Temecula, California

Spent a week in Long Beach, California, but didn't spent too much time in the coach. Lots of activities kept us busy. 

Long Beach, California (Weather that day was

a bit windy, but still beautiful.)

We arrived on Wednesday, Dec. 21.  On Thursday we met with one of Jerry's former employees from one of his businesses in the 90s, Pete, and his wife, Jamie, and their cute, fun-loving 18-month old, Jimmy. 

Jerry with Jamie, Jimmy and Pete

On Friday, I spent the day with family while Jerry ran a few errands. He met us at Shan's house where we all went to see granddaughter, Samantha, sing at the Celebrity Centre in Hollywood. It was quite exciting to see her perform in front of an audience.

Samantha, age 12, singing at the Celebrity Centre in Hollywood, California

The only day we had without any activity was the day of Christmas Eve. Jerry and I spent a very nice evening watching the Morman Tabernacle Choir Christmas Performance on television. 

What a production! 

The family Christmas celebration was on Sunday. Sorry, folks, but this is the one or two times of the year that we post pictures of humans instead of locations and sites that we are visiting. 

How many cooks does it take to de-vein shrimp?

(Raul, Susan, Shannon, and Jerry)

Jerry's deviled eggs with Shannon's hand

Grandchildren (James, Christian, and Natalie in front; 

Brenna, Samantha and Sara in back) 

Granddaughter, Erin and Natalie (Erin left for Florida 

to spend the rest of her holiday with her mother's family)

The following day, we met with John and Christian for lunch at the Sage Restaurant in Newport Beach. They were also married in December --  4 days and three years after us!

Jerry, me, Christine and John at Sage Restaurant where the food was delicious!

On Tuesday, we had three different events scheduled. First, I attended the Hughes Human Resources get-together. This group meets every December and consists of former Hughes Electronics employees (most are retired) and current DirecTv employees (the only direct surviving entity of the former Hughes Aircraft Company).

Would you believe that her real name is Eddie Murphy?

Dolly, who lives in Northern California, is responsible 

for pulling off this event each year.

Warren and Lidia (my former co-workers) -- both 

still working in the Law Department at DirecTv 

This group picture was taken after a number of the attendees left.

Next event, same day, was to visit with Jerry's former photography 

teacher on the strand in Manhattan Beach, California.

John (former photography teacher) and Jerry

Last event for that day was a dinner party at Brad's house. Brad is someone with whom Jerry has stayed in touch with through the years. At one time, Brad worked with Jerry. Heidi is his girl friend who is a flight attendant from Germany. And Don is someone we just met, but has known Brad since they were 15 years old. A fun evening with good food!

Heidi, Brad, Jerry, Mary and Don

We arrived yesterday at the Pechanga RV Resort. Last night John and Marijean (who live here in Temecula) came over for dinner on the coach. Our next big event is a dinner party for 12 at John and Marijean's house on New Year's Eve. Jerry and John will be doing the cooking and 

plan to shop for the food tomorrow. 

We wish everyone a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

  

Merry Christmas!

We are spending three days on the beach in Ventura, California. The place is dead. Out of 130 parking spots, only 9 were filled when we arrived on Sunday.

Perfect!

Beautiful day!

Only thing that somewhat dampened the mood was the throbbing pain each of us had to experience after our teeth implants last Thursday. But, we called the dentist and he ordered a stronger paid killer and antibiotics for me. So we are good to go.

Jerry had a fire while we watched the sun go down. We can't think 

of a better way to celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary.

It doesn't get any better.

Taken this morning from the beach.

Chanti had fun chasing the birds.

One more picture of the sunset.

We leave tomorrow for Long Beach where we will be for a week while we catch up with family and friends. Seems as if every day is taken up with commitments. We are looking forward to seeing everyone. 

Again, we wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.

Back in Oceano, California

We're back in Oceano! But just for this week. It's great to be in 4G Verizon coverage again. I didn't update the blog last week because of the poor internet reception. That is the trade off. We were isolated in the Santa Barbara mountains where there is nothing but peace and quiet. No lights, no sounds (other than an occasional airplane overhead), no people to speak of. Just nature, horses, hiking trails and a great jacuzzi.

