Pacific Grove Picnic

View of the Pacific Ocean from our picnic table.

Stranger under the purple tree in Monterey.

I wonder just how often this Pacific Grove home gets photographed; it was directly across the street from the ocean picnic area where we lunched on that exquisite French food from the Paris Bakery. I still drool just thinking about that food!

Rach eating her cookie from the Paris Bakery. She is sweet but also addicted to sweets. It is interesting that Naomi can say, momma, dada and Rachael but not Sean and or course definitely not grandma.

Naomi was not too happy being in the stroller; she wanted to look in the pond too!

Pacific Grove is just west of Monterey and in fact, they merge together so that you don't know when you leave one city and enter the other unless you see a sign.

Path of History

After a scrumptious lunch at the Greek Fest, we did a walking tour of Old Monterey.

Following the old brick road, we found these little golden round plaques within the walking path - every couple of feet, there was another plaque in a different language.

Wisteria gone wild - within an enclosed garden area that also contained a charming fountain. 

Wisteria covered the entire westside of the private garden.

Pacific House with the wonderful enclosed courtyard was a delight.

A pond with fish and water lilies.

Don't you just love water lilies? My daughter ended up in the pond too!

My granddaughter had to touch the water with her peek a boo knees. She and her brother are rough tumblers. This fountain was in another area of the grand old section of Montery.

I think that this is called a butterfly bush. Rachael and Sean posed for me holding on to their water bottles for dear life.

Another strange looking tree but the est part of the photo are my grandchildren.

Little Bliss List for September

What's behind the green door?

1. Green Door keeps rambling behind in my mind but I can't remember all of the lyrics.  I just remember what's behind the green door and someone trying to get in.

2. I am ready to take off for Poland.  Some days I feel that I might just jump on a plane and fly to Poland without signing up for any tour. I am also thinking of going on a cruise at Thanksgiving with the rest of the singles.

3. My cats are jumping for joy to have me home and to be able to go outside again. Abbie loves the outdoors so she spends most of her day outside.  I taught her not to go out at night where Mr. Grey and White Meany can beat her up and Mr. Largo Orange walks the neighborhood looking for a fight. They would make great pals with Colonel Mustard, Mr. Green and Scarlett.

3. I am slowly getting back to making jewelry.  I have an order for bridesmaids for a wedding. We have finalized the design of the bracelets to go with the earrings. 

4. We've had very nice weather in the low 80's for two weeks now. More of my tomatoes are turning red - just enough for fresh cut tomatoes in salads. I made six half pints of rhubarb freezer jam (some with strawberries and some with cherries).  I gotta admit the strawberries really give them the best flavor.

5. Abbie brought me a present and left it on the back step. Thank heavens she didn't get it in the house! A neighbor told me that we had lizards close by but this is the first time I've seen one in 17 years.

 Liv Lane's Little Bliss List for Friday doesn't seem to be up; she might be taking break.

Greek Fest

The Greek Fest was held outside in a historic part of Monterey where old buildings have been turned into museums near a walking tour of old Monterey. Going to a Greek Fest is one of my favorite occasions because of the delicious food, the glorious pastries and Greek dancing.

A group of dancers entertaining in their costumes at Monterey.

I enjoyed this event but I had to compare it to the Greek Fest that is held annually in Salt Lake City.  There is a much larger population of Greek participants in Salt Lake and so, therefore, they have a larger variety of food, of the anticipated melt in your mouth pastries and dancers. The SLC Greek Orthodox Church has a large youth program which include the Goya Dancers from ages 15 to 21 and junior Goya Dancers - ages 10 to 14.  There is public dancing as well.

Greek Fest in SLC with the men wearing skirts and pom poms on their special Greek shoes. Let me tell you, those guys can dance!

Senior Goya Dancers

Junior Goya Dancers

I even danced with some folk dancers at the Greek fest in Monterey under the blue sky only a block from the deep blue ocean.  It was a perfect day not being too hot nor too cold - just above 70 degrees F. 

I read in the Salt Lake Deseret News that over 50,000 people attended the Greek Fest this year.  I was too tired to even attempt to go after I got back.  I needed a week to recoup from my month long trip.

Kataifi (left upper corner - its like a gigantic Nabisco shredded wheat only this one has sweet sauce and nuts on the bottom - yum!) Powdered sugar shortbread cookie - Kourabiethes (koo-rah-BYEH-thes)

Baklava is the triangle.  It is probably the best of the bunch

except for the honey soaked doughnut holes.

You get a better deal in SLC, the prices are lower than in California. Of course, everything is more expensive in California.

Beach Walks

While exploring Carmel, my daughter and I came upon the beautiful blue Carmel River which flows down into the Pacific Ocean.  It is a delightful area in which the kids can play and very well hidden with extremely limited parking. 

Another day we took a walk on the walking bike path. That's my grandson Sean, granddaughters Rachael and Naomi getting sand in every nook and crevice to take home. Naomi even had a sand ring just inside the rim of her diaper.  Perhaps, if my daughter dressed Naomi in dresses more often, she would look more like a girl but who is going to put a little boy in purple and pink Crocs? 

I have never seen an 18-month old toddler walk up and down stairs by herself before;  she wants to do everything that her brother and sister does. She just balances herself on the wall below the railing using those short little legs to step up one at a time - all 35 steps. I began to count each step as we walked down together every day and by golly, she was saying one, two, three with two being the easier word because she knows shoes really well.  She loves to go in the car and puts on those colorful Crocs all by herself.

It always seems to be windy by the ocean; this was our view as we walked on a biking trail of asphalt even with a line going down the middle so that you wouldn't get run over by bikers, skate boarders and strollers. A flock of pelicans flew by us but I was not fast enough to get a photo of them. 

Fried Cheesecake

Santa Cruz

Our afternoon at Santa Cruz with not a cloud in the sky was fabulous.  We had lunch there - nothing to really shout about but we did spring for a fried cheesecake.  Normally, I would never

have touched the stuff but my daughter wanted to try it out.

They take cheesecake, batter it up and deep fat fry it.  It really was delicious but I am sure that my arteries are still trying to adjust back to normal.

Found parking across the street and a very friendly lady told us  that if we spent a dollar for arcade coins that we could use them in the meter and it would be much cheaper parking. We did and she was right.

The sky was so blue that I thought I was back in Utah only we don't have palm trees in Utah.

Grandma, what is this stuff getting into my purple shoes that I can put on by myself?

Okay grandma, get up and take me back out onto

the sand stuff that seeps into our shoes! 

I thought

that these were my skinny jeans.

Patterns of Light

A beautiful message is found on youtube below:

Patterns of Light