Category Archives: Travel

We Arrived in San Diego…

…the same evening this beauty arrived on it’s maiden voyage!

SAN DIEGO – A colossal yacht was seen cruising in San Diego Bay Wednesday evening.

The 330-foot mega-yacht Attessa 4 stopped by San Diego during its maiden voyage.

The owner, industrialist Dennis Washington, had the boat custom built to his exact specifications. Washington’s net worth is about $4 billion, according to Forbes, and the Attessa 4 has everything a discerning billionaire might want.

The ship boasts a helicopter, a speed boat, pool, hot tub, movie theater, a fully operating day spa and much more.

Forbes estimated the price tag for the nautical masterpiece at $250 million. Large as it is, the Atessa 4 doesn’t make the list of the world’s top 10 mega-yachts, all of which are more than 400 feet long.

Here’s some interesting information about the owner of the yacht.

The fun little side note to us arriving the same time the Atessa 4 arrived is knowing that a friend of ours worked on this Yacht while it was docked in British Columbia. We listened with interest on his account of his time on this yacht and it was fun to put two and two together to realize that this was the very same yacht we heard about a year before…

I was so happy to have an “off” day on Wednesday. Life is really full around here. Just the chance to hang around in my robe as long as I want in the morning is a nice respite for me. What do you like to do on your “off” days?

Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas!

Did you know that there is a Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas? While we were touring the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier in San Diego we kept seeing Santa look a likes. Of course I had to take some photos and we found out there was a Santa Reunion just down the street.

Here’s what the website of the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas had to say about their event.

“Here it is! The tradition is alive and well in San Diego this coming January 26, 27, 28 and 29 2012 as the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas host the Santa Reunion XVIII / San Diego 2012! ”

Now you know…

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday with my real bearded Santa mosaic!

I’ll be away from my computer all day tomorrow as I’m traveling to Canada to celebrate a milestone birthday for 2 dear friends.  I’ll be in a bathing suit for part of the time and I hope no photos of me in all my glory make it onto the world wide web…time will tell. I’ll catch up on visiting later in the week. Blessings!

Birds of a Feather…

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to photograph sea birds.

I was so happy to see this Pelican.

This Heron was fun to see, too. A Blue Heron in a spot I don’t usually see them.

These were not the birds I was excited to see. But there they were all in a line begging to be photographed. They were some of the fattest pigeons I’ve seen in a while.

We are home safe and sound. It’s always good to come home. We enjoyed being in the bright sunshine for a few days but “there’s no place like home”.

She Walks…

…she meets and eats! Walking out from our hotel. It was a beautiful full day in San Diego.

After Dear left for his meetings of the day I got my walking shoes on and headed out to the Harbor. I walked east first and then I turned around and walked west. I thought of you Sara! More walk photos to follow.

Later in the morning Tim and Letty picked me up at the hotel and we met my sister Vera at The Mission Soma for brunch.

Willow! The rosemary potatoes were really good and we all enjoyed our breakfast choices at your favorite breakfast spot in San Diego!

I’m totally skipping our experience on the Midway for now and going straight to finally meeting up with Dear for a few hours before his next business obligations.

It was good to be together with some of my family and get caught up on what’s going on in our lives.

See that drink…it did have a flashing light in it. It was the signature drink at the Lighthouse Restaurant. After the Lighthouse we had some dinner and shared a dessert at Island Prime C Level restaurant.

A Different View…

Tomorrow I’ll be out in the daylight. I’m hoping for an early morning walk along the harbor. It’s been so long since I’ve been on a proper walk. Sara is inspiring me with all her walks. I have no excuses since I’m in San Diego with the sun shining. Tomorrow I’m meeting some family members at one of Willow’s favorite breakfast spots here in San Diego. I’ll share photos after the fact.

Flying South With the Birds…

Hoping to see and hear the sights and sounds that come with the Pacific Ocean. That shouldn’t be a problem since we are staying here. My sister Lana flies so much with Alaska Airlines that they let her nominate someone to get automatic MVP status. Bless her heart, she nominated me. When I went to check in I had been upgraded to First Class! Woohoo.  It has already been such a blessing to have this status in having 2 free bag allowance especially for Katie and my trip to North Carolina when we had 7 bags to check. Katie’s military dependent status gives her 5 free bags, but I digress, back to San Diego.  The weather reports say that it will be sunny and 70ish.

