Up to Thanksgiving Day

Hi Everyone

I've been out of touch with the blog since Nov. 15th. It's now Nov. 27th, the day after my son Dustin's 28th birthday. Claude and I have been here and there since my last entry in Ventura. We went to Apple Valley from Ventura and was not impressed. Neither were we all that impressed with Hemet or Beaumont which had three of the active communities we have been searching for. After we left the high dessert and the low dessert, we turned toward the west and Newport Beach. Neither of us knew much about Newport Beach but we could tell when we were driving through town toward the RV Park, that this was a NICE place. Big, beautiful, clean, wide streets and lots of nice buildings. Turns out Irvine is right there and the Univsersity district. We drove by some new impressive condos so as soon as we hooked up at the RV Park, we went there for a tour. They were very nice and quite expensive. Well, the cost of the condos weren't as much as the monthly homeowner's dues of about $1000 bucks. You wouldn't feel poor living in that building and the condo's themselves were very nice.

We took the next couple of days and discovered Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Balboa Island (too cute) and San Clemente. We discovered a superb biking trail connected to the RV Park we were in that looped around a huge estuary reserve. It was really pretty and made us like the area even more. John Wayne airport is just a hop, skip and a jump from there and you can see the big planes taking off regularly. It was very entertaining. There is nothing wrong with any of the areas we looked at along that part of the coast but we barely scratched the surface there.

We are now in San Diego and exploring Chula Vista, La Jolla, Del Mar, and beautiful and interesting downtown San Diego. It actually rained here last night and the night before which is a rare occurance here in southern CA.

While all of this was occuring this last week, Claude's daughter, Tash, was admitted to the hospital with a serious occurance of Crones disease which she has self-treated successfully for many years. She struggled through the first few days but improved and was released today with not only an improved physical condition but with a new outlook on life, a deeper understanding of how much she is loved and with a new and open mind that welcomes the best and most appropriate medical treatment for her ongoing recovery and continued health. We are blessed to know she is getting better and better.

Here are some photos of some of what we have done in the past several days for your viewing pleasure. We are grateful for each of you who are reading this and for each day that we have here on this beautiful earth and in this magnificent and free country we live in.

RELEASING MOM'S ASHES AT VENTURA HARBOR

One reason we are here is to visit with my Brother Jim and my Sister-in-Law Sherry. This is the weekend that Jim wanted to release my Mom's ashes. She passed away two years ago today. Jim, my little sister Cathy, my little brother Jack, along with my nephew Mark were together to release my Mom's ashes. We gathered some blue flowers (her favorite) and pink Gerberer Daisys and headed for the Ventura Harbor beach. It was a very simple release. Cathy and I went out into the water while Jim, Jack and Mark watched. Cathy threw flowers and I tossed the ashes. Here are a few photos.

Once we were finished, we got into Cathy's car and her music was playing "we are all angels" so we sang along with it and called my sister Colleen and sang to her on the cell phone. We felt Mom's presence and happiness to have this time to be able to say another good-bye although we know she is always in our hearts and her Spirit lives with the brightest of all lights for each of us at any given moment. We are blessed!

PISMO BEACH, GROVER BEACH, OCEANO, NIPOMO, SAN LUIS OBISPO, SANTA MARIA

I really LOVE this area. It's about a 20 mile strip of perfection and interest for me near HWY 1 and HWY 101. The pace of life here is much more relaxed and there are beautiful beaches, huge rolling sand dunes (right where we are staying) miles of fresh produce growing everywhere like more fresh strawberries, green and red peppers, huge heads of green and red cabbage, gobs of red ripe tomatoes, the richest, most creamiest avocados ever and more. I totally love to see all of this growing right by the side of the road. The hill sides to the east are covered with more grapes for wine, there are two nice size airports (One in San Luis Obispo and another in Santa Maria) both of which are perfect for Claude's plane(s).

