Clip Art - I couldn't resist posting this because palm trees are EVERYWHERE!
Okay, I know there are different places all over this
country that some people prefer over other places, for whatever reason. That’s great because as humans we’re all
different and that makes life so much more interesting.
But tell me where you can get 78-80 degree temperatures with
the doors open in January, unless it’s maybe Hawaii?
I love this place.
I lived in southern California
for twenty-five years before moving to the desert nine-and-a-half years
ago. It’s such a nice place that I
wonder why I ever moved, even though I know the answer to that. There’s a lot of traffic there and lots of
illegal’s, as well as other facts, things like higher expenses for about
everything. Nevertheless, it will always
be one of my favorite places. I would
still be living there now probably if it weren’t for my husband’s pushing to
move.
Naturally, this trip came at the perfect time because it’s
been so cold here. We’ve been setting
records. I was more than ready to get
away to that California
sunshine. Don’t get me wrong because it
is sunny much of the time here, just way too cold.
The famous Beverly Hills sign. This has been here forever.
We visited friends in Beverly
Hills first. It
was fun to see the old Beverly Hills
sign again. It brought back old memories
from my first time there when I was sixteen.
My grandmother lived there at the time.
I swore to myself back then that I was moving to California one day and I eventually did many
years later, via a detour of two other states first.
The Hollywood sign was too
far away to capture with my camera, but it was there on the hill gleaming white
in the sun.
I did capture this Christmas decoration on Wilshire Blvd.
Mall we visited on Santa Monica Blvd. They had trees and flowers spread out everywhere.
This is a shot of the mall from the second floor. They had coffee shops and lots of outdoor seating areas with fire pits.
Our next stop was north San Diego County where we used to live. We stayed with a friend there and visited
other friends the rest of the trip. Of
course, we had to drive by the old neighborhoods and hangouts too. Some things have changed, but many are the
same.
This is the new hospital from my friend's house.
I was able to get a few pics from the hill our friend lives
on. She has a view of the big new
hospital they’ve built and the surrounding hills. And of course, we loved her adorable animals,
a dog and three cats. We felt right at
home and all the cats eventually warmed up to us. The little one was very friendly and played
his heart out until he would collapse on the floor to catch his breath. He’s only eight-months-old and a male
Ragdoll. We wanted to smuggle him home,
ha!
This is Fiero, the Ragdoll kitten
This is Domani (it means tomorrow in Italian)
This is Garage Key - a rescued stray
This is Bubba
Naturally, we ate Mexican food and let our hair down
drinking wine while watching football playoffs.
But that was a lot better than politics that’s usually always on at my
house. The wine drinking ended up in my
friend breaking her toe on a chair leg one night. It was no big deal to her. She told us it’s happened before. Ouch!
I’m not sure how she got up early to attend a seminar the entire next
day. Once home, she went out to water
plants on the hill behind her house afterwards, and then we went to eat
out. Her toe was black and blue, but she
said she was okay. I guess she’s
stronger than I am.
We had so much fun laughing and talking. I hated to see the trip end. I also didn’t get to see all my friends this
time, so I phoned them instead. I
promised my husband I wouldn’t write the schedule as tight as I did when we
visited there last May. I wore him out
running around. However, he’s usually
ready to quit by nine PM and I’m the night owl.
This is me and my friend, Kara. We met for breakfast.
This is Scott - my husband's old business partner
Of course, we looked at property in different places and saw
some open houses to get an idea if moving back there is even in our price range
anymore.
The worst part of the whole trip was the six-and-a-half
hours through miles and miles of desert.
That’s not to say the white-knuckle time driving through LA isn’t nerve
racking and a close second. But it keeps
you on your toes. When the scenery is
boring, that’s when I tend to fall asleep.
There’s nothing to see but sand, Joshua trees, and sagebrush. If we do move that way again, my husband is
not crazy about me driving because when we were moving here, I ran over curbs
and off the road and didn’t even know it.
I guess we’ll have to stop more often for coffee next time.
This is what much of the six-and-a-half-hour drive looks like.
The next trip will be to Texas to check that out. It’s not as if I don’t know what that’s like,
but he wants to be at least an hour from my family because all of us talk too
much. We’ll need to check prices there
on many things and see how affordable that is.
I’m not sure yet when this trip will happen. Actually the sooner the better because it
makes me anxious not knowing where we’re going and what size house we’ll end up
in. That might make getting rid of
things easier.
So at the moment that’s our two options, southern California or south Texas.
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