Category Archives: Travel

A Day with Friends…

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.  ~Elisabeth Foley

On Saturday Dear and I spent the day with our old friends Jim and Jeanie. Jim is my cousin and I was friends with Jeanie in college before they met. Jeanie and I both majored in Home Economics and we both became teachers. She’s still teaching in high school in the Fresno area.

When we were just married we lived in Huntington Beach and attended the same church. All of our children were born in the same years 1979, 1981 and 1985. Jim was a policeman in Huntington Beach but then left this work and started his own business building pools. We moved to Washington, they moved to Central California so now we see each other maybe one or two times a year. When we get together we can still catch up quick and relate and pray and laugh with each other. Oh and we eat too…I’m still stuffed.

There’s a great story behind this little booth that now sits at the entrance of the driveway to J & J’s house. When Jim was younger he worked at Hume Lake Christian Camps in a security position. He’d be in this booth stopping traffic into the camp conference grounds to make sure people knew where to go or be turned away because they had no business there. Hume Lake Christian Camp is located in the Sequoia’s. This booth went up in auction after it was replaced and Jim had the winning bid. Now he has a fun piece of his and Hume Lake’s history at his home.

 

These are some photos of their beautiful home that they had built on 4 acres of property they purchased. Jim is gifted in landscaping and of course he’d build a beautiful pool to have on his own property.

 

After lunch at their home we drove over to get a tour of Jim’s Pool Company. It’s located on the main drag through their town in a remodeled old home. He’s done a beautiful job with several partial pool designs on display and water features and water falls etc. It was a fun tour of Vineyard Pools in Clovis, California!

 

These are the photos of some of the pools, waterfalls, and water features…

 

Across the street from Vineyard Pools was Rossetti’s Biscotti and Fine Foods. We had to run across and do a little shopping. We bought some Triple Almond Biscotti to take home. We headed back to J & J’s house via Starbucks.

 

These are some of the cactus plants around the home that I had to get photos of and some roses.

These are in abundance.

We went out to dinner and headed back to Southern California very full of fellowship and food…

I have to share one more photo with y’all that I got such a kick out of on our way to J & J’s on Clovis Ave.

 

Have a wonderful joy filled week….

As of June 2017 Photobucket has blacked out all my photos that I had stored there and are holding them hostage. Hopefully I can update my photos on all the posts they have ruined, over 4000 of them.

Thursday Thirteen #7 ~ Sites in Great Britain

Thirteen Places you should visit in Great Britain…

 

1. London    2. Oxford    3. Cambridge 

4. Cotswolds    5. Bath    6. York

7. The Lake District   8. Oban  9. Isle of Iona

10. Edinburgh  11. Castle Doune 12. Conwy, Wales

Our favorites in blue are places we’d go back to again. Castle Doune (N.W. of Edinburgh) is of Monty Python and the Holy Grail fame. They even give you coconut shells to clip clop as you tour the castle. Fun times…

13. And last but not least are Bed and Breakfasts. We’ve enjoyed most all that we’ve stayed in.

For more Thursday Thirteens click here.

Solvang, Santa Ynez Wineries and Los Olivos

 

What a lovely Saturday Dear and I had. We left the Condo just before 8 in the morning and headed North on Hwy 101 to Buelton then East to Solvang. Solvang is a small old world Danish town with shops, restaurants, bakeries, and museums. We did what you should do when you visit Solvang and had some Aebleskivers! The center picture in the collage above is of our Aebleskivers served with Rasberry syrup and powdered sugar. Yummy! They are cooked in a special pan to make them round. Their story is below. I hope you can read the fine print.

 

After we were done in Solvang we continued East to the first two wineries we decided to visit. Sunstone Winery was in a beautiful setting and the buildings were said to resemble a Provencal countryside. I’ve never been to that part of France so all I can tell you is that the setting is lovely and quaint.

This is Dear and I on the porch at Sunstone.

