Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Strange Trees


The trees all look like they are in shock with stiff limbs reaching
out in all directions as though they had been through an electrical shock treatment for the insane. 

Hidden behind the tree is a gorgeous home.

Gardens have a variety of green jungle plants
that I've never seen before.



Monterey is a gardener's paradise.





Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Highway 1

Highways in the US are numbered but do any of your states have a highway 1? California's highway 1 is a winding close to the edge of a cliff with some parts of the road falling off into the ocean.

Although, I remember finding country roads in Missouri with A, b and bb which being from the west, I found unusual and mysterious.
House behind the tree on a outcropping west
of Highway 1.

Pacific Ocean 


Highway 1

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Misty and Clear

It was a chilly morning mist in the Monterey area.
The temperature was down to 52 degrees F.
Moving vans were parked on this
street - saw three enormous vans and one
very unusual wooden moving van.





California has beautiful flowered bushes year round.

Carmel is much larger than I thought; it seems
to stretch for miles along the coast up into the
mountains and down to the ocean. This home
has one of those million dollar views of the
ocean. 
Carmel is split into three unique areas: 
Carmel by the sea, Carmel Mountains
and Carmel Valley.



Saturday, August 25, 2012

One Lovely Blog Award



This award comes rules.

1) Thank the person who nominated you.
Thanks to Jo at Through the Keyhole.

2) List seven things about yourself.

3) Pass on the award to five blogs.

Here's my list:

1. Trip of a Life Time:  My trip of a life time was back in 2001 when I flew to England and then to Dublin to pick up my daughter from her two year mission in Ireland. We toured Ireland for a week and then drove around England and Wales for 2 weeks.

2. Favorite sport: I loved snow skiing. I took lessons and got pretty good at it even doing moguls.

3. Favorite TV: I am intrigued by the reality shows like Dancing with the Stars. I would have given my eye teeth to dance with a professional dancer. My all time favorite is The Amazing Race.

4. School: I attended the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades in a one-room school where each row of students was a different grade (1-5).

5. Life Changing Event: My best friend died of breast cancer at the young age of 42, which was a wake up call for me.  It had a devastating effect and I changed my life for the better.

6. Description: I was born a blue eyed blonde. My hair was like peach fuzz - not long at all and it took years to grow it longer so that I didn't look bald by the time I was 3.

7. Favorite Activities:  Dancing since I was five; genealogy since I was 28; reading since I was 16; and now making jewelry.

I am fascinated with the following blogs not only for their inspiring titles but for the unique blogs that they created. I would like to award the following blogs with "The Lovely Blog Award":

1. Beneath the Elm Tree

2.  The Turquoise Heart by Blair

3.  The Maple Syrup Mob

4.  Tales from Twisty Lane

5.  Corners of My Mind by Rosie




Friday, August 17, 2012

Foggy Mornings Sunny Days


Another day on my way to the hospital,  super baby Naomi fell asleep so grandma took a little drive through the Monterey forest. I did not get lost this time but found fog misting through the tree tops and saw this home that had texture like white frosting.


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

August 8

Monterey schools begin really early for some unknown reason, starting at least two weeks earlier than Utah schools. Mom and dad were at the hospital at 6 AM. I fixed a nice hot pancake breakfast for older brother Sean and giggly Rachael before their car pool picked them up for school. Eighteen-month-old super baby Naomi and I took off for the hospital in the van. Normally, it takes 10 minutes to drive to the hospital; it took me 40 minutes. I got lost and drove around and around. I kept ending up on the road that goes to Cannery Row in Monterey. Finally, I figured it out with the directions my daughter left me; I found 399a exit off the freeway which took me right to the hospital.


Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula

Never in a dozen years would I have guessed that this was a hospital. It looked more like a gorgeous white mansion. After I found the maternity ward, I asked about my daughter and she was still in the delivery room.  Apparently, there were two emergency deliveries before her delivery so baby Shannon was not born until almost 8:30 AM.

Later, I drove back to the house and picked up excited Sean and Rach. I drove to the hospital in 10 minutes this time.

 First peek and touch of baby Shannon.  

Later, we visited the fish.
Giant Koi orange, black and white gold fish swim in an enormous fish pool in the middle of the building.

Over the fish pond was a gigantic sky light.

Meals were brought to my daughter by kitchen help who wore tuxedo vests, shirts and bow ties. The only thing missing from the tuxedo were the jackets. 

