July Drive Vacation - Day 3

So, we are up to day 3... the day we are to return home...

We overnighted in Sonora in 110F heat. In the last two days, we have seen very few people traveling in the Sierra Nevadas. We try and catch a glimpse of Yosemite before we headed home.

We drove right up to the gate! There was no one there!!!

We rented a couple of bicycles and rode all over the valley floor...

We rode to Mirror Lake...

Yosemite Falls...

It was really beautiful! What a way to end the vacation! By the time we were ready to leave, the park was PACKED! It took a while to drive around the loop and out of Yosemite... Then 6 hours to home!

We had a great trip without the kids, but I really missed them...
Have a great week everyone!

Happy Anniversary to US!!!

This morning Jim said, "Happy Anniversary!" ... and I was thinking, "Uh oh, is that today?"

YEP!!! That's TODAY! 25 years today!

We met at a party when I was 19yrs. Jim was there with his girlfriend and I was there with my boyfriend. The Monday after the party, the OCTD bus drivers changed schedules and Jim ended up being the driver for my bus to UCI. What a coincidence! We talked throughout the semester, laughed a lot, and enjoyed each others company... but after that I didn't see him for years. Then I was in an accident and had to take the bus to work while my car was being repaired. Guess who I saw again at the bus transfer station in downtown Santa Ana... Yep, Jim! He was no longer going out with his girlfriend and I was no longer going out with my boyfriend. So we started going out January 2, 1983. Our first date was roller skating with beer and pizza on the Newport Beach boardwalk.

Through the years we've had good times and some not so good times, but we are always together, always in love, and always best friends... I LOVE YOU, Jim!

Look what my fabulous hubby arranged for us! He knows how much I love a good show! We haven't been to a show since Cheryl was little (that was before Chris). Jim got us all tickets to see Young Frankenstein (the musical) at the Pantages! YAHOO!!! I am so excited! I can't WAIT!!! LOVE YOU, Jim!

July Drive Vacation - Day 2

Finally on to July Vacation, Day 2. First I want to mention that we missed Chris and worried about him too... love you, Boo! {grin}

The end of Day One had us overnighting in Bridgeport. The sky was getting dark and threatening as we found a tiny motel and took one of the two rooms they had left. It poured that evening complete with thunder and lightning.

Day 2 started bright and sunny as we headed over the Sierra Nevadas on Hwy 4.

Our destinations today were Big Tree State Park and Columbia (I still wanted to see an old gold town!). Driving over Hwy 4 sure was beautiful! It's been a while since we've been to the mountains. We only saw a handful of cars/trucks/campers on Hwy 4.

I forgot to mention that we are traveling in a rented Ford Escape, 2-wheel drive cross-over. This was because the mini-van was in the shop and we wanted to leave the kids with a car each while we were gone. Jim wanted to rent a 4-wheel drive truck, but did you know that they don't rent 4-wheel drive trucks in southern California?

The Escape was a cushy ride! Jim couldn't resist the pull of all those little dirt roads off of Hwy 4... So, we went 4-wheeling with a rented 2-wheel drive truck into the backwoods of the Sierra Nevadas.

After driving a ways on some nice dirt roads, our Garmin (fondly known as Garmina) plotted a circular route back to Hwy 4. Putting our complete trust in Garmina... off we went! The dirt roads started getting smaller and less traveled. When we were within .25 miles of the highway, the trail was blocked with a fallen tree and rock slide. We turned around and Garmina plotted us a new path.

At this point it started to rain... Jim couldn't get the Escape up one muddy hill and had to back it down and out. Again Garmina dutifully plotted us a new path. Our way out involved a shallow creek crossing and a trail so narrow that the bushes scraped the Escape on both sides of the path... but we made it! Yahoo! A BIG cheer and sigh of relief, lol! Our off roading adventure took a few hours, but we finally made it to Big Tree State Park. What a treat!

We went hiking through the forest... there was hardly anyone there... it was beautiful and quiet (well, at least it was until the bus load of school kids showed up). I LOVE the redwoods! The first camping trip that I can remember was up in the coastal redwood forest with Dad, Mom and Ran.


