10/1/07 - Cabo Cruise

Another cruise has just ended.  Don wanted a cheap, quick, lazy cruise to relax and kick-back.  Luckily it's hurricane season and the rates are quite cheap along the Mexican Riviera this time of year.  So we jumped onboard for a 4 day cruise down the coast.  We hopped onboard the Carnival Elation ship in San Diego on Thursday and spent Thursday and Friday sailing along the coast with beautiful weather.  There were lots of crazy partiers onboard from San Diego and LA making it easy to be entertained in watching them make fools of themselves.  On Saturday we arrived in Cabo at 8am and immediately joined a tour to explore the area.  We cruised along the coast in a HUGE catamaran to see the awesome rock formations at Lands End with lots of little boats and kayaks all around the coastline.  After tons of pics and video of it all we hopped in a bus and rode off to see the Glass Blowing Factory in town.  Then off to an awesome overlook with amazing views of the bay.  After that we rode to San Jose just down the coast to wander around the shops and get away from the typical touristy areas.  On our way back up the coast we stopped at a cactus garden to see all the different types of cacti...did you know peyote is a cactus?  Tastes Great!  Less Filling!  

9/1/07 - New Orleans, LA ~ Southern Decadence

Labor Day Weekend in New Orleans.  I had to go check it out and see if it was in the mess that it was described as being.  We had a good time but it was way too hot and humid.  At least we got to enjoy the pouring rain, thunder, and lightening for an hour...we loved it since we haven't seen rain out here in over year.  We walked all over the French Quarter, took a horse carriage ride, photographed the hell out it all and took some video too, and recharged my tshirt collection.  We got to see some old friends and met some new ones too.  Bourbon Street and the French Quarter are alive and well.  I think the news stories are scaring people from visiting the city mainly. Several places have spent a year cleaning up and refurbishing everything.  Some places had closed and a few new places had sprung up.  Southern Decadence had the streets packed with partiers each night but the parade itself was a bit short and not so crazy.  All in all it was fun to check it all out and refresh our memories from being there in 1999.

5/06/07 - Hawaiian Islands Cruise

We're baaaack!!  We just got off the ship from our cruise around the Hawaiian islands for a week.  We had a great time!  We started in Oahu, hanging out in Waikiki for a couple days before boarding the NCL Pride of Hawaii ship.  We stayed at the Royal Hawaiian hotel to check out the Waikiki legend.  It was nice but not overly nice.  Luckily they upgraded us to an ocean view on the 12th floor.  After hanging out, swimming, eating, shopping, and snorkeling a bit, we boarded the cruise ship on Monday for a cruise around the islands.  The cruise took us from Honolulu in Oahu to Hilo on the Big Island, to Maui for an overnight stay, to Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, then Kauai, then a day at sea and finally back to Honolulu on Monday to complete the trip.  All in all it was a quick trip and it seems like a blur to us now.  Thank goodness I took 1700 photos so I could look back and see everything we did.  Cruises can be too fast sometimes...but you get to see tons of stuff.

 In Hilo we toured the volcano area by helicopter to see the latest lava flows, the main vent spewing smoke, and some waterfalls in the area. It's amazing how much lava blakets the area...and too see how every island is made of this stuff.  After landing, we rented a car and drove to the Volcanoes National Park to see Kilauea up close and drive around the crater and along the Chain of Craters road.  With no time to spare, we raced around photographing out the window and laughing about that's how my parents use to sightsee.  We use to laugh at the blurry pictures they would bring home of their travels. It was amazing seeing steaming vents that are still hot from the 1983 main volcanic event that continue to flow into the ocean way south of the crater and Puu Oo vent.

Following Hilo, we cruised to Maui for an overnight stay.  We rented a car and drove the "Road To Hana" to check out the waterfalls and drive some wild curvey one lane mountain roads.  It took us 4 hours to drive 60 miles.  There were some great ocean views and some cool waterfalls, but nothing totally amazing.  Lots of one lane sections and bridges and lots of traffic.  We were beat after 6 or 7 hours, finally making it out unscathed. Afterwards we drove over to Lahaina to see the town, shop, eat, watch the sunset, and walk around a bit.  The next day we ventured down to Big/Little Beach for some swimming and sorkeling. I tried out my new underwater camera and had a blast chasing the fish around the coral gardens there.

Our next stop took us to Kailua-Kona where I snorkeled Captain Cook's monument at Kealakekua Bay.  It was the best snorkeling I've ever done with no beach to muck up the water with sand.  Later we did an Atlantis submarine ride, ate at a local greek restaurant, and shopped a bit before racing back to the ship.

The next stop was Kauai where we did a zodiac boat tour of the Na Pali coastline and some snorkeling.  What a coastline!  4200 feet of vertical rugged relief.

...all in all it was an amazing trip.  Great way to see the islands.  We're exhausted and catching a cold now.

3/17/07 - Welcome Springtime!

