Road Trip! California bound.

St. Louis Arch

 So in March we took the scenic route to San Diego, CA in Jim's 1990 Mazda Miata.

Just the two of us in a convertible with no power steering, cruise control, a/c (not that we needed it), radio or passenger side air bag.

Yeah, we might just be crazy.

MU Columns

Our first night was in Columbia, MO.

Broadway Diner

Of course we had to see some of our old stomping grounds.  We went by MU, where I used to work and where Jim's ROTC unit was stationed.  Bonus?  We had Broadway Diner for breakfast.  Great fuel for the start of another day on the road.

Canon City, CO

There were plenty of miles with absolutely nothing to see.  Yea, Kansas I'm looking at you here.  But for the most part it was a beautiful drive.

Monument Valley View

Colorado was gorgeous!  And I think Jim really enjoyed driving these winding roads.  And I have to admit I did kind of like that the speed limits were higher than I'm used to.  So in reality I wasn't speeding.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley Selfie

We were able to visit Monument Valley along the way.  For those of you who may not know, this is where many a John Wayne movie was filmed.  We had to get a selfie with Monument Valley in the background.  And wow was it bright outside, hence the sunglasses.  And so VERY windy.  The dust was pretty vicious.

Grand Canyon

We also were able to visit the Grand Canyon.  This had been on my bucket list.  So yay!

The Grand Canyon is the size of Delaware.  So as they say, two birds one stone.  We were fortunate enough to have another couple offer to take a photo of us.  We returned the favor, of course.

We were very fortunate that while on this trip we were able to stop in Arizona to visit my Aunt Laura and Uncle Harvey.  I hadn't seen them in years and Jim hadn't seen them since our wedding day.  Such is life in the navy.  So we were able to stop and catch up with them.  It was great getting to see them!

The original reason for coming out to San Diego was to drop off one of our three vehicles and scout out locations for a place to live.

However, a definite perk was getting to see many of our friends that are already out there.

We enjoyed getting to see a few of our friends, plus trying out great new places to eat.  Sadly we couldn't see everyone, but fear not my friends we will return in September/October time frame!

Even bigger bonus?

We flew home in First Class!  What a way to end a really great road trip!

Halloween

 As most of our friends know, Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday.  Every year we have sat out in our driveway with our neighbor, John, to pass out candy.  Normally there is a tasty concoction that I have brewed up just for the occasion.    In colored plastic cups.

We have done it almost every year we've been in this house.  So that's seven or so Halloweens.

It's been a pretty great tradition.  And the kids that stop by get a decent haul since we're the only two houses that do candy.  One stop, twice the candy.

I use the past tense because this will be our last Halloween in this house for a while.  By this time next year we will be in California.  Hopefully we'll be in a great neighborhood that likes Halloween as much as we do.  It makes me slightly sad though.

We didn't do pumpkins this year.  I just couldn't find the time or the gumption.  It was kind of bittersweet.  We normally carve pumpkins, eat cheap pizza and watch 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'.  I did watch the show, just not the rest of it.

Instead, this year we did it up a bit more.  We grilled.  Had lots of tasty beverages.  Invited friends over.  There were ten adults that night.  Quite the little shin dig don't you think?

And we handed out full size candy bars.  That's right we do it up right at our house.  And I had no candy left by the end of the night.  Does it count that one of my friends 'traded' me a bucket of their fun size candy for five of my full size candy bars?  And I didn't eat any of my candy.  I swear!  Trick or treaters really made out like bandits at our house.  Not only were we giving out full size candy bars, but there were two other adults giving out candy by the handfuls.

Plus we had Edgar Allan Poe's works being read by Vincent Price playing in the background.

All in all, I think it was a pretty successful night.  Especially considering we didn't shut down until midnight even though the trick or treaters were done by eight.  Gotta love a fire pit, good drinks, great friends and fun conversations.

Reunion

 Dearest little blog, I'm so sorry.  I realize that it's been almost a year since I posted anything.  It's not that we haven't done anything.  It's just that I'm lazy and forgetful.

Please forgive me!

Okay I'm done groveling to my blog now.

On to the meat of this blog post.

On June 27th we were fortunate enough to get to meet up with a good chunk of the gang from our Ingleside days.

It was fantastic to get to see everyone who could make it!

Loved being able to catch up and hang with some of the most fun people in the world!

Thanks to Melanie for hosting!  Also Neil, Linda, Andrea, Omar, Debbie and Phil thanks for allowing use to snag a photo to remember this great time.  Thanks to Jim for taking the picture and also thanks to Bethany for putting up with us crazy folks!

California Dreaming

So the end of August and first part of September, we flew to California for our second honeymoon.

In case you missed an earlier blog, we've been married 20 years.

We flew into San Diego and got a convertible mustang to drive up the coast.

I think this was the first true vacation that we took.  Something that was longer than a few days and Jim wasn't attached to a ship.  Over a week of just the two of us.

What bliss!

Of course we took the windy road up to see the Hollywood Sign.  You can't get too close.  And those sharp turns freaked me out.  Not Jim's driving, mind you, just the blind turns.

And we HAD to stop at the USS IOWA.  Years ago when we were in Rhode Island we came across the IOWA and were able to touch her hull.

I had never been to California, so I turned to all the Navy wives out there what to do.  I got a plethora of answers.  Some helpful.  Some not so much.  There's so much you can do in 7 days.

