He'll be wrapped in puppy love!

T is my fifth grandchild and I love him to bits. He's highly intelligent, precocious, artistic, knows what he wants and articulates it oh-so-clearly. . . AND he loves dogs . . . no, that's not strong enough . . . he ADORES dogs, more than anyone I've ever met. I've been spending the last few days piecing together this cute quilt-top for his upcoming birthday. T also likes the beach and I found this endearing fabric on eBay that I think will make him smile. It shows doggies hanging out at the beach. I chose to include lots of color in the design because the artistic T loves beautiful colors. There are three borders on the quilt— two of which are special. The white one is filled with multicolored puppy paw prints and the outside border is a bright purple—T's favorite color! I took the quilt-top to be machine-quilted for me in time for his birthday. He'll soon be six years old and I can't wait for him to see this quilt design just for him with love in every stitch.

Bluegrass Groupies

Today was another "first" for us. We're attending the Blythe Bluegrass Festival and today was the first of three days of bluegrass music, about ten different bands playing on two stages. We did this last year and loved it so much we wanted to come back. However this year - at least today - it is cold (in the 40s) and raining. As far as the music goes. . . here's today's scenario.

First band performing at 10 a.m. - the weather was cloudy and chilly.

Second band - sprinkling and chillier.

Third band - raining and darn-right cold.

Fourth band, the best‚ "Newfound Road" —raining harder and even colder at 47 degrees.

Now we did come prepared with our cheap (99¢) plastic hooded ponchos that we've had in the back of the truck for at least 30 years "just in case" — well . . . the "just in case" arrived! (I remember the last time we used these ponchos our daughters were under the age of twelve and we cooked pancakes in the rain on a camping trip at Duncan Mills on the Russian River.) We wore then on top of our down jackets so we were pretty warm from the waist up. Our legs, by the time we left, were pretty much "chilled to the bone."

After enjoying half the performances for today, we realized the rest of the bands are playing again tomorrow when the weather forecast is much better! So we called it quits and are in our rig, in dry sweats, getting warm, anticipating a nice bowl of hot homemade vegetable-beef soup for dinner. Yummo!

The first but certainly not last!

We left Sunday afternoon to spend the night in a motel in Long Beach, after dinner at Outback, so we’d be first in line to get on the ship in San Pedro. The boarding was to take place at 1 p.m. but we wanted to be sure to get a good parking place so we were in the parking lot by 11 in the morning, full of excitement. Cecile and Gary had brought their Pegs and Jokers game to occupy us during our two-hour wait, and to play while cruising. We got three games in before we noticed that “they” were letting us board early. So we scrambled to get P and J put away and headed to board Royal Carribean's Monarch of the Seas.

I love the box in which Cecile and Gary keep the Pegs and Jokers pegs. It's pretty cute and says:
"You don't stop playing because you grow old.
You grow old because you stop playing!"
So we must be pretty young!

Our first afternoon onboard was spent wandering around the ship, finding our rooms, and of course playing a couple more P and J games before it was time to head up to the top deck for the Bon Voyage party . . . pretty exciting and a yummy rum drink served in flashing-light-glasses was enjoyed as we sailed away from the San Pedro harbor. The excitement of the cruise filled the air – we pulled up the lounge chairs so that we faced the harbor getting smaller as we sailed to San Diego. Our first morning we were in port at San Diego and the four of us headed to Hilo Hattie’s, which was one of the stops, our bus took us. We had a grand time shopping there and then headed down to House of Blues just for a look-see.

K and I outside House of Blues, San Diego. It was early morning so not much was happening, but interesting art on the walls.

Cecile and I had a grand time shopping in Hilo Hatties.

All the time there were smiles on our faces! We headed back to the ship for lunch, not wanting to spend any more money on food when it was waiting for us on board. And the food was as grand as everybody we know who has ever gone on a cruise has told us. We could either eat at the buffet or in the formal dining room. After lunch there were lots of stuff to do . . . swimming in one of two pools, hot tub, gym, spa, a reggae-band for dancing, rock climbing wall, all kinds of activities for kids, Bingo, a casino . . . we usually chose to take a nap so that we’d have energy for the evening entertainment.

A cool evening in San Diego was warmed up by a fruity rum drink!

Gary and Cecile enjoying the San Diego delicious rum concoction.

San Diego in the background . . . beautiful skyline!

Every night there was a fabulous Las Vegas-type show put on by the ship’s singers and dancers in a large theatre. And after the show there was more goings-on throughout the ship. The tax-and-duty-free shopping area was stacked with jewelry, liquor, perfumes, clothing, watches, gold and silver “by-the-inch” chains, etc.

Just one of the animals created from towels by the cabin stuard which greeted us along with a chocolate mint on the pillow each evening upon retiring . . . what fun!

The second day we were docked in Avalon, Catalina Island, which has grown immensely since the last time we were there over forty years ago. Again we did some shopping and just strolled through the town.

Catalina brought back many memories from our teen years on Uncle Ray's boat.

The Monarch of the Seas anchored in Catalina.

We had lots of fun on Catalina, lunched on board, took a nice nap, played some P and J in the centrium, then K told us he wasn't feeling well and was going to skip dinner. After dinner I came back to our stateroom to check on him and he had come down with some nasty flu bug! Bummer! He was sick and stayed inside the cabin for the next two days!

The third day was spent in Ensenada. Cecile, Gary, and I had a good time walking the streets “people-watching,” dealing with the vendors who stood on the sidewalk and wanted to take us into their individual shops to sell their wares, always trying to get us to pay more than we were willing to pay. I imagine some folks pay the asking price, but we were always able to take five to ten dollars off the original price. Actually Cecile, the "Queen of Shoppers," managed to get a beautiful $45 dollar red leather purse down to $20. She scored!

Here is Cecile (in black pants lower center) to show you how big the ship is (and it's the smallest of the Royal Caribbean cruise line).

The fourth morning found us back in San Pedro, and K started to feel better (poor guy, he missed the best half of the cruise). After disembarking we had to go through customs, find our luggage, and load the truck to come home. Gary drove home while Ken vegged feeling half-okay. What a great time we had and we’re ready to do it again! Ken’s feeling much better today, but now it’s my turn with this nasty flu bug! And word has it that G and C will probably share it too! K’s just gone to the store to stock them up on Imodium, Gatorade, and Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup!

By the way: Gals, 10 . . . Guys, 4

Life is good!

We'll test the waters . . . of "Cruising"

Royal Carribean "Monarch of the Seas"

Tomorrow we leave for San Pedro to spend the night. We're going a day early (we need to board early Monday afternoon) so that we avoid the nasty early morning valley fog we get this time of year. Sometimes visability is next to blindness! We board the Monarch of the Seas on Monday afternoon and set sail Monday night for San Diego. The second night we sail to Catalina Island, then on down to Ensenada, before docking back at San Pedro. It's our first cruise on a big ship and we're pretty excited. On our twenty-fifth anniversary we cruised on a beautiful three-masted sailing ship, one of the Bare Foot Cruises down to the Carribean, which was a blast. Just thought I'd share this picture I found on their website. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures and stories to tell after five days at sea.