Today we took a walk over the sand dunes. Our Motor home looks out over these dunes and it was so sunny and perfectly warm, we just had to check them out. We started walking but couldn't see the beach so didn't know how far it was. After just a few minutes you get the feeling you may never find your way out. We found a way to the beach and it was beautiful there. Vehicles are allowed on the beach and sand dune buggies on the dunes although we didn't see any on our walk. (Here are a few dune photos)

We have a very attractive living possibility in Nipomo. It is a community that is built by Trilogy. It is lovely. They have everything we could ever want there. Fantastic swimming, craft/painting/pottery studio, state of the art gym and workout equipment, tennis, golf, yoga, tai chi, etc.... it would be so fun here. The house we are attracted to is about 2000 sq. ft and yes, it has a spare guest room. There are lots of Eucalyptus trees here too which I grew up with in Ventura. It is a good feeling to be here both visually and energetically. The one thing that may be negative here is that it may not be quite warm enough in the middle of the winter. It looks like a 62 degree average in January which can feel a little cooler than what we were thinking we might want. We would like closer to 70 degrees. I really like it here but will try to keep an open mind for all the continuous searching we will be doing. After all, we still have the rest of California, Arizona and New Mexico.

Paso Robles, Cambria and Morro Bay

We are staying for a day in the Paso Robles area. It's a really pretty area of rolling hills with an abundance of wineries and acres of grapes as far as the eye can see. Today was quite windy but not too cold, about 60 degrees where we are staying. I wanted to see Cambria because I had heard so much about it. It is located on Hwy 1 to the West of Paso Robles about 30 miles. We drove there over Hwy. 46 which was a scenic ride through the country. Once in Cambria, we felt it was more or less a tourist destination but we did locate the Nit Wit house which is suppose to be a historic destination. Once there, we could see it was a collection of pieces of things that had been found and assembled into the resemblence of a house. Here's a picture.

From Cambria we went north just a short drive along the coast to see Hearst Castle at San Simeon. The sun was out, but it was breezy here too. We didn't do the tour of the castle but toured around the visitors center and read some of the history.

We headed south along the coast to Morro Bay. Morro Bay is in the vacinity of my old fishing grounds from when I was in my 20's and married to Dustin's Dad. We did commercial salmon fishing off the cost of California in the 70's and I believe we brought our boat into Morro Bay once to get out of the weather. I was hungry so we found a fresh fish market/galley to eat where we ordered our food at the outside window then ate it while sitting out on the deck with the Morro Bay Rock in the view, fishing boats bobbying around and sea gulls pooping and begging from all the tourists. It was extremely picturesque and brought back some old feelings of fishing and being glad to be in port when the wind was howling like it was today. There were many para-surfers in the waves and they were so entertaining. We enjoyed watching the Pelicans dive for their fish and the sea otters wrapped together in sea weed and floating along near the shore. Our lunch was so fresh and delicious. I had a cup of clam chowder and a dungeness crab cocktail. Claude ordered the Halibut and chips. Both were extremely fresh and I would say the best fish and chips I have ever eaten. See photos. It was windy and cool there but worth the discomfort for the experience.

Tomorrow we are getting serious about our house hunting. We are looking around San Luis Obispo, Nipomo, Arroyo Grande, Pismo Beach for our first serious possible second home location. We may be staying near the ocean as our base in an area called "Oceano". I am really excited to be getting more south where I think it is more likely the perfect home location will exist. Stay tuned.

YES WE CAN??? YES WE DID BIKE OVER THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

One last adventure we wanted to do before moving south, is to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. Today was a perfect day to do that. The weather was clear and about 72 degrees and very little wind. We loaded up the bikes and drove to a parking/lookout area just south of the bridge. Claude took down the bikes off the roof and we began the trip. There were hundreds of people of different age groups. Some walking, some riding bikes, but all in awe of being on the bridge. You could overhear people from all parts of the world, different languages and nationalities. One mother was expaining to her young child that people come from all over the world to see this bridge. It was a delightful ride although with all those people, we had to watch out not to run into others. I took a couple of videos above. One as I rode the bike and the other of the views we had from the railing.

