San Diego and a visit to Balboa Park

     Our visit to San Diego continues with regular meetings with Joanne, Ben, and Jamo, as we work around our visiting schedule and their working schedule. Naturally Debbie complains that we're not seeing enough of them, but I remember those days when I was working the midnight shift, and my body never really understood what it was doing. So we eagerly anticipate Ben's morning visits when he's on his way home. Mom gets to cook "little Benny Booters" as MAE calls him, a breakfast, and then he's on his way home for a few hours sleep before Joanne gets home.

And through it all, Jamo quietly guards the front door. And that absolutely amazes me. As much as that dog needs to be touched by someone, anyone, he leaves Ben alone when he shuts the bedroom door.
     Prior to Easter, the Princess and her mother upheld the family tradition of coloring eggs, and spread out across the picnic table, completely monopolizing the lounge area.  And even though the coloring concoction had been meticulously formulated at least 26 times previously, they still managed to screw up the ingredients.  Amazingly though, they were completely successful in coloring the eggs, and the egg salad sandwiches that resulted from this scientific paradigm, were delicious.  Easter Sunday, we had a delicious ham dinner up at Ben and Joanne's, made almost exclusively in a crock-pot.

  Everyone, including Jamo, joined in for a family picture, and I really think that dog enjoys getting his picture taken.  Is he smiling or what???
     On Wednesday night, MAE experienced an extremely frightening plane ride from San Diego to Philly, as they pushed through a pretty good storm taking aim on the east coast.  The Princess didn't get the sleep she anticipated flying the "red eye", and mom had to do some fancy talking just to get her to get on the next flight for Syracuse.  But our brave little traveler stepped up, and the flight home from Philly was uneventful.  Although it may be a while before she steps onto an airplane again.   As we paused on the shoreline of San Diego Bay overlooking downtown, Ben and I made several attempts at capturing the many colored lights.  I guess I've got to get a little better camera lense if I want to get fancy.

   
     This past Sunday, Debbie and I ventured over to Balboa Park to take in the organ concert at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.  In 1914, John and Adolph Spreckels donated the Spreckels Organs, one of the worlds largest outdoor pipe organs, to the city of San Diego for the Panama-California Exposition.

     This unique organ includes nearly 5000 pipes, ranging in size from a pencil to over 32' in height. The organ and pipes are housed in a magnificent building and stage in Balboa Park.  The city of San Diego has had an organist since 1917, and there have been free Sunday concerts for nearly 100 years!  There is a 20 horsepower motor which provides the necessary wind for the pipes, and the volume of the organ is controlled completely by louvers that open and close in front of the pipes.

  As you can see, there were colored umbrellas available for rent for $2, which I would highly recommend, to shield you from the San Diego sunshine.  And although it does limit your view of the organist, it certainly doesn't diminish the magnificent sounds of this 100 year old pipe organ.  

The artwork along the gables of the of the pavilion certainly don't show their age, as the San Diego climate has been very accommodating to the organ and the structure.  There are several more museums in Balboa Park that we intend on visiting before we depart San Diego.  The Air and Space Museum is close by, along with the Museum of Man.  I was hoping for a Museum of Woman, but alas, there isn't one.  

     The weather has made our stay very enjoyable, and we're even seeing that the temps at home are starting to normalize,  We still see a strange white powder on the ground as we view photos on Facebook, but it seems that people are starting to wash their cars and open up their porches in anticipation of Spring's arrival.  We have a few more weeks here, as we agreed to help Ben and Joanne move into their new house.  Baby Doo and mom are doing well, and "Grammie" is busting with anticipation.  All the Doody men are proceeding ahead calmly, knowing that complete chaos could explode at any time.   

     We continue to master the fine art of ice cube making.  We thank Uncle Bob for advising us of those handy little ice cube makers.  Those globes of ice fit perfectly in our Rondacker glasses, and if we drink quickly enough, they will last for more than one!  We hope all our friends have survived this wild winter, and look forward to seeing them upon our return.  

