Girl's weekend!

Last weekend was my brother's annual darts tournament. It's a guys only event. So Cheryl and I decided that it would be a good weekend for a girl's getaway. We've wanted to take Grandma on a trip with us for a while. Cheryl suggested Santa Barbara wine tasting, but Grandma isn't a big wine drinker. I suggested San Diego, but Cheryl said that she's ready been there. So we compromised on Ojai. The last time we were there was a few years ago for the Ojai to Ventura marathon. We were so beat after the race that we didn't get the chance to checkout the cute town. 

It took only 2 hours to drive from Grandma's house. We got there in plenty of time to join a food walking tour. 

We stopped for three different kinds of tamales at La Fuente. Then on for more Mexican food at Las Caporales. 

Then a quick stop at a Taquilla bar. No sampling there though. Too bad because Cheryl wanted to try for the scorpion, ha ha!

Next stop was Carolina Gramm Designs for olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting. 

By this time the temps were climbing into the 90s, so our next stop for Freezer Monkey Popsicles was very welcome! We had to eat th quickly because they we're melting FAST! 

Next stop was wine tasting at Ojai Vinyard. You'd think they put that in just for Cheryl. 

Last stop was dessert at a very cute cooking store called Tipple and Ramble. 

After the tour we walked through the unique boutique shops in downtown Ojai.  Our favorite was an outdoor used book store called Bart's. 

The only thing that we bought that day was a garlic chopper for Armand. Thinking back, it seems like a bizzare choice. Blame it on the margarita, three glasses of wine, and the wine spritzer, lol!

After checking into the hotel and relaxing a bit, we actually got hungry again! After some internet research, we walked down the street to a little Italian restaurant and ate out on the patio. The evening temps were perfect. 

We were outside to try to catch Ojai's famous Pink Moment, but the clouds had moved in. No Pink Moment that night :(

The following morning, we hit the free breakfast at the hotel and headed to the Farmer's market. 

Everything looked so GOOD!

It was fun sampling the fresh baked goods, popcorn and fruit. We bought a lot! It's a good thing that grandma brought tote bags! 

They had yummy green plums, Ojai pixie tangerines and a white watermelon that we couldn't resist. 

The flowers were beautiful too. I was tempted, but it was going to be a long hot ride home. 

That's it for our whirlwind weekend of fun and laughs. It was great spending time with Cheryl and my mom. Opportunities like that should not be put off. Those are memories that will be treasured forever. 

Blessed 4th of July

I had last Friday off, so Jim and I decided to go camping. Since it was too late to get a reservation anywhere, Jim left on Tuesday after the plumber left (we had a leak soaking the carpet in the hall). He found a really nice spot over in Wrightwood.





He picked me up Thursday night and we had a great time hiking the Pacific Coast Trail.







Our campground was right at the top of the Mountain High Ski Resort:









We had a nice evening... A little wine, roasted Starbursts and a gorgeous sunset.







And everything went well until about 2:30am... Jim started having stomach pains. We left for the hospital at about 4am. The Garmin said that closest hospital was an hour away. There had to be one closer! So we stopped at the fire station to ask directions. They were really nice and took Jim vitals, pronounced him stable and gave us the address of a hospital 30 minutes away in Victorville. After Jim was admitted I called the kids to see if they could come get Jena. It was going to be 100F in Victorville, so she couldn't stay in the car. Chris said that he would come; driving 2 hours to Victorville to pickup Jena. Then he took her home AND gave her a bath. Meanwhile, Jim was diagnosed to have a 6mm kidney stone... a BIG one! They were talking about admitting him and possibly surgery. After finding out we were members of Kaiser, they called Kaiser who wanted Jim transferred to one of their hospitals... so they transferred him to IRVINE! Oh, look! Jim's first SELFIE. :oD



When Jim left in an ambulance, 7 hours later... I took the truck back up the mountain to break camp and bring the trailer home. Cheryl and Armand offered to drive up and help me. The road was really rough, so it would have been hard for them to get up to the camp in a car. I told them that I had it covered. When I got back to camp, the family in the site next to us had heard us leave that morning. They came over and asked how Jim was. When I said that I was leaving, they all pitched in and helped me break camp. The dad guided me as I backed the truck up and hooked the trailer to the truck. I did check that the hitch was locked (you'll find out why that was important later). After giving the family a roll of toilet paper (of which they were VERY grateful since all the toilets were out) and waving good-bye, I headed back down the mountain. I drove more than a quarter of a mile before the trailer came unhitched from the truck... on a dirt road... in the middle of nowhere...



