Big Sur CA

Good morning from paradise!  Who knew the sun would poke me in the eye, in the morning, on the west coast?  Tis true, that big guy in the sky nudged me out of bed bright and early for this shot.  Taken from the balcony.

Since this leg of our trip was planned last min, we were not able to pillow our heads in Big Sur.  But we found a place (Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa) on up the road in Monterey Bay.  Although it was about an hours drive from Big Sur, the drive down was beautiful.

Shot from our balcony.

I was in love with the proximity of the hotel over the bay.  Shot from our balcony.

I caught this shot from our balcony as well.  We also watched fishing boats make a b-line out to sea.

As soon as we were ready to explore Big Sur, we hit the road.

Bixby Bridge, Big Sur CA

Panned the camera just away from the bridge to see the stunning cliffs and rocky coast.

We were here…

…having the time of our lives with nothing on the agenda other than to enjoy ourselves and take in the things we wanted to take in at our own pace.  It truly felt like vacation in every way.

I think this is yet another time when I was wishing hubby Happy Birthday.  I wished him Happy Birthday morning noon and night for 7 days straight.  He deserves the very best.

We were still at Bixby Bridge, but this is another shot of the coast on the other side.

After we had our fill at the bridge, we moseyed up the road.  This pic was taken from the passenger seat.

Another shot from the passenger seat.  That mountain running into the ocean is a Navy Facility of sorts.  We both agreed that was a nice strategic place.  If I were in the Navy, I would want to eat, sleep and work from there.

We stopped at Nepenthe for lunch.  It came highly recommended by friends and we can report that the food was amazing and so was the…

VIEW!

What a gorgeous day!

While there was a bit of haze, the weather was spot on.

A testament that this passenger could not sit still.

And the driver was delighted to pull off as we were on a mission to take it all in ’til our hearts were content to move on up/down the road.

Our next planned stop was a little hike in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

It was yet another beautiful place to get out and stretch our legs.

Something we continued to say about our trip “It is so easy on the eyes.”

A close up of the waterfall as seen in the above pic.

And another.

The little path, what fun!

The trail ended here.  Not a bad place to land.

It was another magical day filled with beauty at every twist and turn.

It’s a place we hope to return one day.  If not, these pictures will serve as a reminder of the joy we experienced while there.

Blessings – Debbie

From San Simeon to Big Sur, CA

Good day from San Simeon, CA!  It truly was a beautiful day.  A nice vacation day where we let the day unfold.

We fell asleep to the sounds of the crashing waves and woke to the same amazing sounds.  This was the morning view just outside our hotel sliding glass doors.

Many thanks to Yelp for helping us find this 5 star hole in the wall for lunch.  The food was fresh and amazing.

My tuna sandwich made with fresh ingredients.

So yummy and HUGE!  I could only eat half.

I particularly loved this old tractor they had parked out front.

Just outside the restaurant was this old schoolhouse that was built for the workers who were employed by William Randolph Hearst in the construction of his castle in San Simeon, CA.  If you look really close, you can see Hearst Castle to the left of the schoolhouse bell, up on the mountain top.

Speaking of Hearst Castle, it was our next stop.

What a grand place.

With amazing detail.

Hubby and I having a grand time.

A bit of detail

A little sneak peek of the side.

Just me, trying to take it all in.

And the views?  I do believe the views were my favorite part.

No doubt my absolute favorite part.

The 90,000 + sq foot Hearst Castle featured 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theater, an airfield, and the world’s largest private zoo.

One of the indoor fireplaces – From floor to ceiling.

The dining room set up as if they had dinner prepared for us.

Dining room detail from the other end of the room.

Billiards room

While I was fascinated with much of the artwork and rooms inside, I was more interested in the gardens, views and the great outdoors.

There was so much to see and many views to take in.

My heartbeat.

Yet another amazing view.  Currently there is 80,000 acres but Hearst used to own a whopping 250,000 acres which included all of the mountains you see in the far distance.

I was in awe of the whole feeling and area surrounding the castle.

Such beauty at each and every turn.

