Remembrance Day 2018

Our son asked us last year how we got our poppies every year … you notice he didn’t say do you wear poppies in the states, he knew we would 🙂 It was a good question because of course poppies are not a thing in the US. American’s recognize Veterans Day on November 11^th but I don’t think it is as big a deal as it is in Canada. However nobody can say the Americans do not celebrate their Veterans, they do, at every turn and I think it’s great, I wish we could see more of that at home!

But back to how we get our poppies. Poppies do not go on sale in Canada until the last Friday in October and we are usually long gone by then. Poppies are free but donations are gratefully accepted. The poppies are a red, plastic lined, felt flower with a black center and a straight pin. They are meant to be worn the way they are sold, but people will often attach them with a small Canadian flag so they are more secure.

In 2014 and 2016 we were home for Remembrance Day and knowing we would most likely not be there in following years we gave a very generous donation for two poppies, and wear them proudly while we are south for the winter. Of course when you wear them as they are intended they often fall off, although I secure mine with a rubber earring back which works great. 🙂  Last year hubby’s fell off on November 10th^h and he had to go without on Remembrance Day. I was able to get our daughter to make a donation for us and get us a few more poppies, which we used this year.

So you may wonder where the donated money goes?

The money collected provides financial assistance and support to Veterans, including Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP, and their families who are in need. Definitely a worthy cause so we have always generously donated.

Please spend some time today, whether you are Canadian or American, to remember our veterans and currently serving members. Honor their courage, service and sacrifices that have kept us strong, proud and free.

Hubby and I will be thinking of our son, who is a veteran of two tours in Afghanistan, and our daughter-in-law who stands proudly at his side. Today our son dons his dress uniform and attends services with his wife and children, which is followed up with a visit to the legion remembering and celebrating the friends he lost. Our daughter-in-law drops off their two children with her mother after the ceremony and then also heads to the legion to ensure our son gets home safely … I love her for that!

Some people wonder … if they have made a difference in the lives of others…. A soldier never has to!

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Back In Yuma :-)

We pulled up stakes and left Palm Desert yesterday. We had an awesome time visiting with family, spent many evenings enjoying the mineral water in the hot tubs, and managed to get a few chores done. Our main purpose when we are in Palm Desert is to visit with hubby’s cousins but hubby always likes to wash Maxx when we are there because the water is so good, but something has changed and the water is now terrible! He did wash the truck and half of Maxx but will have to do it all again 😦

It’s nice to be back among the veggie fields!

On our way down Highway 86 just before Borrego Springs we noticed the semi we were following was all over the road. Just as I was picking up my phone to call it in the semi rear-ended the car in front of him and he just happen to do it behind a police officer sitting in his vehicle on the side of the road. Hubby had been debating whether to pass the semi but didn’t feel like it would be safe to do so … good decision as that would have been Maxx he rear-ended! Fortunately nobody was hurt, but both the car and semi sustained a lot of damage. Two nights ago hubby and I were driving back from Morena Valley when we saw a cloud of dust up ahead and it turned out a semi had gone off the road in the other lane and hit the rock wall. We were also stopped on I-10, on our way out to Morena Valley, for over an hour because of something happening on the interstate … hopefully that was our three, because you know the saying, things come in threes!

We are settled into our site in Yuma for three months and looking forward to catching up with our winter friends 🙂

This field is ready for planting. You will be able to follow it’s progress as I will post pictures as it grows.

Until next time …

A California Sunset

We had a very busy day yesterday running errands and doing some other chores, but I’m sure you all had your own busy days so you don’t need to hear all about mine 🙂 So instead I will share last nights sunset pictures with you … it was a beaut!

Until next time …

Well I’m Glad We Got That Sorted Out!

Holly, our GPS, and I had a pretty big disagreement yesterday morning and it took a lot of negotiating but we finally came to a resolution. Holly wanted to take us out to I-5 and through the Los Angeles area on our way to Palm Desert, I, for what I think are pretty obvious reasons … TRAFFIC … didn’t want anything to do with that plan! I thought we should take Highway 43 down to Bakersfield, I-58 to Victorville, and then make our way into Palm Desert. So in order to try and convince her I started adding small towns along Highway 43 as waypoints thinking she would get the hint, but she was stubborn and wasn’t having anything to do with that. So hubby drove along and ignored her while I gave him directions from our map book. It took about half an hour before she finally gave up on I-5 and LA but then she was pretty focused on I-99. Hubby doesn’t like I-99 because it’s concrete and very rough and we have used Highway 43 before and knew it was a nice smooth two lane highway … much more relaxing. That ensued another half hour of ignoring her until we finally got close to Bakersfield and she finally gave in, although I had to make a small concession and take a different turn into Victorville, but I felt I could concede on that point. After an hour of bickering and ignoring her, Holly and I both calmed down and we got along for the rest of the day. Just goes to prove you still need to travel with paper maps and double check your GPS routes.

Highway 43, isn’t it a nice road? And hardly any traffic!

And I-58 … why would we want to drive through LA traffic? The traffic once we joined I-10 in Morena Valley was bad enough without adding LA to the mix!

And that was pretty much our day. With a few stops for road construction we had seven hours of driving, which is more than double what we usually do, so by the time we checked into the RV Park in Desert Hot Springs we were ready to have dinner, go up to the hot tub, and then headed off to bed.