Hemet and a Surprise Visitor

          It seemed that most everyday of our visit to Hemet involved a little excursion somewhere.  We like to call it moseying, and Debbie thinks I'm doing a much better job this year than last.  No visit to Hemet wold be complete without a trip up the mountain to about 7000 feet, and a visit to the hamlet of Idyllwild.  Those of you who knew us in Campo, and those of you who have been forced to listen to my endless stories, probably had to endure some of our camping adventures to Idyllwild.  Back in the day when we had nothing, we managed to find a used cab-over camper for our old Chevy truck that I purchased new in NY in 1978 and drove with my brother Jim out to CA.

 In those days I only had a camper shell on the back which worked out pretty well I might add.  But Debbie and I scraped a few pennies together and upgraded to a cab-over camper, and on most days off we would travel up to the Thousand Trails campsite in Idyllwild to escape the summer heat.  Anyway....we headed up the San Jacinto Mountains to revisit some of our old stomping grounds.
     Our first stop was a visit to Thousand Trails campground, which graciously allowed us to drive through after I explained to the gate guard that we used to come here quite regularly.....30 years ago.  It really hadn't changed much.  It still had the beautiful pine trees that provided us with plenty of cooling shade in years past.  The sites were still unimproved, all dirt, and a little small by today's standards.

We were surprised to see a few RV's of pretty good size parked around the park, and we secretly wished we had been there when they arrived.  It's always a treat watching them squeeze through and around the trees that surround each site.  On our way up the hill, we passed this sign, and I just had to go back and take this shot.  Only in California do they try and teach the snakes to sit up, roll over, and get their belly's scratched.
      Over in Idyllwild proper, we found another "artsy-fartsy" town, with lost of charming little shops with merchandise from China for the tourists.  But we did find a great little restaurant with a sunny spot out on the front porch, and we enjoyed a great lunch while watching the tourists walk by.  Unfortunately I didn't write down the name of the place, and right now I can't come up with it.

     There was also an interesting brew pub close by, that seemed to have quite an assortment of craft beer on hand.  If we were staying longer, that may have been a location to investigate a little closer.  Also throughout the downtown area, there were 22 of those uniquely painted deer scattered around.  Not quite sure what the purpose of them were, but they did add to the unique ambiance of this mountain top village.  Thirty years ago we enjoyed coming up here, and it was very enjoyable to experience a return visit.
      On Wednesday we returned to the Chula Vista RV Park, and gave Ben and  Joanne a call to see what their plans were for dinner.  Ben was cooking a nice steak, and we hustled up to their place to see if we could get a cocktail out of Ben.  Debbie gently knocked on the front door, not wanting to get Jamo too excited, and suddenly the door pops open.

 Suddenly, Debbie's screaming..."Princess!!..."  To our complete surprise, MaryAnne had flown in from Syracuse the day before, to surprise her mother for Easter.  We had tried to talk her into coming out, but she lied to us, saying she had a trial in Utica.  Seems that the cold was just enough incentive for the Princess to work the deals and get a flight to San Diego.  We had offered to fly her out, but she stuck with the trial story, saying she couldn't come out.  Needless to say, we're both pretty excited to see her, and this Easter will be a special memory.  Today she is over at the pool, enjoying the wonderful 85 degree weather.  I don't think she's missing the snow and ice and 30 degree weather in Syracuse.
   

     Yesterday, Ben took his sister down to to San Ysidro and a viewing of the POE area where he works.  Traffic was backed up as far as we could see, which made Ben smile since he wasn't working. And of course, I started telling war stories about the border 30 years ago without a 20 foot fence.
     But then it was time to start the BABY SHOPPING!  As you can imagine, the girls hit the store with tons of enthusiasm.

     Ben and I found a couple of rocking chairs that needed thorough testing, as the girls worked their way through the largest conglomeration of baby paraphernalia I had ever experienced.  Kinda like going to a Super Walmart of baby accessories.  It really is quite exciting watching Joanne and Debbie trying to figure out how to open and close the various strollers.  Finally MaryAnne stepped in and showed them how to get it done.  Seems that she has several friends with new babies, and finally her babysitting experience is paying off.  Looks like everyone survived Day 1 of Baby Shopping.  I'm quite confident there will be a few more.