As we were leaving Big Tree, Jim's phone beeped... voice mail? It was from Cheryl... in a very bummed out voice, she said, "Dad, call me back when you get this..." PANIC!!! There's no signal!... As Jim drove, I watched the cell phone... "I see 2-bars! Stop here!" Jim pulled over and called... Cheryl had been in an accident. She was rear ended when she was stopped at a red light. There was no more damage than a couple scratches on the bumper. No one was hurt. We were thanking God over and over that it wasn't anything more serious! {whew}

Our next stop was a place that we discovered by picking up a random flier, called Moaning Cavern. It was a hole in the ground big enough to drop the Statue of Liberty into. There was a 3 hour long tour that would take people through wonderful treasures like "The Roach Motel," "The Meat Grinder," "The Pancake Room," and finally out through "Godzilla's Nostril." We gave that one a pass and did the 45 minute tour to the cavern floor and back.

Some people were repelling the 165' down into the cavern, but we opted to take the stairs, all 234 steps! The top half of the stairs were cut into a narrow crevice in the cavern wall. The bottom half was a spiral metal staircase. Jim learned that heights are bothering him more now than when he was younger... a good thing to know, but not so good to learn it halfway down a metal staircase...

Our last stop was the old gold town of Columbia. Columbia was definitely not a ghost town. It was a town with old style buildings, selling tourist items... a total bust (we didn't even take any photos there).

After coming down from the Sierra Nevadas, we hit 110F heat in the central valley! Time to look for a motel with a POOL and cool down... So ends July road trip, Day 2!!

Stay tuned for the last day of our road trip.

Our new family member...

Well, it's NOT this girl... she's just a weekend visitor, lol! This is Jammer, and she lives down the street. She is just a sweetie! We all enjoyed having her over.

Here is my new baby... a baby blue Honda FIT. Here it is next to Jim's Matrix. Cheryl said that it's a blue jellybean, lol! It looks a lot like the Matrix.

Chris got his drivers license over two weeks ago, and we have been making due with three cars since then. Chris had to get up early and take me to work so that he could have the car to go to cross country practice. Then someone would have to pick me up after work. He is sooooo HAPPY that I have a car!

I knew what I wanted and Jim shopped around on the internet for the best price. He found a GREAT price in Loma Linda, Spreen Honda. He called, they said they had the car, we drove over 50 miles to get there, and found out that they didn't have the car.

We expected them to try and sell us something else that was more expensive, but they didn't. Dennis Anderson took great care of us. He gave us a $25 Target gift card for our inconvenience, and found the exact car we wanted. We picked it up the following weekend and paid the exact price that we were quoted!

We are now a four car family...

Good-bye Auntie Geri...

Auntie Geri lost her fight against cancer yesterday. I was pretty young when my Uncle Willy married Auntie Geri, but I remember my mom saying that Geri was the best thing to have happened to her brother.

Geri had the greatest laugh, and a smile that would light up the entire room. When we went on our Kauai vacations, we would stay in one of Geri and Willy's extra bedrooms.

I have a few pics to share... These first ones are from 2007 when Auntie Geri, Uncle Willie, Uncle Roy, Joseph, Keenan, and Grandma K were visiting for Grandma's 80th(?) bithday.

These are photos from Universal Studios...

This one cracks me up! LOL!

Off to see the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park!

Auntie Geri could jump double dutch!

... much better than cousin Keenan...

Here is a photo I took the last time we were in Kauai. It's doggie bath time!

Auntie Geri was so full of life. It is so sad to hear that she lost her battle with cancer. May the Lord keep you close.

Our LOVE goes out to Uncle Willy, Keenan, Tami, Kimmi, and Grandma K.

July Drive Vacation - Day 1

Welcome to another Moore Family drive vacation... that's where we get in the car and drive with no plan other than a general direction. This vacation's direction is NORTH-EAST, toward Bodie. The BIG difference this time is that the kiddos are in summer school, so we left them at home. I was worried leaving them. Cheryl is 20yrs old, but she's still my baby girl. Well, enough of my mommy fears and on to the vacation...

Jim and I started out Wednesday afternoon after I got off work. We drove NORTH-EAST until it got dark and ended up in Bishop off hwy 395, where it was 102F at 6:30pm!