The indoor swimming pool.

We were able to walk the grounds alone (after our tour) and stay and enjoy the place until our hearts were content.

As we left, I was sure to capture a portion of the winding road that led us to and from the castle.

Once we were finished, we hit the road on up the coast to Big Sur.  Yes, we’re on this amazing road winding along the coast again!

Lucky for us, we were not on any deadlines to be anywhere at any certain time.  So in hubby and wifey fashion, we stopped along the way whenever we felt the urge to get out and enjoy the beauty.

Side Note: The stopping along the way part, was the plan.  Say we were on a regular road trip, neither of us would want to stop to smell the roses, unless we had to.

I took so many shots that I find it difficult to know which ones to post.  Thus, a lot of pix!

Another look at the same coastline, we’re just in a different spot.

While we were out there enjoying our surroundings, we heard the loudest noise down below.  We quickly looked down to see THIS!

Have you any idea how excited I was to see this whale?

Again, I couldn’t stop taking pictures.

This was the first time in my life to see a real whale, in the ocean!

Next thing, there were TWO!

I was such a happy lady.

It was hard to pull away from this amazing sight.

This is the rest area where we stopped.  Thank goodness we took the time to smell the roses.  We would have never seen the whales had we not taken the little hike out there to get a view of the ocean.

I was so excited on our way back to the car, that I was telling perfect strangers that if they hightail it to the ocean fast enough, that they too could see the whales.

We hit the road again, but we were no more than on the road and it called for another stop to take in beauty.

Another day on the road where there was no desire to grab for the pillow and take a little rest.  Why, I couldn’t put down my camera long enough to relax.

I did get a bit concerned that I would get carsick.  Last year, we took a similar winding road sort of drive and I got so carsick.  But this trip, I had no trouble.  I wonder if it had to do with the weight loss and the shape my body is in?  I have no idea, but I took these winding roads in stride.

On up the road and soon to pull over again.  That’s Bixby Bridge in Big Sur up ahead.  We stopped the next day on the other side of that bridge for more pix.

Another view

Same view panned out a bit.

Back on the road again.

Taken from the passenger seat.

Next stop, the hotel.  Pic taken from our room that evening.

While we had an ocean view room, we were located in the Bay and did not have sunset views from our room.  So we drove up the the road (approx 10 min) to enjoy the sunset.

I was so taken with our hotel on stilts.  The ground level was where we enjoyed dinner that evening.

And the moonrise from the balcony of our room, could not have been better.

What another amazing day filled with so many great memories.

If you made it to the end of this post, you are a trooper!  Sorry it was hard for me to post less pictures than this.

I need this post with all the details.  After all, this blog is for any who want to visit and for us during our rocking chair years as well.  🙂

Blessings – Debbie

Road Trip From San Diego to San Simeon, CA

Who doesn’t like a road trip?  I do believe I’ve enjoyed road trips ever since I was a little girl.  There’s always a certain element of excitement when the scenery is ever-changing.

In this case, we were just driving up the coast of CA.  Just driving up the coast?!  Well I had no idea all the excitement  and sites that were to come.  Although I did have a little idea of the beauty, I just wasn’t prepared to be blown away like I was, Every. Single. Day.  I had a pillow and blanket packed for passenger comfort but didn’t so much as think about using them.

The happy passenger.

And hubby, the best driver ever.  He never once let me in the driver seat.  And I must admit, there were times I felt guilty as he deserved to sit in the passenger seat to enjoy the beauty as much as me.

I was happy as a clam, bouncing off the walls taking way more pictures than a girl should be allowed.

Snapping away.

First stop = LA for lunch.

After lunch, we were right back on the road again.

We pulled over at the look out place to see what we could see.  There wasn’t much to see, until we climbed a little higher.

We took in this view and snapped a few pix.

Then we were right back on the road.

Although this shot is taken from the passenger seat, I like the feel of the motion and country side.  And I love that we could see the ocean on the other side of the road.