We had to come back to civilization because we were scheduled to see the dentist this week. Don't know if you remember, but we both are having dental implants. This was on Thursday. Jerry didn't need sutures, but I did because my implant is right in the front of my mouth. We survived this round. We also ran up to Cambria this week and picked up our mail, and got a lot of errands accomplished in Cambria, San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles.

So, tomorrow we start heading towards Los Angeles to be with the kids for Christmas. But, before we get there, we will spend a few days on the beach in Ventura, again. I will post pictures of that stay because it is one of our favorite places. And, being within 20-30 feet from the ocean, how can one not take great pictures of the sun going down over the ocean?

Didn't take any pictures of the dunes in Oceano this time. But, here are a couple of pictures of our little Christmas tree in the coach. It sits at the front window.

With Christmas music playing, this works.

Close up of out tree. There are fiber optic strands 

that make the tree change colors at night,

Well -- you get the pictures.

Happy Holidays to the everyone!

Rancho Oso Guest Ranch & Stables in Santa Barbara County

Been here at the Rancho Oso Guest Ranch & Stables since Monday now. This is really a nice place for horse lovers. You can bring your horse and camp out. They have a separate fenced stable for your horse right next to your spot. So there are lots of horse trails through the hills.

But, it is also an RV park and is part of the Resorts of Distinction group of parks. There are at least six step levels to park and we were given the opportunity to choose the spot of our choice. Normally, we would always select a high spot looking over the whole park. This time, we decided to take one on the lowest level right next to a cabin that they also rent out. No one is renting the cabin so we are pretty secluded.

Here we are parked on the lowest level next to an empty cabin.

Thank God we were parked there. The high winds that the LA area experienced this week also came through our area on Wednesday night. Chanti did her usually fear thing again and we ended having to give her the homeopathic anti-anxiety drops twice during the night. The winds were so powerful, overturning semi-trucks in LA and tearing out countless trees and telephone poles. We could hear the wind and our coach rocked a bit. But it was nothing like it could have been had not that cabin been in the way protecting us. God was definitely with us when we selected that spot.

We took a long walk on one of their many hiking trails on Wednesday. Took a few pictures along the way.

Saddles on one of the coral fences.

One of the horse corals with RV storage in the background.

There are even covered wagons to rent.

Another view of the covered wagons.

We also took a day trip into Solvang and Buelton. The hills are so beautiful around here.

Stopped along the way to take a picture of 

Cachuma Lake with my cell phone camera.

And of the Cachuma dam.

In case you are wondering, we do not have very good cell coverage or internet connection in this isolated area. So today, we drove into Santa Barbara (about 15 miles from the RV park) to check our emails and update the blog. It is Friday afternoon and we are at Starbucks. This town is so full of people. We are not used to that. 

Jerry got a hold of a classmate of his from high school (Dawn) and she happened to be shopping right next door to Starbucks. He is visiting with her while I finish this blog. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Oceano, California

We messed up! We were scheduled to leave here today, but we thought we had until tomorrow to leave. No problem. We just paid for an extra night here and called ahead to our next destination to tell them we would be a day late.

Tomorrow, we have lots to do. We first have to run errands in San Luis Obispo before we can get on the road. We will probably get out of here by 1 p.m. Hope the internet works at the next place because we will be away from civilization -- high in the Santa Barbara Mountains. We have 4G speeds here. That's why I've been updating the blog so often.

OK - one more picture. I took this one this morning while on my walk with Chanti. Again, it is taken with the panorama view on my cell phone, but this time, looking back over the RV park from the dunes.

Pacific Dunes Ranch RV Resort

We will definitely come back to this place. Most of the RVs in the picture left the park today. They were only here for the long Thanksgiving weekend. We find that most parks fill up over holidays, and then empty out when the holiday weekends are over. 

Have a great week everyone!

Oceano, California

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Just have to post a couple of pictures of Chanti enjoying the dunes. She turned 12 years old on Wednesday (age 64 in human life) but has not lost her energy. She loves the dunes.

