Saturday Update

We've had a great week. Tuesday we left Pasadena, heading south on I-5 for the San Clemente State Beach Campground. We stopped in San Juan Capistrano on the way down to grab a bite to eat and visit the Mission there. We got there just before the Mission was closing so decided we'd stop there on Thursday on the way back to Pasadena.



The campground was not the one we were thinking of but it was ok. The spot we were assigned to provided us with a great view of the ocean. And we could hear seals from down on the beach and also trains. I love the sound of trains.



Wednesday morning, we took off for San Diego and Sea World. We pulled into the parking lot about 11am and started our adventure. Bob had been to Sea World as a teenager (boy that was a long time ago) and I had never been there, so I was excited. The bad thing is, when you go somewhere like that for the first time....you don't know where to start. We sat and looked over out maps and began what turned out to be a wonderful day. The temperature was perfect for us and we enjoyed everything we saw. I imagine like most people~we had to say the show put on by the killer whales was the most impressive. (See my new header picture). I literally watched most of the show thru the view finder of my camera, trying to get some great pictures. The park closed at 6pm and sadly we missed a few things. The Arctic exhibit was one we didn't get to....maybe another time.



After we left Sea World we headed down to the San Diego harbor area. We found a parking place just down from where our cruise ships docked last year. It was fun to see this area from another perspective. There are some great ships docked along the waterfront as well as a Maritime Museum. Once again, we missed the Midway Museum but again~maybe another time. At the Maritime Museum I was able to get a squished penny of the USS Midway, so I was happy about that.



We purposely waited to head north to the campground until late, so we would miss the commuter traffic. We got back to the campground about 10pm. Our 'neighbors' invited us over for a marshmallow roast but we were both so tired after our long day, we declined.



Thursday morning we took our time (check out time wasn't until noon) again we didn't want to get caught in commuter traffic. We went south on I-5 just a couple miles to another campground to see if it was the one we had stayed at before and sure enough it was. It's called San Mateo Campground. No view of the ocean but it's so charming compared to San Clemente Beach. The sites are so private, lots of shrubs and trees all around. The San Clemente Beach is mostly just wide open spaces, with a few trees here & there. No privacy at all.



After checking the San Mateo Campground out , we were back on I-5 going north to San Juan Capistrano. Every time I visit one of the California Missions, I always say "this is the best one yet." Well, San Juan Capistrano is the best one yet.......complete with swallows and a ga-zillion hummingbirds. Once I get home I promise I'll share some of the many pictures from our Mission visit. The town of San Juan Capistrano is so charming. You could really spend a whole day just looking in the shops along the main street. We also walked down across the railroad tracks to the historical area of Los Rios. A darling little settlement of 20 or so cute little colorful houses. A lady at the Mission told us it would be better if we waited until after 7pm to travel on to Pasadena. It was about 5pm and we were sitting in the shade at the San Juan Calistrano Depot and Bob discovered we could take Amtrak from there to San Diego and back for $34. The train would have picked us up at 5:20 and after a layover in San Diego of 1 hour, we would have returned to San Juan at 9:20pm. It was so tempting~especially for this old lady who loves to ride trains but I kept thinking if something happened and we didn't make that return train....we'd be stuck in San Diego with no camper to stay in. So we didn't do it. Maybe another time...

So now we are back in Pasadena, Bob is busy helping his son in law with some last minute projects. And earlier today I had the priveledge of going to lunch again with Joann. Thank you again Joann...I really enjoyed our time together. It's your turn to come to Washington....I have a spare bed at my house & you are always welcome.

Our plan is to leave here Tuesday, going north but we're not sure which route we're taking. I'd really like to go past Crater Lake in Central Oregon. Neither one of us have been there in many years. It all depends on the weather...if it's really hot in the interior of California and Oregon, we'll probably come home on Highway 101 along the ocean.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to do another entry before we leave....but for sure I'll do one when we get home. I have to be home the evening of June 8th because my mailman is bringing all my mail to me on the 9th.

Until next time.......Linda

FOOD FRIDAY

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

2 cups crushed hard pretzels
3/4 cup melted butter
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese
2 cups whipped cream or whipped topping
1 small (6oz) strawberry gelatin
1 package (10 oz) frozen strawberries, thawed
2 cups boiling water
1 cup sugar

Mix together the crushed pretzels, butter and 3 tablespoons of sugar. Put into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish; bake at 400* for 8 to 10 minutes. Mix together the cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and whipped cream or topping. Mix strawberry gelatin into boiling water, then add frozen but thawed strawberries. Spoon over cream cheese mixture. Garnish with fresh strawberries (if available.)

I Confess

Mt Shasta in northern California along I-5. My new little camera did good. I took this out the front window of the truck at 60 miles per hour. Two of my beautiful pink Mother's Day roses...I shortened the stems and put them in a Taco Bell cup and they came along with us. I have 3 more at home hanging upside drying. And the other seven went to my daughter to enjoy.

