That Was Some Party!

We had the most amazing time last night at the joint birthday party for Kathy's 50th and Rich's 70th! Our niece, Judy, planned and decorated and provided the fabulous food. She is an amazing party planner and thought of every perfect little detail. Our nephew, Ted Jr., and his wife Johanna opened their home to all of us as they always do for any occasion. Our nieces, Kathy, Carol, and Barbara along with their families (except for Addie) were here from Colorado. Their mom, Helen, must be so very proud of her family...her kids and grandkids are great, AND SO MUCH FUN! They are Rich's late brother, Ted's, family.

Rich's sister, Marianne, made a surprise appearance too! Ted Jr had convinced her to come at kind of the last minute. Judy also invited our best friends Bill & Deanne and Frank & Marion. Welcome to the party!

These childhood pictures of Rich and Kathy greeted us as we all entered.

This fun comparison between the twenty year difference in Rich's and Kathy's birth years was interesting and sat next to the table with their photos.

Judy had set up this photo area with hats, wigs, scarves, glasses, etc that were used for some fun photos.

Let me share just a few of those...

Come along with us and PARTY, PARTY, PARTY!!!

As it got darker outside, many of my photos include some interesting streaks of color and light.

After trying on a couple, Rich loved this wig and wore it the rest of the evening!

Even with all these pictures, I couldn't truly capture all the laughter and love of the evening. To all FB family, I'll post a link to this blog because I couldn't put all these photos on there and also couldn't pick just a few to represent how perfect the evening was and how much it meant to Rich and me to spend that time with all of you!

Lovin' Life ~~ And Our California Family & Friends

California Lutheran University

This morning we drove to Thousand Oaks to visit my alma mater, California Lutheran University. Twenty years ago I graduated from this small university. Homecoming is being celebrated this weekend and my class reunion will be held on campus. When I received the invitation, knowing we would be here, I briefly considered attending. Reunions are not really my thing though so I didn't RSVP. I did want to visit campus and pick up something from the bookstore while we are here.

We have benefited tremendously in so many ways from my time here and the education received. It was exactly where I needed to be at the time. Here are a few photos of the always lovely campus.

The Luther Statue aka Enormous Luther

If you would like to know more about the history of this amazing statue and Martin Luther, here is a link: http://www.callutheran.edu/about/history/enormous_luther.php

Some of the many lovely flowers on campus.

If anyone knows what these incredible trees are, please let me know. There are lots of them where are camped too. The burls on them are magnificent!

Diversity Fountain and the unique architecture of many older campus buildings in the background.

But this, oh my, this is my favorite flower and there are many of them on campus. They were such a joy for me to see on a daily basis when I was a student here. These days, one of our nephews is a member of the crew that keeps this campus so breathtakingly beautiful.

How about this scene on our drive back to Simi Valley from Thousand Oaks!

And back at our campground, here are a couple more photos of some of the many awesome trees in this area.

This one, with its many burls, stands next to our motorhome.

Lovin' Life ~~ And Cal Lu

Catching Up

Thursday, October 17, 2013

We shopped for supplies and a couple things we forgot this morning then drove out to Valencia to meet Sandee's best friend from high school for lunch. Let me give you the tour of a common route when we lived here.

The Santa Susana Pass on the 118 which we drove to visit family and friends in Thousand Oaks and I drove to Cal Lutheran.

Looking out over the San Fernando Valley from the 118.

The California Aqueduct at the split of  I-5 and the 14.

Heading down into Santa Clarita, where we lived for eight years.

Gina and I have stayed in contact all these years but it had been three years since we visited her and her family in Washington. We had a blast catching up on all the events, and there have been many, in our lives.

Following our 3 1/2+ hour lunch with Gina, we did a bit of shopping at Valencia Town Center mall. This bear was near the entrance and represents the California state animal displayed on the state flag which is the California Grizzly Bear. Oh! You didn't know that there are grizzly bears in California. Well, you were right.

