A trip to Venice on the Island Princess

We enjoyed our 17 day cruise.  Alex enjoyed playing in the ping pong touraments, watching the outdoor movies and walking a few miles around the deck with me.  I met some nice ladies at the knitting group held every morning in a bar. They let me bead with them while they knit.

 I met Sue at the knitting group who, it turns out, could have been my sister.  We had so much in common it started to freak us out. One night at dinner Sue started talking about her family and she said her maiden name was Randall.  I snapped my head around and said "My maiden is Randall".  That certainly freaked us both out.  We hope to get together again once we are back in the states.

Everything and everyone, except for a few rude and grumpy old folks, were wonderful on the ship.  Princess tries very hard to make sure you have a good time.  There's plenty to do or you can hide and relax the whole time if you want.

So now I'm going to attempt to add some pictures.  There should be one or two of the ship and of some waves.  We had a very smooth crossing across the Atlantic, but one day we did get some rolling with 10 foot waves once we were in the Med.  Wasn't too bad.  You just had to hold on walking around.  These big ships have stabilizers that work pretty well.  Would we do it again?  Yes, in fact, if we can swing it money wise, we are thinking of going back to the States on one!

Drive from Monterey to Big Sur

Chris took off for a "look see" one day and ended up driving south to Big Sur.  It's about 35 miles south of Monterey, but it's a curvy, up and down two lane road along the coast.  It's also very dangerous as there are many spectacular vistas and people are stopping and pulling in and out all along the drive.  You have to be careful.  One tourist was not and she ended up going over a cliff and died that day.  So be careful if you ever go there.

Now with that said, enjoy the pics.  We decided to put them all right here, so no links to the album.

Naval Post Graduate School, Monterey and Pacific Grove

We made it to Monterey and got settled in at a small military campground that is inside the military golf course that seems to serve the Naval Post Graduate School and the Defense Language School.  The golf course is beautiful, but the campground is a little worn out and there are golf balls flying everywhere.  You had to keep an eye out for them when walking the dog.  One did hit the coach, but there was no damage.  We were quite comfortable there in spite of the golf balls and the planes taking off over head from the Monterey Airport.




Of course, Monterey is a wonderful place to be.  It's as beautiful as we imagined.  We particuarly enjoyed the small town between Monterey and Carmel called Pacific Grove.  There's an ocean front walk from Pacific Grove to Monterey that has to be one of the most beautiful in California.  We did drive through Carmel, but there were so many tourists, we did not stop.  We couldn't afford anything there anyway!!

We are going to let the pictures tell the story.  As usual, click the link, select slide show and hit F-11 on your computer.  Enjoy!

https://picasaweb.google.com/103645060086585742201/NavalPostGraduateSchoolAndWalkFromPacificGroveToMontereyCannery?authkey=Gv1sRgCN2axoPjpoPzPg#

San Juan Bautista

We had to find a place to sit for a week before our reservation in Monterey, CA would start.  After researching the different rv parks, we found one near San Juan Bautista. 

We didn't know anything about the place or area except that it was near Gilroy, CA.  We both wanted to check out Gilroy because it's the GARLIC capital of the world. 

We did go to Gilroy a couple of times and it was a nice place, but it was also very touristy. San Juan Bautista on the other hand is a wonderful small town and community. 

The San Juan Mission was founded in 1797 and is the only California mission that is still in use.  The area surrounding the mission is a State Park, but the mission is still on it's own and you can tour it separate from the State Park.  The State Park consists of the old buildings that surrounded the mission.  It's an interesting look at life at that time.

The town of San Juan Bautista is very old and quaint.  There are some nice restaurants and shops.  Most of the town is open Thursday through Sunday.  Monday through Wednesday you may find a few things open, but it's a very chill type place.  It's about an hour east of Monterey, so if you are ever in the area, take the time to see San Juan Bautista.


To view more pictures of the mission, town and area, click the links, select slideshow and hit F-11 on your computer to enlarge.

https://picasaweb.google.com/103645060086585742201/MissionSanJuanBautista?authkey=Gv1sRgCJTnn4Tek92VzQE#

https://picasaweb.google.com/103645060086585742201/SanJuanBautistaStateParkAndTown?authkey=Gv1sRgCOn7tpvRgeXBzQE#

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite is a place we wish every person could see.  The first time you see it you know you'll never forget the feeling.  You may not want to leave it.  We didn't.


