Category Archives: family vacation

Blooms, blossoms and cacti

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I was given a Christmas Cactus by a friend four years ago. It looks pretty healthy, but until this past week, it’s never bloomed. Fellow blogger Busy Bee Suz who has a green thumb — which is something I lack — suggested that I move my Christmas Cactus. I moved it by the sliding glass door and a few weeks later it has two buds! How exciting is that?

While I switched from my 80-400 mm lens that I use to take Red and Mrs. photos to my 105mm Macro Lens, I took a few other photos. These were outside in the backyard.

We have three bougainvillea we planted a few months ago. They are thriving in the sun. In Palm Springs, we had bougainvillea that never took off. This is very encouraging!

Aren’t they beautiful?

Yesterday was my first day I managed to take a little walk post surgery. I was disappointed because my foot hurt in my tennis shoes. I had to wear flip flops with very little support. My foot is bruised and a little swollen so the tennis shoes rubbed my foot and were a no go!

It felt good to move around even though it was a short walk. My husband and I like to walk and talk. I shared a memory with him from my childhood. It was good to laugh together.

The Memory

When I was three and my brother was five, we went as a family to a church retreat camp staying in a tiny cabin in the woods of Washington. There were families from our Presbyterian church as well as ones from other parts of the state. Along with the small cabins, there was a meeting hall where we gathered as a group.

I remember sitting in the first row with my family, when the pastor asked if anyone wanted to share something with the group. My brother jumped up. He grabbed the microphone and belted out “Edelweiss” from the Sound of Music! I wonder what my parents thought? As his worshipping little sister, I was so proud.

“Blossom of snow
May you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever…”

These lyrics were stuck in my head after photographing the blossoms above. That’s probably why I remembered this blast from the past.

We have lots of these cacti in our yard. They are only about three feet tall, much smaller than saguaro — although they look similar. I think they are called Cardon Cacti and they are spikier than saguaro cacti.

Do you have any silly memories to share from your childhood?

What would you have thought as my parents when my brother sang Edelweiss?

Views from the Claremont

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I wish I had my camera, but on Veterans Day I spent some time taking pictures with my iphone around the Claremont Resort and Club, the historic hotel where we’re staying. I had to get photos while I could — because an atmospheric river and torrential rain was in the forecast for the rest of our trip.

Two days later it is pouring! I’m at my son’s apartment now and I couldn’t leap over the river that was rushing down the curb by his sidewalk. Now I’ve got soaking wet shoes and socks!

Flag at half mast for Veterans Day.

The hallway to our room. The blue light doesn’t show to the naked eye. I think it’s an effect of blue panels along the wall and the light reflecting on them.

Views of San Francisco from the resort.

Views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The lobby.

Looking from a balcony on the Lobby level towards the tennis courts.

Another city view.

A view of the hotel.

The Club — gym, swimming pool, jacuzzi, steam room — can be found at the building in the background. The Club has memberships for local residents for tennis, swimming and the gym. It even has a youth swim team who practices there.

A view towards the Club from the Lobby.

Where are some of your favorite places to visit and favorite hotels?

RIP Diane Keaton

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One of my favorite actresses passed away this weekend. I believe we are all mourning the loss of such a talented actress. (This image is free and may be used by anyone for any purpose. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.)

Diane Keaton was a resident of Southern California and she owned a home in Palm Springs, which she and her family used for vacations. Her daughter was a swimmer, like my kids, and we’d be surprised to see Keaton on our pool deck during holidays. Just like other swim families, kids often drop in on local teams while the family has vacation. There’s not many days of missing practice in the swim world.

One year at Summer Junior Olympics in Mission Viejo, I spotted Diane Keaton on the pool deck. She was dressed in her usual Annie Hall attire. I learned this weekend that Hall was her maiden name and Annie was her nickname. Also, that her personal wardrobe was used for the movie of the same name.

Other parents at the Mission Viejo pool spotted Diane Keaton that weekend, too. Within minutes there was a murmer around the pool deck that Diane Keaton was there!

One of the dad’s from our team was face to face with Diane Keaton. He said, “You look just like that actress…” He couldn’t remember her name.

“Diane Keaton,” she said.

“Yeah, that it’s it. Diane Keaton. You know you really look like her.”

“I am Diane Keaton,” she replied.

He didn’t believe her. Keaton asked him if he wanted a selfie with her. She took the selfie with his phone. That dad rushed back to our pop-up tent and blurted to the group of parents, “I just got a picture with a woman who looks just like Diane Keaton.”

We all answered in unison, “That IS Diane Keaton.”

What a special person she was who didn’t put on airs for being famous, but wanted to live a quiet private life in spite of being an iconic figure and major actor.

What are your favorite movies with Diane Keaton?

