A Lovely Thanksgiving Day

We met at Robin & David's at 4:00 pm to enjoy their newly renovated backyard.

A fountain will go where the milkcan now is.
Philip drew the plans for this clever use of space.

Luke, Jerry Stevens, Grandpa Seelye & Robin

We all walked the 2 blocks to Philip & Abby's newly-made studio apartment.

Jessica, Melissa & Anni Weins shared the day with us.

Grandma emerging from the spiral staircase upstairs.

Abby made a delicious salad & cheese, apple, nut snack -yum!

The day had gotten up to 82 degrees, but it cooled off when the sun set. The fire from the brazier gave us a little warmth so we could eat outside.
You can see the front door in the background.

Grandma's Chinese friend, Queenie, is in the US while her daughter attends Biola.

Anders is getting so big!

Kirk & Jerry looking over Abby's new cookbook that she's trying out

Is was so nice to get to know John Jensen, Chris's dad,
who was out from Ohio for the holiday.

We walked back to R&D's for dinner & dessert. What a lovely afternoon & evening!
We have SO much to be grateful for!!

A fun Day at Oak Glen

We stopped at Wood Acres to pick up our usual Arkansas Blacks. We have been visiting this apple farm for over 15 years! It was hard to see Jim Wood looking so frail. Kirk & I both left a tract for him (each without the other knowing it). Hopefully, he'll read them and think about God's offer of salvation.

Jeff enjoyed seeing the places where many of our family
photos have been taken over the years.

The cute couple!

The old couple!

We went on a mile walk that starts near Los Rios Rancho.
Here are Kirk, Heather & Jeff jumping up and down on the floating dock.

See all the ripples in the water they made!

A tranquil setting

Walking through the oak trees, back toward the apple selling area

Then we drove over to Riley's farm where Jeff remembers coming when he was in Jr. high.
The place was fairly deserted except for a few of us.
This goat did NOT want Kirk to stop giving him a head rub! It was fun to watch!

The Air Show-part 4 The Sea Wall

After our crazy breakfast, we drove down to the ocean to watch the seals, seagulls & to walk out on the sea wall (another good idea of R&D's)

What a beautiful spot!

This sea wall juts out into the ocean. There was a constant stream of people like us, who wanted to see what it felt like to "stand in the ocean."

Here I am on it, with Kirk facing south.

The waves crash right around you & the wall.
(I don't know what I did to make this a blue link)

Kirk at the end of the wall

After time we left, & drove toward home stopping for lunch at Pannikan's in Luecadia. It is in the old train station and is charming.
What a wonderful time we had together. :-)

The Air Show-Part 3 (from Cult to Occult)

The Mormon Temple is in La Jolla, right off the freeway. I've always called it the White Witch's Castle, because it reminds me of the Chronicles of Narnia &
the Land of theWhite Witch where "its is always winter, but never Christmas."

We went to downtown La Jolla and found this crazy place to eat breakfast. It usually has a scary theme, but in October they REALLY decorate! I can't imagine storing this stuff all year long.

Three of the locals

A young family came and brought their 3 little kids here! The little girl was crying because she was so frightened. :(

We ate outside. I had a fritatta, which was delicious.

These guys were our dining partners.

Kinda wierd, huh?

The Air Show-Part 2

It took us 2.5 hours to go about 4 miles from our hotel to park at the air show on the Marine Corp Base! Then we walked about 1.75 miles to get our seat in the box seats in front of the grandstand. We brought a picnic dinner from Whole Foods, yum!

This is the jet truck! It shoots flames out of the back and charges down the runway. It takes a parachute to stop it. Wow, it was LOUD!

The red bi-plane did aerial acrobatics that were simply amazing, even stalling and coming straight down-yikes!

Here are the 4 Patriot jets flying SO close together!
We missed the Blue angels because it took us so long to park. :-( but these were similar.

Here I am holding the Airshow program that I begged from one of the employees.
Below is the grand finale-the "Wall of Fire." It was about a half-mile from our seat but we could feel the shockwaves & heat when it went off-wow! Turn up the sound!

Our weekend at the Miramar Air Show-Part 1-La Jolla

We visited the beautiful craftsman style Torrey Pines Lodge, a 5-Star hotel in La Jolla.
Robin & David suggested we go there and are very glad we did!

This is the lobby of the hotel. The rooms start around $500 a night!

The log-burning fireplace smelled so good! We sat here for awhile and
enjoyed the scenery inside & out.

This is the famous golf-course where the US Open was in 2008.
Tiger Woods practiced here for years, as well.

On our way to stay in La Jolla, we stopped to see the hang gliders. They simply run and jump off over the cliff and get the lift they need to sail around for 15-20 minutes. They zoomed right past us, almost close enough to reach up and touch their dangling feet!

This picture proves we were on the same vacation.

So cool!

Philip & Abby are Almost Finished!

Kirk, Heather & I went up to Philip & Abby's for a soup dinner & to see them in their studio apartment! It is so cute & efficient. The white shelves used to be in the former laundry room. The table/desk is Philip's drafting table that we gave him for a graduation gift; it wraps around the corner. They both use it for their computers. Philip hung the pot rack above the 2-burner stove.

This cable lighting system casts light just where it's needed.

Lovely lady on the lovely staircase

Upstairs they put their craftsman style bed up on matching blocks to give them under-the-bed space for all of their clothes, which are in bins.

Philip is still making a gate to go across the entrance to the staircase.
You can see the first part of the shelf that rests on the top of the banister.

Here are Heather & Abby serving up the soup.
All of their summer's hard work has paid off!