THE CALIFORNIA /OREGON /WASHINGTON & TULIP FESTIVAL TRIP

PART ONE:  Monday, March 26th - 9 a.m. We actually made it out the door to start the long car trip with the end goal of meeting up with my Step-mom and brother and his wife at Washington's Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.  Seems like a forever trip.  But the goal is on the Bucket List, so in spite of horrendous gas prices ($4.35/gal in Calif), and a couple of tired old bodies we are heading out to finally make it happen!

Day one we arrive in Tracy, California to spend the night with nephew Kevin Farrar who couldn't be there because of a business trip as it turned out.  But we had great catch-up time with his wife Sandy and son Alex over homemade lasagne,   Good folk!  Hard to believe Alex is 15 already since we remember holding him as a baby.  Sandy has created a lovely, tastefully decorated home that was a joy to see! 

Left Tracy and drove on to San Francisco.  Unfortunately the skies grew darker and more ominous as we got closer and the heavy raindrops started falling as soon as we hit the Bay Bridge.   I confess I have a real love/hate with this city and this rain did not help!!    We persisted in sightseeing anyway.

Staying with another nephew, Mike Farrar who is graciously allowing the older generation to take over his batchelor pad for a couple of nights.

Sun came up for day two of sightseeing.  These are some of the things I LOVE about San Francisco:

Chinatown !  No place quite like it anywhere else.

I love San Francisco's Parks:  Golden Gate & Presidio

I love the Palace of Fine Arts

Even though I have been here twice before I never tire of it.

I love that California grows wonderful flowers and wonderful food

And what could be better than a park with a sculpture of your favorite people

Cervantes smiles down on Don Quixote & Sancho Panza

Want to know what I DON'T like about San Francisco???

The hills

The feeling of claustrophobia I have on most of it's streets

The traffic

NO place to park - and $2.00 fees to feed one hour on the meter once you find a spot!

And that we got sideswiped by some vehicle in the night and our left hand side view mirror was knocked off and broken!

Some VERY strangely-dressed and coiffed people

     And last but not least I guess I should blog about the event that caused us to finish up our touristing for the day:   It must be said that we are clueless!   We finally found three blocks of a street that was lined with interesting-looking cafes and restaurants where we could have our leaisurely afternoon meal.  As we sat there and people-watched while awaiting our order we began to tune in to voices and people and our surroundings.  Apparently we had found the center of the gay community! When we left Little Orphan Andys my eyes caught sight of the lamp posts flying their significant flag:  The rainbow colors.  And suddenly we were passing shops we hadn't noticed before that were turning my stomach.  The last straw was when we stopped at the light waiting to cross the street and I saw two men on the other side who were shirtless.  That seemed pretty strange for a sunny but pretty breezy afternoon.   Then traffic moved.  They were not only shirtless, but totally nude!   What kind of society IS this??????

"In the Cloud" file storage

After my external hard drive hit the skids and gave me such a scare I made sure to take advantage of the on-line free storage of SugarSync which appears right now to be winning the highest ratings for this sort of thing among various drop box and file syncing programs.   It was discussed at length at a recent seminar as well.

I can use it across several sytems:  my Iphone, my home computer, Victor's laptop and my computer at the cabin....all with back-up and withOUT the need to carry pen drives(thumb drives, USB drives) or my external hard drive.    If my computer crashes at last I know my 30+ years of genealogy research are safe!

If you sign up because of this referral they will give you extra MB free storage.      Go to the Sugarsync website and take their tour to learn more.    

https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=taab46rvbytr&utm_source=txemail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=referral

THE MIRACLE DAY HAS ARRIVED!!

     Let's see.  How long have I lived in this house?  Twenty years????   Well.....about 18 of those years just got carried out of our basement!!     I can see walls and floor space that haven't been uncovered in forever.  Signature Productions and Faith Lutheran Academy came over with strapping youth and wonderful, willing ladies who made multiple trips up and down our stairs to the garage where clothes/costumes got sorted into three piles of boxes and bags:  Faith Lutheran,  Signature (who actually took almost nothing), and Deseret Industries.  

Now you see it;  Now you don't.  The staircase goes at last

What I neglected to get is a "before" picture - so most of you won't even begin to appreciate the next photo.  But I couldn't get one.  There was no room to stand to show any kind of perspective to how many clothes have lined the whole north half of our basement for so long. 

But here is the "after."    Tah dah!

Over 50 boxes of shoes, purses, misc. props, hats etc.,  along with all the clothing was taken upstairs and sorted by the costume people who had an eye for the future.  What I was glad about was that Faith Lutheran Drama crew were so excited and thought so much of it was wonderful and full of potential.   

Signature, on the other hand, took only this much!

Deseret Industries will either be thrilled or pretty upset with how much they got.  A fair amount also went into the Dumpster that Signature rented.

     I kept aside plenty of dress-up things for the grandkids, all potential pioneer stuff and things that had other Austin costume potential.   But you will be proud of how hardened we were at NOT holding back on everything that brought a memory to mind.

