The Best Day In Santa Cruz!

Some things just never change!  Whether it is Coney Island or Lagoon or The Santa Cruz Boardwalk, The State Fair or Five Flags, there is fun in the air.  So many people love that playful carnival atmosphere and the carefree days spent there.  They love the arcades, the sea air, the sand, the deep fried foods and the rides.  All of it speaks of summer, relaxation and the smell of sunscreen and wet bathing suits. 

Oh how I use to love the State Fair when I was young.  One of the perks of living in Sacramento was having the State Fair so close.  We all looked forward to it for months and went almost every night that someone's parents would give us a lift down there.  The lights, the rides, the Midway...how could anyone ever forget that from when they were a kid?  It was two weeks of teen heaven. And all the carni games where cute boys would win teddy bears for girls.  I had one on my bed for years, long after we moved west.  It was about 30 inches tall and lavender and white.  I have no clue who won it for me, but I haven't forgotten that bear!

Aren't they the cutest?
Moms can say that, right?

Guess who is the biggest kid here?
Yep, Grampa!


The way it's done...

after you look around a bit and see what's there

you start out slow on the Merry-Go- Round!

An ariel view is always nice to get the lay of the land



Zach and Connor in front
Grampa and Aynslee behind them



The build up...taking it really slow
during the acclimation period
as the tension builds..



The Leals happened to be in Santa Cruz

 so perfect....they met up at the Boardwalk.

Andy and Chris have been friends 
since they were little.

 It was a great opportunity for their kids 
to be together and for them to catch up!

Bethy, John, Sarah, Willsey, and Aron Row 1

Connor, Owen, Andy  Row 2

Missy, Zach, Aynslee  Row 3

Grampa, Christopher  and Camera Row 4

#sincebethysmiddlenameishashtagithought
idshowhericandoittoo

#theselealsaresomeofourfavoritelifetimefriends

Ah, the fried stuff.  
Can't you smell the rancid recycled grease? 
 I thought Twinkies were gone from the earth
 but apparently not!
  But then they do have an extraordinary 
shelf life, right?

This looks like what Connor ordered
 if I were guessing!

It I had been there I'd have gotten Cotton Candy!
I like its magic disappearing act!

It is time to get into the serious rides!



Owen looking a little pensive as he waits!

I do not know what this ride is called but I call if the Free Fall.  You get strapped into this contraption.  When everyone is secure and apparently barefoot you shoot straight up in the air at a high speed.  You are up there just long enough to look around a little and then it free falls straight to the ground leaving your tummy in mid air.   It stops right before they have to scrape you off the pavement.  (How is this fun...remind me?)

Oh I know you scream all the way down unless you 
are trying to keep a fried Twinkie down, Con!
Just kidding, Connor, I know this came before the treat
but it sure does look like you might be doing that!

This one is called the Pirate Ship.  

It reminds me of what they use to call 

the Hammer in the old days.

Grampa looks scared here but 
I know he'd say he was faking it!

The ultimate goal has been attained here!
Little Sarah is completely terrorized!
Making her realized that she wants to remain tiny forever
So Daddy can protect her (and keep her home longer!)
Good job, Andy!
Aron is smiling but Will is just not too sure about this thing!

#isnaggedthisphotofromfacebookfrombethyspagedonttell

The old Rickety Wooden Roller Coaster
(Hopefully Retrofitted)

Some things do change after all. 

I use to love this thing when I was a kid.

Now I'd rather not even watch people I love riding it.

It is just wonderful to see your kids and grandkids

 enjoying the fullness of their lives.  

I always say about kids...they are double jeopardy and they double your pleasure and your fun too.  They double your sorrows when they are struggling or sick or hurting, but when they are happy and enjoying their lives and on top of the world,  they double your joy as well.  And my real super joy is in knowing how much fun Grampa had right along with them. And for me my great happiness came in having them here, in enjoying them tell me about everything and in writing these memories down for them.

It reminded me of decorating in far away lands like Canada or Italy or Utah or Moraga via the Internet and some photos like I have often done and still do.  It is not quite like being there but it gets the job done nicely.  The pictures might be a little out of sequence but hopefully it will be fun reminder of the day for them.

They were all so sweet and supportive towards me and I don't feel like I missed out on a thing.  By the end of the week I was feeling almost back to normal.   Taking it easy was the right choice for all concerned.  I didn't have to be stressed about keeping up when I was not feeling well and they were not burdened by curtailing any plans because of me.  Win/win.