On the other side we had to make the decision whether or not to ride down to Sausalito. When I say "down" that's what it is. About a two mile ride down the road and much of it without a real bike trail. Claude asked an older rider who was coming back about how difficult it was, and he said that it was okay if you take it slow. So, off we went to my hesitation. Claude takes off like a 12 year old down hills with no fear, and I do tend to be a little more cautious. We weaved our way down the hillside and found our favorite old restaurant FISH. and had our same favorite lunch. It was way yummy. I was pretty much adverse to the idea of biking back up the hill but although I hesitated we began our return trip. After the scenic flat part we started up our first hill. It was HARD I tell ya! I baulked at the idea of being able to make it and we had barely begun. Claude was a good coach. He said "don't think of the future just think of now" "Can you take one more step?" I said YES...barely and he said then right now you can do it. So we walked our bikes. (Don't get me wrong...Claude was huffing and puffing plenty himself) But I then got indignant and figured I would leave him in the dust. One good thing about he and I is that we pretty much are at the same physical level which means we wear out at the same time. That's really a good thing for us. With some walking of our bikes and some slow riding, we MADE IT. I was so happy he talked me into doing it so we could have that experience together. Here are some photos of the day. Do try at least walking across if you ever get a chance. It was a pristine and beautiful view everyone would appreciate.

Tomorrow we get to move from Morgan Hill to the south. Depending on how things go, we may spend a little more time in Carmel tomorrow or, if it doesn't work out, we will end up in Paso Robles for a couple of days. We are excited to move south. Enjoy! Oh yea...we took a photo of the Airship Zepplin that is new in this area for your viewing pleasure.

A NEW LEADER FOR OUR COUNTRY

If you didn't vote for Obama, you might want to skip this entry.

We had the pleasure of celebrating Election Day by staying in downtown San Jose in the Fairmont Hotel. Claude is attending the AOPA (Airplane Owners and Pilot's Assoc.) conference one block away. Thanks to Gabby we got our "mail in ballots" in time to send our votes in and we enjoyed celebrating for our country as Obama became a new voice for our country.

I will speak for myself when I tell you I have felt a positive surge of renewed energy and possibilities for our country knowing we have someone in the position of speaking to the people of our country in a way that uplifts, rather than suppressess. I realize that change will not happen overnight, but I do believe that what the people want now is a voice that speaks of what we can do together to support each other as we move out of this hole we are now in, rather than reinforcing that we are in a hole. What our President Bush wants to share with the country today is to talk about "extremists ready to attack us and that they would enjoy nothing more than to destroy us". Why he thinks that's the message we want to hear today, or any day, is beyond me but I am thrilled we won't have to hear him much longer. I am thankfull for the shift in energy for all of us.

Here are a couple of pictures of the newspapers that were left outside our hotel room door.

Monday Election Eve Day

Hi Everyone,

Just so you know, these past couple of days have been less than exciting although they have been fun in their own unique way. The rain has been here so we haven't done much in the way of outside activities. Yesterday we went to Fremont (about 30 miles from here) to visit a Center for Spiritual Living there that is similar to the one we go to in Bellingham. After we spent time there, we wanted to go to Dublin, California. (another 15 miles) We thought it had an area of newer, adult living homes but it was very focused on younger, high denisty living. This is the Silicon Valley so there are many of those computer type businesses here like Yahoo, PayPal, Ebay and so forth. They employ a lot of people of diverse nationalities. It was very impressive to see these villages of newer condo type townhomes. Sort of like an instant city made for all these employees and they are attractive even though they are dense.

