This is a snow day in these parts. Not a huge amount, but enough to close schools for the day. It looks so beautiful out there. I wish I had some grandchildren here to make homemade doughnuts with.
My exercise class has plans to do a fondue meal this evening. I guess we'll see what the roads are like by then. I hope we can do it. We have so much fun together - eight of us. Poor Peg, our instructor. We chatter and laugh so much during class that she can hardly call out her instructions for us to hear. When I went over to Anthony and Lori's the day after I got back from my trip last week I noticed something wonderful. All the rainy days we have had have begun to fill the spring-fed pond back up. Here's a picture I took in November - such a SAD sight!
And here's what it looked like last Thursday. Not quite filled yet, but getting there. I bet it looks gorgeous this morning in the snow.
I made fried rice and sweet and sour chicken for Anthony and Lori that day. Since I no longer babysit Hunter I always do their food prep here and then take it to their place. That evening we had choir practice. Right now we're working on a combination of new (to us) songs as well as ones we've done before. You'll be hearing about some of them in the weeks to come I'm sure. On Friday I made two big pots of chicken noodle soup - Paula Deen's recipe. Lori sent me the recipe a few weeks ago and I really, really like it. This time I was not only making it for them and for us but also for a soup and bread sale. Fillmore (where I am pianist/choir director) is one of three locations of the Greater Buffalo Run Valley UMC (for whom I used to be church secretary until I quit in October.) They have recently purchased land nearby on which they will build a new church building to replace the three old buildings. The soup and bread sale was a fund raiser for the building fund. That evening we went to the laundromat. My washer does not have digital controls, and last week I discovered I could not turn the knob to set the washer to start. Dick looked up the problem and found that the "teeth" inside the knob can wear down. All we needed to do was order the knob on Amazon for twenty-some bucks! But meanwhile I had a lot of dirty laundry after my trip, so to the laundromat we went. Good grief. All we did was wash three loads and it took ten dollars. I feel sorry for people who have no other choice. We brought the wet stuff home to dry in our dryer. Yesterday the knob arrived, Dick popped in on, and we're good to go again. On Saturday I had a glorious stay-at-home day. That's when I did my long post about my trip. In the evening we ran some errands. Sunday morning we went to our 8:15 am service at Fillmore. The choir did Dennis Jernigan's "Thank You, Lord." I just love that song. We did it at our Thanksgiving Eve service, but our guitar player had not been able to be there. He says it has a Mo-town feel that he loves, so we had to do it again when he could play with us. Then we went to Calvary. They often use songs that are new to me, and that's ok. But it's nice too when they do some old familiar ones. At the end of the service they did the song "Hungry" from an album I had and loved in the late 90's. Then the fun began. We kept the boys in the afternoon. It was TIME! I had not seen that precious baby since my baby-less trip!! Grandpa and Austin played some UNO. Apparently Austin is hard to beat, but Grandpa did beat him in one round.
Austin could hardly wait for Hunter to wake up from his nap. He just loves playing with him.
Poor Grandpa, haha!
On Monday we had the craziest weather. Many, many times throughout the day it went back and forth between fast, blowing snow and bright sunshine! Just bizarre!
I was here making stuffed peppers and salad for Anthony and Lori. When it was snowing I would think, "I wonder if I'll be able to make it up their hill." But then the sun would come out full blast and melt everything off the street. Thankfully I had no trouble making it up their hill even though the sun had not melted it all off. I want to share a few more pictures. Recently Lisa was hired as middle school and high school track coach at Sophie's school. It's a dream come true for her and something she has worked very hard toward. I'm very, very proud of her. Here's a picture with some of her track kids on her birthday last Wednesday. Can you even figure out which one is the 43-year-old coach??
Jeremy was hired by Moso Graphics in Portland, OR two years ago. He has been going out there from DC monthly and has grown the company and risen up through the ranks to the top. The name has been changed to Moso Retail Environments. At some point this year we will lose our boy to the west coast and that makes me both sad and happy. We're so proud of his talent and work ethic. Here's a picture from Furniture Market in Las Vegas last week.
Today he and Mike are on their way to Tampa for a few days, and I feel jealous. One of their friends is getting married this weekend. They will (hopefully) arrive in time to watch Sophie participate in the first middle school track meet this afternoon. How I would love to be there too! Have a good rest of the week!
So here's the rest of the story! And it's long, and there will be lots of pictures! I finished my last post with the story of arriving in San Diego and discovering, to my surprise, that I would be there by myself. After a very frustrating day of travel and a walk in the pouring rain to reach my taxi, I was so happy to arrive at the hotel Lori had booked for me, the beautiful, historic Lafayette Hotel. This was the first thing I saw as I entered the front door. Not your typical modern hotel!
