Black Friday

Not even thinking about the US Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday I planned our weekly grocery trip for yesterday on our return trip from Palm Dessert.

Just as an aside, Thanksgiving with hubby’s cousin, his wife, their three daughters and families, along with hubby’s other cousin and his wife from Alberta, Canada was a real hoot! It was great to have a big family holiday and also catch up, as we hadn’t seen our hosts since 1979 … although it did seem like just yesterday that we had visited. Yesterday morning hubby and his cousins worked on building a BBQ on a trailer … long story and one for his blog … oh wait, he doesn’t have one, but they had fun while the ladies drove through the El Paseo shopping district and then walked up to a garage sale.

I also spent about half an hour watching this little fellow at the bougainvillea beside the pool before he finally posed for me.

Hummingbird

But now back to my original story, shortly before noon we headed out to do our grocery shopping and other errands before making the 50-minute drive back to our RV Park at Rancho California. I was dreading this because I hate crowds and wasn’t much interested in any Black Friday deals … it’s hard to get excited about shopping when I have nowhere to put it, and hubby likes it that way:-)  Well I have to say we didn’t see any crowds, the mall parking lots had many empty parking spaces, Costco was no worse than a normal Saturday, and the restaurant was busy but no wait and great service. All in all, just another normal shopping day, although we did get our favorite bottle of wine for $5.99 instead of the normal $7.99 so I’m happy we went Black Friday shopping … and yes we did buy more than one bottle of wine … I had to, the price was to good, and that’s the story I’m sticking to:-)

We stopped for lunch at a place called Burgers and Beer and it was great. Normally we don’t do burgers in the states because they come dry with mustard and ketchup on the side, but this restaurant serves their burgers with a condiment tray.

We stopped for lunch at a place called Burgers and Beer and it was great. Normally we don’t do burgers in the states because they come dry with mustard and ketchup on the side, but this restaurant serves their burgers with a condiment tray.

Hot peppers, pickles, and pickled carrots. Along with burger sauce, mayo, mustard, and ketchup.

The food, service, and beer was excellent and just what we needed to fortify ourselves for our drive home.

Until next time …

Happy US Thanksgiving

Okay so I’m a day late with that wish:-)

Yesterday we drove to Palm Dessert, less than an hour from our RV Park, to spend Thanksgiving with hubby’s cousin and his family. Rather than take the interstate we chose to take Highway 74, also known as the Pines to Palms highway, through the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains.

The route starts a few hundred feet above sea level to over 5,000 feet and passes through a series of areas preserved for wildlife. Although we didn’t see any wildlife the drive was very pretty and it was interesting to see how the topography changed as we got higher into the mountains.

The road is windy and there were a few times when I was looking down into deep canyons but there are many places to pull off to enjoy the views or allow cars to pass.  Just as we were getting close to our destination we rounded the corner and were treated to a stunning view of Palm Dessert.

In the picture above you can see how the road twists down the mountain with many hairpin turns to take you to the dessert floor, but I think this picture really gives you the idea 🙂

And I will leave you with a picture of a plaque at the viewpoint … I love what it is says!

Until next time …

Life Is Good :-)

This morning I woke up to an email from our daughter saying “SNOW”. She went on to tell me they had about eight inches and it was still coming down, heavy wet stuff, which isn’t the best snow. After twenty minutes of cleaning off her car, at 5:00 a.m. so that she could go to the gym, she got as far as the main intersection when the car spun around on the ice. Now being the smart daughter I raised she turned around and went home … I say the smart daughter I raised because if she had taken after hubby, or her brothers, she probably would have carried on! But no, my smart daughter went home and spent a more enjoyable morning with four excited children until 7:30 a.m. when they where finally finished breakfast and ready for school and could then go out and play in the snow until it was time to go.

Now I have to admit all this information made me more than a little homesick, especially because I love snow at Christmas time and despite our neighbours all decorating for Christmas I have a hard time getting into the spirit without snow and family around.

But I’ll move on to the reason why there is a picture of roses with my story of snow … After breakfast hubby and I sat outside with our coffee while reading our on-line news site from home. There were several stories about cars in the ditch, houses without power, etc. So I did the only thing I could, cut new roses from our garden for inside Maxx, and rubbed it in to those at home that we were going to the pool this afternoon!

