Ma & Pa - Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive!!

OK - OK. Many of you have sent emails saying “where are you? We’ve been checking the blog and there have been NO postings.”

So - here we are in AZ - but much happened along the way!

Since last we left you, the Magic Bus has been an entertainment facility. While in Valencia/Santa Clarita we had three - count them - three dinner parties!! All old, dear friends. One evening my old traveling companion (before Gary!), Janet, and her husband Perry joined us for dinner ‘in the Bus’. Of course much of our conversation centered around the Lakers as they now share those tickets with us. Another evening Dennis and Liz Kneier came out for dinner. That night we relived old Touche times, 3-day walks (Liz did the 3-day with me both of the last two years while Dennis worked the pit stop with Gary) and anything else we could think of to talk about. The last evening Steve Campbell, our previous next door neighbor and friend, who is now attending Cal Lutheran University, came over for a home-cooked meal. There was a lot of ‘catching up’ to do with him. Magic is GREAT as an entertainment center and dining hall!!

In between the entertaining we spent many hours with Gary’s Mom - visiting and lunching. We even got some time with Tom and more time with Heather and Haley!

On the 15th of October we headed to Arizona for our annual ‘stay with Deme while my sister and brother-in-law, Barb and Andrew, go on their anniversary weekend’. Again, Magic performed admirably! Deme stayed with us for two nights and LOVED the Bus - especially Gary’s infamous shower!!

We are now back to golf - trying to take in as many new courses as possible. Need to add to our ‘ball display cases’ back in Park City. The only news there is that we are both taking a three day ‘class’ next week and yesterday I FINALLY broke 100:-)

No pictures to go with all this news - but we had lots of fun along the way never the less!

Love to you all - E & G

Fun with Gramma and Gramps

Well, since last we left you we have been ‘grandparenting’ - and having a GREAT time at it.

We spent 6 days in Lemoore, CA on the Naval Air Base in their RV parking area. This works out perfect, as it is about 2 blocks from the Hengsteler (Heather, Shannon, Haley and Joseph) on base household - a nice walk! We played, shopped, played, ate, played, went to tumbling class, played, walked, played, got a halloween preview, played - in short - we had a wonderful time being Gramps and Gramma!!

Joseph, Heather & Haley - Dinner in the Bus

Taking a stroll to Tumbling Class

Little tunnel rat

Tumblin trio - Haley gets a kiss from BFF, Zoey

Haley observes Gramma and Gramps in tunnel of love

Kiddies in the cubbies

Get that bubble

Getting prepared for trick or treating

Gimme a kiss

There was also a ‘quick trip’ to Pasadena during this time for another ‘Touche Partner Retirement Dinner’ for OLD friend Richard Giss. It is always fun to welcome another to the ranks of the retired - as we are ever hopeful to have friends join us in our travels. We would like to make a convoy!! It is also fun to catch up with many old friends (that it seems you only see at retirement parties and funerals these days). Speaking of old friends, after Lemoore Jim Malone opened his doors to us for a few days. Here we enjoyed a little golf, a little eating and a little visiting - just perfect.

Valencia Travel Village, an RV park around the corner from Eloise (Gary’s Mother), is our home for the next few days. In case you didn’t guess - we are now out of the National Parks phase of our trip and into the ‘visiting friends and family‘ phase.

More later - Love to All - E & G

Oregon Trail

We have had a wonderful stay in Oregon this past week! We arrived on Monday after another ‘tour’ on the ferry to get us back to the ‘mainland’. You would think after the last ride, we would be old pros - but this was a MUCH smaller, older ferry that gave us another new experience loading and unloading. But, we made it to Port Angeles, WA just fine after more whale sightings!

Tucked in the ferry hold en route to Port Angeles, Washington

A beautiful drive took us to our interim stop at another wonderful RV park in Kelso, WA, where we washed Magic so the bus was all ‘spiffy’ to meet our old friends in Oregon. On the drive we passed this place called Marathon Coach ----(www.marathoncoach.com ) . If you want to be ‘trailer trash’ you might check this out!!

