the beach at Christmas, 2007

what a nice trip to the beach! we left here after jean came in and checked into bolsa chica state beach, just north of huntington beach, about 15 miles from the house.

check the flickr site for pictures. check sarah's site; http://www.soupsake.com/ for updates and a picture of her new car!

we had blue skies, gorgeous sunsets, cool weather and occasional high winds for our stay. didn't dampen our enthusiasm tho. jean was out of the motor home before we crawled out of bed in the mornings. then there was the after breakfast walk, followed by the just before lunch walk which was just before the after lunch walk which was prior to the just before dinner walk...... usually it meant calling her cell phone and asking where we should pick her up so we could go eat! i did manage Christmas dinner and 2 major breakfasts, a major feat for me.

there were 2 days of huge surf and we do mean huge. the day after Christmas we went to ruby's on the pier at huntington for breakfast and got lots of incredible pictures. we still made all the Church services and yes, santa was notified of our location in time.

it's raining!

well, we won't have to water the lawn for awhile which will make the city happy since we are on water rationing. at 10:00pm it's pouring once again!

we have started putting stuff together for our big trip down the coast (10 miles or so). jean will hopefully get out of boston sunday morning between snow storms. just about got food planned, no it does not include me cooking everyday. one day will be finger foods, you know the good ones: chips and dip, fritos and dips, tortilla chips and salsa, little wienies with bbq sauce, etc. etc.
one day has to be wonderfully guilt free blow the diet extravaganza!

we are wishing all of our family and friends the most wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

ok, i'm trying to upload a picture so bear with me. my computer has digressed to aol.8 and that's like living in the dark ages. i'm not messing with it cause it's better than what it was doing.

we had rain over the weekend and on our way to vespers service sunday night we went down by alamitos bay. the view of our local mountains was spectacular, what we call a rose parade view. this is the one that most people see during the rose parade and make them think of moving here. word is, don't do it, it doesn't happen often and is best viewed on tv!

we're still here!

we are still hanging around long beach but we are talking about next years trip. next trip coming up is for Christmas and we will be at bolsa chica state beach. we've rented a motor home, jean is coming out for warmer weather. we're pretty sure santa will find us also.

yesterday was a real treat. when we were on the june-july road trip we were waiting for the word that a certain special baby was finally born. the call came while we were in indiana, she was a girl, eventually named claire elizabeth. well, she's 5 months old now and she came to visit yesterday. her mom left her with us for almost 2 hours. of course i had snuck out before she was due to buy her the cutest red corduroy holiday dress. she is the happiest little girl, laughs, smiles and just wraps us around her little finger.

next years big trip will be in august. we will drive north, heading to british columbia. we will visit with some friends we've made thru the orca lab web site then head up to pt. mcneil for the orca reunion. 8 days of whale watching, eating wonderful food, and meeting awesome people in person. we hope to catch up with my cousin rod in vancouver and meet his martine. more on this at another time.

i'm still procrastinating on working with all the pictures from this summer. new camera means lots more pictures, thousands in fact.

i promise to try to update more often. we'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.