It's been a screwed up Winter, but we're glad it's over and Spring seems to be right around the corner.  Don is back at work and Doug is buried in work as usual.  We've recently been inspired by the "Clean Sweep" TV series and have been de-cluttering the house and throwing out tons of crap we've held onto for years.  The house is slowly looking more inviting.  We're hanging new artwork, changing some framed photos on the walls, and cleaning stuff up.  Maybe we'll get into painting and possibly new carpeting to liven the place up.  Let's Entertain! As the rest of the country is freezing, we've got the windows open and are enjoying 70 to 80 degree days of sunshine.  Maybe I'll try to tackle the mountain of CDs, cassettes, and albums I've collected over the years.  Look out Ebay!!

The gray whales are heading back up the coast from their birthing grounds in Mexico.  Maybe we'll venture out to do a boat cruise and chase them around a bit.  The pool parties have started in SoCal and the foggy coastal "June Gloom" seems to be starting early this year.  We've been in a drought this year so far and wildfires have hit a few areas around LA/OC.  Luckily we're close to the coast where such fires don't threaten us.

In about one month (Apr.23-30) we'll be headed on an Atlantis cruise around the Hawaiian islands: 4 islands and 5 stops.  We can't wait!!  Should be a blast with lots of parties, tons of photos, and plenty of relaxing.  Norwegian Cruise Lines has a new ship built just for the Hawaiian Islands with Hawaiian themes, etc.  We'll see how the all American crew does...we're not hoping for much there.  Come join us...Anchor's Away!!

1/28/07 - Crazy Winter Blues

So it's been a horrible Winter so far...but we're surviving.  Mom made it through her bronchitis and rehab and is happily in her own assisted living space finally.  We need to go visit and buy her a new LCD TV to hang on her wall.  Don continues to recover with his leg wound.  He's finally off the wound vacuum...that thing hurts more and more as the nerves grow back.  At least he was able to get around, drive to the doc, and go to restaurants, grocery, etc.  But then it came time for the skin graft to be done.  The 3rd surgery took skin from his hip and put it on his leg wound.  His hip is now in more pain than anything and he needs to stay off his leg to let the skin graft take.  Everything seems to be doing fine, it just hurts like hell and he can't walk...which sucks in a house full of stairs.  He's trapped on the couch and in bed most everyday.  Thank goodness for satellite TV.  Doug is playing super-nurse and taking care of the house, meals, laundry, etc.  He's worn out!  And he's got aches and pains of his own as his side is killing him.  We'll see what the doc says with a CAT scan soon. Wish him luck!

12/28/06 - Xmas Gone Awry

Xmas didn't go as planned this year.  We had planned on spending a week with Mom in Virginia helping her move into her new assisted living apartment...and moving furniture around, cleaning the house, getting rid of 67 years of accumulated stuff in the house, etc. so she could sell the house.  Well, plans changed real quick when Don got a staph infection on his leg somewhere around the beginning of December.  It started as a small bump similar to a mosquito bite and within a week it had grown to a big bump and began taking his leg over.  Soon we were visiting doctors, doing antibiotics, and waiting for insurance to approve everything.  During all these hassles the bump got really nasty and the last doctor told us to head to the emergency room and wait for a bed to become available.  So after 2 surgeries later and a bigger hole in his leg, he's trapped on the couch and I'm playing nurse.  He's got a wound vacuum sucking on his leg and it'll be months before he's back to "normal". Meanwhile Mom ends up in the hospital with bronchitis and will soon be in her new digs.  What a Xmas!

12/17/06 & 12/23/06 - Bolsa Chica Wetlands

After reading the above entry, you see I've had too much time around the house this holiday.  I've been cleaning a bit and managed to venture out to the Bolsa Chica Wetland to do some bird watching and get some good photos in the process.  During the "magic hour" I managed to get some pretty good shots of several cool birds. Several of them are just passing through, or spending the Winter months here feeding on the wetland.  I got some great shots of several American pelicans, a black-crowned night heron, a surf scoter, northern pintails, northern shovelers, greater scaups, and American widgeons.  I'll have to keep checking back to see it change throughout the year.  Stay tuned!  You can see several of my photos at my Smugmug site here.

11/23-26/06 - Lazy Bear Holiday in Palm Springs

We spent the long 4 day weekend in Palm Springs enjoying the Lazy Bear Holiday.  There were several pool parties with great DJs during the day and bar parties at night.  We got to see some old friends and make some new friends.  It was great.  We had a huge Thanksgiving buffet at the host hotel.  It was warm during the day and got cold as hell at night.  Of course we only brought shorts and tshirts this time...live and learn.  The desert and mountains are beautiful when it isn't so darn hot.  Luckily traffic wasn't too bad.

10/28-11/4/06 - RSVP Cruise along Western Mexican Coast

We cruised with RSVP on the Princess ship "Diamond Princess" for a week.  We left from the Port of LA out of San Pedro and went to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas with a few days at sea thrown in.  It was a blast! Too many parties and too much food!  We had 8 costume parties to plan for in 6 days on the ship.  In PV, we went to Los Arbolitos for lunch with friends from LA and then went to the Blue Chairs Resort to hang out and enjoy the amazing view overlooking the bay and watching the whales and parachute guys play.  In Mazatlan we went to La Costa Marinera for lunch and then took a taxi (Palmero) along the coast and up into the hills to enjoy the beautiful views of the city.  In Cabo San Lucas we went to lunch at The Office and pigged out while sucking down margaritas on the beach.  It was great seeing each city and spending time enjoying the great restaurants and simply relaxing. We would typically stay up until 2am dancing and partying and wake by 9am before doing it all over again.  We can't wait for our next cruise to the Hawaiian Islands in April, 2007.  Check out our pictures of this trip at Smugmug.

