The Saturday Morning Post - December

Well, here it is December already, and I just realized two things: I never finished the update of my last post, and I didn't post anything in November. That's just another indication of how busy I am, and what little free time I have. So, belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I spent my Thanksgiving weekend as I have for over 10 years now - in the desert with our off road club, the D.O.M. We had planned to go as a family, but our plans changed when the weather forecast took a turn toward cooler temperatures. Originally, all of us (all of us meaning everyone except Brady - so that's me, Laura, Nina and Jordan) were going to leave for the desert right after Laura got home from work on Wednesday evening, the day before Thanksgiving. Yes, that's right, the heaviest travel day ever! It would have been such a fun drive pulling a trailer in stop-and-go traffic heading the same direction as several hundred-thousand commuters. But we changed plans due to anticipated cold weather, and Laura stayed home with Nina and Jordan. I opted to leave Thanksgiving morning when I knew there would be significantly less traffic - and I was right! But I wasn't alone - I took our dog Jordy with me.

I arrived at Charlie's Place, a popular open riding area for off road vehicles (officially named by the BLM as Wagon Wheel Staging Area) around noon. The club was in the usual spot, and I had an opportunity to get the last front row spot in the circle around the center of camp. The very center of the circle is where we have the nightly campfire. I didn't like that open spot because it was not level, which is probably no one else parked there. I took a 2nd row spot instead. here it the view looking out my front door:
I promise this is the least scenic picture of this post. I have more scenic pictures to share below, that illustrate my adventures over the next three days of our club ride. On the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day, the club had a potluck and we all ate together (in the center area of camp). I was impressed that one of the people coordinating the potluck had everyone wait until all the club members arrived at their tables, and then said some words of thanks. In effect, saying grace.

On Friday, there was a huge club ride to the pinnacles. I've been there before (twice) and it's a very long ride. The other issue for me is that a large group of riders means a very slow ride. Riders of lessor ability and people driving full size 4 wheel drive vehicles (and even some of the sand buggy type vehicles) are not able to traverse the trails as fast as quads or motorcycles. There's also the possibility of someone breaking down, and the whole convoy has to stop. I went the opposite direction - alone - to Randsburg. (In previous years, large group rides to Randsburg are just as slow, but at least the destination has more options for fun and activities vs. the pinnacles). Once at Randsburg, I ate lunch and drank a beer (or two) at the White House Saloon:
Then, it off to The Joint. The Joint is a bar across and down the street from the White House Saloon. I've never been in to The Joint, but I have seen it from the outside. After reading a post from blog friend Sage, I had to check it out to see if Olga was still alive. I am happy to report that Olga is alive, but I didn't get a chance to personally meet her. According to her daughter, who was tending bar during my visit, Olga is doing fine for a 99-year-old. She said Olga no longer tends bar, but does visit often, and planned to come down later in the day. I drank a couple of beers at The Joint while chatting with Olga's daughter, who was trying to eat her lunch before the rush came in. The Joint doesn't serve food, but she got take out from the General Store (a few doors down). A few patrons at the bar ordered take out as well. Just as I was finishing up my 2nd beer, a large group of patrons entered the bar, and it was clearly the beginning of the rush. Outside, I could hear more and more motorcycles driving by, and I knew it was time for me to leave. Here's a poor quality picture of the exterior of The Joint:

Note to readers: all of the pictures in this post are taken from a disposable camera that still uses that 4-letter F word (film). The quality of the prints were very poor (in my opinion). When I had the film developed, the store clerk also put the images digitally on a disc, which is how I was able to upload them on to this post. What I found is that when the camera was pointed toward the sun, as in the picture above, the image is poor. There is also a faint line that appears in center of nearly every print, which you might be able to see in several of the pictures below. Next time I'll bring the digital camera from home.

On my way back to camp, I took a few scenic pictures. This first one was taken just outside of Randsburg, looking west towards a dry lake. This is also in the direction of Garlock and Goler Gulch, where I would be visiting the following day looking for Ralph's homestead and Sam's homestead, as described in Sage's Travel Tip Thursday post of June, 2010.

