Tag Archives: California

Home Alone ~ What to Do?

Since Dear is somewhere north of Redding, California delivering a car from Southern California to Washington State for our daughter. I’m without my Saturday morning walking buddy. What should I do with my day all alone?

It’s coffee for one this morning so I decided to pull out the French Press.

Perfect amount for my big mug.

Well let’s see. My kitchen is clean already. My bathroom is clean already.

My livingroom is clean. My bed is made and the bedroom is clean. My office is OK. My huge garden is weeded and watered. Hmmm, and here it is 8:00 am already.

So I’m debating, should I go to Santa Barbara to pick up some necessities at Nordstrom? Our Nordstrom in Thousand Oaks doesn’t open until the fall and I hate to drive to the San Fernando Valley for the closer Nordstrom. Or maybe I should just drive up to Ventura and do some thrift store shopping. Decisions, decisions. Have a wonderful Holiday weekend everyone!

Persian Food and Birthdays

I drove out to Orange County yesterday to meet up with some of my family at Darya Persian Restaurant. We were celebrating my Pop’s birthday.

My brother Leonard was in town overnight from Dallas so we celebrated early. Bottom left photo in the collage are the 3 who have birthdays in the next few days. My nephew Levi on the 27th, my sister Kathy on the 23rd and my Pop on the 25th. The food photos are what I ordered, a lamb shank with a plate of mixed rice with lima beans and that’s not cheese on top, that’s rice with saffron.

Here’s Uncle Leonard with some of his nieces and one of his nephews. Debbee, Levi, Michelle, Leonard and Melissa.

Leonard, Melissa, Jack, and my SIL Kelly.

My nephew Levi, niece Michelle, and my brother Leonard.

Me and my brother Leonard

The party moved from the restaurant to my parent’s apartment for cake and chai (tea). I hit the long road home from the restaurant. It’s good to “love one another”.

Happy Birthday Pop and Kathy…

Happy Birthday to my oldest sister Kathy and an early Happy Birthday to my Pop! Kathy’s birthday is today and Pop’s birthday is the 25th. He’ll be 85 on Sunday.

These photos were taken in 1947 or 1948. My Mother is pregnant with my sister Vera in this photo and Vera was born at the end of February in 1948. My parents had just immigrated to the USA from Iran. That is my oldest sister Kathy in both these photos. Kathy was born in Iran in May of 1946.

I love this photo of Kathy on the swing in the park with all the people sitting on the benches in the background. The men and some of the women with hats on. This photo is also from the late 40’s.

Here’s a photo of Kathy and my Pop taken last night at a family celebration.

 

Thrift Store Treasures

So my walking numbers are way down this week after my high stepping totals last week. I’ve been sidetracked this week. I decided to clean out my kitchen cupboards and reorganize them so it’s easier to work. I had 3 bags of stuff to donate to the local thrift store. Things that just aren’t working in the condo. I have another box full of stuff to take back to the Mother ship in Seattle. Just when I was ahead I had a great shopping day at none other than Goodwill.

6 Water Goblets with roses etched on them (all 6 for 2.99), Tea Pot and two tea cups $2.99, A three piece cream and gold tea place setting for $1.99 (Kahla, East Germany), A Tiffany and Co. Ice bucket for 1.99.

A Limoges little basket dish for $1.99

There were 11 of these little vases that are designed to be place card holders. I got the set of 11 for $4.99.

Now the big decision on what to leave here and what to send to the Mother Ship…

I’m headed to Orange County today to meet some of my family at a Persian Restaurant to celebrate my father’s 85th birthday. I’ll try to catch up with y’all tomorrow. Have a wonderful day.

Sky Watch ~ The Red Barn

We had some plain boring skies in Southern California this week so I threw in a red barn to give the sky some interest. This was taken at Camarillo Ranch in Camarillo, California.

I’ll be posting more of the photos of the Ranch House later. The Bell in the photo above is one of the El Camino Real (pronounced ree-al) Bells that commemorate and mark the “El Camino Real – The King’s Highway”  These markers are placed along the route and in front of each of the California Missions. The goal to place these bell markers began in 1906 and by 1913 450 bells had been placed.