Boy, did we give Priscilla & Steve a ‘fright’/laugh when we pulled up in front of their house with our 36’ house on wheels!! It was fantastic to see them again - and to see all that they have done to their farm in the last couple of years. There is a new beautiful home surrounded by many additions to the herd (150 sheep now!) and the ‘facilities‘ for the sheep. They have even recruited help from Shawn (and his dog Sam). After getting ‘the tour’ we had a good old fashioned ‘chat’ with cocktails and dinner - and a late night as we had several years to catch up on!

Due to our late night, we took it easy Tuesday morning before driving to Crater Lake (a 2 1/2 drive in each direction), which everyone but me had seen. Crater Lake was formed after the collapse of volcano Mount Mazama over 7,000 years ago and is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,943 feet (592 meters), and the seventh deepest lake in the world. It is also the fifth oldest national park, founded in 1902. The extreme depth and pure water combine to create a blue gem that stuns many first-time visitors into silence - if only one can see it. As mentioned in previous postings, we have had absolutely beautiful weather - which I was bragging about to our friends. So - it rained and SNOWED all the way to Crater Lake!! When we got to the lake - it was in a cloud, not to be seen. So - what else - we ate! After lunch, as we walked out on the patio of the Lodge, the clouds broke and we had 2 minutes of sun and I actually got to see the lake!!

On the road to Crater Lake

We can almost see the lake

Priscilla & Elizabeth

A beautiful rainbow over the Salt Marsh Ranch awaited our return.

A rainbow at the Saltmarsh Ranch

Our stay at the Salt Marsh Ranch would not be complete without a ‘walk around’ the farm to meet all the sheep, the guard Llamas - Lucy and Hank, the guard dogs - TJ, Chewy, Jacob and Isaac, and the herding dog - Molly.

Hank the Llama lookin for some lovin

Isaac needed a scratch

Molly - keeping on herding

Molly is somewhere behind this group

A view of the barn from one of the grazing areas

TJ (the dog) and Llucy Llama watching us closely

Wednesday afternoon we moved Magic to an RV park just outside of Ashland and had company for dinner - Brian Campbell, our friend and former neighbor who is attending Southern Oregon University in Ashland. Again, we had a delightful evening just chatting and catching up. Our last day in Oregon was another wonderful day of lunching, shopping, dining and going to the Shakespeare Theater. What more could anyone ask for??

More later - E&G

Marooned on an Island

Thursday, September 24, Gary and I headed to Horseshoe Bay (just north of Vancouver) to board the ferry for Vancouver Island. This was a new experience for all of us - especially Magic. Packing the bus onto the ferry was “nervous time”! But, also a lot of fun. Here is the story -

Magic snuggles up to the fuel truck and the asphalt truck

On the ferry cuddling with the fuel truck again

Waiting to dock

Free at last

On the other side, we headed to our new camp for the next three nights. The environment is just fine - BUT, it is one of those with NO internet and NO satellite. After having such great coverage for the last few days - this is major withdrawal! So - this posting will include a couple of days when we can find a connection. AND, we will have to spend a little time back in a bar to watch the FedEx Cup and maybe the ND game - as we can’t miss those!

Friday was spent in Victoria - a walk around the town, a great lunch down at the pier (where we found our golf on TV - that ball going to the hole is Tiger’s putt!) -

The view from the bar

What we were watching instead

Then out to Butchart Gardens for the afternoon. Jennie Butchart was perhaps the first ‘green lady’ way back in 1904 when she began to beautify a worked-out limestone quarry which had supplied her husband’s nearby Portland cement plant. The garden started as a hobby with the Sunken Garden (the quarry), but just kept expanding to the Japanese Garden followed by the Rose and the Italian Gardens. Today, during the summer months, concerts are held in the Gardens and fireworks explode over them. It was a wonderful, beautiful, relaxing afternoon wandering.