9/9/06 - San Diego, CA

We spent the weekend in San Diego to relax and see Linda Eder at the Civic Theater downtown.  Stayed at Somerset Suites in Hillcrest.  It's a great hotel with pool and lots of extras.  Friday night we went to Pecs bar and met some old friends, hung out, and generally drank too much.  Saturday we wandered around Hillcrest and shopped, enjoyed the pool at the hotel, and ate at Hash House-A-Go-Go.  Great restaurant!!  Too much food!!  Saturday night the show was great. She has an amazing voice.  I wasn't overly thrilled with her band and some of the song selections, but it was good.  Sunday we packed up and headed to Point Loma Seafood to eat some seafood and hang out with my niece and her husband on the harbor.  It was a beautiful day!!  We then went over to the Midway Museum to see the military stuff there and wander the ship.  It's amazing walking around the jets and such.  I can't believe how small they are up close.  Lots of walking and checking out the more than 50 "show and tell" stations they had.  Pretty cool.  We hated to venture back on the highway and come home.  We should do this once a month at least!

9/1-4/06 - Hairrison Street Fair, SF, CA

For my birthday we flew up to SF to do the Hairrison Street Fair with all the bears.  It was the 3rd annual event and we had a good time.  It was nice getting back to San Fran and catching up with old friends and meeting some new friends.  We went to several bars and danced a bit, drank a bit, and had a good time hanging out.  I think most of the bears found private parties to go to cause the official venues weren't very crowded.  That is until the street fair on Sunday.  It began cold, cloudy and very few bears at 11am when we ate Italian sausages for breakfast...but by 1, 2, and 3pm the sun came out, it warmed up, it was very crowded in the street.  Tons of bears everywhere!!  After a few hours of overdosing on bears we could hardly stand or walk our feet and backs were killing us...so we finally, reluctantly, wandered back to the hotel to rest.  During the adventure we visited the SF Modern Museum of Art and found a really great Thai restaurant on Folsom called "Basil".  Unfortunately Caltrans closed the Bay Bridge heading to Oakland and that caused some people to stay home.  Luckily we did this weekend without a car and used public transportation the entire time.  It was easy to get back to the airport on BART, but it was frustrating when we wanted to go to the store or go out to eat.  But we survived and found all we needed there in the neighborhood....stocked up on junk food like squirrels!  All in all it was a good weekend. Maybe next time we'll discover the private parties sooner.  

8/26/06

New website here!  I decided to trash the old one and take it to a new level.  I bought this website for showing off my photos and organizing links to everything from news to finance, bear sites, search engines, art, photography, music, computers, etc.  So enjoy, revisit often, and tell me if something doesn't work right.  Thanks!

Going to Bear Bar at Ripples and G&M nights at Pistons here lately.  It's great meeting all the bears and chubs out and about. Come on out and say "Hey" sometime.  Since losing our daughter Bubbles we've gained more freedome to go out and explore.

We went to see Gnarls Barkley and Peeping Tom at the OC Fairgrounds in July.  It's a great venue and both bands were really great.  I especially loved seeing Peeping Tom...bought the CD and listen to it almost daily now.

We went to see a tribute band perform David Bowie music..."Space Oddity" at the OC Pavillion in Santa Ana.  It was awesome hearing all the old and new Bowie tunes with costume changes and everything.  I love these tribute bands.  So far I've seen tribute bands perform AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, and hope to see others soon like ZZ Top, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Aerosmith, etc.

We went to Dana Point in July to chase whales and dolphins around the ocean.  More like the dolphins chased us!  We saw a couple blue whales and fin whales.  I got a few good pics of them.  They are such huge beasts!  The dolphins numbered in the hundreds and chased our boat around for a while until they got bored with us.  We should do this every month!

For July 4th weekend we traveled back to Virginia to visit with Mom and give her caretakers a Summer break.  It was nice and relaxing to hang out and vegitate by the lake for the week.  Mom loves going out to dinner and anyplace.  I think we wore her out going shopping and eating.  We watched a few DVDs and updated her computer a bit.  We were suppose to spend half a week there and then go to Virginia Beach for the latter half of the week, but unfortunately Don got sick and we decided to stay there at the lake and keep vegitating.  On Saturday we were scheduled to fly back and managed to spend the afternoon with my brother in Richmond.  We went to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch...it was great!  Flying back always brings mixed emotions...I hate to leave but I'm glad to be getting back to The OC and Cali.

