Willits, CA 6/23-6/25/09

In Willits we stayed at "Sleepy Hollow Park". It is a Passport America participating park. It was very small no amenities but nice because there was a nice grass area where Nicky could play ball.
We arrived about 10:30 AM on the 23rd. After setting up,we decided to go over to Mendocino and Fort Bragg. When we let Willits is was 93 degrees. Upon arrival at Mendocino it was about 65 degrees and windy. It was, however, very sunny and we were told it is usually overcast. A quaint beach town, with shoppes and eateries lining main street. Every establishment was adorned with beautiful flowers.

The views of the Pacific ocean were breath-taking. Wildflowers framed the seascapes. Not the kind of ocean you play in but so picturesque.

The drive from Willits over, route 20, had enough turns in it and switchbacks to make a person car sick even if they were not usually so.

The Mendocino main drag of town.

A Charming inn the heart of town.

The following day we stayed in the campground and caught up on wash and bathed Nicky. I also needed to do some grooming on Nicky. All in all it was a very nice 2 days.

View from the visitors center in the town of Mendocino.

Russian River,CA 6/21-6/23/09

Didn't arrive at the campground until about 6:30 PM. Set up in a pull through since we would only be spending 2 nights. Quiet campground with no amenities to speak of. No TV reception here but our Verizon air card for the computer worked up near the lodge.

After dinner I worked on editing pictures for the Mill Valley blog posting.

The following day we spent touring Lake Sonoma and the wine country. Lake Sonoma and dam were built by the Army corps of Engineers. It is a very beautiful lake with many fingers.

Cloverdale is the closest town to the campground. It's really quite charming. There are some lovely buildings there and check out the chimney on the house below!

A charming church along the main street of town.

Karen and Mac's Mill Valley, CA 6/5-6/22/09

We've seen some beautiful places, had a lot of great experiences but all that pales when I think of the joy it's been to spend time with our California family.Above is a picture of their new home in Mill Valley, CA.

Let me introduce you to the family: Below is Karen, our daughter. Doesn't she look like a California girl?

Mac, our son-in-law-- a wonderful husband, father, and Doctor. The dirty face came from a day of working in the back yard with Lee. He also turned out to be very good with the stump- grinder,

Next we have Mike -- the great pancake flipper!

Then there's Luke the ever ready battery- that just keeps going and going.

Below is Sporty, the beloved family dog a golden lab, who's obsessed with playing ball and getting lots of love.

This picture was taken from the inn where Mac and Karen were married.

Our first week-end there the boys and Mac were away so we spent a lot of time just catching up with Karen. We had a lovely breakfast out at a place called Mama's. We took the dogs on long walks and Karen showed us around the neighborhood.

After the crew returned we began to plan our projects. Lee would tear out and cut down all the over grown vegetation in the backyard. He would then put in 2 redwood tie landscape garden boxes and build a pathway over the culvert that runs the length of their backyard. We wanted to open up visibility to the lovely hill beyond. Everything is now prepared for replanting. Karen and Mac want to put in a vegetable garden, sod one section, and put in some fruit trees.

Below is a picture of the summit meeting that started the entire project.

The first week of the project Karen and I were Lee's laborers. We spent our days hauling things from the backyard down the hill in the front yard to the dumpster. We filled 2 20 yard dumpsters.

One Saturday all the boys worked in the backyard and Karen and I made sticky buns. It was great to spend time cooking with Karen. I was able to share with her some of my favorite dishes and I discovered that Karen is a great cook!

The picture above shows the 2 redwood tie garden boxes and the picture below shows what Mac refers to as the sole survivor of all the uprooting.

We did save the rose garden below. Once it is properly pruned and watered it will be beautiful.

The following week Karen and I got serious about our projects. Mac and Karen moved in last August and all the walls in the house were still white so Karen and I wanted to add color and personalize it. We started with the dining-room and picked a color called Thyme a real pretty sage color. It picks up the green in the oriental carpet in the room. The next day was spent taping the hallway, kitchen, family room. We painted those rooms Indian Corn a real nice gold shade. The final phase of our project was to paint the statement wall in the game room. We selected a paint that matched the pool table top. The colors are warm,colorful, and entirely washable--very important with 2 boys.

The pictures above are the rooms we painted.

Sunday we hiked up a near by mountain to the Mountain Play theater. The play we saw was "Man of La Mancha". The play was excellent and the music great. It's about a 2 1/2 hour hike up to the theater. The views along the way are phenomenal.

After a week at Karen's we were in good shape for the hike because they have a built in stair-master at their house. It is 28 steps up to the front door, 30 steps from the garage to the family room, and 26 to the second floor. So you see we were getting lots of exercise.

The trail to the theater was beautiful. You can see the trail in this picture as well as the views we experienced. Most of the time we were walking under a canopy of trees. The weather was perfect warm but not too warm. We had a nice picnic when we got to the top. After the play the walk back down was just as beautiful as the climb up.

Mac took Friday off and took us to the Delta to go out on the boat. The boys did some serious knee boarding and Mike, Karen and Mac did some surfing. Lee was able to get up and get about 3 minutes in before his elbow gave out. Those 3 minutes will be relived a thousand times over the next 30 years. It's a moment he won't forget.

