Another Date with the Twins!

On the beach at Oceanside, CA, March 20, 2010

Monday, March 15

So we made it back to Southern California to deliver Sierra Jones (our step-granddaughter) and to help take care of those darling twins, Jack and Justin, and visit the rest of the Jones'. Their Grandma Alice, Polly's mom, who has done the lioness' share of the childcare, wouldn't be leaving until March 19, so we had a few uncommitted days while Liz spent the week with Sierra, Casey and the "cul-de-sac kids." We had planned to take Buster in for his body work (we'd been trying to get it done since November), but this time it was all lined up with Temecula RV. They even had insurance company checks in hand. We spent Monday cleaning and organizing Buster, sorting what we might need or want for the next 2+ weeks, and on Tuesday, March 16, we dropped Buster off a few days early. It turned out that was very fortuitous, as they actually weren't completely done until March 27!

We weren't sure where we could stay, and actually tried to exchange some RCI timeshare points at the last minute, and then I recalled how my good friends Kathy and Jim Dexter have a wonderful condominium on the beach at Oceanside. I tracked them down (they were vacationing with their family at NorthStar in the Sierras), and after turning down our offer to rent the condo, graciously invited us to be their guests.

So we motored down to Oceanside (only about 45 minutes from Polly's) after dropping Buster off, and negotiated a very secure set of entry codes and locks .... all of which was more than worth the drill. Behold:

We had absolutely the best time. Gary and I realized it was the first time we had some time to ourselves since we left on the trip (as Liz says: "We're all together all the time ... 24/7!") Kathy and Jim's condo is divine .... as Gary calls it, "the little jewel." Kathy is an interior designer and the attention to beautiful, fine detail is everywhere. There are two lovely bedrooms and bathrooms, a beautifully outfitted kitchen, flat screen, and, that beautiful view.

We tended to SOME business (we did our taxes one day and sent them off to our accountant in St. Paul ..... I felt, I believe appropriately, very proud of having or being able to obtain online all the documents we needed FROM THE ROAD!), but were able to walk to the Nautical Bean for coffee, work on the blog a bit, walk down to the pier and have dinner, and watch some movies we'd been wanting to. It was a great time.

We had invited Polly and Chris' gang to come down on Saturday, and we were able to go to Costco for our preparations: chips, salsa, sushi, chicken enchiladas, fruit, red velvet cake, and, of course, adult and children's beverages!

They all arrived on Saturday, March 20, and we really had a lovely day.

The older kids had fun playing in the water; it was NCAA basketball playoff time, and we were able to keep up with the various games' progress. Justin and Jack put their toes in the Pacific, held by their parents, for the first time.

Once again we were experiencing really great weather and were grateful for it! It was a beautiful day, all the way around.

Sunday, March 21

It took us most of Sunday morning to make sure Kathy and Jim's condo was in the pristine condition we found it in. We are SO appreciative of their generosity and hospitality. Liz, Sierra and Casey had stayed overnight with us at the condo, so they had a bit more beach time in the morning. We had lunch at In and Out, (a great drive-thru hamburger place in the west .... we are really missing out in Minnesota), and when we got back to Murrieta, Polly and Chris were at a neighborhood pool party. Ah, life in California! That evening we got caught up on our back Amazing Race episodes!

On Monday, March 22, we resumed our very amiable babysitting schedule. But this is the day I took the girls out to the Palm Springs Tramway (see Roots post). That evening Casey had a baseball game .... he loves it. He plays first base and pitches, and has developed a really nice swing. It was a VERY close game, with the lead changing several times. It was fun to watch.

On Tuesday, March 23, we did the home-schooling and babysitting in the morning, and when Polly got home after noon, I took the girls to the Temecula Historical Society museum. Chris' mom, Sue Blanch, works there and Sierra wanted to visit her Grandma. Her favorite thing is the dress up corner; the girls did have some fun there. Sue was happy to see us there!

On Wednesday, March 24, Casey and Sierra left to fly to Reno to meet their mom and her side of the family for a ski vacation in Tahoe. Liz was, understandably, quite sad; she loves being in a household with other kids and activity. We elected retail therapy: she has been growing so fast she really needed warm weather clothes. I had bought her some things at Target that week (really cute things in Liberty of London prints!), and we went to the Gap Outlet in Lake Elsinore. We had to work a little to figure out her current size, but once we did, she went to town. It perked her up considerably!

