Last Days in Southern California—Lights, Lights, Lights and more Lights

by | Dec 17, 2024 | Uncategorized

I am starting this post on the 16th of December as we head north tomorrow morning, flying out of John Wayne Airport at 10:45. When we get back to SEA, we will jump in our car and head south to Olympia (not home) because tomorrow night, our grandkids have their winter band concert. Both of them play clarinet, and this is our fifth-grade granddaughter’s first concert. And the really cool thing for me is that we will spend tomorrow night there, which means I will wake up on my birthday at their house on Wednesday morning.

In the meantime, since I last wrote about our visit here, we have done some more cool stuff. After our Christmas boat parade on Friday (see my post here), Saturday was about Christmas at the Mission. San Juan Capistrano is home to a California of the same name. It’s the one that the swallows come back to every year. And this year they were having a Christmas celebration. It was very nice, but we were all a little underwhelmed. Steve and I kept telling each other how they could improve the whole celebration with a lot more lights. But I did get some decent photos of the decorations, the performers and the lights. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After the show, we went for another of the amazing meals we have had since we got here. I think Jamie and Steve have spent the 18 months since we were here the last time finding new and wonderful restaurants. We did the pizza place the day before, and tonight, after the Mission, we walked about three blocks to Rancho Capistrano Winery. Delicious food and amazing wines.

On Sunday, we had a family day. Jamie’s sister Pam, her husband David and their daughter Analee, as well as our niece Cassie and her beau Omar, all came for dinner. Steve made some delicious rotisserie chicken, and Jamie made some amazing appetizers, baked ziti, meatballs, and so much more. We again ate ourselves to bursting. January is going to be a very dry and lean month for us.

This morning, I went out and took my usual walk, and just to prove that I don’t always take great photos, I took at least 50 and only found three I liked. One was a shot I took walking over Interstate 5. I am always amazed that this highway, which is about eight blocks from my brother’s house, is also about 15 minutes from my daughter’s house and about 40 minutes from ours. Kathleen drove on this road every weekday for more than 15 years to commute to work. When I was in college, I used to drive a truck on it almost every day. When I lived in Eugene, Oregon, I spent many an hour driving up and down that part of it. When I lived in Rogue River, Oregon, I lived about a mile from it. It’s kind of been the road of my life. So I had to take a photo this morning.

This evening, we went for an amazing Greek meal at Greek Bistro in Laguna Hills. WOW! It might even be better than Chris’ Taverna (my favorite Greek restaurant in Florida—I love Greek food, and we have a hard time finding it in Redmond). Then, after, we were off to look at some of the most amazing Christmas light displays we have ever seen. In case you haven’t seen the photos my brother posted of their house, they are REALLY into decorating for holidays, and they do a super classic job of it. Here’s what their place looks like this year. All of these pics are ones that I stole from him. It is truly impressive. You will note that every window has a theme.

And these are the ones we saw last night on our Christmas light drive (a tradition that Kathleen and I do as well). We were in a very wealthy section of Laguna Hills that I can’t remember the name of. The lights there were amazing.

The last few of those are a couple of places back near their home that had a LOT of lights. Living proof that sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. ?

That about concludes our trip to Southern California. We had a super time, ate and drank way too much, and my sister-in-law Jamie was a great tour guide. I would use her as my Southern California travel agent every time we are here. Plus, free room and board is quite the incentive. I am finishing this up at 3:30 AM on the day we go to the airport to fly back to Seattle, then drive to Olympia to see the kids play in their winter (Christmas) concert tonight and then home to our place tomorrow. Thanks for reading along on this short journey. I hope my photos have gotten you deeply into the holiday spirit. If this hasn’t done it, then maybe this video Steve found last night will—click here.

Deck the halls and light the lights; it’s time for some festive delights!  —Santa Claus

 

Birdhouses, T-shirts, Pizza and Christmas Lights

by | Dec 14, 2024 | Uncategorized

Yesterday started with a quick walk along the San Juan Creek, a route I have taken many times before. But it’s been more than 18 months since the last time, and it has changed quite a bit. The biggest change is the addition of a cute little park with a birdhouse theme that replaced a community landmark full of tiny birdhouses that were added on a regular basis. Due to liability issues, the city took it over and turned it into an actual city park. Both the old community-created park and the new “official park” provided me with a great place to take photos. Here are a few I got yesterday morning, along with other shots on my trek. Don’t forget, if you click them, you can see them a whole lot bigger. Really!

