Joan on the Road...of Life

On August 14 we headed to Huntington Beach State Park for our annual family party. SILaw Tom and the boys headed out to get there around 6 AM to claim a firepit and they were successful. I guess he cooked breakfast for them all so they had a great guy time :)

We waited to go after lunch and by 3 PM they were closing the gates...park was full. We managed to get in a good traffic lane and got in by the skin of our teeth. Even though it was a cool day some people, like Zach, were in the water for quite awhile.

We were set up a ways back from the beach and by 5 PM it was breezy cool (but a wonderful change of pace from the heat of Hemet). We got the fire started and cozied up to keep warm while we ate.

We always enjoy the family fun, conversation, food and general good times. After sunset we enjoyed smores and then we headed home ....a two hour drive for us....but worth it!

We are striving to manage our lives in the hot heat of Hemet :) Today it is 105. We've found that in our little motorhome, 30 amp, that in order to run both ACs we need to turn off the house battery charger and run the fridge on gas or we overload the circuits and blow out our flip flops. We are maintaining a cool 80 degrees so I'm happy. Usually we are comfy with one AC but at 100 degrees we lose ground and need them both running.

The trick is to do any outside stuff or running around in the morning (contrary to my nature). But today we did get up, get the laundry done, vacuum and wash the wood floor and clean some carpet spots After that had our coffee and breakfast and I've been playing on the computer since then....games, Picasa, emails and such.

A four o'clock beer will carry us through to a relaxing evening watching an Angels game and The Closer. A couple more days of 100 plus and we'll be into a week of low 90s. That is more like it :)

Posted by Joan at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first night we were in Door County we went down to Sturgeon Bay for a musical review. When it started we looked at each other and grimaced. What was this going to be? A black stage with three scrawny fake pine trees and then "Da Tree Guys" came on. Three nondescript, sort of chubby, middle aged guys....to do a musical comedy review. Oh well :(

But then they began to sing! Wow! We so enjoyed their wonderful voices recreating songs of the past and we even got belly laughs from their local Upper Peninsula comedy. It may have been the best evening of all.

Or maybe the Pub Crawl was the best?! We hopped on a trolley right by the condo and spent the evening touring/ crawling from pub to pub across the Door! The crowd was fairly quiet to start but by the end we were hooting, hollering and singing. We especially enjoyed the young newlyweds sitting in front of us. We gave lots of advice to the young bride. And the Dad who was there with several family members but no wife....we had lots of fun with him!

AND today is Great-grandson Evan's first day of kindergarten. Can't wait to hear what he thinks of it! Wonder what the teacher will think of him ;)

Posted by Joan at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's not that I've been lazy...just on the go with not much computer access. But we've had lots of fun and good times. Started out in Illinois on July 21st when we gave my Mom an early 90th birthday gift from the family....a Macbook. She was totally surprised and really loves it.

She is emailing, surfing the web, bookmarking important pages and Skyping. That may be the best part, connecting visually with the family. Our upgraded Verizon connection to the Internet is just fast enough to allow us to send/receive the Skype video so we can now connect with everyone too, although it is not the sharpest picture.

I left for my girls trip on July 22 and went with six long-time girlfriends to Egg Harbor in Door County Wisconsin. We had a great time on this, our 18th vacation together. One of the gals owns a condo in a lovely complex overlooking the waters of Greenbay. We have lazy breakfasts and conversation then usually do something special each day. Some of us move at a little slower pace than we did a few years ago but we manage to help each other out and have a great time.

One bit of excitement was having the fire alarm go off about 10;30 one evening when we were all in our jammies. We evacuated with all the other guests only to find that someone had burnt toast, setting off the alarm. Went back in, got settled and off went the alarm again. This time we went to the center foyer where the firemen told us it was a faulty alarm. Would you believe that the next day Lynn, who had stayed home alone for a bit, got caught in the shower by another false alarm. Boy, did we get a lot of laughs out of that one :)

We saw two plays at Peninsula Players, celebrating their 75th year. We were not too impressed with either of the offerings. They were good, but not spectacular, except for the ending song in "A Little Night Music"....Send in the Clowns. It was very moving and special to hear the song in the context of the story.

I'll write more about our vacation and trip in the next few days. We are doing well and enjoying some lovely weather here in Hemet.

Posted by Joan at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)