We once again fell into such a comfortable routine.

With all of our change every day on this trip, the routine was very welcome, at least to me. I suggested to Gary that maybe what we should do is retire early and move to Murrieta and help Polly and Chris for the next 5 years! I think I was in baby infatuation, but it is such a sweet environment. And watching Polly as a mom is fabulous; look at her playing the guitar and singing to her boys.

Polly and Chris finished up their term on Friday, March 26, and we made plans to spend our week-end out in the desert at Outdoor Resorts with Sherry and Marty Wieler (once again, see Roots!) We stayed out there through Monday, and as Polly and Chris were on their spring break, they came out for the day. Chris and Gary played a few holes of golf on their Executive course (isn't it lovely?) and the girls and the babies spent some time in the pool. Sherry and I put together a casual lunch, and a steak supper, and it was fun doing the prep work with her. It was fun to think how pleased our mothers would be to see us hanging out together and working on dinner some 50 years after they used to hang out and do the same thing!

The previous week we had left our Enclave, Bella, at Lake Buick in Lake Elsinore to have the headliner replaced .... I think I've talked about our roof leaking, and the water left quite a few unsightly marks. We called on March 12th for them to order the part, but the service manager was on vacation and they had to wait for approval (even though in February this was what was suggested). It came in the week of the 22nd, but ..... it was defective! They told us they would have one "overnighted", but after two more days they found out ..... it couldn't be overnighted .... it was too big. Wow! Were we frustrated. So after waiting from Monday to Thursday, March 29 to April 1, we finally decided to leave and get the headliner replaced someplace else (probably when we get home to Rochester).

The upside: we got some more time with Polly and Chris who were on their spring break, and Jack and Justin. We found our favorite puppet, Rasta' Man, which Gary used to "talk" to entertain Liz when she was a baby when we travelled, particularly on airplanes. Of course, he had to come on our Adventure, so Gary introduced him to Jack and Justin. They appeared to be underwhelmed.

Later, Polly indulged Gary's strong interest in feeding babies solid food for the first time. Justin and Jack were going to turn 5 months on April 4, so on the 1st, they got their first taste. It's so fun to see them sticking their tongues out and experiencing food for the first time.

April 1st also happened to be Polly and Chris' 6th anniversary, and Polly made us one of her special breakfasts. Chris is the proof that "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche" is a myth, as it is his favorite breakfast. Perfectly yummy! We had celebrated earlier with them at Claim Jumper, and we were all happy to bring the twins along for the occasion. Justin was sleeping, but Jack was (almost) sitting up and ordering!

Polly and Chris were so tolerant and flexible with our completely unpredictable schedule that week ("Are we leaving today? I don't know!"), and we appreciated it. We pulled away about noon (not without key misplacement, etc), and headed over to Ontario, my parents former home. (see Roots!)

The next day, we would start a very unique itinerary, planning our time carefully to see the most of the southwest, watching the weather and staying out of the snow and cold, and ending up in Las Vegas on May 5th for a long-anticipated adventure: an 8 day raft trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. We can't wait.

Love,

Julie, Gary and Liz

The Sprint South!

Mount Shasta, Saturday, March 13

If you've been following along, you'll remember that we had a time constraint on our adventure up the Pacific Coast. We left Murrieta, California on February 17, and we wanted to complete our visit along the Pacific Coast by March 11th, in order to drive to Ashland, Oregon, pick up Sierra Jones (our step-granddaughter) and take her with us back down to Murrieta so she

could spend her spring break with her Dad, Chris and Polly, Casey, and THE TWINS!

We still had one more place we wanted to see along the coast: Fort Clatsop, at the end of Lewis and Clark's journey and where they wintered over near the mouth of the Columbia River before returning to St. Louis.

So on Thursday, March 11, we planned to drive the 220+ miles down there, visit the site, and then drive toward Portland, where we would stay and then get a reasonable start the next morning for the 5 hour drive to Ashland. But .... one problem.

