Archive | July, 2017

Road Trip 2017 – Day 1 – San Diego bound

29 Jul

So the journey begins. We loaded the car with the last few items and were out of the house by 6:06 am. Pretty Darn Good for us. We were back at the house at 6:07 am. I forgot to close the garage door and even though we live in a very safe city and a really quiet neighborhood, leaving the garage door open for 7 weeks was probably not a good idea.

So at 6:07:30 we left the house again and headed off. First stop was Huntington Beach for Helen's hair appointment. Even though it's only a 3.5 hour drive we planned for 5the hours and used 4. The drive through San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties was smooth as one would expect leaving that early. But as we approached Los Angeles county, the traffic became worse and Helen began the white knuckle portion of the journey.

We arrived by 10:15 so we had a little time to wonder through Target before dropping her off for the next 2 hours. Me, I went off to Supercuts to see how big the bald spot was now. My plan was simple, Haircut at Supercuts and then off to Barnes and Noble for an hour to peruse the books.  This plan held together until I reached Supercuts where the single hair stylist looks at me and lets me know that even though there is only one person in building I would have to wait an hour for a haircut. She also strongly hinted that I should leave and come back later. To help with that she tells me that she has scheduled me for a 12:00 pm appointment and she would see me then.

So with nothing to do, I climb in the car, drive to Barnes and Noble, spend only 40 minutes looking through the books (mostly Sci Fi, and why in the heck to they need to mix the fantasy stuff in with it!!)  before leaving to return to Supercuts. After she cuts my hair I am out and back to Helen waiting for to be finished.

Helen comes out of the salon and I ready for our drive to the mortuary to pick out a marker for her parents. No sooner does she climb in the car when she gets a call from the mortuary that they have to reschedule, the person she is meeting is out sick. So instead we are off to SD!

Turns out this worked to sour advantage as we were able to drive down in what passes for minimal traffic and arrive in SD around 3. We checkin at the Marriott Gaslamp District and go to our room. Getting off the elevator we notice that the wallpaper the entire way down the hallway has been peeled back about a foot and was just hanging there. Turns out we missed the water pipe breaking and flooding the hallway about 2 weeks earlier.

So after loading our bags into the room we are off for a walk around San Diego.. We walked to the USS Midway, checked out the Bob Hope Tribute and the statue of the iconic kiss in Time Square at the end of WWII.

The Bob Hope tribute is my favorite as they actually pay snippets from his USO tours over a loudspeaker. Pretty cool. From there we walked pass Nikki's workplace where we texted her and played a game of find the Nikki in the window (we lost) before heading back to the hotel.

We met Nikki and Jake at the Lionfish for dinner. While having dinner, Nikki notices that at the table behind us is one of the Housewives of Orange County. Turns out that she went to high school with Jake but neither said hi to the other they just gave each other "I think I know you looks". After dinner it was back to the hotel and we called it a night.

Road Trip 2017 – The Great Solar Eclipse – Prelude

27 Jul

On August 21st the US will witness an Eclipse which will be visible from most of the continental United States and this was an event that I knew I wanted to take part in and be there to see the total eclipse of the sun for my first time. My issue was I live in San Luis Obispo and would come up 34% short if I stayed home. This meant I needed to be someplace else at that critical time. In studying a map of the eclipse path, I noticed that Jackson Lake Lodge in Wyoming was in the path of totality. We had loved the lodge when we stayed there in 2015 so it was an easy decision to stay there to witness the big event. So on Sept 1, almost a year early, we woke at 7 am and started dialing. As expected the lines were busy. So Helen and I used our cell phones and house phone to try and get through and finally 40 minutes later I connected with the reservation folks. So now all we needed to do was book the room, which wasn’t as easy as we hoped. WE asked for one of their cabins and the lady on the other end says ” us great, we are good to go, just need your credit card … hey wait someone just took the room from me! So I am sorry but that was our last cabin. But I can still get you into the main lodge.” So naturally I took it.

As fortune would have it, my wife had a convention in New Orleans at the beginning of August. And since we enjoyed traveling cross country in my Mustang Convertible on our first road trip, it was an easy sell to convince her we needed to drive to New Orleans and then go to Jackson Lake Lodge. All I needed to do was plan the road trip and find things to do between August 6th (last day in New Orleans) and August 18th (our first day at Jackson Lake Lodge)

I think I planned a fun trip as shown in the following map.

Road Trip 2017

So on to the packing and let the fun begin

Granddaughter #4 – Welcome Makayla

25 Jul

In January of this year we had granddaughter number 4 join our family. The second child for our oldest daughter. My job on that day was Papouli daycare for Elliana, the brand new big sister. She stayed with me at the house while we waited for Makayla's arrival.

When we finally made it to the hospital, Makayla turned out to be a beautiful baby and she immediately captured my heart.  I really couldn't believe how lucky I was to be the grandfather to such a beautiful granddaughter. I think the thing that stuck with me the most that day was how quickly little Elliana stepped into her new role of big sister. She was amazing. I think Makayla is one lucky little kid.

For myself seeing Makayla for the first time was once again an amazing experience and I knew from that moment forward I would do whatever it would take to take care of her along with her sister and cousins. I have to admit I also thought WOW what a tiny baby, next her cousin Aria, who was only 4 months old, she looked so tiny! But she did have a good set of lungs on her. So I knew she would be fine.

Becoming Papouli

24 Jul

The greek word for Grandpa is Papou. When my first grandchild was born in 2014 we decided that Helen and I would go by the greek terms, YiaYia and Papou, while our son-in-laws parents would be called Grandma and Grandpa. Seemed like the perfect way to  differentiate between families.

When I retired in at the beginning of 2015 we had one granddaughter and another on the way. No big deal, we could handle it. Or so I thought. When my new career as Papou started I thought it would be easy, after all the plan was that when the grandkids visited, we would play with them for a bit, then load them up with sugar and then send them home to torment their parents. Every grandparents dream, right? Well to paraphrase the old saying – No plan survives first contact with the grandkids.

When our first granddaughter started to talk, one of her first words was Papou. Boy did that make me feel good. She was always looking for Papou, I was the man! When our first she was old enough to walk and talk, it thrilled me that every time I saw her as she would always walk up to me and say “UP” holding her hands in the air. Papou became the go to guy for fun. Wanted to go outside and play, just say Papou and it happened, wanted a book read, just hold the book up and say Papou and your being read to (this one also worked great with Yiayia).

Then one day she walked into our house and called me Papouli and I loved it. She had her own name for me!

And then my second granddaughter began to walk and talk. So now it’s stereo. I can no longer pick up one grandchild without the second one wanting the same treatment.  Now I know I could tell both grandkids No, but what kind of Papou would that make me? So instead I pick them both up and we walk around for awhile and then I put them down. Also the second granddaughter  really loves music, you put music on and she will start to dance. So I did something not so bright one day, music was playing so I picked her up and we danced. Now of course I have to pick up two of them and dance with them at the same time.  So now standard mode is if all the grandkids are together, I know I will be carrying two of them. No problem, it’s good exercise.