There was another look out place on up the road.  So we stopped in the Santa Barbara County Parks for this shot.  Have I mentioned what an amazing driver my hubby is?  Well he is, as he takes the time to stop along the way to smell the roses.  I love that!

Next stop – the place to pillow our heads for the night.  This is the view taken from just outside our room, on the coast of San Simeon, CA.

We made dinner reservations early such that we could get back to our room to watch this.

This is the spot where we sat on a bench, enjoying the view that evening.

What a treat!

A beautiful day and night we will never forget.

And right on cue, we were right back out to find the Super Moon.  I searched all around to find a place where I could frame it.  I like this spot, it was magical.

And this my friends, is a wrap of the first day of vacation.  I’ll be back with more vacation pix, as there are 6 more days of vacation to come.

Blessings – Debbie

Family, Friends and Christmas

Is it really March?  And am I really trying to catch-up on the blog?  Yes and YES!  Lets get started, shall we?

Is there anything better than spending time with family and friends at Christmas?  I feel one of the greatest gifts we can give to family is spending time together.

This Christmas we flew to FL to spend time with my parents and my “Little Brother” and his family.  Good meaningful times were had.  And lots of good memories were made.

My family, minus my big brother and family.

I had the privilege of taking a few pictures of my Brother and his family…

…My pop with his best friend…

…Nieces and nephew being silly at Christmas…

…Nieces and nephew – sibling shot…

…and again…

One evening (while in town) on a whim, my little bro called to see if we would like to join them for dinner.  It turned out to be such a great event.  After dinner, we enjoyed a nice little stroll and visit on the boardwalk.

Hubby got to see his old buddy – We enjoyed an amazing little outdoor lunch.

I had the privilege of taking pictures of my beautiful twin nieces with their best friend of so many years.

And my nephew with the snake he’s raised.

But most of all, I will cherish the love we share, the precious time we carve out for each other and all the special memories we made.

Blessings – Debbie

About Last Week

Last week was the week when the Christmas Spirit hit.  And this is the way Monday morning took shape.

The sentimental ornaments we’ve collected over the years were all given a special little place to hang.

The nativity nook was created while other areas were decorated.

The stockings were hung and by Thursday, everything had a home.

By the time the weekend rolled around, hubby made big plans to take Friday off and take me into LA for a nice couple day weekend.

We enjoyed amazing views from the Hilton penthouse spa.

Plans were made for Korean BBQ in Korea Town.  We enjoyed this little sit down Friday evening.

This has been a wonderful week all the way around.  It’s nice to have everything in place for this Thanksgiving week.  I’m so ready for it to get here!

Blessings – Debbie

Making Memories

Hubby and I are back home and getting settled from a little vacay up north to see our daughter.

What a joy to spend time with Kristy.  She is a delight and we were blessed to get to help celebrate her birthday.

We also had the treat of meeting a couple of her really good friends.

The Birthday Dinner was celebrated at Benihana.

This pic did not turn out so well but I think the blur made it interesting.

I was so disappointed with the way those pix turned out…I could cry.  I think I like them in sepia the best, but still, I’m sick about it.

While visiting Kristy, hubby and I had a chance to scoot over (an hour away) to visit with Grandma and her two sisters Great Aunt Ruth and Great Aunt Barb.  Left to Right – Aunt Ruth, Grandma, Aunt Barb and me.  ‘Twas a lovely afternoon where hubby and I treated them to lunch.

I’m happy we were able to squeeze in another trip this year.  So many good memories were made.

Blessings – Debbie

Fun With Family

Sunday was quite a special day as we were gathering with more family.  We took a little two-hour road trip to see hubby’s sister Cindy and family.  Little did we know a feast was in the works.  Ham, pot roast (with potatoes, carrots & gravy), pea salad, salad, homemade rolls, broccoli casserole, green bean casserole, hash brown casserole…Hmmmm, what did I miss?  It was all so delicious and prepared by our nephews.

We also celebrated our great-nephew Ben’s birthday.

We had cake and homemade banana ice cream…So yummy!

And played on the front porch with Ben’s new “Fire Truck”.