The driver's side slide (the moving side of our main room in the motorhome) got stuck open. No matter how he tried, Gary couldn't get that motor to work and bring it in. The passenger side slide worked fine. Obviously we couldn't drive with the side wall sticking out as we went down the road. At first he thought he/we could crank it in, but after moving it about 3 mm in 10 minutes, and then having it slip back, that seemed unlikely. He worked on it about 3 hours.

I went up to the office and obtained the name of an RV repair service: Sonny's. Gary called them and, very gratefully, they arrived within an hour. Tom was able to identify the problem in the electrical system, a solenoid, that was defective. He fiddled with it somehow, the slide came in, and we didn't put it out again until we got it back to the repair shop in Temecula. But we didn't drive away from Point Hudson RV Park in Port Townsend until 2 pm.

We had a relatively uneventful drive but, unfortunately, had to drive the last 50 or so miles on a narrow, curvy two lane road in the dark (Oregon 30). We were glad when we found the campground at Sunset Beach.

The Lewis and Clark National Historic Park opened at 8 am on Friday, March 12, and we were there when it opened. The story of the expedition is a wonderful one, and one of our favorites. We hope to trace more of their route later this spring when we get to Montana and Wyoming. At the museum they had "on this date, i.e. on March 11, 1805 ..... " whatever was going on on the expedition.

The expedition was so thrilled when they finally got to the headwaters of the Columbia, but as they neared the mouth, on November 7, 1805, they were very discouraged as the strong sea tides prevented them from making it out into the Pacific ocean. They had traveled 4000 miles across the North American continent with a contingent of 31 explorers, mostly U.S. Army enlisted men, known as the Corps of Engineers. It was getting cold, and they explored the north side of the river including Cape Disappointment before they voted to cross to the south side where game was reported to be more plentiful. It took them about a month to build this log shelter, now called Fort Clatsop after a local Indian tribe. This is a replica.

We spent about 1 1/2 - 2 hours there, bought a great DVD of Ken Burns telling the Lewis and Clark story and then headed south along the coast to Seaside and turned inland to Portland on Hwy 26. After 90 minutes or so we transitioned to Interstate 5 for the long drive south. The original pick up time for Sierra was 3:30, but everyone was fine with our pushing it back a couple of hours due to our major delay the day before.

We skirted Portland and headed south to Salem and then Eugene. It had started drizzling early in the morning, and continued raining most of the day. We were safe and warm in Buster, and reduced our speed just a bit to stay safe. After we passed Roseburg, heading for Grants Pass, we started climbing and as we went over Sexton Pass at 1,970 feet the rain turned to snow. I was anxious, but Gary said the road was never slippery, and after about 20 minutes, we descended and the rain returned. We were able to drive into Lithia Park in Ashland at 5:40, just 10 minutes past the appointed time. Sierra and her mom and little sister arrived just minutes later and we were happy we made the long anticipated connection so easily. But this was before daylight savings time and it was starting to get dark with the prospect of snow as we climbed the Siskiyou Mountains south of us. We decided to stay right there in Ashland, and found a nice little campground in Glenyan Park, near Emigrant Lake. We settled in for the night and oriented Sierra to life in the motorhome!

It made sense that if we had a shower of snow at 1,900+ feet, there would likely be quite a bit more at over 4,000 feet which was what we had to pass over in the Siskiyous. Indeed, when we awakened on Saturday morning, March 13, we saw snow quite low down the mountain, at the 2,000 foot mark or lower. The forecast, though, was encouraging: clearing, with a high temperature in the 40's. So we just decided to wait until late morning, and give the sun a chance to clear the road for us by melting the snow off. It worked.

We left Emigrant Lake about 11 o'clock am, and had a beautiful drive over the Siskiyous to Mt. Shasta, another dormant and beautiful volcano in the Cascade chain (see top photo). But no road trouble.

We stopped at the town of Mount Shasta Visitor Center, and while the girls and I got some lunch at a Kentucky Fried Chicken (have to admit we like it once in a while), Gary talked up the Visitor Center staff about the volcanic activity in the area including that of the smaller Black Butte, seen on the left. Lake Shasta is on the right.