     This all that is left of the hanging clothes!   So...all you Las Vegas High Schoolers and misc. ward people.  You are now on your own for your costumes!

Still....as wonderful as this is there are still a lot of cleaning & organizational hours ahead of us to get things back into shape so we can have another roller skating party down here!    But this is one giant step for mankind!   Those hoarder shows are right!   STUFF can be a burden!

COUSIN CAMP - 2012

     Miss Mountain & Streams (Adele) decided it was time to make Mr. Ocean & Sun (Victor) happy this year for our annual Cousin Camp.   Venue: Oceanside, California beach house over President's Day weekend.  
     Hard to tell who was happiest about that decision!   The freezing Twin Falls-ites were more than glad to feel 70 degrees on their faces.   Victor lay out and happily burned day after day.  Grandkids dug pales and pales of sand, buried each other and squealed in nearly unhearable pitches every time the water got their feet wet!   Jill and Peter read and read.  Grandma just watched everyone relaxing mid-year, fixed a few meals, played lots of games and was glad for this family time. 

How can you not smile at these little faces????

Tara Austin, Audrey & Ethan Graf, Amaya & Noelle Austin, Alyssa Austin (Peter & Jill's)

Moms & Dads catch up on news and reading 

We loved our choice of houses because there is a grassy area, followed by a private sand area where little, little ones can play, and you are still only a foot or two from the actual beach where you can enjoy the waves if you want!    (Kim Dillon is the renter.  House sleeps 10-12.  Glad to give you information if you are looking for an affordable opportunity off season)

Family Support Time

Nathan & Colleen, Amaya & Noelle are helping little Tara not be afraid of the waves & cold water.  (Actually, Gideon is there too.  He is just still safe and warm inside Colleen until May)

Ethan thought it was fun to push the sand back in the hole as soon as the little girls got it out!

I love the beach, grandma!!

Becky took Audrey to test the waters too - as well as baby girl Graf - due to make her appearance in mid-June

Aly was a trooper the first couple of days.  But, unfortunately, the last part of the week she mostly slept with what turned out to be pneumonia, bronchitis & strep throat.   Pretty sick little girl for the last few days.

Sunday after church we drove down to San Diego and toured the Mormon Battalion Monument (a must for all families).  We had packed a lunch and were excited that the monument property had a small picnic area right behind the parking lot. 

After being in the car, then "feasting" on sandwiches, apples & valentine candy the kids needed to let off steam.  Uncle Charles was a good sport to let them chase him!

Then we were ready to be pioneers for a bit:

Westward, Ho!   Peter, Amaya, Ethan & Audrey

Pause for a photo op:  Becky with Ethan and Audrey

I don't know;  we might just have to sit out here and enjoy the rays!

Never pass up an opportunity to ham it up!

The museum is a wonderful interactive presentation - complete with Harry Potter-like talking photographs.  This was especially fun for me because these grandchildren have 4 relatives on Adele's side of the family    (John Forsgren, Edwin & Almon Whiting and Sylvester Hulet) and at least one (Henderson Cox, one of the three scouts murdered by Indians at "Tragedy Spring) on Victor's side that traveled together in the Battalion. 



Earrings "commissioned" by ancestor Sylvester Hulet for his nieces

We all loved panning for gold in the courtyard outside

"Look, Grandma, we got about a bazillion gazillion dollars worth!"

"Hmmm.  How come there's no gold down at our end?"

The miniature people in the group especially liked the hand pump.

Uncle Peter gave Noelle a "ride" on the well handle

After we finished at the Battalion Monument we walked up the hill to the old Jewish Synagogue and around some of the gorgeous, historic homes that have been brought to Old Town.

Then back to the Beach House for dinner, games & kid movie time

Charles and Becky, Audrey & Ethan had to leave us on Monday to go back to Vegas for school and work.  We had crammed a lot into the few days they could be with us so those who remained were all pretty content to just kick back the rest of that day.

Sometimes you have to dig a deep hole just cuz you can!  ("It's a guy thing, mom!")

We did puzzles, played "Scum", celebrated "Fat Tuesday." 

Uh, oh, Amaya!  You're scum!

"Tara, You're Vice-Scum"

Fat Tuesday

Only a true California girl will take her family into the cold ocean in February!  But Amaya, Colleen and Nathan each caught one or two good waves

Went to the Fun Park for Splash Boats, Miniature Golf and Climbing cages. I got TWO holes-in-one and still managed to be about 20 points over par!

THIS is what vacations are for.  Just to be someplace that isn't every-day-ness...and to admire the remarkable beauty. 

"Can't we just stay and look at this forever??"

Sigh!  Our lovely week had to come to an end..................   BUT.................

Cousin Camp was not quite over!    Back in Vegas Graf's joined us again for the annual BINGO GAME!

Our Dollar Store/D.I. finds were pretty interesting this year (except for all Grandpa Vic's weird Laotian candies).   Without doubt the prize goes to Peter for buying just the right gift that Nathan might open!!!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm, Pappy.  We gots to get you some of those!!!



Familes are the bestest !!