First of all I took my things to my room. That bed looked very inviting, but....
....I was HUNGRY, realizing it was still early evening due to the time change. So I went downstairs to take more pictures and to get a meal in the restaurant.
Only a few of us eating at that hour on a Sunday evening.
There was a beautiful patio and pool outside - in the rain. I had the greatest conversation with the manager. He said that his wife was currently visiting with her parents in Lititz, PA (!!) and that his daughter was a very good volley ball player, a sophomore in high school. Recently two coaches from Penn State had come to watch her play!! What a small world!
Lots of quaint seating areas.
It felt so strange to be so far away all by myself. My whole life and focus is around family. It felt like a waste of time to be in such a wonderful place without Dick or any of our children or grandchildren or my siblings. I wished my plane had not been able to leave State College airport either. I woke up by 5 am, which at home would have been 8 am. I decided to keep my watch set to Eastern time, but of course, my phone automatically updated to Pacific time. The forecast on TV did not sound much different at all from ours at home! Rain, cool temps, even winter storm warnings for the mountains! I caught this glimpse out my window of the sun making a valiant effort to shine through the clouds.
I went downstairs for breakfast and more picture-taking. This was my view of the pool from my table.
It was so very cool and cloudy (mid-fifties), so the pool did not look at all inviting. But what a great place it must be in their normally warm weather.
This big room was a busy place during my short stay - apparently a popular venue for meetings and events.
Out the front door.
I walked outside to take pics of the hotel. Brrrr. I needed a coat!
I decided that I really needed an umbrella if I was going to go see anything. So I got an Uber ride to Target. I was fascinated with the houses on top of cliffs. My driver was very talkative and informative. He kept telling me which direction we were going, and what things were where, etc.
At Target I couldn't find an umbrella, so I asked an employee. She said, "We're all sold out." She went on to explain that with all the rain they'd been having, and then the women's march on top of it, the umbrellas had all been sold and she doubted if I would find one anywhere around!!!!
Well. It was the biggest Target I had ever seen. An entire grocery store and then a second floor above it. So I spent lots of time just browsing, getting myself a warmer outfit, some food for my room, going outside when the rain stopped to check out what other stores were in the outdoor mall next to it (mostly a lot of cell phone service stores and empty stores.) I even ate an early dinner in their cafe - Pizza Hut pizza and bread sticks.
As I waited for my Uber ride outside it was getting dark and there was the tiniest hint of a sunset.
My driver checked with me to be sure where he was taking me, and I affirmed that it was the Lafayette Hotel on El Cajon. Except I pronounced it the way it looks to me - El KAY-jen. He said, "You're joking, right?" I laughed and said, "No. So how do you say it around here?" He informed me it was El Ke-HOON. Although later I heard other people say El Ke-HONE. Whatever. I was way off, hahahaha!!
I spent the rest of the day in my room. I had plenty of food and ice water and TV and my phone and updating my blog, which always takes so much longer on my phone than on the computer. I sat so much my hips got tired of sitting!
I was up way early again Tuesday morning. I knew I had to go somewhere to see something that day! The weather still did not look promising. My friend Margie in Tucson had given me some suggestions. She told me I just had to see the Pacific Ocean and eat some local seafood. So I obeyed, haha!! In the late morning I got an Uber ride to Point Loma Seafoods for an early lunch. Yumm!
The cafe was right on the marina and this was my view as I ate. Sometimes the skies got dark and it poured, then the sun would make an appearance!
After a long leisurely lunch I went outside, the sun came out, and I walked up to the upper deck for pictures.
I had not expected San Diego to be so hilly.
Then I took Margie's suggestion and got a ride to Point Loma Lighthouse. I discovered that it actually was in a national park, Cabrillo National Monument, named for a Spanish explorer. I had no idea what a treat was in store for me!
For an hour or two the sun was out in all its glory. I had views of the bay on one side of the hill and views of the ocean on the other. It totally satisfied my soul and made the entire trip worth it all. Here's a map to give you an idea where I was. That peninsula on the left - I was down at the very tip of it.
I could not stop taking pictures. I'm sharing a lot of them here, but not nearly all.
Across the bay is the Naval Air Station North Island.
The old lighthouse was up on top of a hill. There was a paved road I could have walked up to get to it, but without an umbrella, I didn't trust doing that. When it started pouring later I was glad I had not.
This was the information center.
Helicopters all the time.
Just to prove I was really there!
An aircraft carrier.
A submarine.