My first thought was pick it back up and put it on... nope way too heavy. Second thought, get the car jack... I couldn't find it. I figured that it must be under the camping box, which is too heavy for me to move even if it was empty. So I settled for lowering the stabilizers and trying to lift the trailer up with those. As I was in the process of cranking the stabilizers down, another truck came by. The guy saw what was going on and said, "Wow, that's a bummer... Do you want help?" YES, PLEASE!!! He had something called a "Farm Jack" in the back of his truck. I didn't know what that was, but it worked to jack up the trailer. Then I backed up the truck and he reattached it. He made sure that it wouldn't come off.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, but slow... it takes a long time to get anywhere at 55mph. There was no traffic, thankfully, and I got home around 430pm. No one was home, so I unloaded the trailer. Just as I finished, Chris drove up with Jim... the Kaiser hospital sent him home! During the ambulance ride, the kidney stone had made its way to the bladder. They gave him some meds and sent him on his way.

So all's well that ends well. The post in front of the trailer will need some repair, but Jim is fine. Chris really came through by getting up early to pick-up Jena, cleaning her up, and then going to pick-up Jim. Cheryl and Armand were so sweet to offer to drive all the way up to Wrightwood to help me. I have such a GREAT family! And I'm so thankful for the kindness of strangers... the family with two teenage boys in the campsite next to us, and a man driving by on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. So, even though I can't say it was a HAPPY 4th of July... was definitely a BLESSED one!

I hope that everyone had a safe and wonderful weekend!

The Floating Islands

My friend, Mary, asked more about the floating islands. It was a fascinating place... definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

We arrived at the islands to be greeted by the Uros family living there. First stepping on the island I couldn’t believe how much you sunk into it and that it actually moves when people walk around.



It's hard to see the map, but one side of the lake is Peru and the other side of the lake is Bolivia. The Uros live on the Peruvian side of the lake.

The lake is full of reeds.



When there is a storm, the reeds get uprooted and float off. The Uros get in their boats and cut the floating reeds up into manageable sizes and drag them back. Here is a mini example of what an uprooted reed block looks like:



They tie all the reed blocks together and anchor them to the bottom of the lake.

Then they cover the island with cut reeds, criss-crossing them to make a thick base:



Then they bring in their houses...



And this is the whole happy family, living on the new island...



The people here also eat the reeds and make their houses out of reeds:



Here is what it looks like inside a typical house:





The entire family... in this case three people, all sleep in the same bed. And yes! That is a TV in the corner! Using money from tourism, they were able to buy a solar generator. Their favorite shows are soap operas :oD

They get insulted if you try to offer them money. Instead, they sell handicrafts to the tourists. Here is an example of their crafts:



The islands don't last forever, they need to add more reeds to the top of the island every 15 days. And they need to make a new island every 30 years or so.

They make their boats out of reeds too...



Here is us riding on the top level of the boat with a view of the island behind us. It's pretty rocky up there, haha!



A little more about the Uros... They dress like this every day:



The women wear pom-poms at the end of their braids. The color and size of the pom-poms indicate whether the woman is married, single, married but looking, or single but living with someone. So there is never any confusion:



Here is another island where we ended our reed boat ride. This island is more populated than the one we just left:



And you think that it looks like a beautiful day? Well, beautiful maybe... but COLD!!! 37F when we left the hotel this morning! There was still frost on the island when we arrived. The Uros are a tough people. They don't have heat and they don't even wear shoes.



Well, that's about it for the Uros and the floating islands. This along with the Amazon and Machu Picchu was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.