Category Archives: California

Signs of Huntington Beach

Hope y’all aren’t getting tired of Huntington Beach. Some of these shots are conventional signs and the others are things that are “signs” that let you know you are definitely at the beach.

The Huntington Beach Pier was full of signs advertising their upcoming Surf City Marathon and Half Marathon.

It’s good to know the beach rules!

Glad he didn’t stop…

Pelicans are a good sign that you are close to the seashore.

Oil rigs and surfers are another sign that you are at Huntington Beach.

I’m linking to Signs, Signs with Lesley. Click over to see more signs from around the world.

Beach Fences…

I was in Southern California last week. My sister lives a few blocks from Huntington Beach. On our way back to her house from our walk on the promenade I captured these shots of some waves through the fence while we waited for the light to change so we could cross PCH. (Pacific Coast Highway)

I’m not a fan of sitting on the beach but I do enjoy walking along the shore.

Winter is my favorite time to enjoy California Beaches.

I’m linking up to Good Fences #45 with TexWisGirl at Run*A*Round Ranch.

It’s great to travel but I think I picked up a bug on the airplane and I’m a little under the weather. I hope it stays at the “little” stage and doesn’t go into anything full blown. How are you feeling?

Walking at the Beach

Last Friday I had a wonderful walk on the beach. My sister Vera lives a few blocks from Huntington Beach in Southern California and we always enjoy walking down and taking in the sea air. On this day we walked down with my brother Leonard, SIL Mandy, niece Hope, new nephew Andrew, and my sister Vera.

We were wondering how Andrew would react to the ocean waves.

Hope went in with no fear and Andrew watched from the sand.

We left my brother to enjoy watching the kids while the three of us walked along the tide line for an hour.

We walked up the beach and then down again to the pier.

Andrew kept quite busy building in the sand.

Do you live anywhere near an ocean shore? We live close to the shores of Lake Washington and a short drive to the Puget Sound but we have to travel a few hours to get to the Pacific Ocean.

What A Day…

Last Thursday I left our home at 4 AM to get to SeaTac Airport in time for my early 6:15 AM flight to John Wayne Airport in Orange County. The initial purpose of my trip was to meet my new nephew who was adopted from the Ukraine. My brother’s family was traveling from Dallas to Southern California to celebrate their daughter Hope’s 7th birthday at Disneyland and to have their new son Andrew meet his grandfather and aunts, uncles, cousins and our family friends. It’s easier to fly to Southern California then to fly to Dallas so I took this opportunity. It was wonderful to spend some time with some of our family and friends who live in Southern California, too.

My first stop from the airport was in the city of Orange to meet up with my good friend Heidi and my Sister-in-law Christina for breakfast and a little catch up on what is going on in our lives. The top left photo is of Heidi’s view from her back yard. Everything was so clear and it was great to see the green hills. We ate at the Pancake House.

I said goodbye to Christina and Heidi and headed to my Pop’s apartment to wait on Leonard, Mandy, Hope and Andrew who were arriving from Dallas a couple hours after my flight. Even though Andrew had talked with our pop using facetime he was shy at first but soon warmed up to all of us.

Miss Hope with her cousin Melissa.

My brother with Andrew and our Pop.

We had a nice lunch together at the apartment that my sister Kathy prepared and then we decided to go to Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor and believe it or not after ice cream some of us went out to dinner to celebrate my brother Tim’s birthday.

We all were in the mood for something savory after the ice cream from Farrell’s. From dinner I drove my brother to my sister’s in Huntington Beach where his family was staying and I headed to my niece’s in Huntington Beach where I was staying. We are fortunate to have hospitable family for our trips to Southern California. A plan to go to the beach on Friday was already in the works.

I am quite tired from all the sea air and fun family times we enjoyed. Looking forward to getting caught up now that I’m home again.

Here we go into the last week of January. What’s going on in your world?

Hot Town…

…summer in the city…walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head.”