8/6/06

Since the last update we've been through hell and back with our daughter "Bubbles".  She was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer in April 2005.  We freaked out and couldn't bring ourselves to let her go without a fight....so we decided to do the chemo-therapy treatments for as long as she could enjoy some quality of life.  I don't know if I would do that again...she felt like hell for the first few months and probably wished she were outta here.  After the initial couple months of treatments we got the cancer into remission and managed to settle into a comfortable life doing all the normal things we always enjoyed doing.  We could hardly tell she was sick and battling a killer.  But every two weeks we'd take her to the chemo treatments and she'd be sick for a day or two afterwards.  We did this for a year and took as many pictures as we could of us all having fun, playing in the park, riding in the car, eating ice cream, and snuggling as often as possible.  Without getting into the heart-wrenching details, suffice it to say that after exactly one year we turned a corner and things went south in a hurry, fell over a cliff, and now our daughter is free to roam the universe.  Several small, negative things happened all at once at that turn in the road and looking back on it I might have done things differently...I can easily bitch about these small factors in hindsight...but at the end of the day...the cancer was going to win and we knew the day would come when she'd have to leave and we wouldn't be ready to see her go.  It was rough.  She was happy and having fun one day and then gone within 1 week.  We blew crazy money during that last week trying to save her once again.  After nothing seemed to work, we comforted her, loved her madly, said goodbye, and helped her move on to greener pastures.  We were devastated...but time marches on.

Don's ready to get another dog tomorrow, but Doug's enjoying the freedom for now.  I'm sure we'll get another dog soon.  For now we're enjoying not having to walk 3 times a day, no vet bills, not having to race home after a show or dinner, no kennel hassles when traveling, etc.  But it's also rough not having anything furry to cuddle with, pet, love, talk to, care for, try to understand.

In April we took another cruise...up the west coast on the "Diamond Princess" ship.  It was great fun as expected.  We left San Pedro/LA harbor once again, on a Saturday, and ventured to San Diego to spend the day on Mother's Day, Sunday.  We wandered around Seaport Village and did the "Seal Boat" tour around the harbor in one of those amphibious vehicles.  Afterwards, we cruised up the coast to Catalina Island to spend the day on Monday.  Doug did the submarine tour of Avalon harbor later we both shopped around Avalon and took lots of pics.  Back on the boat we cruised up the coast all afternoon to make it to SF by morning.  Oddly enough, Santa Barbara was going to be our next stop, but they didn't want us...so that port was cancelled.  Rumor had it that they couldn't hide the homeless for the day so they'd rather not have us visit.  The next day we woke up early to watch the ship pass under the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was a party on the top deck with mimosas and party animals celebrating the arrival into San Francisco.  The cloudy marine layer we enjoyed in San Diego and Catalina managed to disappear for the day and we were left with incredible views of the "City By The Bay".  In SF we jumped off the ship, raced to the nearest trolley and sped off to enjoy lunch at Anchor Oyster Bar in the Castro as usual...Don's favorite!  Afterwards we shopped the Castro and then headed back to Fisherman's Wharf to join a City tour via Grayline bus.  It was fun seeing all the tourist sights again...taking lots of pics and refreshing our memory.  All too soon we were back on the ship and sailing back under the GGB and out to sea.  The following day found us docking in Astoria, Oregon...the trails end for Lewis & Clark back in the mid 1800's.  It was a stupid stop, but quiet.  Gave us a chance to relax and unwind a bit.  We took a tour of a couple coastal towns, shopped, ate, and were back on the ship in no time.  The next day we spent our time at sea relaxing, reading, sleeping, eating, swimming, loafing, did I mention eating and sleeping?  The next day we arrived in Victoria, B.C. on Vancouver Island.  This was our second trip to Victoria.  Doug dragged Don back to Butchart Gardens to photograph every flower, shrub, and tree in the place.  Several hundred photos later, in 2 hours, and after a 5 minute shopping spree in the giftshop, we ran back to the bus and were wisked away back to the ship.  Doug could spend all day there trying to get the perfect picture of the blue poppy.  What a place!!  Awesome!!

For Memorial Day weekend, we spent the weekend in Santa Barbara checking it out.  It is a very beautiful place with lots of sunshine, beautiful mansions, money growing on trees, Oprah, cheap public transportation, and every store you can imagine in the State Street shopping district, donated trees everywhere, beautiful flowers, landscaping, etc.  We found an awesome New Orleans style restaurant called "The Palace" slightly off the tourist path and pigged out to the point where Don got a bit sick.  We took the "Seal Boat" tour again in the amphibious vehicle wandering around town and then throughout the harbor there.  Tons of photos later we had to leave and drive back to "The OC".   Man the water is so amazingly blue up the coast there...far from LA.

Other miscellaneous stuff:  We've signed up for a cruise down the Mexican Riviera in Oct. 2006 and one around the Hawaiian Islands in April 2007.  That should be a blast!!  Can't Wait!!  Weve xxxx....

What else have we done.....?????   Xmas 2005, June 2005 at Land'or, no other vacations in 2004, July 2006 at Land'or, Beach Games here in HB 2005 & 2006, Vietnamese food, Whale watching, etc.

So, that's what we've been up to.....  Beyond that, we've been working hard, sleeping harder, watching too much "reality TV", and eating too much.  But all is well in the neighborhood.  

11/17/04

Let's see...what have we been up to in the last 8 months.  It seems we go someplace or do something cool every month.  

In May Doug went to the Coachella Valley Music Festival in the desert east of Palm Springs.  This is the third year he's gone and this year is the first where he stayed for both Sat. and Sun. and stayed in a local hotel.  It was a blast seeing some great bands like the Pixies, Crystal Method, the Cure, Basement Jaxx, Adam Freeland, Junior Senior, Le Tigre, Kraftwerk,  and many others.  What a blast!!  Doug listened to nothing but the Pixies for several months after that.