Their last day here we relaxed and they packed up and we played and had a nice BBQ with a few friends that Chris wanted to talk with and Jim's mom.  It was a warm summer night and things were good.  So good.  We sure hope they had fun and will come back again soon!

We love them all and are so proud of their little family! All the hard work you have done to make it so is obvious, Chris and Melissa!  Woohoo!

Our Own Little Mrs. Ward Cleaver~Reprise!

I just love blogging, no kidding! I love seeing the various things that our kids are thinking about as they share them with us. They have allowed me to swipe whatever I want to share with you so here is one I love that Laura wrote. This brings back so many memories, thanks Loulou!
This post was published back in the beginning of 09. I had forgotten all about it until it came up at the bottom of my last post on Linkwithin. I love that feature on a blog because it does uncover some moldy oldies worth republishing on busy days. So here's Laauurra!

Our Little Mrs. Cleaver

The June Cleaver in Me

"One of the great things about living in a foreign country is that when you turn on the TV everything is... well, foreign. Since I'm not really into TV it works for me but the boys don't like it much. So a few months ago we started looking online for some good TV sitcom DVD collections for the boys to watch. Among the thousands (literally, T-H-O-U-S-A-N-D-S) of options available Robert and I decided to get the first season of Leave it to Beaver.

If you haven't seen Leave it to Beaver in a while- it worth revisiting. I will admit it is a little bit on the cheesy side but it is funny and clean and totally... boy! I have to confess that I love that the boys like it. I love hearing Spencer say "Ah, gee Mom" when I ask him to do something he doesn't want to do and hearing Ross tell me everything is "swell" when I ask him how his day was. I even enjoy watching a episode or two with Spencer and Ross on occasion. But the thing that I really like about Leave it to Beaver is watching June Cleaver in her role as wife and mother.

I don't know about you but I grew up thinking June Cleaver (as the embodiment of the female stay at home mom stereotype) was laughable. Not only did I think she was impractically perfect- I was offended that was the way media thought stay at home moms should be! I thought the sole purpose of her existence was to make normal women ( who clean the house in ratty sweats and occasionally yell at their kids) feel inadequate. Never in my young adult imagination did I ever considered June Cleaver a role model in anyway... but that was before. Having watched her in action recently I have changed my tune.


Here is what I have noticed about June Cleaver. She is patient and kind with her children. She is loving toward her husband. She is witty and spontaneous (in a very traditional sort of way). She is intelligent (though a little too easily tricked by her boys at times). She expects a lot from the people she loves but never turns her back on them when the don't measure up. June Cleaver is perfectly content in her role as a wife and mother. She is never bitter or resentful that her stay at home life style is keeping her from getting the job she always wanted or spending more time with her friends. Her house is spotlessly clean, her yard perfectly manicured, her appearance immaculate. She has snacks ready and waiting when her boys get home from school and dinner on the table every night when her husband gets home from work. I mean seriously- isn't that what every woman wants? To be perfectly capable and fulfilled in their role as a woman? To feel as put together and on top of life as June appears to be? I don't know about you but that certainly sounds good to me.


So I've decided to spend some time finding the June Cleaver in me. I know she is in there somewhere- that beautiful, content, fulfilled woman I've always wanted to be. I'll let you know when I find her."

{Now, Laura, you know I always dressed and acted like June and cleaned our house in a dress, pearls, apron and heels. All this occurred while you and your siblings played with each other in perfect harmony so I never had to yell at you. And Daddy brought home the bacon arriving promptly at 6:00 pm (with his speckled sport coat and tie on and a calm and happy face) to his steaming hot and delicious dinner!  Love, Mom}

Laura and Robert's

Wally and 'The Beave"
Spencer and Ross growing up

in Italy

A moment of silence,
Barbara Billingsley
who played June Cleaver
passed away at age 94
on October 16, 2010.

Oh, Savannah!

One of the beautiful city block parks in Savannah

Since I read The Work and The Glory by Gerald Lund, I have wanted to visit Savannah.  There is something so enchanting about the south.  I can still remember the descriptions of the River Walk area down by the water front where Joshua had his mill.