Life has settled into a routine here, every morning after breakfast hubby goes up to the clubhouse for a few hours to use the internet to work on his music library. Sometimes I go, but more often than not I stay behind and enjoy reading my book in the sun or watching all those HGTV shows that I haven’t seen for a long time. I feel like hubby is going to work and I’m lazing around but I’m okay with that … plus the other thing you have to realize is that we have pretty well being together non stop for the past year so a little alone time is not a bad thing for either of us.

So this morning hubby got on his bike and I wish him a good day at work, told him to have a safe drive and finished my coffee. I started to pull out my book but decided it would be more fun to take pictures of the flowers around our site.

Sweet Pea Bush … I’ve never seen one of these at home.

I didn’t notice how many aphids where on this bush until I looked at the pictures.

Pansy and Alyssum … I can smell the alyssum inside Maxx 🙂

I love all the Bougainvillea plants in the southern US.

As I sat down to write this blog I decided today was just to nice a day to light my winter candle so I swapped it for a lilac candle and tried to pretend it was summer rather than Christmas coming up. Stay safe and warm family and friends in Canada, I love and miss you all 🙂

Until next time …

Goodbye Las Vegas

We had a fun time in Las Vegas and now we are back at our California home in Temecula. We spent two nights at The Carriage House, which is just off the strip by Planet Hollywood. We chose this location because hubby’s cousin was staying there and we had a full kitchen so we were able to have breakfast in our room. I hate searching for a restaurant for breakfast and it was nice to be able to pack a lunch for our days out of the city. Our last two nights were spent at The D where my brother-in-law gave us one of his free rooms 🙂  It was fun to stay on Fremont Street and spend some time with my sister.

My sister was playing in El Cortez Invitational Slot Tournament and we were able to go and cheer her on, although I’m not sure we brought her any luck 😦  She was in third place before we started showing up and then her luck turned, but she did win a $50.00 door prize.

The drive home was long because we had to stop for groceries, but we did score our cheapest fuel yet at Costco in Temecula, $3.339 per gallon, which works out to $.96 CND per litre!

We woke up to rain this morning, which is good since California is suffering from a severe drought, but it didn’t last and then the sun cam out and we were able to get back into shorts and T-shirts.

Until next time …

Hoover Dam – Part 2

When you drive down to the dam you will come across several pay parking lots but you can drive over the dam and up the hill to many free parking lots. A short walk down the stairs takes you to the dam. We spent a lot of time walking across the dam on both sides and checking out the sights. Hubby really enjoyed this, I found it interesting but the height and massive structures kinda scare me … but I did enjoying taking pictures 🙂

 

Originally the dam was named Boulder Dam; in September 1930 the dam was renamed in honor of president Herbert Hoover.

After returning to the truck we drove further up the road and found a World War II pillbox tucked up in the hills. The pillbox was constructed in 1942 and troops were stationed there throughout the war to protect the dam from attack.

World War II Pillbox

While taking the picture of the pillbox I caught sight of a Mountain Sheep 🙂

Can you find him in this picture? They sure blend into the hills!

Until next time …

Hoover Dam – Part 1

After checking out Lake Mead we drove onto Hoover Dam. Near the turn off there is a parking lot on the right where you can park and walk across the bridge on US 93 where you will get a great view of Hoover Dam.

Hoover Dam with a silhouette of the bridge.

The road into Hoover Dam was the original route of US 93. In 2010 the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge was open, which allowed previously banned commercial traffic to once again use US 93. Commercial traffic was banned on US 93 after September 11, 2001 due to security concerns. As a snowbirder with a 36 foot fifth wheel I think the new bridge was a good move since US 93 through the Hoover Dam was a narrow, twisty drive … although driving over the dam itself is fun but I enjoyed it more without Maxx behind us 🙂

This is a good indication of how windy the road was.

The bridge, which took five years to build, is 880 feet (268 m) above the river and 280 feet (85 m) above the dam; 30,000 cubic yards of concrete and 16,000,000 pounds of steel where used to make the bridge.

The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge

Mike O’Callaghan was a former Nevada governor and Executive Editor of the Las Vegas Sun. Pat Tillman was an Arizona Cardinal football player who joined the army and was killed in Afghanistan. Both died in the spring of 2004.

I will have to post the rest of this story tomorrow cause its time to go do fun Las Vegas stuff 🙂

Until next time …

Lake Mead

The other day we made a trip out to Lake Mead, something we have always wanted to do but have never found the time. It is an easy 40 minute drive from our hotel and we enjoyed the trip.