In June, we traveled back to Virginia to see the folks and attend Doug's niece's wedding.  We spent 3 days in Ocean City, Maryland on the beach.  Actually we're not beachy people, but we did enjoy walking the massive boardwalk there, eating Thrasher french fries, exploring Rehoboth Beach, exploring the back bay and Assateaque Island, as well as eating tons of back lump blue crab meat.  Yes, the area is known as the east coast capitol of blue crabs and every night we went to a different Phillip's crab house to pig out...there's actually 3 in town :)  We also met Allan and Jake and had a great time chilling with them for a day.

Following the Ocean City fun, we headed to central Virginia to hang with Doug's mom at the lake and see the family and the wedding.  Doug worked the wedding video-taping while Don burned up memory chips photographing the event.  Unfortunately Doug's mom took a bad fall earlier in the week and couldn't attend the wedding, but she's doing much better now...and was the first to enjoy the video!  While there, he rigged mom's computer so he could control it and fix it while back in CA...pretty cool, eh?

In July, we traveled to Ohio to visit Don's family and see his grandma for her 100th birthday.  Wow!!  100 years!!  "Sturdy Russian Stock"  While there we enjoyed a 4th of July picnic with the whole family at the lake house.  Lots of fun and fireworks too!  Manga Manga!!

In August, Doug traveled back to Virginia to visit his folks.  While at the lake, he fixed stuff around the house and generally chilled and watched DVDs.  

In October, we went on a Mexican cruise along the coast visiting Acapulco, Ixtapa, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas on the Royal Carribean ship "Radiance of the Seas".  The best ship so far in about 6 cruises to date.  We had a blast with the Atlantis crew and "family" passengers, specialty comedians, and daily awesome dance parties on the upper ship deck around the pool.  All in all, Acapulco was very humid and poor, Ixtapa was very beautiful and laid back, we spent time our in PV hiking in the jungle and seeing how the natives lived, and in Cabo we hung out with our new buds Eric and Marshall visiting Lover's Beach and getting drunk on the beach at "The Office".  Doug bought a new camera for the trip (Canon EOS 20D) and managed to take 200 pictures per day!!  ...and a bit of video :)  As soon as we got back we booked the next cruise with Atlantis for August 2005 in Alaska out of Vancouver.  Can't wait!!

In November, we went to Las Vegas for Don's birthday and hooked up with our good friend Dave and his wife Melissa from Chicago.  We stayed in the Venetian hotel and spent a couple days wandering the stip a bit and seeing the Cirque De Sole "Zumanity" show and the Danny Ganns show.  Overall, the Venetian sucked (no coffee, no useable fridge, the cheapest toilet paper, etc.), Zumanity was great but lacked enough acrobatics, and the Danny Ganns show started out terribly and rude but ended with some awesome, unforgettable moments.  

Next up, we're headed to Virginia for Xmas for few days (if the terror alert stays quiet) and who knows after that.  We'll see...

3/7/04

So it's winter in SoCal...what a trip, 80 degrees, sunny skies, and beautiful.  We've got the windows open with a great breeze blowing through.  We're spending more and more time at the beach, taking advantage of having a beach and ocean within a mile of the house.  We like to venture down to a picnic table right next to the beach, spread out and read a few magazines while the dog spreads out and relaxes...watching the parade of people walk, jog, and ride their bikes up and down the boardwalk.  We love Huntington Beach!!  When ever we're away, we always miss it.  

What else is new...we went to Vegas in June, 2003 and stayed at the New York Hotel.  It's a great place to stay with lots of activity nearby and in the hotel.  I don't know why we go to Vegas in the heat of the summer...not the time to go to the desert.  Walking up and down the strip in the summer heat can really kill ya.  We did enjoy taking a tour of Hoover Dam.  Doug took lots of pictures and we both had a great time exploring the dam and looking at the scenery.  We went to see a couple shows while in Vegas...saw the "O" show which was cool watching people dive into the stage and walk on water.  We also saw "Tony and Tina's Wedding" which was fun.

In November we flew to Ohio to visit Don's family for his birthday.  It's always great to catch up with family and take a few pictures.  We visited his Dad and wife; his grandma; his cousins; his aunts and uncles, etc.  At his Dad's place, his wife "Pat" cooked us a 10 course meal that lasted all afternoon...complete with steak, crab cakes, homemade perogis, salad, and assorted other fattening things.  It was great!!  At his aunt and uncle's house we went out for a big seafood dinner complete with all the family and a birthday cake!  Later we had another birthday party at their house with another birthday cake!  Yum!!

In December we had planned on venturing back to Virginia to see Doug's relatives.  Unfortunately the terrorist threat was high and we decided against it.  We were also bushed from working too hard, the stress of the season, etc.  We ended up staying home and for the first time in years had a Xmas to ourselves.  We even went out and bought Xmas decorations, a tree, and a stocking for Bubbly.  It was nice being home for a change, but we did miss being back on the east coast with Doug's family.  At least we'll be back there and see everyone for Doug's niece's wedding in June, 2004.