Along the trail back to camp, I came across this old structure:

About half-way back to our camp, I passed through a popular camping area that our club is familiar with, and where we have camped many times before. There is no official BLM name for this site, but it is easy to get to - there's a turn-off from U.S. 395. Our club calls it Schiller Gulch, and it was named by a former club king and queen (that's what the club calls their leaders). My picture was taken from a vantage point showing the entire camping area, and depicts hundreds of RV's. To me it looks like a bunch of white Legos thrown in a grassy sandbox:
I returned to the D.O.M. camp at Charlie's Place safely, and found out that the large group ride took equally as long (nearly 4 hours), moved at a glacial pace, and had one vehicle break down. Sounds like fun to me (sarcasm intended).

Friday night I went out to the campfire for a while. It was pretty cold, and my dog Jordy cried in the trailer. When the people in the campsite next to us began shooting off fireworks (big 4th of July type) I had to go in to keep Jordy calm. He shook for over an hour as I held him in my arms while relaxing in the warmth of my trailer.

On Saturday, the club had a poker run. This is an event where participants ride from one spot to another, and perform a silly stunt which allows them to pick a poker card. The participant with the best poker hand wins. This is actually a fundraiser for the club; members buy an entry card for $5, and the proceeds are divided up between winners and the club. Participants all pick one card (from a regular poker deck) in camp before leaving on the ride. The card picked is noted on the entry card. The group rides to the 1st spot. The silly stunt this time was to take a small plastic ring and toss it several feet to "ring" an orange safety cone. This did not take a lot of skill. The participant then picks a poker card, updates their entry card, and moves on. At the 2nd stop we had to blow up a small balloon until it popped in our face. Things were taking too long, so at the 3rd stop we just drew cards. The 4th stop was back at camp, where we picked our 5th card. As in year's past, I didn't win. Below it a picture taken from our 1st stop. You can't tell, but just beyond the front-most vehicles, the trail drops steeply to the bottom of the hill that we were on. Most of the riders would not have been able to traverse this, so we all turned around and went a back the way we came. In the background is the city of Ridgecrest, and way in the back are the southern most mountains of the Sierra Nevada range:

After the poker lunch on Saturday, I went into Ridgecrest to fuel up my truck. I don't like stopping on the way home to get fuel, and it is much easier pulling in to a gas station without a trailer than with one. Besides, everyone and their brother stops along the way home, and with all the Thanksgiving travelers crowing the stations; I don't want any part of it. After getting fuel, I drove over to the Garlock area to try and find the areas described by Sage in his post. I had re-read his posts regarding the area, and even printed pictures he posted to help me locate Ralph's and Sam's homesteads. I'm not sure if I was successful, but below are several pictures I took of the area that I thought was the right spot.

From what I can tell from the maps I had, these pictures were all taken in the small town of Garlock. My map also showed an area called Goler Heights, but I chose not to try and access it because I would have had to drive off road. Except for my dog Jordy, I was alone, and I was not going to go into unknown areas without someone else with me. These first few pictures are all of one large property with several buildings, and was clearly inhabited by someone. The pictures are in sequence moving counter-clockwise around from the west side of the property to the south (front) of the property along the paved road. There was a well-maintained area fenced in and guarded by a dog. Adjacent to this was a building that looked abandoned, but had a mannequin standing in front dressed as a cowboy, and a large sign on the top of the building that read "Garlock". Adjacent to that was a dirt road leading to other buildings further up the hill. I did not go up the dirt road. The large "Garlock" sign was clearly visible from the road for hundreds of feet away:

I like how the owner wrote "USA" in the chain-link fence:

It's hard to see, but the dog is in this picture below. It's at the fence towards the right (above and to the left of my mirror)

Down the road (west of the above property) about a quarter mile, was another group of structures. These all looked abandoned and run down. In my mind, I could picture a once vibrant desert ranch. These are also in sequence, left-to-right, the first one had a large sign against the building that read "We The People Say Impeach All Of Them":

This structure was further back between the other two:

This structure was on the right, and there was a water tank in back:

Between the two properties I visited, there were a couple of stand alone structures - one on each side of the road. The one on the north side had what appeared to be an outhouse in the back:

The one on the south side of the road was a concrete structure:
I had seen all I was brave enough to explore and decided to go back to camp. We had another potluck scheduled that late afternoon, and I needed to prepare my food. I also wanted to start packing things up, because I intended on leaving early Sunday morning to beat the traffic.