Missing Red

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Here are a few of the best photos I got of Red this week, plus two of Mrs. I’m going to miss my backyard birds, especially my cardinal couple and quail. I have hired my former cat sitter to watch over the house and most importantly feed the birds! Hopefully, Red and Mrs. won’t abandon me while we travel.

Here are my favorite photos of the week:

Red perching on our beavertail cactus art.

Mrs. enjoying some bird seed.

Red on the fence. I liked how the morning light was shining through his crest.

I don’t get that many photos of Red with a front on angle.

I liked the sharp focus on this one.

Mrs. enjoys the beavertail cactus statue, too.

Do you have a favorite photo this week?

What are your exciting plans for the weekend?

A Blast from the Past

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My son at age four and half at our riverfront property in Washington State that my grandfather bought for a few dollars during the Great Depression.

I am facing a chore I’ve put off for years. I have stacks of photo albums with many of the same photos and duplicates from my high school years through raising kids — before digital photos became a thing. We had a photo developer a few blocks from our house in Palm Springs called Double Photo. Yes, you got two photos for the price of one for every roll of film you brought in. I’d walk to the store, pushing a double stroller with kids plus rolls of film treating them like treasure. Hence my abundance of photos and closet full of photo albums. I’d mail the double photos to Mom, but after she passed, they were all returned to me.

I’m finally addressing the elephant in my closet by tackling one album a day. I take out the photos I want to keep and put them in a photo box. The album with remaining photos gets tossed.

Here are a few photos I found this week that bring back memories:

Here I am at our property with both kids, my daughter aged 18 months, throwing a punch?

My son before little sis was born, bathing in the kitchen sink.

Baby Kat at our park for the Fireman’s annual egg hunt.

My son eating steamer clams we dug together in Washington at my mom’s house. Funny, he’s allergic to all seafood now.

My husband and I took a rewards trip to Hong Kong thanks to the company he worked for. This is the parking lot of the Peninsula Hotel. I couldn’t believe their fleet of cars. Or the flowers for a wedding.

Wow! I’ve never seen a wedding with so many flowers before. I guess it goes along with the cars.

Then in typical China fashion, this was a side of pork at a local open air market. Such a contrast between the haves and have nots.

A picture of me in Hong Kong. We were all turned around time wise and I tripped on the curb outside our hotel — my first steps outside — and sprained my ankle. We have lots of photos of me sitting on that trip wearing an ace bandage. Kind of foreshadowed our trip to the lake in Eastern Arizona last month!

What do you do with photos from the past vs. digital photos?

Good News!

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This is my family with our daughter-in-law’s family during a Christmas week vacation together in Santa Barbara during a prior year. We were only missing one sister, Maggie, who was at grad school at Cambridge.

I’m sharing wonderful news. My son and daughter-in-law called on their way home from the oncologist. Buff had her first scan since her six-months of chemo ended without major problems and side effects.

Buff has a clean bill of health and feels terrific!

She will receive scans every three months for the next two years, then every six months for the following three years.

It’s been a worrisome, stressful time since Buff’s initial diagnosis of Stage 3C colon cancer, surgery and chemo. I feel relief like our entire family has turned the corner — because our daughter-in-law Buff is doing so well. Hopefully, the newlyweds will have clear sailing from now on throughout their future. I wrote about the day of her surgery HERE.

I’d like to hear more good news! What good news do you have to share?

Ave Maria was played Christmas night by two of Buff’s sisters, Allie and Christy, during the vacation in the photo above. They’re both professional musicians. I’m so grateful to have enjoyed their private concerts and I hope there are many more to come!

Riding with a philosopher

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The Oceanview Diner’s outdoor seating where we had breakfast our last morning in Berkeley. It used to be known as Bette’s and is an iconic and delicious restaurant. Here’s an article about the reopening of the restaurant and name change.

“I am a happy person internally,” our Lyft driver said on our ride back to the hotel after meeting our kids and DIL for breakfast on Fourth Street in Berkeley. “If things external are out of my control, I don’t let them unhappy myself.”

Our driver was from Nepal and I felt like I was listening to an ancient philosopher.

He talked about how family was the most important part of his life. How he wanted to raise his children to be respectful and good people. He was concerned about the cost of living in the Bay area and the schools. We told him about Arizona and he was filled with questions.

We told him it was an affordable place to raise a family. He’d have to look closely at schools because depending on the town and neighborhood, the schools can vary.

Then my husband added, “It gets really hot there in the summer.”

“Look at your five fingers,” the driver said. “They are not all the same, but you accept them as they are.”

Wow. That hit me. Not everything is all good or all bad. Nothing is the same.

Another driver we had from the airport to our hotel was from Nigeria. He explained that they lived on $5 a day there and didn’t have running water.

“It’s a third world country. You have to haul your water into the house each day. People here don’t realize how fortunate they are,” he said.

Have you learned valuable lessons from people of other cultures? If so, what have you learned?

View of the hotel. The door below tower is the carriage entrance. I never got a photo of the main entrance!