A Day in the Life of a Gypsy: 6/6/10

It's The Little Things...part 2

June 10, 2010

On the way home from Palm Springs, Deanie and I went through my old stomping grounds. She had not spent time in Westwood Village, Beverly Hills, or Santa Monica, and had not been to Rodeo Drive So we went! I showed her a few places where I lived in the early 70's. It was fun for me, too. We didn't go shopping, .but did take a few pictures. .

The picture below has special memories for me and my daughter, Angela. We lived within a couple minutes from the Santa Monica Pier. It was quite exciting in those days. Many movies are/were made on that pier and we met many of the celebrities .....from Wilt Chamberlin to James Garner to Paul Newman to Robert Redford....and many more.

We also stopped in beautiful Santa Barbara on the way home and stayed at at a fabulous RV Resort. I had stayed there before and wanted my sis to experience it. She loved it.

It was on a Friday and it was cold but......we were just in time for the Friday Night BBQ.....it was scrumptious! Cod, Shrimp, sweet potato fries, cole slaw. It's not far from Santa Cruz so another time when we have ... time, we will go back and spend a few days.

Last year my niece gave us tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Since they were getting ready to expire, we decided we'd force ourselves to go. She had also given us tickets to the DeYong Museum for the King Tut Exhibit and we were so excited to go. It was the last day it would be in San Francisco. Well, my sis ended up in the hospital for a few days so we didn't make that. With trepidation, we took off to Monterey. We always have fun and MBA was no exception. Took a few pictures. The Hot Pink Flamingo Exhibit is the newest one so I hadn't seen it. To the right is a leafy sea dragon.

We had lunch/dinner in the facilities dining room and the food was just what I wanted. Crab Cakes with a fabulous sauce, salad....with the back drop of the beautiful Pacific Ocean. A fine day indeed. I tried to get artistic with the wine, glasses, and binoculars and that was before I'd had a sip.

Deanie

Patty

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial weekend some friends had a b-b-q at their home with about 15-16 people. Guess it's always about the food That was good ... so was the company. Old people know how to do it! Bob and Lynn always have great parties and Bob knows who rules.

Old peoole like to sing the oldies and we did a lot of that as Jan played the piano!

Some of the food.........

Half Moon Bay

For the last week I've been in Half Moon Bay at my nieces just hanging out, scanning old photos, catching up with my writing, and lots of dog time. Next week I'm on the road again to Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Will see lots of friends along the way and am looking forward to it.

My niece and her Buddy.....The Gypsy and her TaZzi

and that's what it's about.....the little things.......next time you hear from me, I'll be in Canada.

Yes....It's the Little Things..........

June 10, 2010

Quite a lazy spring I am having! Did I say spring? Santa Cruz is usually its most beautiful in the spring. Yes... It is still beautiful but it has been unseasonably cold. So I've been doing the 'little things' and it reminds me that I don't have to be on the road or in the warmth to enjoy my life.

If you read my last blog post, you will know that I lost my beautiful redwood forest resort. The investment I made 4+ years ago of $6,000.00 is not being honored by the new park owners Get this! They WILL let me stay there for $85.00 a night with a 10% discount for a few months. It is now called the Santa Cruz Redwood RV Resort....in Felton. Enough of that!

I digress.....I've been mostly staying with my sister and we still have lots to talk about. She has a club house in her community and they are quite active with parties (for every reason) and bar-b-q's Any excuse to eat and drink (mostly sherbet punch).

These pictures are from our St Patrick's Day Party.....corned beef and all the trimmings.

We also had a Mother's Memory Lunch for Mother's Day. It was all about nostalgia. I brought my satellite radio and we listened to 40's music. Everyone reminisced about the 'olden' days~TV commercials, radio shows, songs, movie stars. Just a bunch of old ladies (and a few men) giggling and having fun. I was helping with the party and didn't bring my camera.

There's a great restaurant up the coast from Santa Cruz in Davenport,on Highway 1.. Great surf spot and many sharks visit that area. The restaurant used to be called "The Davenport Cash Store". Now it's called The Davenport Roadhouse at the Cash Store....or something like that. That's it below.

My friend, Deanna and I have been going there for almost 30 years. We recently went back. Not the same, of course, but lots of nostalgia. It wasn't busy and there was only one other lady in the Roadhouse. She wasn't alone for long. She just had that look of an adventurer on her face. We had a couple more cups of coffee. She was there for old times sake as well with her memories and we were sharing quite a bit..

Saumya (new friend) has just moved to Eugene, Oregon and on my way to British Columbia (in a few weeks) I will be stopping to see her and we will do some more ya ya ing. These pictures are some of the life in Davenport.

Pat and Saumya

Deanna and Saumya

Pat and Deanna

Heading South

My sister (Deanie) and I got so sick of the cold and rainy weather and I was getting itchy wheels, so we took off for a couple weeks in Phoebe McGee to find some sun and warmth. We did! We headed for the Mojave Desert and it was HOT! Highest was 98 degrees and the winds were howling and the dust was blowing. So were the many energy turban windmills. TaZzi barked like crazy at them but we loved them.

We spent about 10 days in the beautiful and very warm areas of....

We stayed here:

We practically had it all to ourselves as many guests had left because of the heat. Considering it was May, quite a few were there. Deanie was in the pool and hot tub A LOT! I was there SOME! We ate lots of good food....fixed it ourselves and went on lots of day trips.

We had a day at Joshua Tree National Park and the weather was great that day....70's. Our picnic was old-fashioned fun and we met some nice people, and learned a lot.

Adaptation in the desert is a miracle! With very little water, lots of very hot sun, we may wonder... how does anything survive? Vulnerable.... but the Mojave and Colorado deserts are home to hundreds of species that know how to beat the heat.

In 1936 FDR proclaimed Joshua Tree, a National Monument. It was 1994 when it was renamed the Joshua Tree National Park. 794,000 acres of the park are protected. Congress does some things right.

This is where we had our picnic There are so many areas to pull over to eat, to view, to watch wild life. Campers, hikers, and climbers have abundant areas to stay. We shared our watermelon with these 2 ladies from the east coast. Deanie is busy cutting her favorite food in the whole world.

Why is my sis hiding in the RV? A lady had just told us she had just seen 2 rattle snakes within yards and that we should watch out. It didn't take Deanie long to get back in. I continued taking pictures. The lady said that the snakes were courting so I figured they wouldn't notice me