In February, 2004 we went to San Francisco to have a fun weekend get-away.  We spent 4 days there and stayed in Fisherman's Wharf eating crab and clam chowder in sourdough bowls until it was coming out of our ears.  Saturday night is no time to be in the wharf area unless you like crowds of people.  We couldn't find a decent place for dinner so we settled for In&Out burgers.  During the days we toured the city, toured the Pampano submarine, toured the Palace of Fine Arts and Exploratorium, and rode down Lombard Street.  We went to see a play and visited a few bars at night.  All in all it was fun and we got some great pictures.  We even managed to go to the Castro, shop, and eat lunch at Don's favorite diner "Anchor Oyster Bar & Restaurant".  We seem to do that on every trip.  

So, that's what we've been up to....as far as trips go.  Beyond that, we've been working hard, sleeping harder, watching too much "reality TV", and eating too much.  But all is well in the neighborhood.  

6/1/03

Since January, we've been working hard and trying not to over do it.  January was a tough month with Santa Ana winds, heat waves, and the accompanying allergies.  It got up above 90 degrees here.  Yikes!!  Crazy winter here in SoCal, eh?  It was tough trying to sleep with allergies (from dust and flying sand) in the middle of winter.  But at least with the Santa Ana winds, the sky is clear and beautiful.  

In March, Doug got a new car... a Nissan Murano, copper color inside and out.  It's beautiful!!  Check it out here.  It never fails... everytime I buy a car there's some problem with the deal.  It's never simple and easy.  I guess because I want a good deal and that makes me put up with crap in dealing with the "bottom-feeders" to get it.  So this time was no different.  It was very tough finding the car I wanted...took a month, then got jerked around by the dealer and sales-staff.  I bought into a lease, paid more than necessary to do it, and after 3 months, I still don't have my personalized license plates.  [Question - Why is it that SoCal people don't personalize their plates when they buy custom stereos, wheels, rims, spoilers, window tinting, etc.?  Strange, eh?]  So, I love my car.  It's a work of art.

In April, Doug went to the yearly music festival in the desert at Coachella, CA.  It was fun!  Finally met up with a few friends from online hangouts.  He saw bands and DJs such as the Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, White Stripes, Underworld, Deep Dish, Thievery Corporation, The Hives, and Primal Scream just to name a few.  For the first time he spent Saturday and Sunday there instead of just one day.  He got there late on Saturday and the line to get in was a mile long...no joke!  That really sucked!!  Best in show was definitely Underworld!!

In May, we finally did our cruise up into southeastern Alaska (May 3-11).  We flew up to San Francisco and boarded the ship (Celebrity Mercury) and sailed to Victoria, Canada.  Enjoyed a day of shopping around Victoria and photographing the Butchart Gardens and Butterfly Gardens there.  It was really beautiful.  We never expected to take so many pictures there...had to stop and buy more memory before the Alaska part started.  Then we ended up in Ketchican, Alaska for a day of shopping and touring.  We went on a cruise up into George Inlet and went crabbing.  Saw some neat starfish and caught some dungeness crabs. Then pigged out on all the crab we could eat for an hour at the lodge.  In town we wandered along Creek Street and checked out the lumberjack store.  The following day we ended up in Juneau and spent the day shopping and touring.  We went on a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier and got to see that for an hour.  After that we got on a boat and toured a large bay looking for wildlife.  We saw a couple humpback whales and followed them around the bay for a while.  We also saw lots of eagles, stellar sea lions, and harbor seals.  It was a perfect, clear day.  Lots of video and pictures taken here. The next day we ended up in Sitka and got to learn a bit about the Russian heritage of Alaska.  Sitka use to be the Russian capital of Alaska back in the mid-1800s.  It's a beautiful town on a back bay from the Pacific Ocean.  Many nice islands all around with a burnt-out volcano and snow capped peaks.  Lots of fishing boats and great views from town.  The old Russian church in the center of town was great to photograph too.  After that we cruised back to the inside passage and into Vancouver, Canada to catch a flight back to the states.  It was a horrible final day in trying to get to the airport, get through customs, immigration, and pay our airport improvement fee...what a bunch of crap.  But we finally made it home, minus our luggage which arrived later that evening.  All in all, it was a great trip, perfect weather, but not enough wildlife, limited eating arrangements on the ship, and no pool games to feast the eyes.  Doug took 630 pictures and 5.5 hours of video along the way!!  Awesome!!

Since the cruise, Doug went home to visit his Mom, fix her computer, set her up with DVDs, show her all the video from the trip, a few pictures, and hang for a few days.  It was good to see her and and his oldest brother for a bit.  Unfortunately it rained the entire time and traffic was hell along Interstate 95...but what else is new, eh?  He got some video of this huge fish wandering back and forth along the shoreline searching for lunch.  It looked like a carp which is very unusual for the lake there.  The trip was too short but well worth it.