The story about driving through the tunnel to get your first view of  "The Valley" is so true.  You stop breathing.  It's a good thing they put in a small parking lot there so you can recover and get out of the car for a better look. 

Next time we go back, we plan on staying in the park.  It was a long drive from where our RV park was to get to the park.  We plan on staying at the Lodge and spending at least 3 days.  Maybe in a year or two.
GO. You won't regret it.  Park page: http://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm

Want to see more?  Click the link, select slideshow and hit F-11 to enlarge the screen. 
https://picasaweb.google.com/103645060086585742201/Yosemite2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCNGu7fDsu8CL2QE#

Little Alex

As most of you know we just became Grandparents.  Thrilled Grandparents.   Little Alex is doing great now according to his parents and assorted doctors.  He came early, about 6 weeks early and was just under 4 pounds.  He had a rough few weeks in NICU, but he's home now and gaining weight like crazy.

Here's a few pictures of him.  We need to get some pictures of him with his mother.  We will work on that.  Chris is going to visit him in a couple of weeks down in Bogota, while Big Alex stays home with Pilot, but will go to visit his grandson at a later date.  Here's Bill Torrance with his son, Alex.

https://picasaweb.google.com/103645060086585742201/LittleAlex02?authkey=Gv1sRgCMzVnZzOwsanjwE#

Temecula and Seal Beach

We spent April in Southern California.  After leaving March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, CA, our first stop was in Temecula at an Escapee park, Jojoba Hills.  The park is about 15 miles outside of Temecula nestled in the rocky hills.  Close to the wineries where we had a nice time tasting the vino and a wonderful lunch in the area.  We like the Temecula area.

Jojoba Hills is a park that we are considering leasing a lot in the future.  Once we are ready to settle down for a good part of the year, this may be the place.  It's a beautiful area and the people who lease in the park  are a great group.  There's a wonderful club house with a pool, tennis court and many activities to keep a person very busy. 
Here is a picture of our view from our site at Jojoba Hills.  Very nice place to sit and rest for awhile.





After two weeks in Temecula we were off to the beach.  Seal Beach is in Orange County right on the line with Los Angeles County.  To get there you have to travel though some of the worse traffic in the world, so we left Temecula very early on a Sunday morning.  We made it to The Naval Weapons Station at Seal Beach safely.  Now this is a very interesting place.  It's right in the middle of Huntington Beach and Seal Beach.  In the middle of the base is a National Wildlife Refuge.  The base is used to resupply Naval ships with "supplies".   We were not allowed to take any pictures on base, but the famcamp there is a wonderful place.  Very nice, large sites with concrete pads.  There's a tennis court so Alex and I were able to practice our new form of exercise, Pickle Ball.  No! not what you are thinking!!!!   You'll have to google it.  One Saturday morning the National Refuge on base held an open house.  The folks from town had to go through security to get on base, but Alex and I were able to walk to the Refuge and meet everyone there.  They gave us a nice tour of the wet lands on base.  Here's some info on the Refuge:  http://www.cnic.navy.mil/SealBeach/OperationsAndManagement/EnvironmentalSupport/NationalWildlifeRefuge/index.htm

While we were at Seal Beach we did leave very early on a Sunday morning to drive up to LA to see some of the sites.  We had to stop in TORRANCE, CA for breakfast, just to check out the town.  We liked it.  A little larger than Seal Beach, but not bad.  Once in LA we drove toward Hollywood Blvd.  Saw Grauman's Chinese Theatre, but we didn't get out to see the stars on the walkway, as we could not find a place to park.  But, it was fine just driving down the street to see it and the assortment of  interesting humanity there.  We did end up, by accident, in Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive.   The parts of LA that we saw were not as scary as we imagined.  Most of it was very nice.  I suppose we just didn't get to the bad parts, but overall we were pleasantly surprised


We love Seal Beach.  It's a very small, neat and tidy little place.  It has a wonderful pier and a Main Street with nice local type shops and restaurants.  We could walk to the beach, pier and shops.  We will be going back there.  We got some nice shots of the Seal Beach. The pictures of the houses are for June Torrance.  She would love it there.

Click the link below, select slideshow and hit F-11 to enlarge the screen. 

https://picasaweb.google.com/103645060086585742201/SealBeach?authkey=Gv1sRgCNeS3b3pmbK1dw#