California, Las Vegas and More!

After Moab, we stopped in Wendover, Nevada on our way to California.  

Here's a photo of big old Wendover Will.  I thought he was cute enough to include in my blog.


We made it to California.  My brother-in-law Dick Siemon, lives near San Francisco with his lovely wife, Margrit Rinderkinecht. They took us on a great hike at Bean Hollow State Beach - one where their dog, Lucky, was allowed.  It was a lovely walk, and there were SEALS on the rocks!  I could have stayed there for hours just watching the seals.  I took LOTS of photos, but they are all quite similar.

See all those seal looking at me!  There were LOTS more.  This is just one...

Margrit and Chris spent a lot of time identifying flowers.

Dick and Lucky, the Labradoodle.  What a great dog.

I was afraid it was going to be a walk on the BEACH, and I wasn't looking forward to trudging in the sand, but this was a gorgeous path ABOVE the beach - wildflowers and scenery and fun! A perfect day.



After spending a couple of days with Dick and Margrit, we went on to Davis, California, where my "daughter", Amanda Hodson was getting married.  It was SO nice to see her again, and she did my heart good when she told me how important it was that we had made it.  It was a lovely potluck wedding in the backyard of some friends.  Everyone either brought a dish or helped with the set-up, or helped with the clean-up, or donated a tablecloth, etc.  It was such a great feeling of community to help Amanda and Fernando Ferraro, who is from  Chile.


It was a Buddhist wedding, so here is the altar.  There was a mirror set up so the guests could see the faces of the bride and groom as they gave their offerings and said their vows.  Here, Chris & I are reflected in the mirror before the ceremony as we sat in the second row.

Fernando & Amanda

Just had to add this photo
of the cute
 flower girls!

Amanda's Family - Her Mom,Christine, and her sisters, Sarah, Emily & Alicia

After the wedding, we decided to spend a couple of days in Las Vegas.  On the road we went through more dry desert - and we saw this surreal landscape of thousands of wind generators.  

There were miles and miles of this!

We got a GREAT suite at the Rio in Las Vegas - a four-star hotel - for $40 a night!  Chris has turned into SUCH a good hotel finder!  

Our room was HUGE and beautiful!

The Rio in the Daytime stands out
 because it's so colorful!

We spent a LOT of time at Bill's - because there was afree hotel shuttle from the Rio to the strip and because it had the least expensive Texas Hold-em Poker games!  

We went to the Venetian, which is a fascinating trip all by itself, with Rococo decorations,  real  gondolas in the canals with singing gondaliers, and an indoor courtyard with a sky ceiling so you feel as if you are al fresco!  Maggie Mitchell is my dear friend who just recently died of cancer, and we were thrilled to see her daughter, Joan Dukore, perform some of her magic in a courtyard show.

Overall, we came out just a little under - and you can count that as entertainment costs, because we had a LOT of fun.  I actually did much better on the slot machines than I did in the poker games.  My favorite machine was Ghostbusters - which is the kind that has the noises and vibrations built right into your seat.  It had videos and prize selections on the screen - it was very interactive and VERY fun!

One more day of long traveling and I've just included one photo of the Joshua trees, which I like a lot. Not a bad photo considering the car was traveling at 70 mph at the time!


Now we're in New Mexico again and I have to do some bragging on my great nephews.  First of all, they are 12 years old, and today they were swimming to qualify for the city championship swim meet.  This is their FIRST swim team year.  They chose to swim in EVERY event - which is six.  50 backstroke, 50 freestyle, 50 breaststroke, 50 butterfly, 100 free and 100 individual medley. There were about 40 kids in each event.   Forest came in  6th once, 5th twice, 4th once and 2nd twice.  Sky came in 4th twice, 3rd three times, and 2nd once!  We haven't heard the "real" result, but we imagine they qualified in every event.  The meet is next Saturday.


Secondly, they are both in a Shakespeare Play, "As You Like It"  at the Vortex Theatre in Albuquerque. It is being presented by teen Theatre-in-the-Making students, as part of the Vortex's inagural Youth Summer Shakespeare Intensive.  They are not QUITE teenagers, as they are only 12.  They play the dukes, who are brothers.  They are never in the same scene, but here are a couple of scenes of them in their play "in the park" as part of the Albuquerque "Will Power" festival.  They did a GREAT job!  They knew all their lines, they were easy to understand, their acting was fine and again, this was the FIRST play they have ever been in!  

Sky is the powerful Duke in charge - standing in Blue

Forest is the banished brother Duke, with the brown cap.

I'm so proud.  AND...I get to see another performance tonight!


THERE!  I'm all caught up now.  I THINK I've remembered to put in all the fun stuff we've done so far...can't be sure I haven't forgotten something here and there, though.  Next week we'll head to Los Alamos and I'll get to see Jonathan again.  Then back to half-home.  And THEN...in September (on the first!) I'll be HOME!