Memories!

OUR VIEW!

THE BEGINNING OF THE WEEK

OUR MEETING PLACE

AMAZING CREATURES

I guess it is time for a new blog - for those of you who read our site. We are snowed under with work these days! And yes - snow is a bad word around these parts! A cool snowy day on the Monday of the long weekend was not funny at all. Made me ready to head south again until Alberta weather decided to smarten up.

Southern California seems like a blur now. And the busy-ness of our lives these days seems to push it further into those corners and recesses in our memories. But seeing a pic of our son on a white southern California beach building a sandcastle with the bosses' kids brings those memories up front once again!

The remainder of our trip south was more trips to Disneyland and California Adventure, San Diego SeaWorld, Crystal Cove State Park and Ruby's Diner in Oceanside.

Some of my random thoughts that jump to the forefront:

- Loving Thunder Mountain enough to WANT to do it again!
- Being brave enough to try California Screamin' and agreeing to try it again next trip south and, yes, you can hold me to that!
- Trying to find Hidden Mickey's on our last morning in Disneyland.
- Swinging bare feet in Soaring over California and being amazed at the incredible cinematography and sense of really flying!
- Breathing in the sweet scent of oranges (from Soaring) and closing my eyes and being there once again each time I light my Orange/Amber Candle!
- Disney Fireworks and Light show! There will never be a picture to do it justice! Ever! Just need to experience it again.
- Closing my eyes in the first "room" of the Haunted House first time there and not realizing what I had missed overhead!
- Taking a rest with Kev and Kels and getting in on a stage show without knowing it was coming!
- My first 3D movie and screaming like a little girl!
- Renewing a love of Muppets in the Muppet Movie Theatre.
- Watching the immense size of Shamu and friends and wondering how such creatures could be trained!
- Seeing a Beluga Whale for the first time!
- Not only picking up a starfish at Seaworld but being allowed to pick it up!
- Finding a little crab down at the beach and being startled to see it move inside the shell it called home!
- Watching a small group of Pelicans circling overhead in the State Park!
- Being amazed at how efficiently traffic moves in such a large city as Los Angeles!

There! The memories aren't quite so far away!

I told Peter not to read this so he can add his memories of the family trip south!

DISNEYLAND!!

Yesterday and today we went to Disneyland which is just twenty minutes north of where we are staying. Yesterday we went with Kev and Kels and today we all went. There is SO much to see and do, it is literally impossible to do it all in just one day, or even two for that matter. We went on a number of rides today that we even did twice since the line ups were quite short. The longest wait was about 10 minutes! There we literally lots of people in the park but obviously not in all the rides we experienced.

Just to try and name the, there was Indiana Jones, Thunder mountain railway, Pirates of the Caribbean, Matterhorn, Star Wars trek, Pooh's Adventure, It's a small world, Haunted House, Monorail, parkade escalators ;), etc (I cannot think of them all). We also were entertained in "Honey I Shrank the Audience", at the Golden Horseshoe with "Billy Hill and the Hillbillies", a number of street bands, and at the Tiki Tiki House. Everything is SO professionally done! It is truly a blessing to be here and to see it all. Here are are few pictures.





We are enjoying the condo at the Newport Cost Villas a lot. Here is a photo of the view of the Pacific Ocean from our villa balcony. We are being blessed with a peaceful and beautiful place to connect with family and to relax!

We're finally here!

This has taken us more than a few years to finally get ourselves back to California and visiting the land of sun and sea and Mickey Mouse! Tonight while Kev, Kels and Brent are down at the pool of our luxurious condo complex and the rest of us are - well - resting - I will make the first installment of our Over the Fence and south of the border one week visit to Newport Beach, CA.

We left LA (Lacombe Alberta) bright and early this morning before 7:00 a.m. Negotiationing our way around the Calgary Airport wasn't too difficult at all. The best (worst?) was yet to come! LA (Los Angeles) and negotiating our way from LAX to Newport Beach was going to be what I would have considered the worst task of the day! BUT with the help of Kels' GPS we (Peter and Kev) got us here with no problems at all! "Keep Left- Keep Left - Keep Left" for almost 50 miles (no km in honor of our being south of the 49th). The toughest negotiation of the day was getting 5 pieces of luggage plus our "carry on" into the trunk and back seat of the rental car!

We were here early but our suite was one of the few ready occupation! A quick call to Eric and Becky and a short time later we were all together. Eric, Becky, Brent and Kirstin had already been driving around and had found some beach time already. Their faces already showed some evidence of finding warm sunshine! They all were sporting a healthy glow to their skin - while the rest of us were still pale and looking very much like Canadians from the far north!

The condo complex here is absolutely beautiful! Maybe we're tired of white ground and now brown ground and bare trees and are longing once again for the green of life! Either way it is lush and green and every manner of plant is growing on the grounds here somewhere! There are fountains and flowerbeds and foliage and fish. Not just ordinary goldfish mind you. Large goldfish! The bigger the pond the bigger the fish! Flowers everywhere you go! Wonderful smelling flowers! And Palm Trees, Flowering trees and trees like I have never seen before! I wonder if it would take more than a week to just soak in the wonder of seeing so many shades of green and such a bright kalidescope of floral colors!

After hauling in all our luggage we went off to find some food. A quick break first at Lagauna Beach with a Starbucks in hand made us feel even more pasty white from long hours with low sunlight and the many snowstorms this past winter. There are so many sundrenched people here. And what do all those "Hollywood Wannabes" drive? Every possible assortment of foreign high end high powered sports vehicle imagined! A visual feast for the men in our crowd!

A number of vistas of the ocean on our drive in quest of grocery stores only wet our appetites for a walk along the pounding surf. Sounds like Becky already is planning on collecting and bagging treasures washed up to the beaches. Sounds like there are Tidal Pools also to be visited in the Coral Beach State Park a short 15 minute walk from our condo!

Kev and Kels made us a wonderful Taco Salad Supper. We are in a Mexican Food Paradise so Taco Salad isn't jut Taco Salad! There are lots of goodies to be added that are readily available in the grocery stores here. After supper all had a dusky stroll on pathways circling the villas. Even though the sun was well on its way to resting til morning, the aromas coming from the communal bar-b-ques and evening perfume from the flowers made for a very pleasant and invigerating walk before heading back.

That brings me to this point - writing a quick blog and letting the other member of this Over the Fence Adventure Blog add in some photos. Sweet dreams tonight for all we are praying and we'll look forward to what tomorrow's adventure will bring.