Packing

Like everybody else, I am good at some things and not so good at others. In my not so good things would be packing for a trip.

I was going to take 2  suitcases, but after talking to the girls I realize  just taking one would make more sense since we don't want to go thru the hassle. So one it is, and it should be one that fits overhead. The only one that would fit would be my regular red one, so that's what I chose.

If I was going to Utah for a weekend or so, no problem, if I was going to Savannah for 4 days, no problem. If  my trip is going to be 16 days long, and go both to SLC and Savannah, then I have a problem. What to take?

To make matters harder is going to be cold, which means the clothes I'm taking are going to take more space. If Lizzie or Sandy were packing, they'd have no problem I'm sure. But this is me, I forgot to pack my nightgown and a sweater when I went to Cambria.

I packed and unpacked 3 times already, this suitcase is not very big at all. So far things fit OK but not my shoes, or sweashirt or long sweater. Everytime I get rid of one or two things and then I realize is one of my must take stuff.

I don't have a winter coat and Sandy is going to let me use one of hers otherwise I sure wouldn't know where to pack it!  OK here I go again...I'll unpack and see what else I can get rid of....

Getting excited!

November Recap

Here's my recap...a good month for me

Nov  6    Walk with N to the HB marshes. Dinner at Harbor House
Nov  8    Big fires in California
Nov 14    Corona del Mar, HB sunset. Slapfish dinner.
Nov  19   Lizzie's Birthday
Nov 20    Lizzie came to LM
Nov 21    To San Diego
Nov 22     Thanksgiving. Great day!
Nov 23    To Julian. Visit with Michelle
Nov 24     Walk around SD. Visit with Heather. To LM
Nov  27     Talk to girls and N in Las Vegas.
Nov 28     To podiatrist. Panda Inn
Nov 29     Rain all day. Clean drawers.
Nov 30      Found a piece of jewelry I thought I'd lost, and also found some $$. YAY for cleaning?

BOOKS I'VE READ

MOVIES I'VE WATCHED

The day after

The day after Thanksgiving we decided to go to Julian. It was a very nice drive and lovely weather, when we got there the town was packed, no place to park, so we drove on to have a nice lunch at Jeremy's at the Hill on Wynola. For dessert we went to Mom's Pie house for the typical slice of apple pie, the Julian area is well know for its apples.

From there we drove to go visit a friend of L from High School, she lives in the Poway area in a very nice house .  In the way we stopped to see the Santa Ysabel Indian Mission.

It was nice to see Michelle again, I had not seen her for a long time and it was good to catch up with her.  When we got to her house, Lulu made herself at home, she ran around checking everything, even climbing on the couch. They have two big dogs and they were outside but wanting to come inside, it was funny to see them trying to be friendly with Lulu, but she wanted nothing to do with them, she even growled and barked at them if they came to close.

We got back to San Diego and walked around a bit and then had dinner at Lolita's. Another fun day.

Saturday morning we walked to the Opera bakery to have a delicious croissant and hot chocolate and then we walked for a while. We saw that 5th Avenue was closed for 2 blocks because they were going to have vendors and other Christmas events starting at 2PM  We were going to leave early but decided to hang around for a while. We went back home to pack and rest for a while and then we went walking around. We bought some yummy candied bourbon pecans, and I found some soap and lotion that I could actually smell! it was mango &  coconut :)

Just before leaving I took a picture of the pretty Christmas tree in the lobby of L's apartment building

On the way home, we stopped to visit Heather another friend oh L in San Marcos. Her sister and husband were there too, and a little later her other sister and mother came along with some of her grand kids.  Heather has a barking dog that is cute but loud, her oldest son took him for a walk and once again Lulu was queen on the house. She went around exploring, and ate all the dog food (not hers) she also  played with everybody and got enough loving to last her for a while. It was very nice to see all of them.

We had a very nice drive back home, Lulu was excited! It was a very fun long Thanksgiving weekend.

I forgot a little anecdote. After our Thanksgiving dinner, we took a Lyft home. The driver was very nice and friendly. He said I had a sweet voice. People have said I have an accent, but nobody ever said my voice was sweet. I loved it!

A San Diego Thanksgiving

Lizzie thought it would be a good idea to spend Thanksgiving in San Diego, I wholeheartedly agreed!
We left the night of Nov 21, and had a good drive, Lulu enjoyed it as well. It was a little cloudy and rain was announced for  Thanksgiving day. I was sad because we were booked at a very nice Restaurant called Island Prime C Level, in Harbor Island
 https://www.cohnrestaurants.com/islandprime

The morning was cool and cloudy, but it got better as the day went by. In the morning we walked downtown and stopped at Bub's for drinks and chicken tenders. There were a lot of people milling around, many walking their dogs, and it was very nice.