It took no time to figure out the duties of a fire chief.

His hose could reach nearly 15 or so feet.  There was lots of fun, especially since the adults were playing along.

Big sister quickly caught on…

At times there was a driver and two willing Chiefs.

Love that Sam posed side-saddle on this old tricycle my hubby and his siblings used to ride.

Precious Connie – She was my little buddy…

Big sister was willing to pose for pix…

I had to get a shot of her pretty boots.

Connie always had a smile when I pointed the camera her way.

It was such a joy to cuddle with Ben.

Three of our great-nieces and nephews.  We got to see our other great-nephew last week.

Hubby’s sister with her two sons and families.

While the children played into the night, the adults rustled up a fun game of Texas Holdem’ Poker.  By the end of the night,  Brad ran away with all the chips.  Good Game!

A visit to Cracker Barrel before heading back to St Louis yesterday.

Great-aunt Debbie can’t take too many pix…

Little Ben fell fast asleep before our meal arrived and slept all through his breakfast.  Hubby took good care of him.

We have more family to see before we make our way back home.  I’ll be back with more pix later.

Blessings – Debbie

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

A visit to St Louis is not complete without a trip to Ramon’s.  This has been hubby’s favorite Mexican restaurant ever.  It became my favorite Mexican restaurant back in our dating years when he took me here for the first time.  He always judges Mexican food to this place.  I understand why.

So, this was the plan last evening for our sit down meal.  We have been doing so good on our healthy eating that we neither wanted this basket of chips that sat in front of us.

After dinner, hubby took me for a little drive thru his old hometown.  We passed by the old Collinsville water tower.

Drove by the worlds largest CATSUP bottle.  I was impressed.

But to see the Kahoks play football, would have the be the highlight of the day.

Our nephew Luke # 48 made us proud.

Even though the team lost, we left feeling we were already winners.  It was pretty amazing to hear screams from the stands to pass the ball to #48!  I couldn’t help but feel proud of all the hard work Luke does for his team.

Our nephew Trey, he was a hard one to catch.  But oh so cute!

Our great-nephew Austin showed up for the game too!  His grandma (my sis-in-law Chris) had just given him a cow bell to ring during the game.  Good job ringing that bell Austin!

Our nephew (body builder) Eric and his son Austin.  These two are two peas in a pod.

Children who sat right in front of us but were too cute and wanted their pix taken too.

Back home after the game.  Two very proud parents of four of the finest sons you will find.

Luke, Gerry and Trey.  We wish Eric would have been able to make it over after the game.

Gerry and Beth – Our newly engaged (this month) nephew.  She is such a doll, I totally love this girl and welcome her with open arms to the family.  They drove 3 hours one way just to see his brother play and to see us.  Great kids!

Chris had just finished taking care of Luke’s wounded arm after the game.  I think she was telling him to never get hurt like that again.  (I kid) She is such a great mom, loves her boys but I love how she lets them be boys.  She and my bro-in-law have done an amazing job with these guys.

As our evening came to a close, all felt right with the world and quality time with family.

I never tire of passing by the arch night or day, it’s such a beautiful sight to behold.

This wraps up another glorious day in St Louis.

Blessings – Debbie

A Visit To St Louis

Hubby and I took a trip to St Louis this week.  A trip to visit with family and friends.

What do you do on the plane to pass the time away?  I played games on my phone like:  Reversi, Sudoku and the most fun was playing Color Touch.

I took pix the other day when I had my mani/pedi and found color touch to be a fun app to toy with this pic.  + the fact that it helped the time pass quickly…

Soon we landed and were greeted with a heat wave, like I’ve never experienced in all my live long days.  There was no gradual introduction to summer as it clearly slapped us in the face.  And I recall exclaiming to hubby “This is so UN San Diego”.  I’ve been a little under the weather ever since.

We quickly gathered our things and secured our rental car, made our way to the hotel and bathed in our nice air-conditioned room.

