Once in awhile-now and again-this is us

                             our taxi awaits us

our neighbor kara took us to the cruise terminal in san pedro on sataurday. we had a pleasant drive with no traffic to speak of.

there were 5 ships in port boarding passengers. luckily we had left early to get there early, and missed some of the worst of the chaos boarding the ship that happened after we were happily in our cabin. (we heard about it later)

we had to go to the muster station to learn how to put on our life jackets. everyone on ship is required to do it.

two of the other ships in port.

we left right on time. this picture is the ship going through the breakwater.

then we attended a sail away party with the group (40) we are traveling with. we are all diners at ‘delius restaurant ‘ in long beach. one of the best we have ever eaten at. it was a no host bar from 5-6. we had previously met everyone at another gathering at the restaurant. it was a lot of fun.

after trying out the buffet, not bad, we went to see a movie under the stars, woman in gold. but it was hard to hear and partly subtitled so we took our popcorn back to our room and watched tv.

and look what was on. ha ha.

we are in san Francisco now and found wifi in the cruise terminal. on the ship the free wifi won’t come in and they want 79 cents a minute to connect to the pay service. this blog is not that important.

we are having a such a good time. this is sure a different way to travel that the coach. our wish is their command. you can have anything you want at anytime. wow.

now it’s time to go explore san Francisco.

check back later. I don’t know when the next post will be.

jill

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well, not just yet.  but October 3rd we set sail on the crown princess cruise ship.  it will hug the coast all the way to san Francisco, then down to ensanada and finally home again to san pedro. with a few stops in between.  we’re so excited.

it’s been awhile since my last post and i’m a little rusty so i’m getting in some practice today. and of course wordpress has updated and changed everything so I have to re-learn things. here’s something we did last month for my birthday. we went on a flight in a vintage 1943 dc3 airplane. a gift from tony and thuy.

isn’t she beautiful?

it was one of the first commercial airplanes. but when the war started it was called into military duty. even seeing action on D-day. it’s had a few owners.  the present owner has completely restored it to all it’s glory.

come on board with us.

I picked my seat.

here we go.    what freeway is that?

nice day on the beach.

a couple of the oil islands.

long beach with the famous ‘villa riveria’ in view on the right.

and of course the ‘queen mary’.

we flew on to san pedro where the battleship ‘iowa’ is docked. this isn’t a good picture, but you can see her in the bottom left hand corner.

then it was time to turn around and head back to john wayne airport.

what freeway is this?????

back on the ground.

two of the passengers happened to be the owner and his wife of the vintage trains we have traveled on. we went to new York with them. they wore their train uniforms. how cute!

this was such a great day. I loved every minute of it. thank you tony and thuy.

I have watched one of the other surviving dc3’s take off over our house for years. I love the look and sound of it.   unfortunately all of jerry’s begging couldn’t get us a ride on that one. it takes only cargo to catalina. I also love the c17’s flying over our house occasionally , but boeing has only one more to build and then they will be gone. forever. I will miss that unmistakable sound of them leaving long beach for parts unknown enormously.

one last picture of our ride in the sky. isn’t she gorgeous?

thank you tony and thuy. I loved it.

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after cereal for breakfast we went to the beach to collect rocks. we used to be able to stay right on this spot for years. then they added the signs.

some of the small treasures we found. moonstones are on the bottom right.

the hills are crumbling more and more. we had a hard time to find a spot to go down. the steps are gone. no, we didn’t go down here.

you can barely make out hearst castle in this picture.  can you see the palm trees that surround it?

we stopped in cambria and had lunch at the main st. grill. we also went in the shop jerry used to sell his wind chimes but the owner wasn’t there. we wanted to go in the mission in san Louis Obispo but it closed just before we got there. one out of three isn’t bad.

guess where we ate dinner. two out of four is even better.

see those ribs in the front? they went to our table. yes chris, we ate a lot of meat this trip. no shakes.

stay tuned for the last post.

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we never take this road anymore. but i’m glad we did on this beautiful day. we stopped a lot and just enjoyed the views.

how would you like to live in this house?

with this view.

the landscape is still so green.

the lesser known rocky creek bridge

the better known Bixby bridge.

a view from the south.

we stopped at nepenthe restuarant for lunch. we have eaten here several times and always enjoy the specialness of it.

there’s something new on the road. looks like it can catch a rockslide on it’s roof.

we stopped to enjoy the sunset.

and then traveled on to our campground in san simeon.

and then another beautiful day.

am I using the word beautiful too much?

stay tuned for more beautiful.