Until next time …

A Ho Hum Day

I really have no pictures or any interesting news to share of our day yesterday. It was a four hour drive mostly on I-5, so pretty boring. We spent the night in the parking lot at Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California. No trick or treaters at our door but there were some interesting costumes in the casino.

I did take this picture of a palm which I thought looked like it had just been dropped there … okay I was desperate for at least one picture to share with you 🙂

Today we are off to Desert Hot Springs to visit with family and do a little sight seeing.

Until next time …

A Day In Napa, California

We didn’t have much on the agenda today so we thought we would visit Napa again. We had been here four years ago in October 2014 shortly after the earthquake damage in August of the same year.   I thought it would be interesting to see the progress on fixing the damage.  My original blog about the earthquake damage can be found by clicking on this link.

I think this building had the most dramatic change!

There are now a lot of extra floors on this building!

It was nice to see the damage to this building was repaired.

I wanted to see how the damage to the post office building was progressing and I had some postcards to mail to our grandchildren so that was our next stop on the picture tour.

The Post Office Building two months after the earthquake in 2014

The Post Office Building today. A local told us that this will be a boutique hotel and no longer the Post Office.

When I mailed the postcards, at what is now the post office across the street,  I noticed a bar/pool hall that had 90 beers on tap. So I jokingly said to hubby, whom I thought wasn’t enjoying my walking tour of Napa, that we could stop for a beer. Yup day two and WRONG again, I thought he would totally foo foo the idea 🙂  Nope he was all into it! They had so many good beers on tap that I had a hard time getting him out of there, but we added a few more tasty beers to our list of favourites.

Honestly that little respite worked for me because during that time I was getting texts from our daughter who was spending her day in emergency with one of our grandsons and I was feeling very guilty because I wasn’t there to support her.  I think all mothers can relate to this, it doesn’t matter how old your children are as a mother you hurt when they hurt. The whole time all that was going through my mind was how I should be there to help her, and to hug my grandson 😦

I was ready to be on the next plane home but honestly I had to give my head a shake, our grandson has a mother who is so capable of looking after him and she probably doesn’t need her mother looking after her. Or that’s what I told myself to get through it.

A great view for beer tasting!

By the end of the day our grandson had been sent home and while I still hurt for his pain I know our daughter is a great mother and doing everything she can for him … and that is what I have to focus on!

Until next time …

A Day In San Francisco

Last time we were in this area, four years ago, we took our bikes on the ferry from Sausalito to Fisherman’s Warf and then rode over the Golden Gate Bridge back to Sausalito; you can read about that trip here. It was a trip of a lifetime and the memories will stick with us always, but this time we thought we would spend some time at Fisherman’s Wharf. We have done Lombard Street, Alcatraz, Coit Tower, Golden Gate Park, and the Cable Cars on previous trips, this time we were more interested in San Francisco from the water and hubby wanted a really good seafood lunch.

After some research hubby decided we should take the ferry from Vallejo, California, a half hour drive from our RV Park, to the Ferry Terminal in downtown San Francisco. The cost was $58.40 return for the two of us but we felt it was totally worth it.

When we arrived in Vallejo we had a hard time finding parking as all the ferry terminal lots were full, we finally found a spot at the boat launch parking lot. It turned out parking for the day was only $5.00 in this lot, $2.00 cheaper than all the others and it was only a short walk to the ferry. By the time we found parking it was 9:45 and the ferry left at 10:00 so when someone in line told us we could buy tickets onboard, rather than going a little further to the ferry terminal, we jumped in line to board. Yup that was bad advice!  We had to run back to the terminal to buy our tickets and the ferry was leaving in nine minutes, but we made it so all was good. For the ferry and parking it cost $63.40 and I’m sure it would have cost us more than that for fuel, tolls, and parking if we had driven into San Francisco. Plus this was more fun, less stress, and we had great views.

Leaving Vallejo harbour

The ferry turned on the power once it was out of the Vallejo harbour!

This house is all alone on an island in the middle of the bay. A long boat ride if you run out of milk!

 

An hour after we left Vallejo we arrived at the Ferry Terminal in downtown San Francisco.

First view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

  We quickly found the Cable Car station and boarded for what we thought would be our trip over to Fisherman’s Wharf. The last time we were in San Francisco we were able to get on and off the cars but this time it was $7.00 for the two of us one way, no on and off.

It always amazes me that the cable cars can go up and down these hills!

And wrong again! It turns out the Cable Car we got on only went up the road and back so, with some advice from the conductor, we left the Cable Car at the end of it’s route and headed out on foot. This actually turned out to be okay, it was only a couple of miles and we walk through some nice residential areas.

The weather was absolutely perfect, warm and sunny and we had a great time wandering around Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39.

 

I thought this octopus was cute 🙂

Can you believe I waited this long to include a Seagull picture? I really had to hold myself back coming down the Oregon coast!

When we were in San Francisco the first time the seals were all over the wharf’s, now they are confined to a section that is left floating off the end of Pier 39.

Hubby got his seafood lunch, I had chicken, we wandered some more and then it was time to catch the ferry back to Vallejo. We chose to catch the 3:10 p.m. ferry because it left from Pier 39 before sailing over to the Ferry Terminal downtown and then onto Vallejo.

Alcatraz

We had a great day and highly recommend using the ferry!

Until next time …