That evening we went to visit hubby’s son Ryan and his choice was to go for a little sit down at the local Starbucks.  Anyone who knows me well, knows I have a soft spot in my heart for the place.  But I snubbed it kindly while visiting with Ryan while he enjoyed his iced something or other.  Great visit we had.

Yesterday we got to spend time with Ryan and Lauren.  Mostly Ryan as his car was in need of attention.  It was a long ordeal, ask the mechanic.  All is can say is at day’s end, the mechanic offered Ryan a car and at day’s end, Ryan secured that new car!  Not without hubby doing his homework, but I won’t get into that long story here.  We can all say what a great day and deal all the way around!  And we topped off our evening spending quality family time at Panera Bread.

Sometime during the evening hours back at the hotel, I caught myself dreaming of home.

And I spent all night long in Southern California.  In my dreams…

Blessings – Debbie

Flying Home

Just like snowbirds, we spread our wings on September 10th eager and ready for our flight home.

A short while after takeoff, I took this pic of a long and winding river.  I quite like the reminder that life is long with lots of exciting surprises with each turn.

The next bit of excitement out my window was a nice view of mountains rising above the clouds.

Then these snow covered mountains appeared.

Oh what a delight to say a big hello to Denali/Mount McKinley!  What a blessing to have clear skies in the area that day.

Descent into Anchorage

And the next descent into Seattle, WA

And the next stop was Home Sweet Home!

The exciting journeys in life are so hard to put into words and pictures.  But the one thing we all can appreciate are the simple blessings of home sweet home.  It truly is good to be home.

Blessings – Debbie

In the Heart of Fairbanks

I decided to post these pictures in one blog (pictures taken from Sept 1 – 10th) since they revolve around the house and home of Dan and Rita.  This is the heart of Fairbanks because home is where the heart is.

Their beautiful long driveway

And log home nestled in such a pretty place.

Dan makes the best Swedish pancakes ever!   They were made on the spot so our seconds and thirds were always fresh and hot right off the press.  And there were several kinds of fillings on the table.  Wow, so good.

I heart this little pond that Dan made for Rita.  What a picture perfect heart.

Dan feeding the goldfish.

Their home spells love, warmth and coziness.

And a couple pictures to follow from their garden.

We enjoyed the fruits of their labor.  Great salads and veggies came from that lovely spot.

Great times and wonderful memories were made.  We look forward to making more memories just like this in the future.

Blessings – Debbie

On The River In Fairbanks

The Riverboat Discovery Tour was a nice little 3 1/2 hour trip on the river.

We saw how pilots up and down the river use it for take-off and landing.

We enjoyed looking at all the different real-estate up and down the river

We saw a demonstration of pups learning the ropes.  I’m confident they will make a great dog sled team this winter.  They pulled this gentleman (motor was taken out) for one huge loop.  It was a lot of fun to watch.

There they are taking off.  Hard to describe in the pic but they went all the way around that pond and back.

Coming up on a fish camp – cool stuff

And passed by the prettiest flower pots on this porch.

Soon our little tour up the river ended and our tummies were hungry for dinner.  So happy Dan and Rita knew just the place to take us.

Loved the use of this old contraption just outside the front door

Salmon was one of the things I wanted on this trip.  Somehow our trip to Alaska would not be complete without it.

The tough decision for me was between the garlic mashed potatoes and fries.  I was told the fries here were amazing but, but, but…I could begin to stutter at this point as there was such a beautiful ring to garlic mashed potatoes with my salmon dish.  No regrets.

Everyone’s dish looked equally amazing and the desert was delish too!

There’s something to be said about quality time with family and this was one of those evenings.

I still have lots of pictures to leaf through and at least two more Alaska blogs to follow.

To be continued…

Blessings – Debbie

Denali – ‘Til We Meet Again

This is the place we called home during our brief stay in Denali.  Photo taken from across the street and up the hill.

Photo taken the afternoon of our departure.  Oh what a beautiful day!

Buses were coming and going all the time…At any given hour, a half dozen buses or so could be seen out front.

Hubby and I spent part of the morning and early afternoon shopping at all the tourist shops.  Fortunately we were there at the end of season to catch many stores offering 50% off store wide.

