A Visit From Minnesota and A Visit To Minnesota

Chrissy and Molly got out of the cold Minnesota winter to spend a long weekend in SanDiego and David and I were happy to be their 'tour guides'.
The girls came armed with a list of 'must dos' that they found on the Internet. One of those was to have a drink at the Gaslamp Quarter. The Gaslamp is an area filled with bars, restaurants, shops and bars.....and bars and bars. Not much opens until evening and so one night we went 'clubbing'. OK so not really, I mean me clubbing, please. But we did head down and our first stop was Dick's Last Resort. Dick's is a bar and restaurant and is a hell of a lot of fun!
Here we are walking down the street

And at one of the many micro breweries in San Diego. I was just amazed at all of the choices there are if you are a beer drinker. I was also amazed at the cost of a bottle of Beck's NA....$6.50. How in the heck do people afford it is what I wonder. It was a riot but by 9:30 this 'clubber' was danged tired and ready to go back to the room...it was not to be. The girls kept me out until 11:30.....
Another place that we wanted to be sure that they got to was Point Loma and Cabrillo National Park.
I love these Bird of Paradise, they do photograph well.
To the old lighthouse we went. This is from the top of the spiral staircase looking down. I bet they are really glad that I did not see fit to spit right at the moment:)
I have been to Cabrillo a number of times but have never been at low tide. This time the tide was low and we were able to 'play' in the tide pools.
The tide pools provides cool structure
Interesting 'things' under the water
Nice color
And there is always a Sea Gull just waiting to have it's picture taken
Another thing on their San Diego list was to go whale watching. The day was beautiful and we saw a couple of whales up close and personal. HOWEVER...my camera had been malfunctioning and it choose this day to really call it quits. Hence I missed many great 'tail' shots and shots of the whale surfacing. I did get this blow, but that's about it. I was ready to throw the danged thing in the sea.

Almost more exciting to us were the dolphins that swam alongside our boat for the longest time.

And no trip to San Diego is complete without a trip to the 'Del' and Coronado Beach where the sand has black streaks in it as well as gold flecks. A great place. They do in fact have an off leash dog park on the end of this beach, more about that at a later date.
Chrissy was drawn to the ice cream shop in the Del.
Like all other things at this hotel, the ice cream is pretty darned spendy. If you click on the picture you should be able to see the prices.
Both Chrissy and Molly fell in love with San Diego, what's not to love, and they say they will be back.

So from the warm to the cold I went for a long weekend. Missing my girls in MN I hopped a flight to see them. Having not seen them for almost three months I couldn't believe how much they had changed. And of course I had camera in hand most of the time (thank goodness it was an easy fix and I did not have to throw it in the ocean).
Attempting to take a family picture with a two year old who does not often sit still and a 7 month old who doesn't stop babbling is interesting at best. I just shot continually and this may be as good as it gets
Shelby Marie is one of the most content kids ever. Her and her sis may look alike but they certainly are two different kids.
I was happy to see that Julia had not forgotten her Grandma...phew.
These two get along wonderfully. Julia is a great big sister and Shelby watches her every move.

I was able to go to Julia's gymnastics with her and her daddy. Here she is doing her stretches. It was at about this time that Julia told her daddy that she wanted Grandma to help her thank you very much! It was fun....times to treasure

When we got home the gymnastics continued. Julia jumped for the chair to the ottoman and then onto her chair. Yep, she is always in motion.This was actually my last trip to Lenny and Kelly's Nicollet home and my longtime home as well. The house was my folk's when I was in high school and after my mom passed Lenny and my dad 'traded' houses. Len and Kel have sold the 'homestead' and are moving to Prior Lake. Lots of happy memories in that house and some not so much, but it is only a house and I still have my memories....

He May Not Have Gone To "Jared's"

But this is better in my opinion.
Today is not only Valentine's day but it is the day that I married my soul mate. David and I have been married for 19 years and it has been a great 19 years.
So-David is not big on gifts at all-just doesn't think that way and he especially does not buy jewelry. What a surprise to find this waiting for me this morning.
The story
We love the Quartzsite area and while there one of our favorite things is to hit the desert and rock hunt just for fun. While we are there there is a Mineral and RV show/flea market and obviously David spent more time at the flea market than I realized because it is where he searched for a found this perfect gift. The chain was handmade by one of the vendors and the stones he choose because they reminded him of two of the stones that we found in the desert. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised this morning. What a guy!

