Tag Archives: California

Debbee’s Birthday Dinner ~ Laguna Beach

On Tuesday 19 of us got together in Laguna Beach for our niece Debbee’s Birthday Dinner. Laguna Beach is a beautiful coastal city South of Newport Beach. I will be posting many of my beach photos from this beautiful area but for now I’ll pick this one…

 

I got to Laguna Beach earlier than everyone else and ended up taking a few hundred photos!!

 

Las Brisas is an upscale Mexican Restaurant without your typical combination platters or prices that you’d find at most other Mexican Restaurants. The view is gorgeous and the food was delicious.

 

Debbee, the guest of honor. Svetlana and Cvetlana (better known as Lana G!). The 4 sisters, Lana, Ellen, Kathy and Vera. The young people Michelle, Caleb, Levi, Jackson, Debbee, and Melissa. These are some of my nieces and nephews and my grand nephew.

 

The many faces of Miss Hope! She enjoyed the chips and some asparagus.

 

 

We left the restaurant making plans for some of us to meet up at Disneyland the following day. I’m getting that post ready and will hit publish soon!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

The Birds! The Birds!

Even though our 6:00 AM beach walk was socked in with a marine layer we were very happy because this change in our weather is helping out the fire fighters who are battling the Jesusita Fire in Santa Barbara. The fire was 30% contained the last we heard and 38,000 people have been evacuated so far. Our nephews college, Westmont, has been evacuated for the second time this school year. There is some optimism today that things are getting better. They estimate containment on May 13th. Our nephew won’t be able to move his personal belongings out of his college dorm room until the evacuation orders are lifted. The last day of school was Friday.

Our walk today was all about the birds!

Can you see all the holes in the sand that these little birds have made looking for breakfast?

It is so much fun to see these birds move up and down the sand as a group.

I was practicing catching birds in flight today.

Enjoy your weekend everyone. For all the mothers out there, a very Happy Mother’s Day to you with all God’s blessings!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

National Day of Prayer ~ 2009

 

From 12:00 to 1:00 today several churches in the Conejo Valley got together to pray with one another on this National Day of Prayer. Our gathering was at the Thousand Oaks Civic Center Lawn. It was great to pray with people from other churches in the valley that I had never met before but who were united in one purpose. After a time of singing the crowd broke off into small groups around the grounds with an area pastor to pray for our nation, leaders, community, churches and families. I broke off with the group that met in a shady spot! Praise God He encourages us to pray and listens to the prayers of His people! We ended our time together singing God Bless America!

Window Views

Well Mary the Professor has come up with another fun weekly photo challenge meme. Here’s what she says…

“I’ve always been fascinated by all kinds of windows. And photographing them from the outside or the inside has been fun for me. Will you join me?”

You can post:

house windows,
castle windows,
stained glass windows,
old windows,
new windows,
animals or people looking out of windows,
views through windows
Here are the rules:

Post your own photographs
Describe your photographs and the circumstances of taking your pictures if you want to
You may post as early as Wednesday at 4 o’clock EST (that’s when I will post)

Have fun!

These shots were taken in Ventura, California. This used to be a church and then it was a Wedding Chapel and then a Bed and Breakfast. It was for sale when I took these photos.

For more Window Views visit Mary at her Window Views Blog.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

WFW ~ Luke 12: 23-26

 

For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens; they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Oh how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?

To see more verses from the Word of God illustrated visit Amydeanne at the 160 Acre Woods.

Outdoor Wednesday ~ May

For my outdoor photos this week I took a little trip to Pt. Mugu to practice with my new camera. I was hoping for some good crashing wave action to test out my quick clicking feature. (that’s not the technical term but I’m just not savvy enough to know what that function is really called)

 

The beach was lovely as usual. I walked above a rock outcrop to see how the waves were crashing…

 

It really was fun to be able to click away with no pauses in between!

 

This was the best splash during my time here.

 

While waiting for more crashing waves I captured these pelicans coasting by…

 

In my neck of the woods and all along the road to get to Pt. Mugu there are farmlands. On my way home I stopped at the side of the road to get a shot of this pretty sight. I also passed rows of Strawberries and Artichokes.

Later in the day when Willow and I were walking we saw these lizards enjoying the sunshine. “Here lizard, lizard, lizard”… (does anyone remember that taco bell commercial with the talking chihuahua??)

Happy Outdoor Wednesday everyone and thank you Susan for being such a great hostess. Click over to A Southern DayDreamer to see more of the outdoors around the world…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Saturday ~ Beach Gatherings…

So not as early as usual Dear and I headed to Emma Wood State Beach for our Saturday morning stroll. Today we were blessed with seeing an over abundance of Pelicans just hanging out on the sand. There were plenty flying over the water, too!

 

Later in the day we headed south to Long Beach for a mini-reunion with my high school class of 1968! We met at a restaurant on the water and tried to remember names and faces. It was fun to see good ole friends.

 

Our class of ’68 really was a great group of people. We were commenting on what a rich melting pot we were. We had a large Jewish, Armenian, Russian, Mexican, and Japanese population at our school. This varied population really added to our rich high school experience. 1968 was a very emotionally charged period in the history of our country. A couple major historical tragedies that occurred just before we graduated were the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy.

And 41 years later it was great to re-connect and have conversations with these friends!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Round Robin Photo Challenge ~ See the Music!

Welcome to the Round Robin Photo Challenge. This Saturday the theme is “See the Music”

You can be literal with this one, with photos of sheet music, musical instruments, stereo equipment etc., or more abstract, showing something that reminds you of a particular song. Illustrate a Rolling Stones lyric, or photograph your favorite local band, or catch your kid practicing the guitar or clarinet! If it’s suggestive of some kind of music, it counts!

The photos I’m posting are from a trip to Santa Barbara, California and Dallas, Texas…

This sculpture was just off State Street. See the store in the background called Mozart Trio?

 

This was taken at the Dallas Arboretum.

To see more Round Robin Photo Challenges on this subject visit the Round Robin Blog.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Blue Monday ~ Peacocks

Happy Blue Monday

When I drive across Los Angeles to visit my parents I always stop at the Target in Norwalk which is at the exit I take to get to their place. I stop because the trip is long, I’ve given birth to 3 children and this is a convenient spot to stop if you catch my drift. The unusual thing about this Target is what I’ve seen and heard in their parking lot more than once…

 

There is a really cool old farmhouse next door and peacocks that live behind the farmhouse. They hop the fence and stroll about the Target parking lot from time to time making their annoying loud calls.

 

I kept asking this guy if he’d kindly fan his feathers but he was not impressed with me and didn’t feel the need to show-off!

 

I’m always fascinated to watch these beautiful creatures with their iridescent feathers.

Blue Monday is hosted by Smiling Sally who hails from Florida. If you’d like to see more blue or to join in please click here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Window Views ~

Well Mary the Professor has come up with another fun weekly photo challenge meme. Here’s what she says…

“I’ve always been fascinated by all kinds of windows. And photographing them from the outside or the inside has been fun for me. Will you join me?”

You can post:

house windows,
castle windows,
stained glass windows,
old windows,
new windows,
animals or people looking out of windows,
views through windows
Here are the rules:

Post your own photographs
Describe your photographs and the circumstances of taking your pictures if you want to
You may post as early as Wednesday at 4 o’clock EST (that’s when I will post)

Have fun!

This was taken at Cafe Noveau in Ventura, California a few weeks ago. Every now and then I head North to Ventura to shop their Main Street Thrift stores. I decided to stop here for a little breakfast before I hit the shops.

To see more Window Views please visit Mary at the new Window Views Blog…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.