We fell in love with this guy…

Around mid afternoon we hitched a ride on a bus to the train station.  One cool thing about the hotel – They took care of our luggage that morning and delivered it to the train station so that we didn’t have to fool with it that day.

Here comes our train in from Anchorage!

The brakes are engaged

Almost to a complete stop….

As she slowly passes by…

All Aboard!!!

Hubby and I made our acquaintance with the deck out back and stayed there for a good portion of the ride.

A view at some of the hotels and gift shops as we pass by.  That’s Horseshoe Lake down below.

I like to think of this trip as a five star ride.  It was a glorious day.  Temperatures were in the upper 60’s and no jackets were needed on the deck.  And with that, I’ll try to let some of the pictures speak for themselves as there are quite a few in this post.

We have quite a few cars behind us…

I can’t even begin to say how much fun we had back there…

This is one of my favorite pics of the train as we wind around those mountains.

As we pulled away, The glaciers came into view.

WOW, we can see!

Words can’t describe the emotion…

Just working on this post, brings a flood of amazing memories.  And if you’re wondering why I’m posting so many similar pics, it’s because I couldn’t pick out a favorite.

Sigh…

I heart the bridge with glaciers in the background…

Oh my word, there is Mt McKinley!  We could not believe our eyes…This was the only day while there that we were able to see the mountain range and Mount McKinley…From the ground. We did see the mountain ranges and Mount McKinley on our flight home.  More on that later…

As our train pulled into the station, I was so overjoyed from all the pretty things we witnessed this day.

Dan and Rita were right there to greet us as we arrived and what a joy it was to catch up with them and share all the excitement we experience in Denali.

This pretty much wraps up another beautiful day in Alaska.

To be continued…

Blessings – Debbie

The Alaska Railroad

A sheer and total joy ride is how I would sum this 4 hour train trip from Fairbanks to Denali.

Hubby secured Gold Star tickets – Basically the tickets allowed us to ride on the second floor, dine downstairs, have unlimited drinks and enjoy the great outdoors out on the railed deck in the rear of the upper level.

The photo below (left side) is hubby standing on the deck and on the right he’s sitting across from me checking out the menu in the restaurant down below/the ground floor.

We sailed over the river and through the woods…

My favorite spot on the train was the upper (open) deck.  Picture of the top of the cars and bridge we just crossed.

There was always scenery to enjoy

What a powerful sleek engine!

And what a fantastic route

This little old church along the tracks caught our attention.

We quickly noticed crossings getting fewer and fewer and the roads appeared to be little lanes.

These cars were just chillin’ as we passed by.

A look back at that bridge that we just went under.

The ever changing scenery…

And well on our way to Denali

The engine that could…

Another beautiful view

Next stop Denali!

Unfortunately we didn’t have clear skies to see “The Big One” aka Mount McKinley but we certainly made the most of it.

To be continued…

Blessings – Debbie

First Class to Alaska

On September 1st, we left beautiful southern Cali and spent our vacation in what I would call one of the most majestic places on earth, Alaska.  We were so happy to learn we had enough frequent flier miles to fly in the front of the plane all the way to and from Alaska.  It made for a comfortable flight in every way.

We were spoiled with all kinds of free treats on each flight.

We were also given the digEplayer to use.  We watched different shows and rested and the time went by quickly.

An hour or so prior to landing in Seattle we passed this mountain.

This was not Mount Rainier, we were on the wrong side of the plane for that pic.

So here we are in Seattle waiting on our next flight to Fairbanks, AK.  This gentleman struck me as a true frontiersman.  I liked his dress and enjoyed his conversation, he just didn’t know I took some pics to remember.

Shortly after our takeoff in Seattle we climbed past the clouds and flew over this beautiful sight.

I gotta say, as we flew into Fairbanks that evening, I couldn’t wait to see and experience Alaska with hubby’s sister and our brother-in-law.

A picture of the moon just before landing.

What a great flight and taste of things to come.  To be continued…

Blessings – Debbie