We went to Hearst Castle, because SO many people told me we should.  And it was AWESOME!  We did the basic tour.  Holy moly!  There were tons of other tours, but like I said we wanted to see other things as well.

I'm sure a few of the things I told Jim that I wanted to see surprised him, but he was a great sport.  We stopped at a Mission in Santa Barbara.  Just a quick peek around and a few pictures.

 We also visited the Winchester Mystery House.  Photography is not allowed inside so this one shot we got of the house will have to be all we take with us.

I think my favorite stop along the way was San Francisco.

We stayed in a fantastic hotel!  We rode the trolley cars (mark that off my bucket list), went to Fisherman's Wharf and had dinner there.  We also had the BEST Irish Coffee ever!  At a place called Buena Vista.  Would have never known about this if we hadn't struck up a conversation with a total stranger.  Now that was serendipity!

I honestly wish we'd had more time for San Francisco.

And I had to get a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge.  What a foggy morning that was!

We also visited The Bay Model after we crossed the bridge.  Something we had both seen on Mythbusters and thought it would be cool to actually visit.  And it was!

We went to two wineries in Sonoma County and two wineries in Napa, but that is for another blog all together!

We headed up to the Yosemite National Park area, but due to the fires we were unable to go into the park.

We did stop at the Toiyabe Motel, which a friend recommended.  So very cool!  Even though I was freaked out a bit, because we were driving further and further into forested areas and it was getting dark.  At some point we lost cell coverage.  What an adventure!

We headed back to San Diego a few days before we were going to fly back home.  We thought it would be a good way to decompress and maybe wander a bit more.

We strolled past the Hotel Del.  Never went in though.  Ate yummy food.  And just drove around a lot.

All in all a great trip!

And I would so do it again!

Military Appreciation Night

Taking the oath

On August 10th we attended a Tides Game.  Happy coincidence?  It was also Military Appreciation Night!

We actually got a Luxury Suite in order to celebrate our 20th anniversary.  Our anniversary is actually the 13th, but that's a week day and we wanted to share this experience with our friends.

First pitch

This was something we'd been wanting to do for quite a while.  Even funnier is that most of our friends that came are military as well.  No surprise there right?

So we got to witness people taking their oath to join the military, the Navy band performing and military throwing out the first pitch.  And to top off the awesomeness of the evening?  Fireworks!!!

So we got our own box with a balcony, which was great.  We could sit in air conditioning or sit out on the balcony and enjoy the game.  It had rained earlier that day so it did get kind of muggy.  Something you may notice with a few of the photos I took.  Foggy lens.

Plus we ordered food and beer so that no one was hungry.  Hot dogs, popcorn, nachos and cookies.

YUM!

And don't forget the yummy beer!

It was a great combination of people.  And we were so glad that they could come out and celebrate with us!

 Some knew each other from other groups that I'm in or they lived next to us or they work with Jim.  So we felt it was a great mix!

Wow that was a bit of a ramble there wasn't it?

Good food.  I don't think anyone walked away hungry.

Good drinks.  And no one drove under the influence.  We are responsible people!

Silly Jim with buddy Terri

Sweet Caroline...  dum dum dum

Good company.  The best company.

And a great game!

Who could ask for more?

 And of course there were a few of us who had had enough to drink to sing along with some of the songs the ball field played.

And the game ended with a fantastic display of fireworks.

We were definitely pleased with the way this evening went.

So much so that we just may do it again next year some time.

And just so you can see how happy we were I've added a photo that a pal of ours snapped for me that night.

Bonus photo!  The happy couple!

Mariner's Museum

Ring the bell!

So during our Yorktown Battlefield tour we decided it was just too beautiful to head home.  So we decided to head to the Mariner's Museum in Newport News.

Restoration in progress

Neither one of us had been to it before and I had heard a lot of great things about it.

They have pieces of the USS Monitor there that they are restoring.  How cool is that?  You can actually see the restoration in progress with explanations.

Which I actually found pretty cool.  I'm a geek.  I admit it.

I'm starting to get excited about history.

Can you find me?

They have a really good replica of the USS Monitor.  You can walk aboard to get a feel for the size.  You can also walk below it to see the propeller and hull.

Ship Outline

I thought it was pretty cool.

 They have a really good set up of displays.  The outline of how the ship looked is really neat to look at.  I was glad to get a shot.  I'm never sure with the lighting that they had.  It was kind of dark and I wasn't sure if the outline would truly show up.

But I think the definition on this is really good.

Replica of interior of turret

Kinda creepy when you think about it.

That's how it looked when they came across it.

Gives me chills just thinking about it.

 All in all it is SO worth the price of admission.

Yorktown Battlefield

I can see you.  Can you see me?

Let's face it.  I'm not the historian in the family.  That's totally on Jim.

But on July 6th we decided to do a driving tour of the Yorktown Battlefield.

It was a gorgeous day, so we took the top down on the Miata and drove it.

Any excuse to drive with the top down in the Miata.

A good friend loaned us the CD to play while driving through the route.  Thanks Christina!!  It was an informative and entertaining CD.  And that's a tough one for me.  I get bored very easily.  So I was impressed that the CD kept me involved.

There were plenty of people out and about to enjoy this beautiful day.  And I could not blame them.

While we were there we decided to get the pass that gets us into National Parks across the US.  I can see this being a very useful thing for us in the future.

All in all a very nice day.