I just have realized that so many of our ideas of where to travel have originated between the covers of best loved books.  I wish we had had more time to spend there.  But at least we were able to take the back roads to get to our hotel.  It took longer but was so much more interesting and pretty.  We have a thing about back roads.  We enjoy them.  We saw way too much freeway on this trip because we wanted to cover a lot of territory, but our favorite way is to just meander along stopping when the fancy strikes us.  The country sides of both South Carolina and Georgia were lovely.  The green was just so noteworthy there.  Everything green like only God can do it.

The rain clouds followed us to Savannah.  There is something cozy and romantic about traveling in a car in the rain.  We love it.  We had two rainy nights in Georgia.  I could hear Brook Benton's song in my head both nights.  Oh wait, I think I'll put it on as I write.  Ah. perfect.  ;-)

 
A real Magnolia!
We were just a week or two to 
early see them all in bloom.
  

We stayed just outside the city limits of Savannah and saved a ton of money on our hotel.  That night we went to a local restaurant recommended by the hotel concierge.  It was a family style type restaurant whose name escapes me but,  it was the epitome of southern fried everything. They had it all decked out in 70s decor...lots of brown and big booths that could hold a large family.  There was a lot of y'allin' going on in there.   It is where the local likes to go.

We had our first hush puppies and still don't know what they were.  The little waitress couldn't quite tell us.  Some kind of fried dough like a donut in the shape of a fish stick...no sugar.  In fact, I thought is was fish, all tucked in with the other fish on the fry plate and was dipping it in tartar sauce.  Jim thought that was hilarious.  (Jim of all people who eats the weirdest concoctions you can imagine on a weekly basis!  Ahem! ) Cole slaw was the only green thing in the room.  We were beginning to rethink the notion of eating something unique each place we visited.  Even delicious can be over done.  I could envision our blood turning pink from all the deep frying.

After writing that last paragraph I had to find out what they are. Here is Paula Deen's recipe for them  http://tinyurl.com/5uerm5.  If you click here you can see how to make hush puppies and how they got their name and some tricks for not getting your hands gooey in the process in the video.

Speaking of Paula Deen, we admired the Lady and Her Sons for begin closed on Sunday!  I am sure she is doing it for the right reasons~honoring the Sabbath Day.  There were plenty of tourists that were hoping she would have been there.  Savannah has lots of beautiful churches and we enjoyed hearing the bells ring most of the day.  We took this photo below when it cleared up in the afternoon.

In the morning as I have mentioned previously, once we got over the fact that it wasn't Saturday and we had missed church, we had our second shower of the day on the open air City Tour trolley.   It was so pretty in spite of the wetness.

Looks a lot like San Francisco right here.  
I love these fancy row houses.

 

So many pretty colors used in good taste

 in both Charleston and Savannah

The architectural features of these beautiful buildings and homes are amazing.  The one thing I think I love about the east and south so much is the noticeable difference between it and the newness  you feel in the west.  I wouldn't exactly call it antiquity, but it definitely has a more established, historical feeling.  There is a sense of pride in the maintenance of the things of the past that we don't feel here.  It has a regard for the permanence of things,  and it is accompanied by a certain special respect for preserving it.

 

One of the fun things about this tour was they picked up passengers in character from the early days  in their history.  This guy was a person that died during the civil war.  He died in his own neighborhood when he and his brother were arguing about the issues of slavery and he was accidentally shot.  This was a real historical character.

 

Loved the brick sidewalks

We passed by some beautiful little inns and hotels 
and of course some spectacular homes.

 

This looked like fun!

One of the most distinctive things about Savannah is that they have many many block sized parks in the downtown area.  You can walk a few blocks and then sit and enjoy a park bench and a little rest.   I am thinking this may be very welcomed when it is very hot and humid in the summer. 

 Many of them have historical monuments and water features and it seems to be a place where people congregate to chat and be together with friend and strangers soon to be friends.  This was very reminiscent of the Italian piazzas.  You see the buskers singing and playing their instruments.
You see people picnicking in the squares like we did.  That was delightful.

We met a wonderful old black man there that was so talkative and sweet.  Jim and I thought he was just delightful.  He was preaching the gospel and singing and selling his flowers he had woven from the reeds he had cut from along the river banks and then dried.   Jim bought me one for Mother's Day in hopes that our donation would be helpful to him!

 I tried to take their picture together but the camera was on video so I got a little piece of a spontaneous song he was singing us about God. Too bad I only caught the part about the devil 'cuz he was singing a lot about Jesus most of the time.  Nice guy, he was a kick.  Jim is holding the flower he bought me in his hand.