Here they all are. My son's girlfriend gave them to me for Mother's Day. They were incredibly beautiful and smelled delightful.

All of the recent Food Friday entries and those coming in the next few weeks were written weeks ago and scheduled to post on the appropiate date. There's no way I could do that while I was on the road. For one thing, the graphic is in my home computer.

Last night we attended a Spring Dance Concert at Pasadena High School. Bob's grand daughter takes a dance class and this is the first concert the school has put on in 20 years. Other than the filthy mouthed, rude kids in the audience~it was very enjoyable. The students performed jazz, lyrical,modern/contemporary,belly dancing, hip hop and break dancing. There are some very talented kids there and it looked like they were all having a great time.

Yesterday afternoon Bob & I were going to go out to Santa Monica but figured with the pre-holiday weekend traffic we'd better stick closer to Pasadena, since we needed to be back for the Dance Concert. So we took a little shorter jaunt to downtown L.A. to have lunch at a place called Phillipe's. Phillipe's is reported to be the home of the french dip sandwich. It's a very interesting place... It is located just a few blocks from Olvera Street and I wanted to go there and get some squished penney's. He dropped me off and I walked into the shop that has the squisher machine, got some penney's, took some pictures and met him at the other end of the street where the shops are located.

Our plan is to stay here this weekend and then Tuesday we are heading south to a California State Campground at San Clemente. We have reservations there for Tuesday night and Wednesday night and we'll be coming back here Thursday, stay for a couple more days and then head north. Wednesday we'll be spending the day in San Diego and I'm hoping we can go to Sea World there. I would also like to visit the Midway Museum. When we cruised into San Diego, our ship was tied up right next to the Midway but we were never able to get over there to see the museum itself.

Bob hasn't decided which route we are taking home yet. We'd talked about going up Highway 395 in eastern California and eventually into Reno. He always like to take the opportunity to see his 90 year old aunt and his cousins in Carson City but he says if it's too hot we'll go up Highway 101 along the coast.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and please pause and take a moment to remember.....

Until next time, Linda

FOOD FRIDAY

Spinach Salad

2 bunches fresh spinach (torn)
3 or 4 hard boiled eggs (sliced)
6 or 8 mushrooms (chopped
2 tomatoes (cored and cut into bite size pieces)
2 or 3 green onions (sliced)

Dressing
1/3 cup vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 clove garlic (chopped)

Mix all ingredients except oil and blend well. Slowly pour in oil and let set over night. Drizzle over salad when ready to serve

Wedesday in Pasadena

The weather continues to be warm here. The storm fronts that were predicted have not arrived...I guess we were tuned into a TV station in some other country when we heard that report. There have been two earthquakes the past few days...but we didn't feel them here. They say that because of the way this house is built, they have never felt an earthquake when they are at home. Bob's grand daughter was at the movies when the first one hit & she felt it there.

Bob is helping with some projects around here. One was to remove a big tree that was right in the middle of their driveway area. It's down but they are working on cutting up the 7 foot stump that has been left behind. It's about 30 inches in diameter so is pretty heavy. They also trimmed a long row of Oleander that was out of control. All those trimmings were taken to the dump this morning.

We are thinking about leaving here next Tuesday morning and going to a campground at San Clemente for a couple days. I really want to see more of San Diego, especially Sea World. So I'm hoping we can go there from the campground.

We are still planning on going down to the Los Angeles wholesale district for some new drapes for Bob's rental. He got some from Penney's up in Tacoma but after hanging them discovered they had a huge flaw across the middle. So he took them all back for a refund. His daughter feels we can get some at half the cost in the drapery section downtown L.A.

For some reason, all of a sudden my little Acer Aspire Notebook is not picking up their wireless signal. I have done everything I can think of to get it to work but it won't connect. They have a friend visiting right now & his laptop is linking up to it but not mine. So I've been using the laptop belonging to Bob's daughter the last couple days.

Well, that's about all for now...hope everyone is well. I miss visiting every one's Blogs but since I'm back on a borrowed laptop, my time on line is limited. Linda

Hello From Sunny California

We arrived in Pasadena about 1:30pm Friday afternoon. Bob's daughter was going to be away from the house for awhile Friday so we killed some time at a huge Salvation Army Thrift store, a visit to Rite Aid for an ice cream, and then a stop at Trader Joe's so I could replinish my cold cereal supply. As we headed up the hill toward there house she sent a text message that she'd be there in a few minutes and she actually pulled up right behind us.



It's only 1,200 miles from my place in Washington to their house in Pasadena and doesn't normally take 4 days. But taking 4 days is one of the joys of being retired and not having to hurry. The first night we camped out in the parking lot of the Seven Feather's Casino in Canyonville, Oregon. We had dinner (they are so busy we had to wait for 50 minutes to be seated) first and then wandered around....and then he moved the truck clear out to the end of the parking lot for the night.