"Before the grizzly bear was exterminated in California, this magnificent animal thrived in the great valleys and low mountains of the state (probably in greater numbers than anywhere else in North America).

As humans began to pour into California, the grizzly would not retreat from advancing civilization. Standing their ground, grizzly bears killed livestock and interfered with settlements. Less than 75 years after the discovery of gold, every grizzly bear in California had been tracked down and killed." Source: statesymbolsusa.org

This next photo shows the "collapsing freeways" as Rich called them today. You do not want to be on or under these in an earthquake because they have collapsed twice...yikes! And we drove those every day, as many folks still do.

We came back to the RV to check on the girls and then went to our nephew Ted's & Johanna's house to catch up with them.

His mom, our sister-in-law Helen, was over too! Helen hates having her picture taken so don't tell her that you saw her on my blog...giggle  We'll see all of them and more at the party tomorrow night...can't wait!

Lovin' Life ~~ Catching Up With Our CA Life

A Short Trip to CA!

Yes, I am fully aware of the fact that we just got to AZ less than three weeks ago but now we are on the road again. We had a busy day yesterday with well issues that delayed laundry, a meeting with a contractor, and prepping the motorhome. About 2:30 Rich asked me how soon I could be ready and what did I think about leaving then rather than wait until morning!  It was after 5:00 last evening before laundry was finished, we packed, had everything loaded and drove off. Not bad. By the time we got west of Phoenix it was getting dark.

With a stop for fuel and a quick dinner, we made it to the Flying J Truck Stop  in Ehrenberg, AZ which is 1 mile from the California border. This Flying J listed RV parking so we had planned to spend the night there. The lot was packed. There must have been 100 semis parked for the night, either backed into single row spaces or parked two deep in some rows. We can't back up because we are towing a car so we need to pull through a space to eliminate the need to unhook the car. There were only two open spaces, unfortunately they were not one in front of the other but were catty-cornered to each other. Here's my sketch of the incredible maneuver by my hero to get us parked for the night. He serpentined that RV in-between the rear right corner of one truck and the front driver's side of another like it was made of rubber.

This morning I cooked breakfast and we drove straight out of our overnight parking space without having to unhitch. He is an amazing driver! In just a couple of minutes after getting back on I-10 we crossed the Colorado River into California!

There are always beautiful sights, just about everywhere we travel. Here are a couple of shots of the Chocolate Mountains. In the second one are a few of the dead palm trees in Desert Center, CA. I've always been curious about all the palms with their tops lopped off and many more that have fallen and are lying full length on the ground side by side.

An interstate overpass at Cathedral City is decorated with these Gothic shapes that when overlapped are the trim on the dishes we just bought for the new house and also the shape of the openings on the Brooklyn Bridge...love these links!

In the Palm Springs area there are massive wind farms in the mountains on either side of I-10. Even though you now see turbines everywhere, these have been here for years.

From about Palm Springs on the drive seems interminable. There isn't much of interest except for the famous Cabazon Dinosaurs. Coming back from skiing at Big Bear one winter we had stopped and visited the dinosaurs. There's a gift shop inside the belly of Dinny.

We decided that the rest of the drive seems so long because you feel like you're there, since it's just solidly linked town after town, yet there are a lot of miles left to L.A.

As we passed the city, we switched from I-10 to the familiar I-5 and then when we reached the 118 I really felt like we were back home.

The 118 Freeway was part of my commute from our home in Canyon Country to Cal Lutheran University the two years I went to school there in Thousand Oaks. Here a few scenes; what a lovely commute. I never got tired of that drive.

See the smiley face on the hillside? Like I said on FB earlier, it's a reflection of how I feel being here...happy, happy, happy!!!

We are so excited about seeing our family and friends over the next few days from our base in Simi Valley. Stay tuned!

Lovin' Life ~~ In Sunny So Cal