By the time we were getting ready to go to dinner it seemed like it wouldn't rain! yay! We  called a Lyft  and went to the Restaurant. We were there a little before sunset because I wanted to see it, however it was cloudy and we didn't see it, however we had the greatest view of downtown San Diego. That really made my day, it was gorgeous!

The meal was delicious, we chose from the Thanksgiving Menu. I had a glass of Cava and they brought us some great popovers,

 then butternut squash soup with creme fraiche, and my main course, rib steak with bordelaise sauce, mashed potatoes with butter, sea salt and scallions, caramelized onions and green beans. My dessert was pecan pie with raspberry coulis and caramelized orange. It was great!

The moon was full and after sunset the lights in San Diego were beautiful , a truly magnificent view .

Afterwards we went back home and rested a while, then we took Lulu for a walk downtown, and stopped at the bar of Pendry Hotel for drinks.

It was a great Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow I will write about going to Julian and meeting friends

Happy Birthday Lizzie!

An almost perfect day

November did not begin well.  I felt sad about the horrible shootings and the terrible fires and the usual b.s of politics , so I decided to go down to the beach on yesterday, it always makes me feel happy and calm seeing the ocean.

I drove down and went to get the beach pass from Norbert. He has been acting up a little lately and I wanted calm,, I just wanted to walk on the beach, he said he would come too, OK. After he got ready he asked me where I wanted to go, I said what I really wanted was to go to Corona del Mar, it is one of my favorite beaches, and he agreed right away :)

It was a gorgeous Summer in November day. Not a cloud in the sky, a slight breeze and 81 degrees. Corona del Mar is a pretty town with multimillion dollars homes and beautiful sights. We walked down to the beach, is a fairly long walk, but they had paved it since the last time I was there and it was nice.

The beach was perfect. Hardly any people, just a few girls sunbathing and a couple of guys scuba diving. I climbed on the rocks with N's help and walked around  and got to wade in the water (good thing I was wearing my skort!) the waves were a little rough and I got wet but it was fun. The day was so clear we could see Catalina Island very clearly. N loved taking pictures with my phone and I took some myself. We sat down for a while and it was just lovely.

Nice reflection of the sun

I had sand on my feet and legs so N very nicely cleaned them so I could put my shoes one and walk up. He was super nice and friendly and very good company.  We also went to the Goldenrod Foot Bridge and looked around the pretty views.

It was time for a late lunch, he wanted to go to a Chinese buffet in Santa Ana, I didn't really want to go because I don't like buffets of any kind, but he had been so nice so I said OK. By then the roads from Newport Beach were  bumper to bumper, so he asked me how about going to Slapfish in HB. I said YES!  We drove there and had clam chowder and fish and chips, loved it!

We were going back to his house when I checked the time for sunset, it was 4:30 and the sunset was at 4:49, so I said I wanted to go see it, so we drove to "his" beach and walked to the shore and
                                         we were lucky to see an  amazing sunset.

It was almost a perfect day :)

Shopping

Today I was planning on going to HB and take a walk along the beach. It was a nice day but cloudy, so I decided to wait until tomorrow.

By the way, I don't like this change of time, it gets dark too early. And these days is warm in the daytime like today it was 84, but after the sun sets it gets quite chilly, right now is 52 brrrrrrr.

Anyway, I went to the library, then to the Banc of California , and because Ross is in the same shopping center I decided maybe I'd go in and see what they had. Today Tuesday there's a 15% discount for seniors, bonus!.
They had all winter clothes out, I gathered a few long sleeves tops, some cardigans, even a coat and went to try them.  (Lizzie they had a couple of nice women coats, surprise) I tried one but I was suffocating, I guess I'll take advantage of Sandy's offer and borrow one of hers.

First one I tried, I started to get hot, I don't like winter clothes, they make my neck itch and  the long sleeves bother me. That along with my natural dislike of shopping was making my shopping expedition a total failure from the beginning.

Then I looked at purses, I even tried one that was like a backpack but kind of cute, so I put it on but couldn't get out of it, yes I am a klutz, it took a while and the help of a nice security man that probably will laugh his ass off when he tells about it to his security friends. Oh well.