 

From Sunstone we continued a little farther east to our favorite winery of the 3 we visited, Gainey. The setting here was beautiful also with a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains. Oh and if you ever do visit this one don’t miss the ladies restroom. Pretty impressive.

From Gainey we headed North on Refugio Road to Los Olivos. We were surprised to come upon their once a year Fall street fair! We saw wonderful classic cars, all kinds of wares, and Alpaca’s! The smells were wonderful with several BBQ’s going with the famous Santa Maria Tri-tip beef cooked to perfection. We ate at the Los Olivos Cafe & Wine Merchant. Then we headed South on Alamo Pintado Road to our last stop Rideau Vineyard which is housed in the refurbished country landmark known as the Alamo Pintado Adobe.  Originally built in 1884.

Photobucket has blacked out all my photos on my blog posts and is holding them hostage. As Time allows I will try to restore some of my posts with new photos.

Santa Ynez Trail ~ Saturday Day Trip…

 

Dear and I are heading North today to check out wine country north of Santa Barbara. Here are the wineries we’re going to try to visit. I hope to get some good photos along the way. We also have a great spot to stop for lunch in Los Olivos.

• Sunstone Winery – best picnic spot, Provencal setting
• Kalyra Winery – a touch of Australia in wine production
• Gainey Vineyards – beautiful setting, twenty-minute wine tour
• Buttonwood Farm Winery – small production winery, great Sauvignon Blanc
• Rideau Vineyard – historic tasting room, Creole touch, the gardens

Have a great Saturday and I’m posting a couple of fun quizes for Saturday. So scroll down and enjoy…

 

Josh and Laura ~

Some encouragement from the Bible and John Piper ~

God pledges to Carry Our Burdens ~

Psalm 55:22, “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”

The word for “burden” here is lot. What is your lot in life today? What has providence brought you? In the end, this is of the Lord. And He will carry it for you. It is not meant to crush you or carry you away. It is meant to test your trust in God to carry it for you.”

Psalm 16:5, “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.”

Psalm 63:8, “My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”

God Pledges to Carry You – All Your Life

Isaiah 46: 3-4, “Hearken to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”

 

It was wonderful to spend an extra day with you this weekend. Blessings on both of you!

ht: Pierced by the Word ~ by John Piper

Show and Tell Friday ~ Pewter

When Dear and I were engaged we were really attracted to pewter items. We collected some pieces while we were in England in 1973 and l974 and then registered for pewter items for wedding gifts.

 

This Pewter Hurricane Lamp was a wedding gift along with this Platter and Bowl. So we’ve been using these gifts for over 32 years.

 

To see more Show and Tell head over to Kelli’s at There’s No Place Like Home.

Photobucket is holding hundreds of my photos hostage and that’s why you don’t see the original photos on this post.

Carpenteria ~ Sunday Drive

After church on Sunday Dear and I took a drive up the coast to the little beach side town of Carpenteria. After we got there we got a great tip on a Mom and Pop run restaurant where we had a wonderful breakfast with thick bacon and bisquits and gravy. If you are ever in Carpenteria we recommend The Worker Bee Cafe. The wife is the waitress and the husband is the cook who we saw come out of the kitchen to make sure he got someone’s order right. We walked along Linden Ave. and browsed through Magpie Antiques, Homestead Antiques, Hollyhock Cottage, and a candy shop called Robitaille’s Fine Candy. We saw some great old houses and the Historic Methodist Church (now Capinteria Valley Baptist) which was built in 1888.