We wanted to go to the Ole Pink House for dinner but they were full so we landed up at the Pirate Restaurant recommended by our tour guide.  Umm, it was not really that great....too Disneyland-ish. It might have been more fun with some grandkids.  The food was good though.

 

Well,  the funny thing is the place that made me want to come to Savannah actually turned out to be a bust.  It was tacky and seedy and full of unsavory characters.  It features lots of booze and nasty t-shirts and the like.  The river right in front of this was cool but not this part.  Too Bourbon Street for us.  We drove by a few times to see it and that was it.

 

 River Walk~Not Our Cup of Tea

The rest of Savannah was charming and we enjoyed our short stay here.  The next day we were heading out early for Virginia and spent most of the day driving.  Our next destination, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville, VA. 

Patriot's Cove, City Market and a BBQ

After we left The Magnolia Plantation and Gardens I would have been perfectly content to just return to the hotel mid-afternoon and do some relaxing and writing.  Not the hubster.

He had already devised a plan to go to Patriot's Cove to browse through the Destroyers and Aircraft Carrier there.  He loves touring old ships and Patriot's Cove is a must see for someone who enjoys that sort of thing.  We had driven out to the harbor the afternoon before to check it out.

 

The USS Yorktown

He did go out that afternoon.  What impressed him the most was the reminder of the amount of courage and bravery it took to do all the military forces did to win WWII.  He said the photos reminded him once again how very young so many of the service men and women were.   It was sobering to remember how many of them were lost in the various battles.  Never has this been more poignant that after just having Robert return after his tour in Afghanistan unharmed.  That blessing remains fresh, very fresh.  We are so grateful.

I did go back to the hotel and write my one and only post about Charleston other than a Daybook entry for the entire month.  I think I could enjoy the ships, perhaps for a short time, had I not already been hammered with so much walking. After the City Tour of Charleston the day before, we had pretty much exhausted ourselves walking around the city and then ventured over to the Market that is one of Charleston's claim to fame places. If you have been to the French Market in New Orleans then you have the idea. On top of that first day plus adding the Plantation from the morning hours...I was needing some down time.  I once wrote a blog post about how Jim is a dash and I am a dot.  It is short!

http://tinyurl.com/l4guzat
If you  want to read this just click on the link
When finished click on the header picture up on top 
of our street and it will take you right back here. 

Somethings remain the same. 

 We are good at compromising after nearly 45 years!

This is an overhead rooftop view of the Charleston City Market.  It is open on the sides as they roll up the big  metal doors each day.  The wares are a lot of touristy stuff (mugs with Charleston written on them, t-shirts...just junk...you know) and some other nicer things too.   But to tell you the truth I did not want to shop.  I know...shocking isn't it?

I have learned over many years that just about anything you can buy on a vacation that would be something you would actually want, you can get at home or on the Internet.  Then you don't have to lug it home either.  My favorite thing to do is buy small things that pertain specifically to the learning experience like books and/or videos of the places we have visited.  Travel is the best educator in many ways.  We learned a ton about American history on this trip.  Love that.

While in Charleston I did buy a book about Christmas in Charleston though because it was something that I kept thinking about as we saw all the beautiful homes there.  The book did not disappoint.  I would love to spend a Christmas in Charleston sometime.  Maybe some of our kids will move there one day??  Fingers crossed since I know they are never moving home again.

The Market goes on for blocks and blocks and blocks!  

Something for everyone no doubt!

When James returned from Patriot's Cove we decided to go to dinner at a place known as the best Bar-B-Q in Charleston!  It is called Bessinger's.  It was pretty yummy that is for sure.

Not a fancy place at all, just down home cookin'.  Their answer to endlessly supplying their patrons with napkins?  A roll of paper towels on each table.  Practical and handy!  It was good enough for Mitt so it was better than good enough for us!

 It was shortly after this that we decided 

we could not eat like this every day! 

 Holy Cow, I mean Pig!  

Moaning and groaning we vowed for more reasonable meals as we fell asleep immediately upon our late return to the hotel.  What a jammed pack day of adventures!  (See how he runs me for hours on end!)  Good thing or I'd spend all my time writing.  Thanks, Honey!  The next day was a very special day.  I'll try to get it out in a day or two.  Later, friends!

This post contains some Google images