Catching Up: December 26th on the North Shore

After a good night's sleep, it was great to wake up to a beautiful winter scene; we got a White Christmas after all!



It was wonderful to see Sam again. He came to our hotel room with his cat bundled up in his coat (Kief thinks he's a dog and doesn't mind riding along in the car.) NOW we were ready to open presents!

Catching Up: Christmas Day

Continuing our holiday traveling tradition, we started the day in Ventura. Since it was Sunday, and most people had been to church Christmas Eve (we made it back in time for the 11pm service), there was just one blended service at 10am. We sang with the choir and went home and packed for our trip up to Lake Tahoe and Christmas with Sam. After dropping off gifts at the Francises and Erbecks (and having a glass of champagne with Jack and Carolyn) we finally left town. We managed to encounter snowy/sleety/rainy weather at each end of this trip. Not only did we encounter holiday traffic on the 25th, but we lost three hours due to chains-required traffic after leaving Sacramento and reaching the higher elevation near Blue Canyon. We arrived at our hotel in time to unpack and sleep - and look forward to celebrating Christmas with Sam on the morning of the 26th!

Catching Up: Christmas Eve in the O.C.

As usual, we traveled around for Christmas. We started out at April and Lindsay's house in Costa Mesa and had a wonderful time with the two of them, Dad, and Ron and Jane. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and it was nice to see where April is living and get to spend more time with Lindsay. It was good company (of the human AND the animal kind), good food, and comfortable surroundings - both inside and out!

January Full Moon

The moon this time of year is always special because it sets in the extreme northwest. In the winter, the moon sets over the Rincon area mountains instead of "into" the ocean, like the sun does when it sets this time of year. Now that we have a second story, I can watch the moonset when I get up in the morning. I took these pictures on the morning of January 11th.


This weekend, I took these pictures while we walked to and from my birthday dinner at Tokyo Wako in Arcadia. Just like it doesn't normally rain on my birthday, it doesn't rain when there is a full moon.

A Rainy January 14th!

I can count with the fingers on one hand the number of times it has rained on my birthday! It was light when I got up, but it was definitely rain!
We left Bob watching the rain in Ventura and we headed down to Redondo for a late morning haircut with Kathy and an afternoon in my favorite place where I grew up.

The rain was pretty much over by the time we got to the Redondo Pier. This wasn't the year to sit in the sand for my traditional sushi-on-the-beach lunch, but after clam chowder and fried clams at Quality Seafood, we took a walk - under dry skies - around the pier. Until Kathy asked me about it during my haircut, it didn't dawn on me that Tom and I have been walking on the pier together for nearly 39 years! Come to think of it, we have been eating Quality chowder together since 1967, although Quality was up on the original pier back then!

We left the Pier and took a leisurely drive through L.A. We drove to West LA for a quick visit with the Fletchers (in their new home!), then drove through Downtown, Pasadena, and then checked-in to our hotel in Arcadia - just in time to watch the sunset!