Heading down I-5 Tuesday morning, we just took out time. We did stop in Redding, CA for our first In-N-Out burger. Robin sent me a text that In-N-Out's were closed on Tuesday (LOL) but she was just pulling our leg. From Redding we continued on to the town of Corning, CA (know for their olive industry) and we were directed to a lovely California State Campground called "Woodson Bridge Campground." There were very few campers there and we found a really nice spot across from the campground hosts. They didn't have any hook ups but the sites were all paved and level and surrounded by lovely shade trees. The camper has a potty, and it is nice to have power but Bob has installed lots of battery operated lights even suitable for reading. The campground bathroom complete with showers were right across from us.



Wednesday we left the campground and our goal was to get to Fresno, CA in the afternoon inorder to visit with Linda (Footprints In The Sand) and her family. We stopped at a large truck stop just a few miles from the campground for a late breakfast/early lunch. After eating we headed out. We hadn't gone very far when we heard this loud thump from under the truck. Bob thought maybe he'd just run over something on the highway so we continued on. Then we heard several more thumps....so when he could,he pulled over to the side of the road. He went back and looked under the back of the truck and discovered the rubber had come off the left hand inside tire. (The truck is a dually~two rear tires on each side) We hobbled slowly along the freeway to a rest area where he called AAA for assistance. After spend 20 or 30 minutes on the cell phone with them trying to pin point our location, the lady said "Oh sorry, AAA doesn't change inside tires." Bob talked to a guy at the rest stop and he said the next town was Williams and it was only about 6 miles south of the rest area. And he said that there were 2 tire shops in the town. So onjce again we were back on the freeway at 45 mph (with the emergency flashers going) and we finally pulled off the freeway, into Williams, where a guy at a hamburger place directed us to a tire shop. We pulled in, a nice young man came out and for $25, he pulled the outer tire off and replaced the bad inside tire with a tire Bob just happened to have with him that he was bringing back to Pasadena.

We finally got on our way but by now we were so far behind in our schedule. I so wanted to see Linda and her family and after the tire repair we still had about a 4 hour drive. We finally rolled into Fresno about 8pm but we missed their exit the first go round. So after driving around and another couple phone calls to Linda, we finally found our way to their neighborhood and there they all were, waiting in their yard, in the dark for us to arrive. It was so good to finally meet another one of my AOL JLand/Blogger friends. And it was so fun to meet her husband and Son 2, Son 3 plus Miss Holly. Since it was dark, we only got to see a few of Linda's beautiful roses. But it's obvious that they have a lovely yard. After a short visit, they gave us directions to a local Wal Mart where they allowed RV's to park overnight. Once the guy got all the shopping carts rounded up in the lot, it was very quiet and we got a good rest. Being right there at the store gave us a chance to pick up a few needed items plus we were able to visit the Goodwill just across the parking lot.

Thursday morning we continued down Highway 99 until it merged with I-5 below Bakersfield, CA. It was about 3pm in the afternoon when we went over the Grapevine, heading into L.A. We stopped in the town of Gorman to get a bite to eat and asked about campgrounds in the area. They told us there was one, so we went to check it out. Bob thought since we weren't in a big hurry...it might be better to wait until the next morning to head into L.A. instead of fighting the rush hour traffic that afternoon. We went out to the campground & found out it was a campground for people with dirt bikes, quad runners and all sorts of ATV's. The guy at the gate told us it would be dirty and noisey on the weekend but Thursday afternoon/evening would be rather quiet. We went ahead and paid the $10 for a campsite and drove in. There were a few people camping with dirt bikes but they weren't a bother at all. The only thing that was disturbing was the wind that came up that evening. Bob figured at one point there were gusts up to 70-80 miles per hour. I told him if it rocked the camper we could just pretend we were out at sea on a cruise ship. It actually was a very relaxing night. Being out in the high desert like that~it was so quiet.

Friday morning, we left the campground about 9:30am and continued our journey into Los Angeles and then Pasadena. The traffic was so much lighter than it would have been the evening before...so that was a good decision.

So that's about all for now. The battery in this laptop is going quickly, so I can't go back & check spelling, grammer etc. so please excuse any mistakes I may have made.

FOOD FRIDAY

Sticky Buns

18 frozen dinner rolls, 1 small box of butterscotch pudding (cook type), 1/2 cup pecan bits, 1 cube butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 cup brown sugar.

Grease inside of a bunt cake pan with butter. Arrange pecan bits in bottom of the pan. Lay rolls on top of layer of nuts. Sprinkle pudding powder over rolls. Melt butter, add cinnamon and brown sugar. Pour over rolls and let rise overnight, uncovered.

Bake at 350* for 25 minutes. Remove from pan immediately. (Use a large plate or platter as it will be runny at first but will get firm.)