TT Pio Pico, San Diego, California

Thousand Trails Pio Pico is situated in a little valley between the hills and mountains mostly covered with sage brush. Unfortunately most of the ranges were black from the fires that burned in April 2007 that covered miles all directions from the park. It is a sad sight.

But the backyard...

San Diego, California

We spent a day in San Diego seeing the sights. The Old Town Trolley is a good way of getting a narrated tour of just about all the important parts of the city. The ship was used in the movie "Masters and Commanders", there were fascinating sculptures all over the streets, and the harbor view was from the top of a two mile bridge going out to Coronado Island.

Coronado Island

We got off the trolley on Coronado Island for a look-see and some lunch. The island is the home of the Coronado Hotel which boasts that all (but the last) the presidents have stayed there and has beautiful flowers. There were birds of paradise growing everywhere. We found a wonderful lunch of blackened ahi sashimi, beef barley soup, and a calamari sandwich which went with our bottle of Four Graces Pinot Gris just perfectly. We took a picture of ourselves (actually we took three or four--that's why I was laughing!)

Torres State Park, San Diego, CA

We ended our day with a walk on the beach. Torres State Park is in northern San Diego and has beautiful white sand beaches, unique red cliffs, and a gorgeous sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

Spa and Ribs

Not a day went by that we didn't do something and eat more. Marlene and Renny invited us again to their home to enjoy the beautiful backyard and wonderful spa and then Renny did ribs. He and Mitch had a little sparring match about whose ribs are the best. Guess we just have to keep eating to find out!

More Fun

This is the motley crew that we spent Thanksgiving week with: Renny and Marlene at home in Rancho Mirage, Murray and Joan from Montana, and Erling and JerriLee from Idaho.

The Living Desert

We still aren't done with our Thanksgiving vacation. Heather, wife of pilot R2 and daughter-in-law of Renny and Marlene, was our hostess to The Living Desert where we spent Sunday morning on the inside track. I even got to feed the giraffes.

The Living Desert

We enjoyed seeing animals from Africa as well as North America, including bird aviaries and butterfly sanctuaries.

Up, Up, and Away

We were offered a fun little sightseeing trip aboard our friend's Cirrus four-seater. Here we all are getting ready to go. Don't we look cool in front of our sportsy little ride. Our pilot, R2, was great fun and did a wonderful job of flying us around and being tour guide both!

Flying out and about

So off we went on a sightseeing trip of the desert cities: Palm Desert, Indio, Palm Springs, etc. flying over the homes, golf courses, shopping centers of the rich and famous. We even flew over our camping spot (click on the first picture for a close up) but all you could see were palm trees and vehicles, so I took a picture of the camping spot our MNC friends have in Indio. There is a lot more "green."

We continued on and R2 decided we should go out for lunch. Yeah, I've never flown out for lunch so we did. The second picture shows up approaching Big Bear Airport where we stopped for lunch.

Up and about again we checked out the Big Bear area where the earlier fires in southern California raged. It was a devastating sight with all the burnt out trees and the forlorn foundations of the many homes that were destroyed. The last picture is eye level with the top of an 11,000 foot mountain.

Coming in

Just before our final approach and safe landing back home. It was a great ride and a lot of fun.

Thanksgiving at Renny and Marlene's

Thanksgiving was a bountiful affair. Renny and Marlene were gracious hosts as we were invited into their home to share turducken with all the fixings: dressing, cranberries, sweet potatoes, creamed spinach, scalloped corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, cheesy potatoes, apple/cranberry pie and pumpkin pie. It was delicious. We thank God for all our blessings.

Palm Springs TT, Palm Desert, CA

We left Fresno and had a pleasant trip south. The traffic through LA wasn't even too bad. We couldn't see more than a mile or so because of the smog, so we missed central LA.

Anyhow we're home again, surrounded by desert palm trees and mountains. It's really quite pretty. The fruit on the fruit trees is almost ripe. The temperature is a sunny 80 degrees.

Salton Sea

Before we checked out the backyard, we took a side trip to Salton Sea, a huge salt water lake in southern California.

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park is right in our backyard! And this is a Joshua tree. I thought Dr. Suess created this tree and found out that God did!

Joshua Tree National Park

It was a great driving trip across the park, covering low and high deserts and enjoying the unique and very different scenery on both. The first picture was a desert cholla (choy-ya) garden. We wandered through a beautiful, though very different kind on garden. Later on we enjoyed a view of about 60ish miles. On a really good day you can see Mexico. On a really bad (L.A. smog) day, you can see hardly anything. If you click on the picture you can even see Salton Sea.

Kings Canyon National Park

We had some time in Fresno, and Kings Canyon is about an hour drive west. It has groves of giant sequoia trees and tremendous scenery.

Yosemite National Park

We also had a chance to visit Yosemite National Park, an hour northwest of Fresno. The drive there was scenic and the park was beautiful. Our first stop was the Bridalveil Falls which doesn't have nearly the water that summer offers. Looking into the Yosemite Valley we see El Capitan, a magnificent face of granite. It was a great place to picnic under.

Deer Hunting in Minnesota

The weather was a balmy 50-60ish degrees, a little warm for deer hunting and the couple of times the snow came, it went as fast. The four guys had only three deer to hang and butcher. Bryan shot a deer, too, but it jumped the fence, and the guys weren't able to track it on the neighbor's land.

More deer hunting

The new garage Jim built was great for "processing" the deer. In the freezer it goes and next summer we'll make it into really good summer sausage.

Even the girls got out for a walk.

The Birthday Party

While we are "up north" we get to celebrate the November 6 birthdays! We always have a birthday dinner that includes the whole family, and it's just like Christmas as the birthday kids open presents. Carol (Sarah's mom), Mark (Sarah's sister-in-law's dad), and Mitch all have November 6 birthdays.

Visiting Addy

We flew to Minnesota for deer (dear) hunting. We spent a lot of time with Addy.

More Addy

We read to Addy, and played, and played.

Addy even got dressed up in her "trendy girl" clothes.

Addy pictures

In the swimming pool. Me and Mom! (Aren't I cute?!)
My family!