrow rows between the sites and very little room for error. We squeezed into spot 144 and are all hooked up and tidy for a few day stay here. We may be wrestling with a flock of flies because they are raising sheep, goats and other farm animals right close to us. These are some smart flies too, they rush in even when we rush through the door and close it fast. Other than that, I think this will be a fun area, right off of HWY 101 and less than 40 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge they say. I think we will have plenty to do to play around here.

We headed for San Rafael to find the Cafe Gratitude that Michael had told me about. They have 5 locations now in the San Francisco area and Berkley. We also wanted to check out Fairfax which my friend Susan told me I should try to check out. We headed south and found the Cafe Gratitude. What a breath of fresh air and such a delightfully positive place. They only serve live, organic food, Vegan so no milk,egg products and although a few foods are cooked, they are warmed and not usually killed by actually cooking. Check out the photos I have of the positive, loving statements everywhere. When we walked into the door we were greeted from across the room with a warm and cheerful hello and "thank you for coming" from a very creatively dressed young woman with bright red lipstick and happy clothing. Claude chose a sunny yellow table to sit at and the woman there explained the story about the place. Each item on the menu is an affirmation so you state what you want by saying what you are such as...I ordered "I am Vivacious" which was stuffed organic avocado filled with their almond pate salad topped with fresh dill ricotta and served with a side salad. It was way more than I needed and very filling and delicious. Claude ordered "I am Elated" which was an enchilada wrapped in a live soft veggie tortilla with sprouted seed filling and topped with a spicy salsa verde and cashew sour cream. We then thought we should order a smoothie or milkshake so I ordered "I am Beautiful" and Claude ordered "I am Chiper". His was better than mine but both were good. His was Vanilla nut milk ice cream, almond milk, almond butter, dates and raw cacao chips. Mine was fresh orange juice blended with vanilla nut milk ice cream. Yummmm

I bought their board game called "The Abounding River" The game of being abundant..and since we know that being grateful for things creates an abundant, joyful life...we can play this game to remind ourselves of those things. I would love to share it at our family gatherings or with my friends at the Center for Spiritual Living in Bellingham.

Oh yes, I forgot...the water is served in a clear glass bottle called "joy" so they ask you "Would you like some joy?" On top of that, there was a woman in there with an Acutonic's tuning fork using it on some guy as he sat at the bar having his meal or drink. It was my kind of place for sure.

Fairfax was very earthy and organic with narrow streets and lots of cars and interesting yoga shops, message places, incense stores and very hippie like. It was not the kind of place we would want to live, but it would be well worth the time to check out further some other time. I would love visiting there more with my sister Jeanne. Lots of gallery type places. They even had a cute little music store called "Amazing Grace Music" how perfect is that?

We don't know what we will do tomorrow but if it works while we are in this area, I hope we can go see the antique hymalayan bowls (tibetan singing bowls) that this man has in San Francisco. I would really love seeing and hearing them. He sells them online, but I would love to experience them in person. We will see how far away he is and if it works out with ease. I am going to try to download a video onto this blog, but not sure how that will work so if it doesn't show up, you'll know why.

Gratefully yours, Annie and Claude

Sacramento, Citrus Heights,& Folsom CA

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday and today were a mix of chaos and confusion. Not to complain or anything....but it seems we had a run of unusual luck regarding a few things. The motorhome decided it was going to blow some breaker that controls the plug-ins for the front living room area. That means we can't use our printer, or charge our phones or use our latte machine or our Vita Mix "Darth" and all the comforts like plugging in our computer. Can you imagine how others might be suffering? Anyway, it adds to the lost feeling one gets in a big city like Sacramento. It reminds us that we do not love the rush, push, frantic feel of the freeways where people seem to have the need to make you go faster and faster while getting to the same place at the same time. I'm sure it doesn't help that we have no idea where we are going more than 90% of the time since our GPS in the Honda thinks none of the roads we are on even exist. It does require a huge amount of loving kindness and gentle patience with each other to get from one place to the next.