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Flying Time 2 Hours Waiting Time 5 Hours

I left my house at 9:30 am and was at the airport one hour before my flight was to leave. Southwest airlines sent a message saying the flight was delayed 30 minutes.  That was okay, I can wait another 30 minutes and read my Peculiar Crimes Unit book with Bryant and May. Next, we were told that our plane was still in Arizona and had maintenance problems and it would be another two hours before we were to even take off. So basically, I was at the Salt Lake Airport 3 hours waiting for my flight to begin.

Because the plane was so late, I missed my flight connection in Las Vegas. They put me on a later flight so I had to sit in the extremely noisy Las Vegas Airport for two hours. I finally arrived in California at 6 PM and not 3:40 PM which in turn made me miss my Caltrain connection to Gilroy of which there are only two trains to Gilroy. 


Oxygen Bar in Las Vegas airport; I'd never seen one before.


Vegas style

By the time I arrived in San Jose, I was exhausted. I caught the free bus shuttle to catch the Caltrain. I asked a couple of guys for help and they helped me catch a light rail train and told me where to catch the Caltrain. By the time I got there, I had missed the it.

I hopped on a bus to Gilroy and rode for 90 minutes so I arrived at 9 pm. My son-in-law was waiting in Gilroy to pick me up. He in turn got off the freeway at the wrong exit and we were lost for an extra 15 minutes and finally, I arrived after 10 PM which is one of the most grueling travel days ever.


Saturday, August 11, 2012

Late Little Bliss List

Connecting to Liv Lane's Little Bliss List today.

Twas blissful to finally reach my daughter's place in California after an all day waiting marathon at two airports but I finally made it safely.

Twas blissful to see my new granddaughter. She was born on Wednesday morning (late because there were two emergency deliveries before hers) weighing in at 7 lb 7 oz,  21 inches long. She has lots of dark hair which both of her sisters had when they were born but their hair fell out and when it slowly grew back in, it was blonde.


Twas blissful to finally find the right exit and the freeway to find the hospital on my own with directions.  Since I've never driven here before, it took a few tries, getting lost several times but finding my way back and finally getting to my destination. It was not the same hospital that I saw back in December.


Twas wonderful to see all the smoke gone from a fire at Eagle Mountain from a lightening strike. It burned 2 acres before they got it under control.

Twas wonderful to have several sunny days before the fog rolled in and made it colder.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Dog Days of Summer

Doesn't she look like a dog from the 60s with the puffy ratted hair? 


It was 113 degrees F in my car yesterday after church but soon dropped to 104 after I rolled the windows down. Somehow, I don't feel bad about missing the dog days of summer for I am on my way to cool California tomorrow morning. My  blogs will be sporadic especially the first week since I'll be holding a sweet new baby girl as often as I can.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Gagets

Today I snuck over to Pinterest and borrowed some nifty ideas. This one is so cute, I am ready to run out to the store and get it.


Talk about mind blowing and futuristic, I would love to have a toaster like this one.


It used to be when you saw a mouth watering goody that you could click on the photo or caption below and it would take you to the website where the recipe was hiding or to the site where this gaget was found but today it just wouldn't work. 


Does anyone out there is blogland know if these really work? To me, it looks like they would just beat the material to death to make them soft which would make your clothes fall apart faster.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Who Calls at 6:30 AM?

I was sleeping peacefully all snuggled down in my comfy bed.  It was not too hot even though Utah has been rather muggy this week; it was not too cold. The glorious cool morning hours are when I get my best rest and I tend to wake up remembering my dreams.


There was a burglary in our neighborhood last week and they were caught so everyone who was burgled got their stuff back. I have been more aware that I need to lock all my doors and windows since we have a plague of druggies running around stealing whatever they can to keep their habit going.


I started keeping my purse and my phone next to my bed so that I could use the remote key to start the car horn outrageously honking in case someone broke into my house and so I could call 911 immediately.


Promptly, at 6:25 AM my phone startled me awake with the duh duh duh, duh - some tune that I don't recognize except that I liked the deep resonating sound of it when I found it on my phone. All the other tunes were too high pitched! I reached down to get my phone when it stopped so I looked to see who was rudely calling  too early in the morning. Can you believe it, it was Dr. Bizzant's office canceling my 10 AM appointment for that day? But 6:25 AM - who in their right mind calls that early?
I felt like this overly rouged lady with the red hair and giant eyes from the Hospital gift shop. I must say that I don't know anyone who has such tiny red lips.


From now on, I turn off the sound to my phone - I don't take phone calls until after 9 AM.
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