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we saw the point pinos lighthouse from a distance. it wasn’t open.

we saw deer roaming.

harbor seals basking in the sun

our neighbor and friend kara, that you have all met on the blog, here she is with her daughter eva.

she gave us an envelope as we left the house last Friday morning. it’s something she always does. it’s a wonderful gesture since there is always a monetary gift inside. she says for emergencies or something fun. we’ll, we had fun with it. we had dinner on the wharf.  

this is the restaurant at the end of the pier kara. there was not a person inside. not a good sign. so we went to the fisherman’s grotto, where we had eaten before. I had the sand dabs and jerry had the seafood pasta. yummy. THANK YOU KARA!

we saw a beautiful sunset.

and then we went to our campsite for the night. we woke up with the same view that we had from the green gables.

it’s such a beautiful day, we are going to take highway 1 to start home.

stay tuned, if you want to that is.

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we said good bye to the green gables and the nice couple we met. barry and laura had their own business selling tire rims in san jose. he was into racing and rebuilding cars too. very interesting to talk to.

we decided to go to the aquarium. we love it and it’s been so long since we had been there. it wasn’t crowded so that made it a nice visit.

the jellies are always fascinating

this isn’t a baby, it’s full grown

but the sardines intrigued me even more. they constantly swim in circles. the light catches on their silver fins and it’s beautiful. I watched them for a long time.

the sardines were gone for many years and cannery row became a ghost town. but they are back and people learned from the mistakes of the past and are not being overfished today.

i didn’t take a lot of pictures. i had trouble getting the right setting on the camera. i like this picture though. it looks like fireworks.

and this one. this cuttlefish followed jerry every time he moved.

and last but not least, the silver dollars were beautiful.

do you remember sharon, when i first started the blog, i told you i would just put a few pictures in each post. ha ha.

so stay tuned for more pictures.

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otherwise known as the carmel mission. there is a big at&t golf tournament going on at pebble beach, so 17 mile drive is closed to tourist traffic. darn.

this is a beautifully restored mission.

we didn’t get to see the lone cypress, but this is a pretty good example of a Monterey cypress.

where are you going jerry?

there was so much to see at this mission. a lot of rooms furnished as they would have been. this is just a picture of a picture of Father Serra’s room.

amen

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that’s our room on the top floor on the right. the balcony room.

we got up and had a good breakfast.  we met a nice couple that sat with us a few times.

we walked around town for awhile. my beloved ‘wooden nickel’ store is gone. I’ve been buying the best things there since we’ve been coming up here. we figured out that was 29 years ago. after the aquarium opened in 1984.

I did see something for you would like dr. betty. it was in an antique store and it was on sale for %75 off. of course it was $28,00.00.

I liked this one.

it was such a beautiful day we decided to see the butterflies. i’ts mating season, and it is very interesting how it all takes place. the male finds a female and attaches himself to her, carries her up to the top of the trees, and stays with her all night. in the morning she leaves pacific grove for the central coast, and he goes and finds another female.

that was a very pleasant experience.

our next one is the carmel mission.

stay tuned.

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it rained off and on all day Saturday. the clouds were fascinating to watch. there are grape vines all along 101 now.

we stopped at another mission in soledad but it was closed.

we spent the night at Wal-Mart in salinas. it was so windy. check out the flag.

we had planned to go to the steinback museum, but it wasn’t opened. we did drive by his house but didn’t go in.

we did go in this house when we got to pacific grove. the green gables was our destination this trip. our favorite  bnb.

won’t you come in with us.

the view from our room.

thank you for all your comments. as you all know I love to get them. you should be writing poetry Martha.

stay tuned

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we decided to take a week and go somewhere for valentines day. so we packed up the coach and are now headed for Monterey. we left yesterday and will be gone until next sunday.

our first stop was the ‘hitching post’. it’s such a nice way to start a trip. our favorite waitress wasn’t working but we got our favorite table. right by the bbq pit. we had the baby back ribs. yummy. we stayed in their lot for the night again.

we woke to rain on the roof. we knew it would rain, but it was too late to cancel our reservations at the inn in pacific grove. since we’ve been in every type of weather in the coach for 23 years now, we drove on. a little rain won’t stop us.

the ostrich farm on the road to solvang has increased in size and numbers of ostrich. there are a lot of grape vines where horses used to roam also.

we had breakfast in solvang and then went to the ‘old mission of santa ines’. it’s right at the end of town.

I love these old missions. I didn’t pay attention in school, but i’m sure paying attention now.

remember, when it rains you get rainbows

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