1/05/03

Hey there, let's see...what has happened over the past 4 months since my last posting here... We've been watching the Summer and Fall slip away and Winter settle in here in SoCal.  We can tell when it's Winter around here since we finally have to wear long pants, long sleeve shirts, and occasionally a light jacket at night.  The migrating birds have settled in at the wetlands and it's fun to look them up in the guidebooks to see where they're traveling from.  Doug still needs to get out to the Bolsa Chica Wetland and photograph some of them.  The skies have cleared up with the help of the Santa Ana winds blowing in from the eastern deserts.  These hot, dry winds blow out all the smog and you can see for miles.  We can see the huge mountains just to the north of LA, Catalina Islandto the west, San Clemente Island to the southwest, and the antenna towers on top of the Santa Ana Mountains to the east.  It's simply beautiful around here!!  The ships hanging of the coast due to the shipping slow-down have all but gone now finally.  It was weird seeing hunderds of ships floating off the coast waiting to be unloaded.  Huge, massive container ships with their lights twinkling at night.  Pretty cool.

We went canoeing through the Upper Back Bay at Newport Beach with a couple friends of ours.  We were so heavy in the small canoe that we almost tipped over several dozen times.  Doug was in the front and was freaking out with every little move Don would make in the back.  All the while hearing our naturalist guide tell us about the sharks and stingrays swimming directly underneath us.  AAAAHHHH!!!   

During Thanksgiving week, we went on a Princess cruise along the mexican riviera coastline visiting Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas ports.  It was beautiful cruising down the California and Baja Peninsula coastlines.  We saw wild dolphins and whales playing in the ocean and got a few good pictures of them.  We went snorkeling in Puerto Vallarta and saw lots of tropical fish.  In Mazatlan we were suppose to go deep sea fishing but the trip was full, so we spent the day visiting El Cid hotel and eating and shopping in the shopping district there in town.  In Cabo, we got there in the morning and the rain was coming down so hard that we had to abort the landing.  The town was flooded out with bridges washed out and landslides happening.  We're sorry we missed it since that was the best port to see on the cruise.  But we had a great time; the ship was wonderful; and we got some needed rest and relaxation along the way.... between the bingo games, art auctions, pool competitions, trivia games, eating 5 times a day, seeing the main dance shows and comedy acts each night, shopping on board, swimming, drinking, etc.

For Christmas we went to Virginia to visit Doug's folks for a few days.  We relaxed around the house, fixed Mom's computer, played Mahjong on the computer, saw Doug's brothers and sister, grocery shopped for Mom, and generally loafed around.  For the last 2 days there, we went to DC and explored the city.  It was fun seeing the Mall again and all the monuments there.  We finally got to see the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and the Korean War Memorial.  We stopped at Union Station and shopped there and enjoyed the beautiful interior.   So much history and massive, beautiful buildings everywhere you turn.  We stayed in Dupont Circle and had fun shopping there and eating in really nice restaurants.  It was cold  but the sun came out a bit and it didn't snow on us....except during the flight stopover in Cincinatti and the drive from BWI airport.

Now we're glad to be home again and getting back into our routine.  We've finally cleaned up all the Christmas wrapping and decorations from the house.  It will be a long time until the next vacation during May...can't wait!  We're thinking of doing another cruise along the coast from San Diego to Vancouver, or maybe a trip to London...we'll see.  

9/7/02

Hey there, let's see...what has happened over the past 4 months since my last posting here... Well, it seems like Summer has come and gone way too fast as usual.  We've got a list of things we'd like to do but never seem to get around to doing them.  I think I'll make a list and just start doing them before the cold weather gets here.  We still need to spend hours on the beach and play in the ocean; Doug wants to try to surf several more times yet; we need to get down to San Onofre to spend a day; Bubbles needs to swim in the ocean; we need to spend days bike riding along the boardwalk by the beach; Doug wants to go kayaking; and we both want to photograph surfers from the pier; etc....

What did we do in the past 4 months?  Well, we just got back from traveling to Youngstown, Ohio to visit Don's family and join a big Labor Day party on the lake.  It was great seeing everyone, eating too much, jet skiing, boat riding, etc.  A few weeks before, Doug went home to Virginia to spend several days with Mom; working around the house; having lunch with Dick and Lois#2, visiting Lois#1 on the farm and eating her cow; watching humming birds and blue herons on the lake; reading, surfing the net, etc.  Then in mid August we joined Steph and the San Diego crew and watched the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna.  That's always a great evening of fine dining and art culture.  Back in July we spent a week in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand hotel lazing by the "river" during the days and going out to see shows in the evenings.  We saw Siegfried and Roy, CircDeSole's Mystery, and Jubilee shows.  It was fun and Doug got some great pictures of Vegas during the day and night.

Other than that, it's just been miscellaneous stuff around the town here.  We went to a couple jazz concerts in the park with Bubbly; tried to surf a few times; went to a Scottish Festival; went camping at Silverwood Lake with the Bubbly; went to a dog show and think we're gonna get a French Bulldog after Bubbly; went to see several celebrities at a hotel in Hollywood; and last night saw Jim Bailey impersonate Judy Garland.  He puts on an amazing show...go see it if you ever get the chance.

Don found a great job pretty quickly...only staying home about a month goofing off and sleeping all day.  His new job has him driving all day around North Orange County visiting clients just to say "Hey".  Now he drives a lot, but gets outta bed late and gets home early.  What a job!!  Unfortunately he had just bought a new car and the new company has given him a car too.  So now we have to get rid of the new car and probably lose money on the deal too.  Oh well...