Next I checked some knit caps, they had a pom pom on top, needles to say I didn't even try it.
I kept on looking around and decided it was not a good day for shopping, I ended up with a  "festive" top with sparkles black with red flowers, but is not as bad as it sounds. I called it a day
.
When I got home, I decided to clean my closet and put some of the most obvious summer clothes away and check what I had in the way of winter clothes, just to see if there were some salvageable ones.
SCORE! I tried a few tops that actually look pretty good and some of them still had the tags on. A couple I didn't even remember buying, but it's all good. I also  found about 4 sweatshirts, and I have plenty of pants, some never worn. I tend to buy things then put  them away and forget about them and keep on wearing what I'm comfortable with.

That's the end of my story.

today

I miss Marvin. I feel sad I have nobody I can talk about some things. It makes me feel lonely.

Happenings

I have been a little melancholic this month. Maybe because it started with All Saint's Day  and I thought about Marvin, and my my mom and dad and missing them all.

Then politics. So sick of both the right and the left, is not Democrats and Republicans anymore. Both sides are acting like bullies. Sick of it!

I looked in the mirror and I saw I had to get my hair done, especially the color.  I thought about turning 75 next month and I said to myself damn, I am getting old! But I didn't feel like going to my hair salon so I did it myself. It came out a bit darker than I liked but when I went to HB my friend said I looked so much better with darker hair (Marv liked it darker too) so that cheered me up a little.

I had a really nice time walking along the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve there were lots of birds, egrets, herons etc. It was peaceful.

That peaceful feeling was destroyed by another senseless shooting, this time closer to home in Thousand Oaks. It really shook me to think of all the young people being in a bar having fun and dancing and then being shot at and killed by one disgruntled sick sad young man. 

The next day, the Santa Ana was blowing and fires got started in many parts of California. A big one started around Thousand Oaks, I read some people that had lost or had injured family members also lost their houses to the fire. The fire has spread quickly, it has been non stop on TV and the news for the last 2 days. I just heard the whole of Malibu has been evacuated. Many multimillion dollar homes have burned to the ground, and many more towns have been evacuated. It's devastating.

Now I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, to being in San Diego with Lizzie and Lulu., to have a face time with Sandy and family and to be thankful for all I have :)

I will finish this post with something that made me laugh. I was looking in my go to movie website and saw this movie titled...Bitelchus   :D 

October Recap

October was an OK month, but there were a couple of incidents that upset me a little.

It didn't start  very well because I sort of hit a parked car when I was trying to park. It didn't leave a mark in my car of the other person's, but I left a note with my name and #phone  just in case. I never heard for them so I guess they didn't notice any scratch like I didn't.

The other incident concerned my neighbor across the street. He has a motorcycle business going on in his backyard, he also has 2 pit bulls (one of them gave me a scare when he got loose and jumped in my yard and scared me and Lulu). And he has multiple vehicles, one of them a big tall van. He parked it for 4 days in a row in front of my house. I'm trying to fix my front yard and I couldn't get to it from the street. I planted some gazanias and watered them and some dirt got in the side of his van. He made a big fuss about it. I got pretty pissed myself, but the good thing is he hasn't parked the damn van  in front of my house anymore, so far.

In the plus side of October, I very much enjoyed going to Disneyland with Lizzie, I wrote about it a couple of days ago. My friend N came and helped fertilize and seed my lawn both front and back. I went to an Olive Fest in my town, but it wasn't what I expected  but Lulu and I got to walk around and see the sights. I talked to the girls  several times, and that's always fun, and I talked to my brother in law once a week and also talked to my niece and her ongoing drama with her mom, my sister.  I went to Huntington Beach a couple of times, we tried a new Turkish Restaurant and I liked it a lot, the next time we went to Ruby's, it was a windy day and there was a Jr surfing championship going on and huge waves, it was fun.

On Monday my financial adviser came by to tell me about the state of my finances. It's all good.  For Halloween I went trick or treating with Lulu and my neighbor Amy and her kids, :)

Today is November 1st, All Souls Day, that's the day we go visit the cemetery in Spain and put flowers on the graves of our loved ones. I got some nice flowers from my garden and put a little bouquet next to the ashes of my husband. It was a nice moment. I'm glad he's at home.

BOOKS I'VE READ IN OCTOBER

MOVIES I'VE WATCHED IN OCTOBER

Happy Halloween!

I HOPE YOU ALL HAD A GOOD HALLOWEEN!

A Day in Disneyland

A week ago I went to Disneyland with my daughter, we wanted to see it decorated for Halloween.
Even though I live about `12 miles from Disneyland, I had not been there for the past 10 years.
I was trying to remember how many times I have visited the Magic Kingdom, but I cannot really remember. Too many to count.

