Finally a Road Trip Vacation!!

So we got up at 1:45 am a week ago Sunday to start our journey!! Duane, our neighbor Jeanine, the doggie's and I headed over the mountain to Bend to drop off the dogs with Dick and pick up Lois to go along with us. We arrived in Reno around dinner time, checked into our rooms and hit the buffett!! After dinner Jeanine and I tried our luck at the slots, they were not so lucky so she went up to the room she was sharing with Duane's Mom, and then Duane and I walked the strip. Reno is really getting hit hard by the economic downturn, several casino's are gone, along with half of the pawn and gift shops. We did the breakfast buffet and headed to California and Bodie State Park, an old ghost town and abandoned mine. Duane and I had been there before, but for Lois and Jeanine it was a new experience, and since they both love ghost towns, they really enjoyed it!! We headed to Yosemite, what a busy place! We got there a little later than we planned, so didn't spend a lot of time the falls, but did see a lot of beautiful scenery driving through the park to get to it. It was like rush hour on the banfield trying to get out of there too!!

We headed for Fresno to spend the night, and got up bright and early and headed for Sequoia National Park to see the big trees!! Again, Duane and I had been there with my Dad about 6 years ago, but our neighbor had never been there, and for Lois it had been a hurried trip long ago when she was traveling with Grandma Bea and the boys moving the family when Dick was in the Navy. What a beautiful place it is, those grand old trees, so massive!! We then headed to Paso Robles to spend the night, and the next morning we went to a beautiful old Catholic Mission, Mission San Miguel Batista. Duane and I had never been to a Catholic Mission, and our neighbor being a life long member of the Catholic church, was the perfect tour guide!! Then, I had to seize the moment, and stop at one of the many vineyards for a wine tasting!! :) We then headed up the road toward the California Coast. We stopped in a little coastal town called Cambria and had a lovely Italian lunch. Delicious!! We drove for miles up the coast line, past Hearst Castle (got a zoomed in pic of that, not worth posting right now..... stopped at Big Sur for a snack, and then up past Carmel and Monterey before turning inland. We stayed the night in Gilroy CA, then hit I-5 to start the trek home. We stopped in William's and went to a local Olive grower that has olive tasting and a deli called Granzella's. Jeanine and I bought the industrial size deli mix with olives, pepercini's, onions, and garlic, pickeled in vinegar, olive oil and spices, yum!! Oh, now I am out of sequence.... let me back up a bit. When we were driving along the coast we came upon a cove where Elephant Seals swim in to rest and molt their skins. What a ruckus they make!! They snort, grunt, kind of bark..... A couple of males squared off, rising up and hitting their chests against each other..... the smaller one of course backed off and scooted away!! LOL!!
It was pretty cool!! Okay, back to the after the olive place .... we just kept up the I-5 boogie, hit Weed and HWY 97, stayed in Klammath Fallsthat evening, got Lois back to Bend, picked up the dogs and got back here to Gresham!!!

Uh.... Well, looks like 6 months have sped by again!! And, the only reason I am on here now is

that I am waiting for Dad to get out of the bathroom so I can cut his hair!! LOL!! Not much fun on the horizon for us right now, just working away at things. Our house is 16 years old now, and seems to have at least one upkeep issue on the burner all of the time. Our fence is having issues, Duane already fixed and reinforced the gate, and now is contemplating doing the same to some of the sections on both sides of the yard sometime this summer. It is easier to do some preventitive work now rather than being under the gun in the Winter when the wind knocks a section of it down and we HAVE to take care of it then and there!! Oh well, such is life!! Okay, so Dad is out of the bathroom, so gotta go cut his hair now!!! Until next time!! :)

A new year!!

Geez, I was so into this blog thing before Facebook took over, I have to admit that having a much larger audience is more interesting and fun!! I must make a habit of dropping in here at least once a month!! I hope I remember how to get here once this computer dies, which may be very soon!! Having the page bookmarked makes it so easy to get to, and all operating systems are so different!! Our laptop has been in the "Geek Squad" hospital for a couple of days, and this desk top is so screwed up that the wireless card adaptor won't work on it anymore. So, I had to buy a ethernet cable, put up the card table in the family room (near the router). We had to have access to the internet and be able to print orders and packing slips for the business while the laptop was being fixed!! So, my family room looks like it is ready to explode with all of the cords and such hanging everywhere! I will pick up the laptop tomorrow, and restore order to my house, thank goodness. I only had to work yesterday and today this week, that will give me time to get things done for a change, instead of waiting until my days off with Duane to do everything. We need a vacation!! Dad is getting worse every day it seems, he is a handful. We will need to bring someone in if we want to get away on a trip, my friend Martha's daughter doesn't work and is willing to come here and hang out, make sure he uses his inhalers and meds, and feed him.
It will hopefully go well and Angie will be willing to do it again. I don't know if we will get away much on our first vacation at the end of this month, but will hopefully go for a week down to California in July. We still need to watch things money wise with Duane's contract coming up in September. Things could get ugly. We hope to at least get one more contract out of Albertson's, Duane is so close to having his time in for retirement, we hope things don't go south......
Anyway, it is getting late, I have been up a long time, gotta go to bed!! Until next time!!