A LOL side note: In order to post these collages with my minimal space on this blog presentation I have to narrow down the photo. When people are in the photos like myself above you get contorted and narrowed also. So my disclaimer is that I’m not that tall, do not have those longer legs, and am not that thin at present 🙂

Carpenteria is home to the largest known Torrey Pine in existence. Torrey Pines naturally occur in just two locations: Santa Rosa Island in the Santa Barbara Channel, and along the coast near La Jolla in San Diego County. Collected in 1888 as a seedling on Santa Rosa Island, Judge Ward planted it on the grounds of his home (Wardholme). This Torrey Pine thrived and reached beyond its 40 to 60ft. height. In 1988 it measured 128 feet tall, 121 feet wide at the crown, and 20 feet in circumference at four feet off the ground. It was an amazing tree to see. We drove over to the Carpenteria Cemetary where majestic towering oaks remain from the ancient oak forest which originally blanketed the Valley. We drove over to the Carpenteria Cemetary before we headed home and saw some great headstones and majestic Oak trees.

This was one of the most interesting headstones we saw. Dr. Samuel Austin Moffett and Mrs. Lucia Fish Moffett were buried on this site. They were moved to the campus of the Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary in Seoul, Korea on April 20, 2006. Dr. Moffett was a pioneer missionary to Korea. He founded and served as the first President of the Seminary from 1903 to 1924.

Thanks for coming along with us to Carpenteria not to be confused with Carpeteria…

Any photos missing from my posts are the result of Photobucket blacking out all my photos that I stored on their site since 2006.

Places to Visit for the First Time or Again ~

I’m Yearning to Travel Someplace Far Away

England ~ Scotland ~ Wales ~ Ireland ~ New England ~Montreal ~ New Zealand ~ The Shire ~ Russia

I’m such a comfort traveler, not the really high adventure type. Even though I’m Russian, Russia would be my last choice because of the comfort issues of traveling there. Where would you want to go?

Ht: Bridget for the collage she made for me a while back…

Weekend Wanderings…

The L. A. Farmers Market

 Farmers Market (no apostrophe!) was created in July 1934.

In July 1934 a contingent of farmers pulled their trucks onto an expanse of empty land at the property known as Gilmore Island at the corner of Third and Fairfax in Los Angeles. They displayed their produce on the tailgates of their vehicles, to their delight, customers quickly arrived and parked their cars on a hastily created dirt parking lot in spaces designated with chalk. They strolled among the trucks purchasing fruit, vegetables and flowers.

The atmosphere was casual, the open air commerce enticing, the goods fresh, and the result remarkable. Farmers Market became an instant institution.

We met our friends from Seattle at the Original Los Angeles Farmers Market for dinner and a stroll. Luke, (one of our former pastors in Seattle), Terri and their two daughters Sophie and Greta are in L.A. for some sight seeing that will include the ultimate first time visit to Disneyland for the girls on Monday and Tuesday!

A very upscale outdoor shopping center, The Grove, has been built right next to the Old Farmers Market. We ended our visit with an elevator ride to the 8th floor of the parking garage at “The Grove” to get an aerial view of this Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles and Hollywood. We were hoping to see the famous Hollywood sign but sad but true it was too “L.A. smoggy hazy” to see it clearly! We were able to see the Griffith Park Observatory.

 View from a trail in Griffith Park from the south, looking north.

On our way home after our visit we were driving through a couple multi-million dollar neighborhoods and were shocked to see this eyesore on one of the street corners. We were amazed and decided to turn back to take some digital shots of this monstrocity. My photos will not give this gaudy display of bad taste justice.

There were over 14 of these statues…

Yikes! This is a beautiful neighborhood of amazingly landscaped and manicured lawns. House after house displays beautiful architecture and upkeep. I can only imagine what the immediate neighbors think. We found out later that there was a lot of TV coverage over this property and a  lawsuit that the neighbors brought to try to get these statues removed. They lost their suit. The bright white wrought iron fence was added after some of the statues were defaced.

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My weekend ended with a 250 mile round-trip out to Nuevo, California for dinner and a church service that my nephews Levi and Caleb were leading worship for (Levi in the red, Caleb in the orange). A nice ending to a busy weekend. Blessings on your week ahead…

Photobucket has blacked out all my photos from their site that I used on my blog since 2007 and I’m working to update my thousands of posts.