Saturday's potluck was delicious, and I capped the evening off with a few beers standing with friends around the fire. The wind had been picking up since the day before, but now a storm blew in. It actually rained on us, so we all went in to our own trailers and called it a night. I got up the next morning and continued my packing up. I left just after 8:00 a.m. behind some others, and before most of the club. I had no traffic on the way home, and only stopped a couple of times to relieve Jordy. My last picture is taken about half way home, from where U.S. 395 meets I-15. The mountains are the range are the back side (desert side) of the San Gabriel mountains, which I can also see from the basin side of L.A. and Orange Counties:

See you next month on a Saturday morning . . .

The Sat. Morn. Post, Vol. 15 - Laura's B-day

My wife Laura celebrated her birthday this past week. She wanted to spend the day at Disneyland, and considering the folks over at Disney are allowing people to enter free on their birthday - the price was right. Earlier this year, I was able to take advantage of this wonderful offer on my birthday, as was our daughter Nina on hers. The other nice thing about the cost of admission (which by the way, is $72 per person for one park - either Disneyland or California Adventure) is that because our credit card points count towards purchases of anything Disney-related; we only had to pay $25 out of pocket. Only $25 for two people to get in to Disneyland. I think that's a bargain.

The down-side of this story is that it was a short day. We had to wait until the kids went to school, and then Laura wanted to go to breakfast. So we didn't get there until around 11:00 a.m., and we had to leave by 4:30 p.m. because Nina had her religious education class at 6:00 p.m. We couldn't miss this particular class because it was her turn to share something about herself with her classmates. It was also my turn to help out the teacher in the classroom. We made these commitments before we realized the date was also Laura's birthday, and before Laura told me she wanted to go to Disneyland.

On to the pictures. This one was taken just after we entered the park, and is on Main Street. I should mention that the whole park was decorated for Halloween.

The first ride we went on was the Pirates of the Caribbean. I didn't notice any Halloween decorations on this ride; it looked the same as always. Then we headed over to the Haunted Mansion, which was obviously given a face lift in honor of the upcoming holiday. Then we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain. While sitting on the ride (basically, a roller coaster that looks like a mining train) Laura had me take a picture of the two of us. You know this pose, I've show it before. I hold up the camera and point it at the two of us looking cozy. The problem is it's hard to aim, and I end up taking 4 or 5 shots to get one good one. Since I was unsuccessful in my attempts while sitting on a train - which began to move, making the attempt more difficult, we tried again after the ride. This time it was a success:


On the way over to the next ride, we stopped at a hat shop known as The Mad Hatter. Laura picked out a hat for herself, which is not pictured here, but will be shown in an upcoming post. Laura had me put on the hat pictured below just for fun:

We then headed over to It's A Small World. This past summer, Disneyland re-opened this ride after they had given it a full makeover. The hype was pretty big. I remember morning TV news reports covering the grand re-opening. The morning radio show I listen to broadcasted their show from the attraction the day it re-opened. I didn't see many changes at all. It was basically the exact same ride with those little dolls representing every corner of the world and singing It's A Small World in every language. There were a very few additions, some Disney characters added in where appropriate. Here's a picture of two:
After that attraction, Laura wanted to eat lunch. I wasn't that hungry since we ate a big breakfast, but it was her birthday and I didn't want to put up a fuss. She wanted to eat at the Blue Bayou, a restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean. We didn't have reservations, and the wait was over an hour. We opted for a nearby restaurant in New Orleans Square. After lunch, as we were headed to Main Street, we stopped and took a picture with Aladdin and the Princess Jasmine.
We then had to make a decision. There was only enough time to do one more thing before we had to leave. I had suggested going over to Tomorrowland and riding on Space Mountain. I had heard radio ads that this was really fixed up scary for Halloween. Laura wanted to find the place where Disney sold annual passes. Guess what we did?

Annual passes turned out to be a bargain. One current offer allowed you to use the same day's paid admission as payment toward the annual pass, and Disney would bill you over the next 12 months for the balance. The least expensive pass was $144, and when you consider we have already paid half of that today, the monthly payments are $6. We were thrilled to find out that Disney considered the free admission to the birthday guest (Laura in our case) as a PAID admission. We also took advantage of the pre-paid parking. To get our money's worth on that $79 fee, we would have to visit the park 6 times in the next 12 months. That seems easy to do even with the blackout dates our passes have. So the bottom line is I will be billed $18.53 for the next 12 months for the privilege of entering either Disneyland or California Adventure as many times as we want and NOT ever having to pay for parking. That works for me.

