Thursday a Fortnight ago…

…I stepped out on my own in Huntington Beach, California, for a walk along the shore and out to the end of the pier.

I enjoy California beaches in the winter.

The day I was walking on the pier was Josh’s birthday. He and Laura were still in California and opted to visit Disneyland on this day with their cousins. My two sister’s who I was staying with were both at work. My walk on the beach alone was good for me.

The storms that were rolling through Southern California made for some dramatic waves.

Before I headed home on the following Tuesday my sister Vera and I had a walk on a beach together south of this one and I’ll share about that later.

Fast forward to today…daughter and I were able to shop at the Navy Exchange. Our son-in-law is a non-active Marine so he and our daughter can shop at the exchange with proper I.D. I’m allowed in as a guest. One of the advantages of shopping at the Exchange is that you do not have any added tax. The price you see posted is the final price. After our shopping we had lunch together and she dropped me off home. I then headed to our local Goodwill and was happy to find these French Onion Soup bowls. Wednesday is Senior discount day so there is an 20% discount. I bought all 4 for just over $9.00. Lion’s head soup bowls.

I’m looking forward to making my French Onion soup again in these lovelies.

The Getty

When Dear and I arrived in Southern California and drove north to Oxnard from the Long Beach airport I took this photo of the Getty museum on the hill close to the Wilshire area of West Los Angeles. Little did I know I would enjoy the museum with our oldest kids, my sister, sister in law and grand niece.

On Tuesday night Josh and Laura asked if I wanted to go along with them to the Getty on Wednesday. My sister Vera had taken the day off so it worked out for all four of us to travel north from Orange County together.

My sister in law, Kelly, nannies her granddaughter Ellie and they joined us at the museum.

As one of my facebook friends said, Josh and Laura make the Getty look good.

Ellie really took to her cousin once removed.

I really enjoyed this painting so I took some close-ups of the bottom and top of the painting.

This painting will be familiar to many. Irises by Vincent van Gogh.

Josh and Ellie enjoying more masterpieces.

One of a few Monet’s at the museum.

Supreme carving skills in this portrait were amazing.

There is so much to enjoy at The Getty so I would encourage multiple trips. Here are links to my other trips to The Getty.

Outdoor

Ruby at the Museum

Blue- The Getty

We enjoyed a meal at a cafe on the grounds with so many great choices. Entrance to the museum is free and you only have to pay to park. J. Paul Getty (1892-1976), was an art collector and businessman who used his fortune to create an institution dedicated to the diffusion of cultural knowledge.

Back Again…

Dear and I arrived in Los Angeles and hit the L.A. freeways to our old stomping grounds in Camarillo. The rain that California has been enjoying has greened up the hills. Traffic is same old same old. The freeway trip up the 405 and on to the 101 (Ventura Freeway) went well and we got through Thousand Oaks and started the descent into Camarillo.

A couple of our favorite restaurants were closed since we lived in Camarillo from 2006-2010. One of our favorites was still open so we stopped in for lunch. We recognized a few wait staff that were still working there. We stopped at Establos Market (another favorite from years past) and bought some fresh made salsa and guacamole to enjoy at our beach house rental. After enjoying the weekend festivities that we flew to California for and after we checked out of the beach house on Monday and before we headed south into Los Angeles again we met up with Willow from Willow’s Cottage.

These are Willows photos of our time together. She gifted us some of her hand knit items for our little Addy. It was so good to catch up with my walking buddy from our Camarillo days. Thank you Willow for the beautiful gifts and the time we had to catch up on life.

I am finally home again after being away since January 13th. It feels so good to be in my own home with Dear. I still have so much to share from my time in California.

Beach Days Oxnard

Our family rented a beach house in Oxnard, California to be in closer proximity to a wedding and baby shower we would be attending in Goleta, and Santa Clarita, California. All four couples had their own room and we had 3 bathrooms to make it easy to get ready for our events. We also had a full kitchen.

The house was a short block to the beach. Dear and I arrived before our kids so we took a walk to the beach to get our first look at Pacific waves in a long time.

On this evening a couple of the Channel Islands were visible on the horizon.

The sunset was beautiful with nice views from the upper decks of the house. This was Friday evening. On Saturday we were busy getting ready for and helping at the wedding venue so there was no time for a beach visit.