When the Hoover Dam was completed Lake Mead was created. Lake Mead is 112 miles (180 km) long when the lake is full, however the lake hasn’t been full since 1983. You can see in the picture below that the RV Park and Marina, which were once on the water, are now a long way from the beach.

Lake Mead has 759 miles (1,221 km) of shoreline and its 532 feet (162 m) at greatest depth (although I bet that was before the drought hit and the water level dropped! And another interesting tidbit I found on Wikipedia “At the bottom of the lake is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress that crashed in 1948 while testing a prototype missile guidance system known as “suntracker”. The wreckage of at least two smaller airplanes are also within Lake Mead.”

Originally all you could see were the very tips of these islands so they appeared to be separate. Now with the water so low they are all joined together and look like one big island.

I will leave you with these pictures, which I took at the Visitors Information Booth.

And this picture which I took at the freeway exit when exiting to our hotel.

This was taken at a freeway exit … I love how Las Vegas decorates with zero scape landscape!

Until next time …

Neon Museum

Yesterday morning we arrived in Las Vegas just in time to attend a brunch for hubby’s cousin and his wife who were celebrating their 40^th wedding anniversary. We had a great time catching up with hubby’s relatives from BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and California but his cousin also had a big surprise for everyone who attended … we were all invited to attend his son’s wedding later that afternoon! A surprise wedding with dinner following what fun, and fun it was!

Today we spent the day at Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam (more in coming blogs) before heading off to the Neon Museum for the 5:30 p.m. tour of the boneyard. I chose this time since it would be dark and the signs would be lit up and I’m glad I did. Many of the old signs don’t light up but there are some that do so it was worth going after dark and the guided tour provided the stories behind the signs, which was very interesting.

Signs from Fremont Street

The original sign from the Golden Nugget. The blob above the word “Golden” was a nugget. 1905 was the year Las Vegas was founded.

Signs from the Strip

The first sign to have a reader board.

After our tour we met up with my sister and brother-in-law for some catching up and also to pick up our mail, which they brought down with them. Most of our mail comes electronically but it’s still fun to go through the stuff that doesn’t … especially because it’s not bills 🙂

Until next time …

Mojave Desert

Yesterday we left our California home at 5:00 a.m. and made an early morning drive through the Mojave Desert on our way to Las Vegas. By the time the sun came up we had made it through the LA area and continued on I-15 through the desert enjoying the scenery and the abundance of Joshua Trees.

What?? How in the world do you pronounce the name of this road?

The Mojave Desert is the driest and smallest of the North American deserts and is considered a rain shadow desert because the mountains surrounding it block precipitation. The former community of Bagdad, California once went an incredible 767 days without a drop of rain.

We made a washroom stop in Baker, California and saw the world’s tallest thermometer. When I saw the thermometer I thought is was neat but I didn’t realize it had this title or that it was famous until I was reading about the Mojave Desert on the internet … thus the reason I didn’t take a picture. I did read that the thermometer was responsible for capturing the highest temperature ever recorded in North America, 57ºC in 1913!

We came over a small hill and saw this sight.

Ivanpah Solar Farm

Hubby knew right away that it was a mirror farm, probably from all those Discovery Channel shows that he watches and that I fall asleep to:-)  A quick search of the internet showed we had passed the Ivanpah Solar Farm whose 170,000 mirrors power 140,000 homes in California.

There are three 450-foot towers with massive boilers at their tops. The boilers are the point where the sunlight from the mirrors is focused. When the boilers are turned on the intense heat from the sun turns water in steam, which runs the turbines and creates electricity … pretty amazing!

Shortly after the solar farm we could see the Nevada state border. It wasn’t hard to tell it was there since there was nothing but desert and then abruptly a line of casinos 🙂

Until next time …

Las Vegas

We are headed to Las Vegas tomorrow for the fourth time in a one-year period. Do we really like Las Vegas you might ask …. Well it is fun to visit but not four times in a year! So why are we going again?

Last winter we spent a week in Vegas because it was the first warm place, with no snow, that we hit after heading south for the winter. Our next trip was in February when we drove up from Yuma to see my sister and brother-in-law. This summer we joined our three children and their spouses/fiancés to celebrate our oldest sons wedding. On Sunday we will make the four and a half hour drive to Vegas to meet up with my sister and brother-in-law again along with some of hubby’s cousins. I guess there are worse places to meet up with family 🙂

Until next time …