We studied the map that night and made plans for the next day. Our first stop was going to be Devil's Postpile in Mammoth. Well, it turns you can't drive to Devil's Postpile. We had to park at the Mammoth ski resort and take a shuttle bus to the trail head. It was only a .5 mile walk to Devil's Postpile.

Devil's Postpile was just as I've seen in photos.

We took the short walk to the top of the postpile, and I was amazed that the top of the posts were prefect hexagonals. They looked just like polished paving stones.

It was only 2 miles further on to Rainbow Falls. Other hikers on the trail told us it was a "DO NOT MISS" spot! Well, since we were there, we trekked 2 miles further to Rainbow Falls. It was WONDERFUL. If you look carefully, you can see the double rainbow at the bottom left of the photo.

We liked it so much that we climbed to the bottom of the falls. There was a lot of water coming over those falls. It was 25F cooler at the bottom than it was at the top. The water was freezing!

More scuttlebutt on the trail said that the Lower Rainbow Falls was even better than this (the upper falls), so we set off down the trail 0.75 miles further to the Lower Falls. I didn't think it was better... you really couldn't see it unless you leaned over the cliff, but I took this nice photo of Jim!

So... .5 miles to Devil's Postpile, PLUS 2 miles to Upper Rainbow Falls, PLUS .75 miles to Lower Rainbow Falls = 3.25 miles UPHILL back to the shuttle bus stop, WHEW!!! After getting out of there and stopping for lunch in Mammoth, we headed to our next destination, Mono Lake.

We've driven by the lake quite a few times, but this is the first time we've stopped. It's a very eerie place. These "tufas" are formed when the calcium rich underground springs seeped up into the carbonate rich lake.

It was unexpectedly beautiful! After walking around the Lake for a ways, it was back to the car and on to our planned destination, the ghost town of Bodie!

When we first came around the bend and saw Bodie, we both said, WOW! It was an entire town, with standing buildings... over 135 buildings!

As we were walking through the town peeking into the buildings, where people just "up and left," we were surprised to see old time radios, a chalk board at the school, an old newspaper with the headline, "Trojans defeat Bruins," and a pick-up truck???????!!! What's going on? This was supposed to be a gold town from the 1800's!

As we finally got around to the park museum, we found out that Bodie is an old GOLD town, but it's a GHOST town from the depression (1930s). I guess it was still interesting, but I was expecting an old "wild west" type ghost town.


It was a busy first day! For being the middle of summer, all the places we visited today were very quiet. There didn't seem to be many people vacationing in the Eastern Sierras this summer, lucky us! Stay tuned for Day 2!

OC Fair 5K - Opening Day

It's opening day of the OC Fair again!

Chris, our neighbor Tina, and I ran the 5K. This was Tina's second 5K. Her first 5K was in the 28 minute range. This 5K was 26:54! GO TINA!

I finished in good time... not a PR, but still good:

Overall: 92 out of 618
Women: 21 out of 365
F 50-54: 1 out of 32
Age/Grade: 70.63% Place: 25
Finish: 23:58 Pace: 7:43

Chris has a NEW PR!!! This is even after he crashed coming around a turn at the beginning of the race. He skinned up his leg, both hands, and back when he rolled.

Overall: 20 out of 618
Men: 19 out of 253
M 15-19: 4 out of 10
Age/Grade: 71.37% Place: 19
Finish: 18:56 Pace: 6:06

YAHOO TO US!!!

Postage Stamp Afghan

This is the afghan pattern that my MIL used to use all the time. We have six of these postage stamp afghans. After my MIL's heart attack, we found copies of the instructions in her craft room. They are very hard to read.

Here is the little afghan that my MIL made for Cheryl's dolls. Each of the little squares is 1"x1":

I know the pattern starts in the middle with a strip of "postage stamps." Then, it's worked out and around from the center. Here is where I think the afghan starts:

Here is what the backside of the afghan looks like:

Here is one of the larger afghans made by my MIL for our bed:

I've googled and can't find the instructions for this pattern anywhere!

--edited--
Found it!
http://mylifeinknots.blogspot.com/search?q=my+first+afghan