Yesterday we headed to Old Downtown Sacramento because it was recommended by the sweet 81 year old receptionist here at the delux graveled Expo RV site within ear shot and blaring lights from the horse drawn carriage racing that was going on till late last night. So we headed downtown. Besides there being no parking for most people except for me, since I manifest parking places with ease, we parked and walked around an old western sort of tourist trap with trinket stores and a choo choo train with a cranky couple of train engineers who groweled at people who walked in front of the trains as they were changing tracks. We were pleased to leave that area and headed toward the Del Webb area of Citrus Heights where we had heard they had a new adult development called "The Club". We looked at those and felt they were very nice for the money, but still not wanting to be in this area, didn't pay too much attention to them. It was still fun and we finished the evening at a Vietnamese place for dinner and that was good too.

Today the GPS was really being odd. After some running around in Sacramento, we headed toward a new housing development to the "south"??? of here. Gosh, I am turned around so not sure which direction we went. They were another builder but not as nice as Del Webb.

We really wanted to go to Folsom Prison today so we started our morning listening to Johnny Cash and his song I just happened to have on my Ipod. We layed in bed and listened to Folsom Prison Blues before we got out of bed....maybe that's what made the GPS coocoo. We headed toward Folsom.... the other direction.....with our trusty GPS and got lost many times over while discovering a very nice area of Folsom, California. Lots of new developments and rolling hills. Still not our cup of tea...but worth the look. After getting lost we made it to Folsom Prison. We (see photo) found the prison sign we thought was for the Folsom prison. We wanted to see the Folsom Prison Museum which we did eventually find sort of, but it was closed by that time. There are two of them in case you ever want to know. WE did get to take a distant shot of Folsom Prison which now is not a maximum security prison because they built a new prison near there that is the maximum security one. Talking to the guard we learned the inmates get a point system and the worse they are rated means the harder it is for them to get along with others. The harder they are to get along with, the higher the security they need. I took a photo of the prison towner, the tall walls and then a sign for the closed museum which was really not the museum we were looking for anyway. After a long day of being lost we headed to a restaurant called "Fats" Asian Bistro. It was different than what we have in Burlington, that's for sure. Claude ate something so hot and spicy even he had trouble with it and he eats anything hot. I ordered Dim Sum which I had no idea about, but turns out it is little dumpling type appetizers. They were unusual but I loved the soup the most. (See photos)

Tomorrow we are off to Petaluma off of HWY 101, to stay so we can check out the Napa Valley and maybe some of San Francisco, Fairfax, and find the Cafe Grateful in San Rafael that was recommended by my friend Michael. Love to all!

Chico, Paradise and Oroville

Today we went discovering. We thought Paradise would be an interesting place to begin. On the road there, it was evident there had been recent fires although it was still very pretty with deep canyons to one side. Everything is dry here and the temperature about 80-85 which feels very nice. We ended up in Paradise and randomly chose a road on our GPS called Angel Dr. When we go to a town we don't know, we have to choose a road for our GPS so it might as be "Angel Dr" It ended up being in a residential neighborhood and had a cross street of Heavenly Place. (See Photo) We found not much in Paradise so headed to Oroville. Lots more to do there starting with the Chinese Museum. Kinda strange but sort of interesting. I took a picture of a Pomelo Fruit tree. It grows very large grapefruit type fruit that ripen in about February. These here were very large and from what they said, they have a very thickk rind. (See photos)After the Chinese Museum we went to lunch at Roxy's Poppy Deli where you can see we had fresh yummy sandwiches which we ate half of and are having the other half for dinner. (see photo) To end our visit in Oroville we drove to the dam which is the world's tallest earthen dam. Interesting...and there was a trail that lead from the dam back to town. Claude thought it would be fun to ride the trail but to me it looked like a nightmare of loose gravel and steep slopes so I dropped him at the top and he was to meet me at the bottom near the chinese museum. After awhile I got a phone call from him, out of breath and he gave me the intersection of two streets to come get him. I put it in the GPS and headed to the rescue but it was out in the sticks to the GPS lost the signal. It did give me a dotted line "as a bird flies" so I weaved my way back into the hills and there he was, red as a beet and looking rather worn out and sweaty. That was about the last of the investigating for the day and we headed back to the coach since it was getting dark. We will leave here tomorrow, knowing this is an interesting area but not where our dream second home will be. Stay tuned for more adventures.