We continued on down Interstate 5. We had wanted to stop in Sacramento and possibly call a couple of my high school friends or take in something educational, like Sutter's Mill, but with our late departure we arrived at the inopportune part of the day and we were preoccupied with making good time, and getting Sierra home as fast as possible. Plus we had a surprise in store for the next day. We camped at Flag City RV Park in Lodi which was perfect: right off the Interstate.

Sunday, March 14

We lost an hour overnight as this was the week-end of the daylight savings time change, but we wanted to get an early start. So Gary and I set the alarm, and simply slid in the side where the girls were sleeping up front, and took off while they slumbered .... about 6:15 am.

I, in particular, was so impressed with the green hills along Interstate 5 in central California. Usually these are quite brown, but the rains over the winter had really done their work.

We made very good time, arriving 320 miles down the road (with Buster) by 12:30 pm. And where were we? Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, the north end of the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. We knew that both Liz and Sierra loved roller coasters so we thought a treat at the end of all that driving would be nice.

They went straight to the biggest coaster they could see: Katsu, and had to wait nearly an hour in line for it, but they loved it. Then they road the Viper three or four times; Gary could only take it once (see photo on right). It turns you upside down 5 or 6 times. None of this, of course, affected their appetites!

They road the Scrambler and Deja Vu,

and we shut the place down at 7 p.m.

At first we thought we'd already done so much driving we'd stay there, and drive the rest of the way on Monday morning, but we had such a big diversion with the roller coaster park (full disclosure: I don't partake!), that we thought we'd just drive the final two hours, presuming that the LA freeways might be a little less busy on a Sunday evening. Only partially true .... we ran into some slow downs, but pulled into Polly and Chris' house about 9:45, and everyone was happy Sierra was home. And so were we.

We had a few more days until our babysitting assignment began, so we took a little break. Stay tuned for the next post!

Julie, Gary and Liz

The Pacific Coast: Washington

Roche Harbor, San Juan Island, Washington, 3/10/10

It was hard to say good-bye to our special cousins, Don and Doris Schuld, but League's Excellent Adventure was once again on the move. We finished up our laundry on Saturday morning, March 6, and headed north up Interstate 5. My cousin Don was his usual fun and generous self: he folded our dry laundry for us, and left a great red bandana in Gary's jeans. He also scattered peanut-granola bars in our laundry basket, and loaded us up with fabulous Hood River peaches, pears and apricots, and excellent chili. What a guy! He is very fond of trains, and has an enormous collection of train post cards. He mails them to friends and family, often reminding us of daylight savings time changes or, very thoughtfully, our birthdays.

We were heading toward Olympia, but first we had to cross the Columbia River into Washington. Here is the view from the highway bridge up the Columbia River with Mt. Hood in the background.

Shortly after you pass into Washington (our 40th state!) is the turnoff to go to the Mount St. Helen's Volcanic Monument Visitor Center. I think of Mount St. Helens as the volcano that has had the most eruptive effect in my lifetime in the US (perhaps not Alaska ... I don't know). But I do remember the reports from May 18, 1980, when a 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook Mount St. Helens triggering a massive explosion. I quote from the visitor's brochure: "The release of gases trapped inside the volcano sent 1,300 vertical feet of mountaintop rocketing outward to the north." Winds reached 670 miles per hour and temperatures 800 degrees Fahrenheit, which flattened 230 square miles of forest. "Fifty seven people were killed .... and the largest landslide in recorded history swept through the Toutle River Valley, choking pristine rivers and lakes with mud, ash and shattered timber, eradicating trout and salmon." The intervening years have seen further eruptions, as well as dome rebuilding. It is truly remarkable to see this big chunk of the mountain gone on the north side. This picture doesn't show that view (the road accesses the mountain from the west); it is a powerful sight!

The Visitor's Center was very interesting with beautiful exhibits explaining what happened that day in May, right afterwards and since. This time of year one can only go in as far as the Visitor's Center, but once the snow melts, exploration, camping, etc., resumes.

We turned off Interstate 5 at Olympia and were once again on US 101 (!) as it traveled along the west shore of the Hood Canal. We could see the peaks of the Cascades including Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Ranier, and Mt. Adams on our right, and the lovely Olympic Mountains guarding the Olympic Peninsula on our left. There's a reason so many people want to live in the Seattle/Puget Sound area! The picture on the right is across the Hood Canal looking northeast up toward the Puget Sound.

