California Day Six

 

 The day began early as we woke at 6:00, got ready and then went down for breakfast. What would have normally been a less than 30 minute drive took almost an hour. The LA traffic stayed true to form, and we were basically bumper to bumper on the way to the airport. We dropped off the car effortlessly, and made our way up our terminal. Burbank is a small airport easily maneuvered. We had about a three hour wait until our flight. We grabbed a $42.00 sandwich meal (one sandwich, two chips and 2 waters) and boarded the plane in time. You have to actually board the plane from the tarmac at Burbank. Well all went quite well until we returned to DFW and were never picked up by our shuttle. After two hours of waiting, and several calls to the hotel we ended up taking an Uber to get our car. We arrived home close to ten. It had been a long day of travel. 

California Day Five

 Today we traveled to Santa Monica to visit the iconic Santa Monica Pier. After battling the traffic we found very convenient parking across the street for only $10.00. We enjoyed walking the pier, had a yummy lunch at Bubba Gump’s and I even got to dip my toes into the mighty Pacific Ocean. As the day progressed the pier became more crowded so we made our way back to the car. We topped the car off with high priced California gas and returned to our hotel. 

 

California Day Four

  Well as expected we were up by 6:00, but since breakfast wasn’t until 7:00 I went ahead and took a shower and washed my hair. We headed out after breakfast to Yorba Linda to visit the Nixon Presidential Library. Because it was Sunday morning it only took an hour vs an hour and forty-five minutes to get home later that afternoon. I must say that I absolutely fell in love with the museum and was near tears so full of emotion by the end. My mother was no fan of Nixon so it was good to see his life from a different perspective. So many important decisions about our country were made during his term. We also got to tour his childhood home which I always enjoy. After we left we grabbed a bite at KFC and then made the longer trip back home to the hotel. We heated up some left over pizza for dinner and called it a night. 

California Day Three

 

Well the plan today was to drive three hours to the Sequoia National Forest to see the sequoia trees. Well unfortunately like the saying goes, “The best made plans…” When we arrived at the gate we were met by a ranger asking whether we had snow chains. Apparently the only way to view the giant trees was up at the top of the mountain where it had been snowing. Sadly, we along with pretty much everyone else turned around and left the park. We were able to stop by a sequoia sculpture garden and faked a few sequoia shots. We got a good laugh out of it. Not wanting to chalk the day off as a wasted effort we focused on the variety of landscapes we saw along the way-mountains to flat lands to mountains again. We saw cattle, oil wells, and miles and miles of orange groves. We saw vineyards, lemon trees, and olive trees. We stopped by Blaze Pizza for a build your own pizza, returned to our room, ate a snack dinner and were ready for bed by 8:00! We know we will be up by 6:00 rating to go. Except breakfast won’t be until 7:00. LOL!

California Day Two

 We woke up around 6:00, but to our bodies it was 8:00. We went to eat breakfast first, and then came back to the room to get ready. Luckily the Reagan Library in Simi Valley was only about 40 minutes away. Simi Valley is a beautiful community, and the presidential library didn’t disappoint. We arrived around 9:15 and didn’t leave until around 3:00. It was a full day, including lunch at The Gipper’s Grill on site. We both agreed how similar the world was when Reagan took office compared to today. We were very impressed to get to board the official Air Force One, and learned that the Reagan Library was the largest of the presidential libraries being 400 acres. I was also happy to find a souvenir thimble in the gift shop. We returned to the hotel and ate dinner in the room. 

California Day One

 We traveled to DFW the night before on Wednesday so we would be ready to go early Thursday morning. We stayed at the La Quinta in Euless just down the road from our old house and the airport. We took the shuttle which was very easy. One of the passengers prayed over us for safe travels. 

Our flight went very smoothly. TSA check took less than 5 minutes. We did have to change gates(pretty far away) but because we got there early we had plenty of time to get there. We met a nice woman named Alice who was a professor at SMU while we waited. Our flight was not delayed and we arrived in Burbank three hours later. We did have to walk quite a distance to get our rental car., however. We were able to check into our hotel room in Santa Clarita early and were quite pleased to find that it was more like a suite with plenty of room. We left to get lunch, and ended up eating at Lazydog. Sadly, my club sandwich was tasteless, but the wedge salad was quite tasty. We stopped by Walmart to pick up a few snacks for the room. By the time we got back to the La Quinta we were both pretty pooped and were glad to get to rest. We ended up eating dinner in the room. 

California

 

Recently Chuck and I saw the movie Reagan. Over the years we had visited six of the presidential libraries, and to be honest I really didn’t hold out much hope that we would ever visit the Reagan library in California because it was so far away. In doing a little more research I discovered that the Nixon library was also in California, and was only about an hour from the Reagan library. At that point a plan was hatched. 

Knowing that we had about a $300.00 credit with American Airlines we didn’t want to lose  we decided California might be the place we needed to be. So our plan was set in motion to knock out two more presidential libraries in one fell swoop. 

I’m so glad we did, and while we were there we took advantage of visiting both the mountains and the Pacific Ocean!

Team Thanksgiving

I enjoy decorating for Thanksgiving. I know that the current trend is to start decorating for Christmas the day after Halloween. I’ve got too many cute Thanksgiving decorations to enjoy so I’m in no rush to bring out the Christmas tree. 

Ironic

Last week as I was stepping up on the curb to enter the health food store my foot slipped as I misjudged the height of the curb. The next thing I knew I was down on the ground. 

Luckily,nothing was broken, but I scraped up my knee pretty badly, and suffered a few other bruises. Nothing like going to a health food store for health, and ending up injured!

As best as I can figure I think between the height of the curb, which was not regulation (a problem you encounter in these rural communities) and the depth perception inaccuracy of my glasses I was down before you say, “Don’t you do it!”

To make matters worse, later that night I slammed my toe into the wooden side of my dog’s stairs and ended up bruising it quite badly. Needless to say, the next day I was hobbling around in pain. 

Sadly, the reality is that in life things can turn on a dime,and life as you knew it a second before can change. Luckily, slowly but surely I’m healing.