Emergency Room Wednesday

Today we started out with a kiss then a brisk walk around the RV Park. We headed south toward Redding. About the time we crossed the California boarded, I was feeling some pain in my back. I had been recovering from some strained muscles the previous two days I figured were caused by lifting too much into the motorhome. After lunch I took three Advil to ease the discomfort and we headed down the road again. The pain was increasing by the minute and the pain going from my back to my front as if a stake was going through my heart. I couldn't take a deep breath and it was so painful tears were leaking out of my eyes. I told Claude he better take me to the hospital. We were near Yreka, CA so the GPS told Claude where to go. We found the medical clinic but there was not much room to park the RV. He tucked it into a dead end spot at the end of the road and we walked to the emergency room, still I could barely stand the pain. They took me right away and hooked me up for an EKG, took blood and XRays (not in that order) then gave me a shot of pain killer. To make a long story short, I did not have a heart attack, "hurray" but I did have a large gas bubble under my lung, above my kidney near the heart area and the diaphram. I felt rather silly, but I must say, it hurt like hell and it still hurts but not as bad. I was released and told to take 3 Advil 3 times a day. The Dr. said it was due to irritation in that area. None of it makes sense to me but I think I might not eat anymore Australian Black Licorice anymore. I had eaten four pieces of that about noon so that might be the cause. We are very happy we are both healthy today. Here are a couple of photos for your viewing pleasure.

DAY TWO

After a stop in the wonderful Portland/Woodburn RV Park...that just happened to be right next to a Starbucks, we headed about 15 miles south to visit Claude's Dad "Lynn" and his wife "Juanita". After a delightful visit including lunch at the Olive Garden, we have here two photos. One photo of the four of us in front of Lynn's classic 1969 (27 foot) Travco motorhome which he has for sale on craig's list for $4200 bucks. For a minute or two we almost considered downsizing from our 42 foot Monaco for the classic Travco, but instead we decided to keep ours for the time being.

Later today we found our way to the Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville, Oregon. It's a real nice, beautifully landscaped, new RV resort next to a Casino. We didn't check out the casino today, but we did use the sparkling clean pool for a relaxing swim this evening.

The tow car is really a bonus for us since we can now venture out to discover things if and when we want to. Tomorrow we'll be in California. Check back to see what happens next.

Today We Leave Home

Monday, October 13th. We were finally able to get through our list of things to do so we could leave today. At about 2:00 we drove out the drive way. I drove the Honda CRV behind Claude to Camping World so they could show us how to hook up the CRV to tow it. We had them show us in July when it was installed, but we plum forgot how to do it. With everything on hybernation mode at home, we think the house will be fine. Here's a shot of us all hooked up and ready to take off just in time for the rain to start falling. Our bikes are secure and the coach is ready to go. Besides feeling a little stressed with each other and everything we wanted to remember, we're on our way.

SOUTHWEST TRIP TIME

Welcome to our Blog. We created this Blog for our friends and family to follow us along as we search for our second home. We are leaving the Mount Vernon area of Washington State on October 13th, 2008 and heading south. Our purpose is to find a second home in a community where we can enjoy an active lifestyle in the late fall, winter and early spring seasons. Our search will consist of looking in the areas of California, Arizona and New Mexico and possibly Texas. We hope you'll enjoy reading about our travels and our discoveries.