Just before we left we attended a performance by the band that Mike and Luke are in. They played at 19 Broadway and I believe the name of the band is "Fire on the Mountain". Luke plays keyboard, Mike plays bass, Mike 's friend Tye plays lead guitar, Wes plays the drums and Cora sang for the group. Luke also had a vocal and did a great job. He has a really nice voice and I'm not just saying that because I'm his Nana. It was a great time and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute. After- ward we went out for a nice lunch. A good time was had by all.

The night before we left we went out for a lovely dinner with Mac and Karen in San Francisco. The drive in was beautiful.

My 2 beautiful boys at play

Sporty and Nicky became good friends. The boys and I referred to them as the two bad boys on the prowl.

Sporty had such a good time he jumped in the car to go with us.

I will treasure this time I've had with my California family and I'm sure I will visit my photos often.

I want you boys to remember that "NANA IS YOUR BIGGEST FAN'' !! I love you both very much. Karen I'll miss you terribly and Mac we love you dearly and are so glad you are part of our family.

Always be kind to one another and support one another in all you do. That's what being a family is all about. The world will always beat you down but home should be where you are built up. Love one another always.

I love you all

Good bye for now baby girl

Love, Mom

Thought for the day: the chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions

Alfred Alder

Vacaville, CA 6/1 - 6/4/09

We left Yosemite and went to Vacaville, CA. While there I caught up on the blog posting, groomed Nicky, and we spent a day touring the Napa Valley wine country.

One of the many outdoor patios for wine tasting.

One of the wineries in the Napa Valley

This winery was Dutch and the view surrounding the property was breath-taking. The building below is a picture of the Greystone Culinary Institute of America. Inside we found a kitchen shop unlike anything I've ever seen. There wasn't anything they didn't have. It had kitchen tools I've never seen before.

The campground we stayed in was called Vineyard RV Park. It is Enjoy America participating. It was a very nice clean park. While there our front air conditioner went out and we had to call a service man. The unit needed to be replaced so we ordered one. The RV repair man said once it came in he could put it in over at the storage unit where we would be storing it during our visit with our daughter. So , God is good, the timing was perfect.

While at the campground Nicky made a new friend. Her name is Bella and she is the cutest chocolate labrodoodle I've ever seen. She only weighs about 35 pounds.

We left Vacaville and store our camper in Vallejo,CA only about 45 min. away from Karen's.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK 5/25-6/1/09

This is Nicky's 4th National Park so he now qualifies to be a Junior Ranger!!

Just before leaving for Yosemite we gave Rick and Jan a call and as luck would have it they too were heading for Yosemite with their son, Kevin, and girlfriend Jody. We got together on Sunday and had a lovely dinner with them. It was so good to be able to catch up with them. They had to leave on Monday so the time was way too short but I'm sure glad we got to see them.

The day we drove up to Glacier Point we ran into some hail before we reached the top. By the time we got there it was all clear again. The view from up there denies description. There simply are no words to describe it. A camera cannot capture it either but one must try!!

The many falls are breath-taking. We hit everything perfectly because the falls were really full from the snow melt and all the wild flowers were in bloom.

You have to admit, this just looks surreal. Enlarge the picture so you can see the details.

This picture was taken in Yosemite Valley. While there we took the paths to both Bridalveil falls and Yosemite falls. There are so many trails we would have loved to have taken but time limited us. We would like to come back in the future and spend about three weeks in the park walking a different trail each day.Yosemite falls are the tallest falls in North America.

Just another beautiful sight along one of the trails we walked.

This is the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir completed in 1938. It is part of the Yosemite National Park. Today the 117-billion gallon reservoir supplies pristine drinking waster to 2.4 million Bay Area residents and industrial users. It also supplies hydro-electric power generated by two plants downstream. The reservoir is 8 miles long and the largest single body o water in Yosemite.

We took a 5 mile hike that followed the perimeter of the reservoir out to Wapama Falls and this is one of the scenes from that hike. It was a beautiful hike and since it was hot the fact that you got drenched by the spray from the falls did not matter ---as a matter of fact, it felt good.

This is O'Shaughnessy Dam at the Hetch Hetchy reservoir.

These beautiful blue flowers were everywhere. What a beautiful framework they add to any picture.

Driving to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir we passed this beautiful meadow and just had to stop. The field is covered in wild flowers and the whole setting is just so picturesque. Great place for a picnic!!!!

For my birthday we drove over to Groveland, a small town nearby and spent the morning. Had a nice iced Mocha at a coffee shop and then we visited some shoppes. The picture above is of the oldest saloon in California.

Play the video below and you will get some idea of what the view was like at Glacier Point. While in the park we did get to see a bear and also viewed those crazy cliff climbers on El Capitan, a mere 7,569 feet up.

The day before we left we were driving out of the campground to go on a hike and who did I spot walking down the road but Sally Michalski. Later we ran into she and Stan at Hetch Hetchy. That night we stopped by their campsite and spent some time catching up with one another. They will be heading out of Seattle on August second for a crusie to Alaska. We look forward to seeing them again in Florida if we don't run into them again before.