At the gardens

The sunken garden

Reflecting on the day

Lots of colors

Fountains

Saturday morning was a slow one getting out of Magic - we had breakfast, got cleaned up, began a little of the packing up process (tomorrow is a travel day - back to the good ole USA) and wrote the previous portion of this posting. When we finally got going, we headed back into Victoria to visit the Craigdarroch Castle. This home is built on a hill overlooking the City of Victoria (Craigdarroch means “rocky, oak place” in Gaelic). It was built between 1887-1890 for Robert Dunsmuir, a Scottish immigrant who made his fortune after coming to Vancouver from Vancouver Island coal - but, he never lived in it as he died before it was completed. His wife, Joan, inherited his entire estate (valued at $15-$20 million in 1888) and moved into the house in 1890. She also ‘housed’ several of her grandchildren at fairly young ages who were orphaned!

Craigdarroch Castle

After our ‘house tour’ and lunch and an update on golf at our ‘bar at the pier’, we were off on a 3-hour whale watching tour (our tiny ship did not get tossed and we DID return!). What FUN we had!! Lots of whales - Orcas, Killers and Humpbacks!!

A family of Orca

Transient killer whale

Humpback whale making a splash

Sounding humpback

Bye bye (Did you know?? The markings on the tails are like fingerprints - and they have been tracking this calf for a couple of years!!)

What a way to end our stay on Vancouver Island! Tomorrow we are headed back to the USA via ferry (again!) and on to Oregon.

More later - Love to All - Elizabeth & Gary

Searching for Just the Right House in Whistler

Well, here we are in Whistler - our whole reason for this trip. Our campsite is GREAT, we are enjoying further investigating Whistler, and watching their preparation for the Olympics. It brings back soooooo many memories!

There is frantic work going on to complete road improvements in and around Whistler. The medals ceremony arena in Whistler is still under construction (after being shelved due to finances with the alternative of medals given at the venues - now they are back to building the ceremony arena). All the finish areas are ‘under construction’ for the grandstands, press boxes, etc. The ‘Whistler Athletes Village’ is still under construction. Etc., etc. etc.

Monday was property investigation day - looking at possible housing for the 2 weeks of the Olympics, walking around the Village and just driving around to see what is going on in the way of preparation. A nice casual day followed by dinner on our ‘patio’ watching Monday night football - using that outdoor entertainment center!

Grillin' & chillin'

Tuesday, September 22, we bounced into fall looking at more houses and golfing. Both were a BUST - a lot of disappointment. Nothing to say about the house and not much more to say about the Nicklaus North Golf Course, except it was surrounded by mountains on the shores of Whistler’s Green Lake - 15 holes with water!! The rest is all bad - and my Mother taught me if you didn’t have something good to say - don’t say anything. So - nothing to say here.

Wednesday - the first FULL day of fall - and another full schedule of houses, errands (a hair cut for Elizabeth!?!?!?) and a round of golf. Think perhaps we found ‘our’ house for the Olympics - after many ‘fact finding’ discussions with the Chamber of Commerce, Office of Tourism, Municipal Office, several real estate offices and property management offices, as well as individuals and many internet sites!! Amazing the lack of information at this point about bus schedules, bus routes, ski area access, etc. from the above offices - all of which was important information for our decision making. Whenever we received the same ‘bit of information’ from more than one source, we considered it ‘gospel’ and factored it into the decision process. Now we have our friend/roommate working on the negotiations - keeping our fingers crossed.

We also played the Arnold Palmer Whistler Golf Club Course this afternoon - a delight after yesterday afternoon! The course was beautiful, fairways and greens were in fantastic shape and it was a beautiful afternoon. Could not ask for any more on our last day in Whistler.

Tomorrow is another travel day - to Vancouver Island! Yes, Magic is going swimming! We will give you a full report of how things go later tomorrow.

Love to all - E&G