In many ways, we feel we have had our fill of this area. We know we don't want to live here yet there is so much to see around this area. We are done with the rain here already. Today we went to San Francisco to drive the 49 Mile Drive which is a famous drive through the city but we got so overwhelmed with traffic and people that it quickly lost its appeal. We did make it to Japantown and had a stroll in the rain around there and had some Japanese food. We then went to Haight Ashbury because I wanted to see what it was like. It was a sad area, lots of street people but we did get a feel for it and we do like to see things we can't see in Burlington. ;)

Yesterday we spontaneously went to an IMAX movie called Eagle Eye. It was fantastic. It is showing at regular movie houses too right now, but on IMAX it was intense. It is one of those high action sort of violent, stressful, intelligent, techno movies that keeps you involved every second. Do check it out on a rainy day if you haven't seen it and like that kind of movie.

We are ready to leave this area and are basically staying because of the AOPA conference that begins on Wednesday in San Jose. Claude will be seeing his friends at Diamond Aircraft and then checking out the other Airplane Owners Association exhibitors and vendors. I will more than likely do my own investigating while he is looking at airplane stuff. We are staying at a hotel in downtown San Jose for a couple of nights to be close so that will be fun for a change too. We will leave our motor home here in Morgan Hill while we are there.

Just wanted to add something so you all didn't check in and find nothing new. We mailed in our votes so we will be looking for our new president tomorrow. Joy to the World!

SAN FRANCISCO, CHINA TOWN, FISHERMAN'S WARF

Friday, October 31st, we chose a day in San Francisco. We found a great little travel book that talks about the 10 best things to do in San Francisco in many different categories. We put China Town into the GPS and found parking near the entrance to this area although it spreads out over many blocks. We kept getting turned around walking up and down the streets and looking at our little book map. We got some good exercise to say the least. China Town is crowded with very little room to walk along the side walks. Claude popped into a small chinese deli and chose to eat a couple of "things" they had for sale. He did not rave about them but he did express some suprise at what was inside. I passed on that treat. We really wanted to find the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company that was listed in the 10 best book. We had a heck of a time and realized it was in a kind of sleezy side alley where a husband and wife were sitting in a crowded room making fortune cookies by taking the round, flat cooked cookie off the hot cookie cooker, placing a fortune in each one and folding it over. It was not automated or grand like I expected it would be but rather humbling really. He let us take his picture for 50 cents plus we had a warm sample. He probably makes 50 bucks a day getting his picture taken. (see photo)

We had lunch at the DIM SUM restaurant. It wasn't rated in the book, but it had many awards plastered on the window. We chose to have Pan Fried Pork Dumpling, Fried Old Fashion Dumplings, Honey Glazed Barbecued Pork and Vegetarian Crisp Spring Rolls. You get a little bit of each thing so it is fun to try. I liked the spring rolls best and the BBQ pork.

After wandering around trying to find the Cable Car, we jumped on it and headed toward Fisherman's Warf leaving our car in China Town. It was a fun ride but it was raining lightly by that time. Claude hung onto the outer railing and the "Grip Person" (the person who makes sure the brakes are working) was entertaining and watchful at the same time. It was fun.

When we got to Fisherman's Warf we had to see the Boudin Sourdough Bread company. It was really cool. We have a video here of them making some sourdough items. We decided to see the Aquarium since I had never been inside one of those walk through tunnel type aquariums before. It was really well done and so soothing with calming music playing, low lights and a real feeling of being underwater. I loved watching the anchovies swim together, more like a dance really. We finished off there by walking around Pier 39 until Claude's feet hurt then we took a cab back to our car.

I really wanted to see Lombard street (the crookedest street in the world they say) So we put it in our GPS and found it. It was fun going down it with my head sticking out of the sun roof while taking a movie. The movie isn't that great, so you don't get to see if here.

That was our day in San Francisco. It takes quite awhile to see all that is there and a person could spend days checking it out. We think we would really enjoy biking over the golden gate bridge, so if it works out with improved weather (it's raining today) we may be able to fit that in next week. I hope so...it would be a life time experience.

Just so you know, I'm not able to add to the blog every day since we may get home late or some days are just "regular" days with nothing exciting involved. Today we are hanging around here. Morgan Hill is a nice area to fiddle around in. Thanks for staying tuned.