Our destination that evening was Port Townsend. Gary and I had taken a trip to this area to celebrate his 60th birthday. At that time I had scouted out what turned out to be a very nice Bed and Breakfast (you never really know until you get there!) in Port Townsend. As I assessed our RV park options this time, I thought that Point Hudson RV Park must be very close to that Commander's Beach House B & B ... it ended up being right adjacent! I didn't quite remember that there were RV's parked so close to the Commander's House, but Gary remembered it, and we think we might have said something like ... "We'll have to remember to come back here when we're on our big trip." Well, we didn't remember, but we got there anyway.

Here is the view out Buster's front window, as well as the plaque explaining some things about Point Hudson. It is right on the Strait of Juan de Fuca and is, really, a charming spot. Nearby Fort Flagler is the site where An Officer and a Gentleman (Richard Gere, Debra Winger) was filmed.

Sunday, March 7 was a down day. It was really nice because we didn't have to do laundry as we had done it at the Schulds. I worked on the blog, Gary puttered with fix-it items on Buster (always something to tweak), and Liz worked out A LOT on the Wii. We got the Wii as a family gift at Christmas time, and she has had fun doing boxing, marching as drum major, and improving her balance by sitting still and meditating! See Strait of Juan de Fuca outside her window!

On Monday, March 8, we ran into something that sometimes happens to us. We don't get as early a start as we should, and then we see we want to go farther than the day will allow. We did some school work in the morning, slept in a bit, and by the time we started our drive "to the Olympic Peninsula" it was after 1 pm. We don't really want to drive in the dark (what can you see?) and so by dusk we had only reached Forks, WA. We had driven along a lovely, huge lake, Lake Crescent (seen below from the north on the left and from the south the next day) and thought we would stay at the Lake Crescent Lodge for the night .... not open.

So we drove on, and even though we didn't have our pajamas or toothbrushes, we spent the night in Forks. We were eating supper at the pizza place, and on the table were laminated trivia questions from ..... TWILIGHT! For those of you who don't have teenage (or pre-teen girls), Twilight is a series of books about teen-agers and all their ups and downs complicated by the fact that the dreamy boy is a vampire. Two movies have been made, Twilight and New Moon, and apparently more are in the works. We hadn't let Liz watch these, as they sounded too scary, but she had been begging to ever since the second movie came out. So here we are wondering why there are all these trivia questions about this on our table and we figure it out: Twilight is SET in Forks, Washington. Subsequently we read that the author thought a brooding, gloomy, overcast, spooky kind of place would be right, and there is a lot of gloominess on the Olympic Peninsula. Anyway, we decided to explore Forks more the next day, probably on our way back to Port Townsend.

Tuesday, March 9 dawned in Forks, and it was only a little dreary. It was overcast and a little drizzly, but what else would one expect where you find a rain forest. After breakfast, we took a nice route (still on US 101 .... it crosses the north edge of the Olympic Peninsula, and goes south along the coast again!) and turned off into the Hoh Rain Forest. Huge Sitka Spruce and Cedar trees were seen. Can you imagine this spruce at over 270 feet tall!

Gary and Liz took a little hike and Liz wanted her photographic efforts duly recorded here. You can see the little mouse they saw (I actually can't believe she captured the little guy with the camera), an elk in the woods, and I wanted to show the interesting moss draped around.

We pressed on catching glimpses of mysterious coastline through the trees. I wanted to make it to Kalaloch, as south of there the road dips inland and away from the coast. Kalaloch, pronounced Clay-lock, is a lovely coastal village and, fortunately for us there was an Inn with a very nice dining room and we had the place all to ourselves with a table right by the window for our "luncheon" (to quote Gary). I actually remember stopping at the same spot, and browsing in the same gift store, on a driving trip I took by myself about 15 years ago. Here's the view on the right:

Unfortunately the views are not uniformly lovely. I remember being impressed by all the evidence of logging in the Olympic Peninsula when I made the previous driving trip. Some of it appears to have been done somewhat irresponsibly .... today there are signs indicating the 80+ year cycle of when it was last forested, re-planted, and when they predict recutting will take place.