Sitting on top of a cliff wondering whether she 

should come to us when we are calling her.

She decides to go for it!

What a leap!

And, now, just one more picture of the dunes taken with my new cell phone camera in panorama. Love my new cell phone. It is an Android HTC Rezound,

Have a safe weekend, everyone!

Oceano, California

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO THE WORLD!

We've been enjoying our stay here at the Pacific Dunes Ranch RV Resort. For the most part, we both spent a bit of time working on our books. Today, we ran over to Paso Robles to get our RV Christmas tree out of storage, pick up our mail in Cambria, stop at the fish market in Morro Bay and run some errands in San Luis Obispo. I brought my camera along and here are a few pictures I took today.

Highway 46 between Cambria and Paso Robles 

is one of the prettiest 26 mile-drives anyone can make. 

(Look up the hill to see the highway.)

Then, from the 2,000 foot elevation, we stopped to capture

the ocean in the background.

The greenery is spectacular.

In Morro Bay, we saw this seal frolicking in the ocean

while the kayakers watched.

At Morro Bay -- looking to the left --

-- looking straight forward to the famous Morro Rock --

-- looking to the right -- 

-- and, looking down to see this seal.

Yes, the Central Coast of California is a beautiful place.

Oceano, California

Been here in Oceano for one week. Two more weeks to go. We have never stayed at the Pacific Dunes Ranch RV Resort before. It is peaceful and quiet.

The day we arrived, I thought I'd take Chanti for a walk and check out how far we were from the beach as there is a wide sand dune to cross before we get to the beach. I left the motorhome at 4:45 p.m. and headed towards the beach. I had no idea how far we would have to walk because the sand dunes are misleading. There are 30 to 40 feet drops scattered throughout. It is almost like a maze. You walk on the upper ledge of one cliff (while continuing to head towards the beach) only to come to a dead end of a severe drop. Then, you have to back track and try another route.

Needless to say, we never actually reached the beach, though we could see it from a distance. Instead, it started to get dark with day light savings time gone and I knew that I had to get back. Now my problem was that I couldn't see where the severe drops were until they would be right in front of me. Why didn't I just follow our footsteps back to where I started? you may ask. What do you do when you lose track of the footsteps, too? To top it off, I forgot my cell phone. So, I just headed slowly towards the city lights. I was sure that I would soon meet up with Jerry with his flashlight wondering what had happened. But, that was dreaming.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally made it back to the motorhome. It was dark outside by the time I got back. When I walked into the RV, there was Jerry sitting at his computer. "Why," I asked, "didn't you come looking for me?" He looked up and didn't even realize that it was dark outside. After I recovered from my fearful walk, I had to tell someone. So I sent an email to my new friend, Yoko, in Japan.

Taken the night of my scary adventure -- before it got real dark outside.

Pat and Bill came to join us for dinner on Wednesday evening and brought our mail. We won't see them until mid-February as they are off to South Africa to be with their daughter when she has her baby.

The weather for the first part of the week was beautiful in the mid-sixties during the day. Then on Friday we had the rain that later made its way to LA.

On Saturday, Jerry, Chanti and I decided to cross the sand dunes and get to the ocean. This time we started out at 11 a.m. (Jerry had already been there two other times this week while he was on his long runs.) We figured out that we have to cross the sand dunes for 3/4 of a mile before we actually reach the ocean. The weather was overcast, so it made the trip more pleasant. Jerry took his video camera along and I took my camera. Here are the pictures I took on Saturday.

The sand dunes

No, this is not Siberia.

See the RV park in the distance.

You don't want to unexpectedly fall into these crevices

The portion of the dunes closest to the beach is fenced off for ATVs. 

Sean, you would love this!

We actually made it to the ocean and walked on the beach.

Jerry and Chanti

Now that you have seen a few of my pictures, here is short VIDEO of us running and walking around the dunes on Saturday, including Chanti who loved running of her high energy.

Sunset over the dunes.

We like this park and area, even though we are a bit too far from the beach to hear the waves at night. Until next time, have a great week everyone.