I do just have to recognize Becky's family;
Becky is the young gal from Nicollet who I have blogged about a time or two. Last week Beck lost her battle to the disease we call breast cancer. She fought long and hard and now is no longer in pain. Very sad for all of us that knew her through her fight but mostly for her family who have lost a fabulous mom, wife, sister, sister in law etc etc etc....
I was given permission to share this little story that for me sort of made the sadness a bit lighter-
Becky and her husband Dan's favorite song was '409'. It was the song that her wedding party walked up the aisle to during their wedding AND it is the number of the place where Becky's body now rests in the cemetery
God speed Becky and to her family may you always cherish the short time that you had with her.

Good Friends Good Food And A Whole Lotta Dust In My Ears

We spent the past 10 days in Quartszite Arizona dry camping in the desert on BLM land. BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management and is land where campers are able to just pull onto and camp. There is no water or electricity on this land and it is real desert land. Some folks actually spend the entire winter on BLM land, many have solar panels on their units. Those of us without depend on our generators and our filled water tanks.
Each January and February campers descend on Quartszite in droves for the Gem and Mineral and RV shows. David and I feel fortunate to have been 'accepted' into the annual Quartszite core family of Dan and Sue, Bonnie and Barry, John, Barb and Abby, Larry, Collin and Kathy and Mikey and Jan. This was our second year with this group and they have become good friends.

Even though we run on generators, ration our water and have dust blowing everywhere there is no lack of food. Each night someone brings appetizers and a dish to go with whatever the main dish may be. The appetizers are nothing to sneeze at and are not only very tasty but pretty pleasing to the eye as well.

Veggie pizza by Kathy
Shrimps on masobi artichoke leaves by Sue
We also had our very own entertainment. Dan is a friend of someone or another :) and came by this year to spend some time with the group. He reminds me of Jerry Jeff Walker in the way that he sings and the songs that he sings. He writes his own lyrics singing them to the tunes of established songs.
We dined in the best of places, either in our 5th wheel


Or outside by the campfire. No matter where we were we plopped we enjoyed the food as well as the company. Lots of 'fish' stories were told around the campfire.
And Jan 'stirred it up' setting sparks a-flying.Abby and Peeko were happy to see each other again which seems pretty evident by this picture


Mikey, Jan, David and I spent three or four days 'deserting' on the roads less traveled. Yep this is one that we traversed.Everywhere you look the scenery is different.


Gorgeous mountain-scapes
Great colors


And a miner's shack. We ran across quite a few recently claimed mines that were obviously being worked by individuals.
And a windmill in the middle of nowhere

We took Mikey and Jan's jeep over some crazy boulder ridden paths. This does not look so treacherous but that old Jeep was going over some pretty huge rocks here which is why David got out to guide Mikey over them. We were just about on three wheels here.
Oh ya, Mikey cannot resist taking that Jeep up a mountainside-oop here he is coming down already

And once he gets to the top he's feeling pretty proud of himself and his JeepWe didn't only drive the trails, we hiked as well. We hiked up mountains...I'm not far behind the guys here
And at one point I gave Jan the shirt off of my back....only to have her make a sack out of it and she then became our pack mule. We had lots of rocks to haul back and needed both something to put them in and someone to carry them....Jan offered what can I say.
Here the guys are panning for something or other. We gave up on gold early on but did continue to find the perfect rock, after rock, after rock.
Saquaro's (swirl's) everywhere. Most are pretty darned tall as you can see by comparing Jan to it
And many are quite unique. Like perhaps an elephant's trunk
Or one that says, 'Which way do I go which way do I go.........'
And what looks to be a porcupine crawling up one
These three seemed to be growing right out of the rocks
And these are reaching for the beautiful sky
Yep Quartszite a great place to spend time in January. As fun as it was we were so ready to scrub the dust out of our pores and get to a spot where we have real electricity, sewer and water from an actual water pipe. That place would be Santee Cali. When we first arrived yesterday the dogs were damned happy to actually put their noses in grass! David and Mikey are preparing to fish one of the seven ponds/man made lakes here and Jan and I are anxious to relax in the pools and hot tub.