I’m in Southern California for their most recent heat wave with red alerts and warnings being issued left and right. Temperatures over 100 degrees are about 25 degrees above my comfort zone! When I get home on Tuesday to the cooler Northwest I’ll fill you in on all the hot doings down here.

P1050626

Hope your days are moving along nicely.

 

Taking Flight…

baba-missy

We are flying to Southern California for a wedding on a Blueberry Ranch Northeast of Santa Barbara. We meet up at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) with our daughter Katie who is flying from North Carolina. Our flights arrive 30 minutes apart. We’ll head north to our hotel and then on Saturday go farther North picking up Josh and Laura who are flying into Santa Barbara and on to the wedding we will go.

On Sunday we will trek across L.A. headed east to visit with my mom and pop before we fly home on Sunday evening. A whirlwind trip covering many miles on the 101 Fwy and interstate 5. It will be nice to be with my family and friends at Caleb and Marie’s wedding and have a visit with my mom and pop before we all head home on Sunday night. Katie will head back to North Carolina just in time for Andrew’s return from a month long training. As a dear friend of mine has coined…”Life is Rich”!

The photo above was taken by my sister Lana on Thursday night at the apartment. My niece Melissa was celebrating her birthday with my mom and enjoying strawberry cupcakes! A very special birthday to remember…

I’ll be sharing lots of photos of the newlyweds soon…

My computer will not be traveling with me so I’ll check in with y’all on Monday! Have a lovely weekend!

Dear’s Side of the Family

The days here at home are short for me before I take off to Canada for our book launch so I’m going to try to capture the beauty of our time celebrating with family and friends in Southern California in my next few posts. There will be a lot of photos because a lot happened and a lot of people were together that aren’t together very often. So get your scrolling finger ready!

They arrived in waves to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana on Thursday. Katie had to fly into LAX and I’m happy to report that the freeways proved smooth sailing for my drive to pick her up. We arranged a meeting at the hotel to get together with Dear’s only brother’s family. The only one who was missing was our oldest niece Jenna who lives in New York with her husband and grandniece.

The restaurant at the hotel was very dark so you’ll have to excuse my photos!

We had such a good time together catching up and laughing. It was good to hug and console My SIL Christina as her mother Virginia Wicks just passed away at age 92. Chris shared some things she has come across while she and one of her brothers have been sorting through Virginia’s papers. You can read about the amazing roll Virginia played as a publicist and in the jazz world in particular by clicking here and  here. She was also one of the Goldwyn Girls and was featured on one of the covers of Look magazine in 1954.

Our beautiful nieces and sweet grandniece and more shots of our families together in the past year…

Happy to be Home Again…

No matter how much fun it is to go away and enjoy family and friends it’s always good to come home again.

Josh, Laura and I flew back to Washington from John Wayne Airport today and it is so good to be home again. We came home to sunshine and clear views. I’ll be sharing all about the celebrations we enjoyed while we were in California soon. In the meantime the lawn needs mowing and I need to catch up with the laundry. What’s happening at your house?

An Interlude…

…from my postcards. Because it snowed this morning in Milan and the weather is overall cold and wet I have some spare time on my hands today and decided I’d go back to sunny Southern California and continue on my posts from my niece Debbee’s shower. Later today a postcard will pop up from the opera house so I thought my interlude title for this post was appropriate.

The shower decor…

My niece Michelle hand made these cute little jar candles for each guest to take home.

Fresh flowers from the L.A. Flower market that my niece Melissa arranged in several different containers.

The gift table…

Niece Jessica made the shower cloud with rain drops…

Michelle or Melissa or both of them made this ribbon banner.

The main ideas for the shower were from Michelle and Melissa and they called on family and friends to gather up the items needed to pull it off. Many hands contributed to putting the ideas into the final result. Working together with my family is always a fun time. Thank you Michelle for opening your home to us for this special event.

2 more days in Milan and then we make the long trip home. Hope y’all are doing well…