I've been there with my husband and daughters, with my in laws, with my daughters, and their husband/partner, and  my grandson celebrated his 5th birthday there. I went to Disneyland with my mother and father, with my sister Nuri, and my niece Sonia. With my sister Mia I went a few times as well.
But since Marvin got sick I had not been back.

It has changed a lot. I remember when it was easy to drive and park,  when there were no long lines to get into attractions, when you could buy a little ticket book...now they have huge parking structures, and the entry price has gone  sky high. But the soul of Disneyland remains the same.

Happy girl!

You can see me and Lizzie in the mirror reflection

Lizzie is an old pro at Disneyland. She knows all the secret spaces, hidden areas and lovely paths. We got there at 9:00AM and decided to start with The Haunted House (of course). We were very lucky with most attractions in that there were no long lines in most of them. The Haunted House was nicely decorated for Halloween inside and outside. After that we went to Pirates of the Caribbean, minus the wenches, then it was the Jungle Cruise. We went to just about every place we wanted to go, King Arthur's Carousel, It's a Small World, Pinocchio Daring Journey,  Snow White's Scary Adventures, Inside Sleeping Beauty Castle, Disneyland Railroad and Space Mountain.

It's Magic!

We had a long wait in Space Mountain, so we decided to  go check some other places and came back later, but by then it had closed for repairs. This is Lizzie's favorite ride so we got back one more time and luckily that time we just walked in right away!!!  The only ride we missed was Star Wars, but the wait was about an hour and I was getting a little tired by then. Lizzie told we we had walked 6 miles!

I loved everything. It was a totally gorgeous day weather wise, and I enjoyed everything. The only low point was that I was looking forward to having a nice beignet at the French Quarter, but instead n they had some pretty awful banana fritters.

It was a very lovely day in Disneyland. It never disappoints . In the way home we stopped at The Source and had a delicious late lunch at The Huasteca complete with 2 mango Margaritas. A perfect day.

Cambria 2018

On December 21, 2008, Marvin and I too a nice trip up the California coast to Cambria. I have very good memories of that trip, the Inn we stayed Cambria Shores , the room, the views, the town, Hearst Castle, the elephant seals, the little pretty town and stores and especially the beach and the sunsets.. We had a lovely time in Moonstone Beach.

I had been wanting to go back, and stay in the same Inn. I asked Lizzie if she wanted to come and she said yes., thanks Lizzie!!!  So I made a reservation and agreed on a date and finally we left and took along Lulu for the trip. Lizzie talked about the trip in her blog, so I will just post some pictures and make some comments about the little vacation.

First I have to say it met my expectations. 

The Inn had been modernized but everything remained the same :) 

I like the views from the Inn and our room and the breakfast basket, and appetizers and brownies.

It was a little colder than we thought it would be, and I did the worst packing ever! I should have brought a couple sweatshirts, and some socks, and a nightgown. But I didn't grrrrr

I had been looking forward to a beautiful sunset, but when we got there....

Lots of fog...

Later  the sun was shining among the fog This is one of my favorite pictures ,

It was magical.

And right before sunset, the sky cleared and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset as we sipped some wine

Lulu walked a lot, she enjoyed the boardwalk, and so did we :)

This is Nitt Witt Ridge

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitt_Witt_Ridge

When we  went to town, I wanted to go to a store/garden where I got the chimes for Marvin, Lizzie found the place and we went to check it. When I was there 10 years ago, it was called  "Heart's Ease" but now is called "Spellbound" it's a cute gift shop, with uneven floors and chockfull of soaps, herbs, lotions and whimsical stuff. 

This is the picture Marvin took of me in the garden in 2008

And here's one in the same spot taken by Lizzie in 2018

Some nice flowers in town

It was too bad that Lizzie couldn't quite enjoy and relax as much as she wanted. She had to work and I felt bad seeing her sitting with her laptop while I went outside walking and enjoying the views. 

But  we did everything we set up to do.

On the way back we stopped in Cayucos and got some yummy cookies 

and ate a great clam chowder at Duckie's

The last view of the Central California Coast, Morro Bay

And then it was back home thru Los Padres National Forest, very interesting :)

It was full moon and it was awesome seeing the full moon over Los Angeles Basin on our way home.

I had a really nice time with Lizzie and Lulu. I enjoyed walking on the beach, collecting stones, and getting my feet wet, and walking the streets of Cambria. I enjoyed seeing places I'd seen before with Marvin, and  I enjoyed seeing places I had never seen before.

Till next time Cambria!