Once in awhile-now and again-this is us

thank you, thank you, thank you, for all your comments. we had such a good time, I loved sharing the photos of our trip. and since I don’t have facebook like so many of you do, this is my way to do it.

we were in #22 this time. across the way you can see #6 where we stayed last time.

we made it home Friday night a little sore from the horse ride. it was well worth a few sore muscles to do something so special. when you think of it, that horse is so powerful, yet he takes your commands and doesn’t throw you off.

by the way it’s much harder getting off than on.

strawberry had a neat brand

we’ll have to a little fishing next time. this is our kind of place.

my big rock at the beach

because of the drought we’ve decided to make our yard look like the beach. we live in long beach right?  and, we’re saving a lot of water. we are also are planting  butterfly and hummingbird flowers. it’s a work in progress.

and here is the rock in it’s new home. you’re allowed to take 30 pounds of rock a day, and I think this one weighed at least that.

we have our own little campsite at home.

we even have a fire pit!

all that sand and dirt and not one animal has defiled it.

midas loves rolling in it though

our next trip is in august. we’ll be going to las vegas to celebrate Hannah’s 21rst birthday and my 70th. I know what you are all thinking. you might be right. maybe,  probably. ???? you’ll want to see those pictures i’ll bet.

and I know ray can’t wait to see another picture of the fountains at the Bellagio.

in case you can’t wait ray, here’s one to tide you over.

we will be able to see them from our room this time.

then in September we will go to reno to see ted again. we always have such a good time with him. we’ll see our favorite things plus a few new ones. lake Tahoe for one.

so stay tuned

love to all of you,

jilly

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we had to be at the stables at 7:30 this morning. it was kind of hard to get up after a late night. but we did it.

I sure didn’t want to get that big one.

thankfully I didn’t. I got Wilbur and jerry got strawberry.

it was a beautiful ride. a little overcast but a least it wasn’t hot. we rode for about an hour out into some of the 12,000 acres of land they own. most of the green grass has turned brown now, but it was still so beautiful.

Wilbur was so slow. he just ambled along. never keeping up with the other horses. strawberry wanted to pass but he had to be the last horse because he didn’t get along with any of the horses, just Wilbur.

strawberry kept saying hurry up.

we had a wonderful breakfast with anything you could want to eat. I had the bacon made with pancake batter poured over it and cooked. so delicious.

we rode back and it was time to check out. we had a wonderful time and this will probably be one of our new favorite places.

until next time frank

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the first event was the meat and greet. ha ha. they tell us all about how to buy good meat, how to trim it, how to build a fire, and then how to cook it. there’s only 40 people in the group.

look at all this tri-tip.

Pasqual cooking the pork belly (yummy)

brad cooking the bacon (yummmmmmmy)

frank was cooking our salmon for dinner.

they also serve wine and beer. this was my favorite variety of the wine.

the grounds are beautiful.

we met the nicest couple and ate with them every meal.

we went to the spice demonsration  but just filled out bottles with lemon pepper. it’s the best.

these are for you tracy. just some of the beautiful flowers they have here.

we went on the breakfast horse ride this morning.

stay tuned for that.

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it was a beautiful day so we spent a lot of time here. they also have a great museum and gift shop. there were so many photo opportunities I couldn’t help myself.

I’ve never seen one of these bell ringers before.

the priest’s room.

the manager’s room

the soldier’s room.

there was a corral with lots of animals. here are a few of them.

check out the feet.

a different looking pig.

a turkey fluffing up for us.

over and over again on our travels we learn how much the conservation corp helped rebuild America. it’s too bad they still don’t have it.

the museum had so much information it was fascinating to read all of it.

after a great day in Lompoc we headed for ‘the ranch’ as we call it now.

stay tuned.

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this is one of the largest missions we’ve been to. it’s been restored beautifully.

there are lots of swallows at this mission too.

I took so many pictures i’m going to put another post with more pictures. if missions don’t excite you, skip it. for the rest of you, stay tuned.

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we’ve been going to Lompoc to see the beautiful flowers they grow here for a long time. they grew them for the seeds they produced. all the big seed companies were here. we toured burpee many times. the flowers were always so gorgeous in field after field.

we were disappointed to find out almost all the growers have moved to peru now. we found a couple of fields with flowers but it was mostly produce.

it looked like they were picking flowers here.

there’s also a lot of grape vineyards. Lompoc is known as the wine ghetto.

this is looking toward Vandenberg air force base where they shoot up the missiles that sometime leave those beautiful trails we see in the sky.  you can see the fog creeping  in.

we drove out to the beach and made tuna sandwich’s. they tasted extra good with potato chips on them. and of course a cold beer.

the wild mustard is everywhere.

you used to be able to drive close to the Vandenberg gate and see the missile launch site. but you can’t get close to it anymore. 911 probably changed that.

we went to the mission next.

stay tuned

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we’re on our way to the ‘b-b-q boot camp’ at ‘alisal ranch’ again. we had so much fun last october, we decided to do it again.

we spent monday night at our favorite campground ‘thornhill broom’ in pt. magu state park. it was our first overnight trip in the coach some 24 years ago. that’s  unbeliveable. we had been getting rocks there since 1984 on our first and one of many trips to the monterey bay aquarium.

there’s one of the rocks I got. do you see it?

jerry always finds a dog.

you’ve seen a lot of pictures from thornhill broom over the years. even the time we rescued a pelican.but i’ve never shown you this, even though we see it all the time. for the faint of heart don’t look.

but isn’t it interesting? you can see the wishbone still attached. it’s all part of the circle of life. some other animal had a meal.

we spent the night in lompoc and today we’re hoping to see some of the flower fields here and then go to the mission.

stay tuned

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