On Sunday morning we pulled together a breakfast for all of us and for my brother’s family who were staying close by. After breakfast and before we got ready for the Baby shower for Addy we all walked to the beach and enjoyed some fun in the sun. Some braver souls took a plunge in the cold winter Pacific waters.

My brother and his family left the beach house to head to the airport flying back to Dallas and the rest of us got ready and headed east for Addy’s baby shower that the women enjoyed and the guys headed to a shotgun range. Fun times for all.

We all checked out of our beach house on Monday the 16th and headed in different directions. Four of our kids flew home on Monday Dear flew home on Tuesday and I stayed on at my sister’s in Huntington Beach. Josh and Laura stayed most of the week and flew home on Friday braving the rain soaked freeway to Los Angeles International Airport.

I’ve been able to enjoy two more glorious days at two different beaches and a day at the Getty Museum while I’ve been in southern California. When I get back to the Seattle area on Tuesday I’ll finish posting about my days here. The rain has been persistent here especially on Friday and today. Streets have turned into rivers. There have been several flash flood warnings in the Los Angeles Basin especially in areas that suffered fires recently.

This collage shows some mild images compared to what we’ve seen since. Looking forward to catching up with your blog posts when I get back to my own space up north! Blessings.

Good, Very Good, Glorious!

There is so much to share from this good, very good, and glorious weekend we are experiencing. This photo is of our nephew Joe and his new bride Hannah with our dear old 93 year old Pop (94 in May). Glorious and Glory to God! More to come so stay tuned!

Keep Looking Up…

A little postcard from me to you. Hope for my snowbound friends this adds a little light to your day. Today is wedding day for my brother’s youngest son. Fun times are afoot!

2016 January-June in Mosaics…

January: Dear started a consulting job from home. We celebrated January birthdays. A business trip to San Francisco with reunions with old friends from my college days.

February: Our Lenten Rose bloomed early. We had a Superbowl party with a Chinese New Year theme with souvenirs I bought at San Francisco’s Chinatown. We also enjoyed a Valentines day lunch with a view in Bellevue.

March: We had a sister’s weekend. We celebrated my Medicare birthday in Bellingham with the Mennonite Girls and our hubbies. Dear and I had an overnight in Vancouver, B.C. to continue celebrating my birthday. Katie and Andrew celebrated their 5th anniversary!

Easter landed at the end of March and deserved it’s own mosaic. Our family was all together. Kulich baking, Seerney Paska, Easter egg hunts and Raclette all happened during Easter weekend.

April: We took a quick trip to Eastern Washington to work on some projects at Dan and Jamie’s. Late in the month I went along with Dear on a business trip to San Antonio, Texas. While there I drove to Austin to meet up with my brother’s family for a few hours.

May: Mother’s day with the kids on this side of the mountains. Dear and I took a road trip to Whatcom Falls and on the way home enjoyed stopping at a restaurant on Chuckanut Drive for lunch.

May: Two trips across the line to Canada to meet our play writer and later to meet a favorite blogger who gives so much encouragement to us Mennonite Girls, Rosella.

June: I flew down to be with family and enjoy my sister’s open house in her new digs.

June: A trip to Leavenworth where our family and our new daughter in law’s family enjoyed a weekend together eating and river rafting.

June: Father’s day brunch downtown Seattle with a photo op on Queen Anne Hill overlooking downtown Seattle.

June: We finished off June with a road trip to Yellowstone National Park and Cody Wyoming with stays in Montana coming and going. June really was packed full!

Six full months of blessings with people we love and trips to places we had never seen before. I’ll share July to December later. Dear’s consulting job ended in June and we began our time of wondering if we were unemployed or if we were retired.

How are you spending the last days of 2016? We are planning a little get together on New Year’s Eve after the Peach Bowl between our Washington Huskies and Alabama. We are the underdogs and will be cheering our Dawgs on to victory. Time will tell. Win or lose we will ring in the New Year with gratefulness to God for all He has done this year in our lives and the lives of our friends and family.

Favorite Five on Friday

The Lord is good to me and my family. Last Friday I flew from Seattle to Southern California to visit family and friends while Dear traveled to Chicago for an Oncology Conference. When I exited the plane in Santa Ana, California, my sister Lana was at the gate ready for her flight to Seattle. She is a beloved passenger on Alaska Airlines from John Wayne Airport and her friends at the gate decided I was special because I’m her sister so they booked me in first class for my return flight to Seattle. Yes and amen to that!