Then I walked to the other side to see the ocean. I had never seen the Pacific Ocean before. In fact, I haven't seen any ocean since our cruise a couple of years ago, so I was in awe. The sight and the sound was so powerful. I took this video so I could remember the sound.
And here are just some of the pictures. I couldn't stop taking them!
I wished I were here with Dick and we would have had a car to drive down there. There are trails to walk much closer to the water all throughout the park.
I think the power and majesty of the ocean is as close to God's as it gets.
When my Uber driver picked me up she was exclaiming about the rainbow, which I had not seen from where I was waiting for her in the rain. I caught glimpses of it as we drove away. She even pulled over several times so I could get pictures.
Amy was a hoot. We talked and talked. I found out she was from Kansas and had moved here a number of years ago to attend ministry school. She met her husband here. Her parents had been foster parents and she adopted one of her parents' foster daughters - a 16 year old! We had so much in common, and could have talked all evening, and sometimes her talking interfered a bit with her driving, haha! On the way she got a notice to pick someone else up at the airport. When that lady got in she told us she had come to San Diego to be with her daughter who was having a birthday the following day. WELL! My daughter's birthday was the next day too (Lisa's.) So we had fun with that connection. It was the most fun ride and we got back to my hotel way too soon.
Here's Amy, the driver. And a faint sighting of the rainbow through the window.
Back at the hotel I got a good steak salad for dinner in the restaurant.
The next morning I was up in the wee hours and was picked up by a cab at 4:45 AM for the airport. My driver was a woman, but definitely not an Amy! First off the car reeked of smoke. On the way to the airport we had to wait for a train to cross. She warned me that it's a long one - takes 20 minutes sometimes! I wasn't worried because I knew we had plenty of time. But I was annoyed when she said, "No offense, but the only time I don't mind waiting on the train is when my meter is running." I said, "Oh dear. Am I getting charged by the minute?" She said, "No, by every 45 seconds." GRRR. I should have called for an Uber, but the hotel person had told me they would call a cab for me. They probably get some kind of perk from the taxi cab company.
The fun wasn't over yet. When I went through security there were no bins to put things into. Everyone was just putting their belongings right on the conveyor belt. Then I was, for whatever reason, chosen for a pat down. After that I went to pick up my stuff and discovered that my driver's license was no longer in the outside pocket of my purse where I had put it with my phone and boarding pass. The security guy looked around for it, but couldn't find it. I was horrified! Then a guy who had also just been patted down said, "What's that on the floor?" There it was on the floor under the scanner. That was enough fun for one day already.
And the rest of the day was quite uneventful, thankfully. Well, except for my seat mate. More about him later. I had a window seat on the trip from San Diego to Philadelphia.
Good-bye, San Diego!
I could see land for a really long time. I wished there were markings down there like maps have, so I could have known where we were. I was intrigued by the sand formations here. This was probably Arizona.
Now about my seat mate. He was about my age, dressed in a very nice suit. He had the aisle seat, I had the window seat, and there was no one between us. He had already claimed that seat for his back pack, and before long he also claimed the middle tray table for his cup and trash. HIS tray table was for his iPad, of course. No problem. Until he fell asleep and snored away for an hour or so. I needed to go the bathroom, but I waited until the drink cart came through again and wakened him. I told him I was really sorry, but I needed to get out to go the the restroom. He gathered all his stuff together, put up the two tray tables, stood up, and let me out. But when I came back he had put that middle tray table down again and his stuff on it. Didn't he think I might be coming back???? He got up, but I had to pick up his stuff and put that middle tray table up, and in the process of plunking down into my seat I spilled some of his water right onto my crotch. He didn't even apologize, probably didn't even notice. Never said one word to me on the whole entire flight. I didn't like him one little bit, hahahaha!
Here are some Philadelphia views as we were coming in.
I had a nice long time there to get something to eat and charge my phone. The worst ride of the day was on the small, shaky, noisy, unheated little plane from Philadelphia to State College. But thankfully it was short - an hour or less. I took pictures as we went.
This is probably a view of the Susquehanna River north of Harrisburg.
Snow on a mountain.
And our town of Bellefonte.
Dick was at the airport to pick me up and I was soon home. I texted Lori and Anthony, "I'm HOME!" Lori texted back, "Awesome. Welcome back! Now make us some food!" (followed by a laughing emoji) Anthony texted, "WHAT ARE WE PAYING YOU FOR???? Just kidding!" I texted back, "Apparently to travel the world and tell good stories and take great pictures!"
Now that wouldn't be a bad job, would it? But I'd rather not do it alone next time.