On Thursday my brother and his wife are driving down to San Diego to meet us for the day and dinner. Dear has obligations of course with his company but he’ll also get free hours here and there and is free for sure for dinner on Thursday.

Time will tell what you will see from me and our trip. Now I better get packing…

Fort Macon, North Carolina

We all really enjoyed this sign. Finally a site with some common sense signage…

We are approaching the main entrance to the citadel.

This is called the sally port. It is the primary entrance to Fort Macon. The three sets of original doors date from 1843-44.

This is the inner court known as the parade ground. On either side of the parade are vaulted rooms known as casemates.

The upper area is called the Covertway. This is where the original cannon emplacements stood. This is also the best place to view the surrounding area.

The danger of naval attack along the North Carolina coast seems remote now but during the 18th and 19th centuries the region around Beaufort was extremely vulnerable to attack. Blackbeard and other pirates passed through Beaufort Inlet at will and successive wars with Spain, France and Great Britain during the Colonial Period provided a constant threat of coastal raids by enemy warships.

This area is the ditch and moat. This sunken area was deeper and could be turned into a moat by flooding it with sea water from a nearby canal. The moat posed an obstacle to an enemy assault.

Fort Macon was designed by Brig. Gen. Simon Bernard and built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It was named after North Carolina’s eminent statesman of the period, Nathaniel Macon.

And now back to Christmas preparations…

I managed to get down a few boxes from the attic and finally have our wreath on our front door. Are you sitting down? I don’t know how to explain it except for it being a God thing, our Christmas cards are in the mail. My roots were all fixed up by my great hairdresser today and I even got a last minute doctor appointment to check some nasty moles on my head that the hairdresser was concerned about. All is well, sigh of relief. I truly hope all is well with all of you, too! Blessings.

Beaufort, N. C.

Katie and I were in Beaufort, S.C. (pronounced byoo-furt) in 2010 and now in 2011 Katie, Dear and I visited Beaufort, N.C. (pronounced bow-furt).

Settled in 1709, Beaufort is North Carolina’s third oldest town. Originally a fishing village and port of safety dating from the 1600’s, Beaufort has been visited by patriots, privateers and pirates!

This two acre complex interprets the town’s colonial maritime heritage in nine houses and buildings dating from 1732 to 1859.

We had lunch at Clawson’s. The original Clawson’s grocery store was owned by Charles and Mary Clawson who were immigrants from Sweden and Ireland, respectively. Its first location was on the south (water) side of Front St. where all the retail shops were able to serve customers that arrived by boat from Harkers Island and points east. Clawson’s claim to fame back then was its bakery, located behind our current building where Backstreet Pub is located. It’s believed to be the oldest building in Beaufort built about 1870 completely of brick. The original waterside grocery store was destroyed by a hurricane, so the current Clawson’s was re-established on the north side of Front Street where it is today.

We also visited the fudge shop and bought some freshly made fudge to enjoy later. After we left Beaufort we headed to Fort Macon on the northern tip of the Emerald Isle.

I think all my Christmas shopping is done now. Today I picked up our mystery tree at Home Depot. Thursday I get my grey roots taken care of just in time for Dear’s company Christmas function on Friday at the Fairmont/Four Seasons in downtown Seattle. I’m hoping to have all my decorating done by Sunday. Still haven’t decided about the Christmas cards…

Nature Walks at the Aquarium

There were some nice nature walks and trails outside the Aquarium that we enjoyed.

We learned something new about Spanish Moss. Found it really interesting that it’s related to pineapple.

Got my shipping shopping done and the boxes are sent. This is the first year that I have to send Christmas gifts to some of our kids. I was so busy this morning that when I hit the road I realized I hadn’t made or had my morning coffee. I stopped at a Starbucks which isn’t ever part of my regular routine but the morning brew I got was very nice and sharpened me up a bit.

North Carolina Aquarium ~ Pine Knoll Shores

We really enjoyed the Aquarium on Emerald Isle in North Carolina. Because it’s off season we didn’t have any crowds to deal with which is always a plus. Besides the indoor tanks and displays we enjoyed some outdoor nature trails that are part of the Aquarium. I’ll show those photos later.

Today was a surprisingly productive day for me and I thank the Lord for that. I changed my tablecloth to a Christmas one and that is the only Christmas decor visible in my house so far. I got some laundry, cleaning, Christmas shopping, banking, and mailing done. Pats herself on the back. I’m still debating if Christmas cards are going out this year. Time will tell. Hope your days are going well.