Here’s my baby sister with her sassy new hairdo. I’m so thankful that she shares her flying privileges with me. She’s a million mile traveler with Alaska Airlines and she doesn’t lord it over the airline employees but treats them with kindness and love and that trickled down to me.

My brother Leonard, Lana’s twin, and my sister Vera met me outside of baggage claim to take me to lunch. Yes…my family is always there for me. We had lunch at South Coast Plaza before Leonard and I headed out to Neuvo, California to visit another brother and his dear wife.

Spending time with my dear old Pop (93 years old) and meeting my sweet little grand niece (5-1/2 months) was a treasured experience while I was in Southern California.

I also spent a few hours over lunch with my Russian Baptist best friend, Heidi. Upper left hand photo from 2016 and the rest from the 1970’s. We were marveling at God’s goodness to us in allowing us to survive some crazy choices we made.

My flight home in first class was very nice. Beautiful views of the California Coast with a nice meal and more great views of Mt. Rainier when we reached Washington State.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig! We are working on a new phase of our yard project putting a border along our front planter.

While I mowed and weed whacked Dear worked on digging out the trench to add the blocks for our new planter border. Woohoo! Hard work with us now sitting and wondering how we can manage getting up and down with our aching muscles!

Thank you to Amy at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday and dear Susanne at Friday’s Fave Five.

V is for Vera…

Vera is one of my older sisters. She was recently widowed and has moved into a 55 and over community not far from her old home. While I was visiting she had an open house to share her new home with friends and family.

Her manufactured home is open concept with 9 foot ceilings that give it a spacious feeling.

There are 3 bedrooms which include a large master suite with a walk in closet and large bathroom with a separate tub and shower. My younger sister Lana lives with Vera part-time when she is in Southern California working. Lana got to decorate her own room. Since Lana was in Washington while I was in California I got to crash in her room. My brother Leonard from Texas was also staying with Vera and he got the bedroom/office and the blow up mattress.

It was good to see some of our cousins and old friends during the open house. Vera used an old email list for her invites so if she missed you she apologizes.

It was a nice day and we set up tables and chairs in the carport. I did not get photos of everyone, oops.

On Sunday Leonard, Vera, and I met some of our family for brunch in Newport Beach at Sol Cocina.

Leonard and I got to meet our newest grand niece for the first time.

Ellie with her Baba, my SIL Kelly.

Later in the day some of my family gathered at Vera’s again for more food and fellowship.

I’ve posted this photo before but I love it enough to post it again, Pop (dzeda) and Ellie. My dear old pop made it out to Vera’s twice and he lasted for several hours which was good for him.

My pop with 5 of his 8 children.

Leonard and I managed to be with our pop for dinner at Kathy’s on Friday night, open house on Saturday, Dinner at Vera’s on Sunday and then we drove out on Monday morning to go out for breakfast with him and my sister Kathy and to say goodbye to him until we meet again. He got his 2 eggs sunny side up with hash browns, sausage, white toast and coffee and even though it was at Coco’s instead of Denny’s he said it was good. He also insisted on paying. He says he needs to get rid of his money. From breakfast we headed straight to the airport for Leonard’s flight back to Texas. I still had 24 hours left in California.

The fun just kept coming. After I dropped Leonard off I met up with my BFF from my Russian Baptist days and we had lunch and a few hours of catching up. Would you believe from this meet up I headed to the third restaurant of the day, Zov’s, to meet my sisters for dinner?

Kathy and I split our Kebob dinner and we all shared the dessert tray. Kathy, this could have been your late birthday celebration if my brain wasn’t completely fogged up by then! Oye!

When Vera and I returned home Dear’s brother and SIL stopped by for a brief visit since they couldn’t come to the Open House. It was good to see them face to face. BTW, Dear wasn’t with me in Southern California because he was working at a conference in Chicago.

I’m now home after flying first class and that’s a fun story all by itself. This post is way too long already. It’s good to be home and I thank God for watching over me and giving me valuable moments to treasure with my Pop, family and friends.

Since it’s Wednesday and ABC Wednesday is on the letter V this post will be linked up for V is for Vera! Thank you Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger with his team of ABCers.

An Interlude…

…a brief period of time that comes in the middle of something.

Spent some sweet time with the youngest in our family, my grandniece and with the oldest…

our pop with his youngest great granddaughter.

When I get home I’ll share a lot more of my time away from the regular routine of home.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: California