The rest of the day featured some rest time right up until we headed up the coast to Laguna Beach, where one of my favorite stores is Crazy Shirts. If you don’t know about Crazy Shirts, just know that I am addicted to them; I have owned at least 50, I have a brand new one on right now, and they last almost forever. Yes, they are spendy for tee shirts, but they are worth every penny to me. The only problem we had was that the traffic was horrid on the Pacific Coast Highway, but Steve and Jamie were wonderful about feeding my need for new shirts, and we made it up and back with less trouble than coming back from LA the day before.

After going “Crazy,” it was time for an early dinner before today’s main event. Steve and Jamie had found an amazing place for pizza—Truly Pizza. They are supposed to have some of the best pizzas in the world. I mentioned it in my post yesterday, and it really is a great place for pizza. Here are the two pies we had. They, along with some interesting salads and dessert, made for a “Truly” great dinner. Almost forgot—I need to mention that dessert. It was their own specially made soft-serve ice cream. We tried the flavor of the night—gingerbread with cherries on top and vanilla with (believe it or not) olive oil and sea salt. It was AWESOME! BTW: if you want to see the pies enlarged, just click them.

After dinner, it was time for the main event—the Dana Point Christmas Boat Light Parade. We boarded a boat to cruise the harbor and see some truly amazingly decorated boats. And, of course, I got pictures. It gave me a chance to take some photos I would not normally get. And before I got those I got some beautiful sunset shots. Sorry but here’s the old warning…Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

That was it. Tonight is a special “Christmas at the Mission” at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Plus, dinner with our niece Cassie and her significant other Omar. Can’t wait. Come back tomorrow. I should have pics.

Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling.  —Edna Ferber

We Take a Quick Trip to Southern California

by | Dec 13, 2024 | Uncategorized

I bet you didn’t expect to hear from me so soon. Don’t worry; you didn’t miss a note about us traveling. We are just taking a quick trip to Southern California to see Steve and Jamie. We came down on Tuesday, and we are flying back next Tuesday. I wasn’t even going to post about the trip since it is about family rather than really to any place, foreign or exotic. But I have been taking photos, and I am pretty happy with them, so I thought I would share them.

My sister-in-law Jamie is our tour guide this week. She told me she is paying me back for all the arrangements I have made on our overseas trips. She is doing an awesome job. Even the days of rest are planned, which is great. Day one was recovering from our two-hour flight. Man, did we need that ?. But I did take advantage of not having anything planned by taking my morning walk to Doheny Beach. No one was surfing ? but there were a couple of volleyball players. And I got to take some pics while walking. I am not going to give you the usual cell phone plea, but I will say that if you click one, the photos will show up in a slide show.

On day two, we headed north to Burbank to tour the Warner Brothers studio. It was a great tour. We did the TCM (Turner Classic Movies) tour and got to see and hear about the films and stars of the forties, fifties and sixties, tour the prop department and get our photos taken in a few recognizable television sets. Then, it was off to a very traditional place for lunch—The Smokehouse. Located right behind the studio, the scene is set in LaLa Land, where Ryan Gosling meets Emma Stone. We actually had lunch in the room where he was playing the piano. Food and drink were good as well. Even though we loved the tour and the lunch, the best part of the trip was the incredible ride home from downtown LA to San Juan Capistrano. The trip is about 75 miles, and it only took us almost two and a half hours. The most fun part was trying to choose our route using Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze. What a great challenge ?. I took some photos, and here they are.

That will cover it so far. Today is day three, and I did another early morning walk with photos, but tonight, we are doing a Christmas lights cruise around the harbor in Dana Point. Before we step on the boat, everyone will indulge me with a trip to Crazy Shirts in Laguna Beach, and we will stop for an early dinner at Truly Pizza in Dana Point. It is an “award-winning pizza,” so I am really looking forward to it. Only go to the website if you are ready to get hungry. Watch for those pics in the next few days.

Whatever starts in California, unfortunately, has an inclination to spread.   —Jimmy Carter