ABC Wednesday ~ R is for…

R is for Rocks

We’ve had three interesting and different walks on the same stretch of beach in the last 2 weeks. We had low enough tide on these days that we were able to walk among the rocks.

We start early (6:00 AM) so everything is pretty gray when we begin our walk.

The pools around the rocks are fun to explore.

A look back away from the water line.

Here’s my friend Rocky. Can you see his eyes and nose?

Hubby walking among the rocks.

 

The sun is beginning to rise above the hills and shine on the water.

You can see the color change in my shots as the sun rises higher.

Now I’m off to see what others chose to share for R.

For more posts on the letter R take a trip to Mrs. Nesbitt’s.

 

A Solo Walk and My Average Steps

Last Wednesday inspired by Sara’s Walks around Long Beach and other towns, I decided to have a little walk around downtown Ventura and see what I could see.

I love how inviting this Rose Arbor and Gated entry are to this cute little house.

 

It’s a good idea to look up in downtown Ventura. Along Main Street there are a lot of older buildings that have some unique architecture and designs.

I was drawn to this arched doorway and the unique designs.

The upper window caught my eye. I wonder what the room is like up there. It seems like it could be a great bedroom for Anne of Green Gables.

 

This Historic Landmark Home has been turned into a restaurant.

 

The Restaurant is called Landmark No. 78. The bougainvillea arbor entry is in all its glory!

This next place I walked had an area that was called China Alley. My interest was piqued so I did a little research.

China Alley Memorial

The Chinese settlers arrived in Ventura in the 1860’s. They were highly skilled farmers and designed the irrigation system for the area. Approximately 200 of these Chinese immigrants lived in China Alley, located in front of the Ventura Mission. The Ventura fire department provided insufficient protection for their wooden shacks from fire, so they formed their own fire brigade.  They were also known to lend their services for other fires in the community.

With this solo walk and my daily walks with Willow this week my average steps were 11,118! On the Wednesday that I did this Ventura walk I also walked with Willow so that was a 13,707 step day and the rest of the days we walked I had over 10,000 steps.

My goal is to try to get over 10,000 a day. Some weeks just don’t work out that great but I still plan to walk everyday. It’s good for us women to keep moving…

Saturday Morning Fun!

We started our beach walk at 6:00 AM today! The sun has not shown up in all it’s glory yet…

 

The colors in my photos change as the sun comes up over the hill.

We saw a lot of crabs today. The tide was not as far out and we couldn’t get as far on the sand this week.

The Pirates were afoot and we snuck by their ship.

Dear braved the surf while I took the higher road.

We finished our walk on the beach and were home by 7:45 AM. I then got ready to head out to San Marino, California to meet my nieces, sister, and mom for a birthday breakfast.

On the way to breakfast a car fully engulfed in flames was worth a photo! :0)

Julienne Restaurant in San Marino, California

My sister Kathy and her daughter Michelle

The sisters, Michelle and Melissa

My niece Debbee and me

My Mom

I decided on the Earl Grey Tea. Look at that pretty little bag the tea leaves come in.

A Gruyere omelette with scallions and avocado and rosemary potatoes.

Me, my mom, and my sister Kathy

Kathy and her daughters. Happy Birthday Kathy.

And yes it is hot in Southern California today. This was the hottest my outside temp registered when I hit Woodland Hills. (109 degrees)  Notice that I’m standing still in traffic so no one was in danger when I took this shot. We’re breaking records today. Thankfully it is a lot cooler than Woodland Hills in our town…

 

Photo Hunters ~ Candy

The theme this week is Candy. I decided to make a trip to my favorite candy shop in Southern California, See’s.

Look how sweet the See’s saleslady was. When I told her I was taking photos of candy for Photo Hunters she asked if I’d like her to take some out of the case to photograph. What a good sport..

I’m just going to post all the photos from the store because I don’t ever get tired of looking at chocolate.

I think I showed a lot of restraint and only came away with 5 pieces.

For more Photo Hunters click over to Tnchick’s!