At Kalaloch we turned around and retraced our steps. Liz couldn't wait to get back to Forks. I thought if we stopped at the Information Center we might find something interesting, and indeed we did. Liz had her picture taken with Edward, and we got a map directing us around town to all the notable spots including, from left to right, Bella's (Swan) house, the Forks High School, and the Cullen House where Edward lives with his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Carlisle Cullen.

We then, of course, made our way to Dazzled by Twilight, the HUGE souvenir store in Forks with more Twilight memorabilia that can be imagined.

Our purchases were modest, I believe, but Gary and I found it so ironic that after hearing Liz plead with us to let her see New Moon we, coincidentally landed in the middle Twilightdom and made our little girl SO very happy. I've since learned more about the books and aside from the objectionable vampire theme, there is little violence, overt sex, etc., that you would prefer to keep away from your children. So, she's reading the books!

The next day, Wednesday, March 10, was huge. We wanted to at least touch on the San Juan Islands (this is a survey tour, pretty much, after all), and I also wanted to connect with my nephew Kenneth H. Abbott, III (after my father and brother)/Ken if at all possible. He works as a chemical dependency counselor for in-patients at Lakeside-Milam Treatment Center in Seattle. My nephew is 50 (I became an aunt at age 10), and he is a grandfather of two, with a third expected in June. More later.

So we set off early with Bella and crossed on the famous Puget Sound ferry system from Port Townsend to Whidby Island. Because they do this so much there, it was quite inexpensive .... less than $15 I think for the car, Gary, Liz and me. But it was also a short trip .... I think 30-40 minutes. We drove the length of Whidby Island from south to north, crossed the bridge at Deception Pass,

and got to the Ferry port at Anacortes for the 10:30 ferry to Friday Harbor, San Juan Island.

On the way we stopped at Lopez Island, and as we arrived at Friday Harbor we saw one of the huge ferries pushing on through the sound to another island. Liz took the down time on the ferry to catch up on some of her reading.

It was so nice to drive Bella off the ferry and have her at our disposal as we explored the island. Spring was all around us and we had a lovely day. We drove over to Roche Harbor and looked around the old Hotel de Haro. We had a good, casual lunch (tuna melt, patty melt) at the Lime Kiln Cafe. The Resort was formerly a company town of the Tacoma and Roche Harbor Lime Company; lime production was the major industry. I liked the picture of the boats in the harbor so much on this spring day that I chose it for the lead photo of this post.

We felt we had to catch the 3:30 ferry back to Anacortes in order to have any chance of connecting with Ken, my nephew that evening. As we were unfamiliar with ferry demand, we were in the car line for the ferry by 2:15. But we were able to leave the car and shop around the ferry dock for an hour or so. I got some great books at the local book store, and Liz and I got some cute Croc black flats on sale for $15 a pair.

We arrived in Anacortes about 4:30 and tried to figure our best way through/around Seattle and southeast to Issaquah, the home of Ken's daughter Stephanie and her family. This turned out to be quite a race to cover 90 miles (in "rush hour" traffic), find a place to eat, have dinner, and then drive 35 miles back northeast to Edmonds to catch a 9:20 ferry back to Kingston and then drive the final 40 miles back to Buster in Port Townsend. Whew! We did it, but it cut short our visit with Ken and Stephanie to way too short. Stephanie and her husband David Schlosser have two darling daughters, Annika and Isabella, and are expecting a boy (possibly to be named Luke) in June. They all seem to be doing well, but next time we'll plan a whole day in order to properly visit with so many nice people. We missed seeing David and girls (who didn't come out on a school night) due to our need to keep catching a ferry! Here's a picture taken after our quick dinner at the Red Robin!

I loved Port Townsend and scanned the real estate brochures there. This charmer, formerly a bed and breakfast, interested me with it's view over the harbor. Alas, there are VERY many charming places to picture oneself in.

Tomorrow we will begin the sprint south, and it looks like we will keep to our target of "seeing" the Pacific Coast, and returning to Ashland to pick up Sierra Jones for her spring break by March 12.

The Pacific ocean and US coastline are tremendous. They will remain a treasured part of our adventure.

Talk to you soon,

Julie, Gary and Liz