So, that's been our Summer.  We wish it would never end...even though that's close to reality here in SoCal.  What have you been up to?  Email Doug and let us know.  Who are you?  Where are you?  Do you have a website too?  Take care and we'll log in later...

5/12/02

Sorry for the long delay in updating this...I bought a new computer with Win.XP and now my old html editing software didn't want to upload anything to the net. So I'm searching for a new html editing program to do the job. I tried Net Objects Fusion and got frustrated by how it doesn't handle pictures well (it stretches things outta wack!); then I tried Microsoft Front Page and got frustrated at how it handles html code (changing it all around so you can't even recognize your html); now I'm trying Namo WebEditor5. We'll see how it goes. I'm uploading this using simple FTP commands in Win.XP...hope it works.

 Mom and sis came out to visit for Easter. They spent a few days in San Diego doing the zoo and relaxing before coming up here to visit us. We had a great time wandering around LA and OC. We had lunch overlooking Dana Point Harbor, drove up the coast through Laguna Beach and the other beach cities, and enjoyed eating here in HB overlooking the pier. One day we went to Hollywood to see the sidewalk stars and Mann's Chinese Theater. We took a van tour of the celebrity homes through Beverley Hills and stopped in front of Ozzie's house for a few pics. The Hollywood sign was obscured in fog unfortunately. Afterwards, we drove past the La Brea tar pits and out to the coast to drive up to Malibu...turned around and drove back down the coast all the way along the beach until we got home here in HB. The bridge across the port of LA really freaked them out...it's really high! Then we took them to see the Glory of Easter show at the Crystal Cathedral...simply amazing! And then we spent a day in Laguna Beach shopping and wandering the town. All in all it was a great time and we can't wait for them to come out to visit next time.

 The neighbor from hell moved in next door and is luckily moving out in a month. If you wanna move in next to us, let us know. Just don't be the 2nd neighbor from hell. Other than that...the Coachella music festival yesterday was awesome. I really enjoyed seeing the Foo Fighters! ...such energy! I also enjoyed the Strokes, the Prodigy, and Tenacious D even showed up by surprise. Sandra Collins is an awesome DJ too! ...gotta buy something by her. ...on another front...I bought a GPS unit and the latest mapping programs to find myself lost in the desert. And before Coachella, I realized that I was close to the Salton Sea so I drove south to check it out. It's a lake in the desert with no outlet, below sea level. Everyone wonders if it has water in it, so I had to go check it out and take a few pics. It really is a big lake filled with very salty, brown water. The beach was totally made up of seashells! Wild! People were fishing and jet skiing there but no one was swimming. Anyway...that's an update. Hopefully next time I'll have this html editing software thing figured out and this website will be totally new and different. Until then, take care, email us, and have fun!!

12/02/01

We went to Hawaii for a week in November for Don's birthday and had a great time staying in Waikiki on Oahu...doing day trips all over the island. Photos should be available soon below. The island is fun for a week...but we still didn't get to do all we'd planned, but had a great time. Honolulu is the mass metropolis, rush hour traffic hits at odd times during the day, but it's easy to escape from and visit secluded beaches all around the island. The clouds chased the sun away all too often and the waters were not too warm, but the tourists flood the streets everyday. We learned a bit about the hula, wandered the north shore, tried to see Pearl Harbor but never did get through the lines to actually get in, did the Polynesian Cultural Center, snorkeled with sea turtles, and wandered the temples and state beaches around the island. Hopefullly we'll do a different island for a week each year.

It's cold here lately...if you can call 50 degrees cold :) Sure beats Chicago this time of year. It's quite a change living in the desert out here. The ants come in the house looking for water constantly...not to mention the dirty dishes piled in the sink.

 We've been busy as usual: working, eating, sleeping, repeating... In the past couple months we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain, Disneyland, and Knott's Berry Farm all in 3 weekends in a row. We flew to San Francisco for a long weekend...taking a boat ride to the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, driving down the west coast to try and find the San Andreas Fault, and checking out Twin Peaks. We took a ton of photos. We had never been to the top of Twin Peaks before and it was spectacular! Before that, Doug took his geotechnical engineering test for state licensure in October and Don went to Ohio in November to visit his family for Thanksgiving. Doug just returned from Virginia, visiting his folks for the holidays. The trip back was a mess... missing several standby flights, losing luggage, and being sick on top of it all.

 So now we've been here one full year now. We've seen many sights and have a long list of other places to check out. Stay tuned for more...

10/19/00

4/23/00

We're slowly getting use to life in SoCal...slowly getting intrenched in work and the daily routine of life. Don is working hard managing his office of about 8 people in Cerritos while Doug is trying to "learn the ropes" at his office in Irvine. Doug's Engineering Certification test of seismic and surveying principles went well and he thinks he passed (even though less than half of the 1800 people taking it failed last time). He'll know the results around August or so. Today we ventured down to Laguna Beach to wander the town and beach areas. Wandered into a tidal pool and took some pictures of the sealife among the rocks. Next weekend we're going camping in the mountains north of LA with a local group. Looking at the topo map it appears we'll be right on top of the San Andreas Fault Line too!! Oh Noooooooo!!!!!!!! We'll be praying for an earthquake and scrambling through the mountian looking for traces of the fault.

The Beginning