Laura had a great birthday, and we had a rare daytime date together without any interruptions.

See you next Saturday morning.

The Sat. Morn. Post, Vol. 11 - San Clemente, part 2

Continuing from my post last Saturday morning . . . our family was on a vacation and we were celebrating my son, Brady's, 16th birthday. We took a weekend trip to San Clemente - a beach city in south Orange County, CA, about an hour away from were we live in La Habra, in north Orange County. As a matter of fact, our two cities are on opposite corners of the county. Enough of the geography lesson.

Brady is on a co-ed cheer squad called the California Allstars. Brady and his friends all met this year, and all (including Brady) are new to the squad. Last year, the squad won the 2009 World Championship. Brady only invited friends from his cheer squad to his birthday party (he did not invite any of his friends from school). The first to arrive were (L-R) Julian, (Brady), Tyler and Kiara.

Not too long after, a couple of others arrived: Chris and Jaylen, who are brothers, and who both cheer on the squad. They are new to the squad this year too. Once all the guest arrived, we took that long walk (nudge-nudge; wink-wink) across the street to the beach, and hung out for a while.

The older kids tumbled on the sand, entertaining the people on the pier above. My daughter Nina, her friend Alyssa, and Chris and Jaylen's little brother and sister made sand castles and waded in ankle-deep water. Here the kids make a pyramid thing in the shadow of the pier.

Just the boys on the beach goofing around. I'm sure you don't recognize it, but the white house on the bluff above Brady's head was the a home of San Clemente's founder, Ole Hanson.

After much fun and sun, we were ready to come in to open presents and eat cake. One of Brady's gifts was several dollar bills taped together like a continuous string. Brady loved this gift a little too much.
Here are all of Brady's party guests (L-R) Chris (holding his baby sister Mya), Tyler, Julian, Kiara, Jaylen and Brady:

Here is Brady's birthday cake. Albertson's makes a great cake, and my wife Laura loves to order this particular one. We have ordered this same cake for several birthday parties - sometimes filled with fresh strawberries, but not this time.

We had a great weekend, and everyone who attended Brady's party had a great time. By Sunday morning, we were all pack up and ready to check out, and in about an hour's time we were back home.

Moving up to the present time, it's Labor Day Weekend, and that means I have labor to do around the house. Oh, that's right; I get to do that every weekend. Well at least this weekend I can watch UCLA play football, and I'm one week away from NFL football. It's the most wonderful time of the year. See you next Saturday morning.

The Sat. Morn. Post - Vol. 10 - San Clemente, Part 1

Hi there! This Saturday morning I'll reflect back to last weekend: our family vacation to San Clemente, where we celebrated our son Brady's 16th birthday. Thanks to my wife Laura's wonderful grandparents, Bertha and Gil, to whom we owe so very much. Bertha and Gil have a timeshare on the beach in San Clemente. They graciously allowed us to use it for the weekend to host Brady's 16th birthday party. If it were not for Bertha and Gil, we could not have had this wonderful family vacation and birthday celebration.

And it couldn't have been a nicer weekend. It was not blazing hot as it sometimes is in late August here in Southern California. And we didn't have to travel far. Brady's guests didn't have to go far out of their way either. Lets look at the pictures, shall we?

First up is the view from the balcony of our room looking straight out (west). This is San Clemente Pier:
This picture was taken from the same spot, but with the lens pointed a little to the right.
What you can't see in either of the pictures above, is the train tracks. Amtrak, Metrolink, and Coaster all share the tracks, and trains run frequently between 7:00 a.m. ish and 7:00 p.m. ish. It doesn't take long to get use to the bells at the crossing (which you can barely see in the top picture), but the train horns are somewhat louder.

Also, the two pictures taken above were actually taken on Sunday morning, the last day we were there. All of the remaining pictures in this post were taken on Friday, the first full day we were there. The morning cloud cover was so thick you would think we were experiencing June Gloom.

Laura loves taking pictures of the two of us, but by holding the camera herself - as opposed to allowing someone else to hold the camera and take the picture of us. She took 8 of these pictures, most of them cut off the top of my head from just above my sun glasses. This is the best of that bunch of 8 (in my opinion). I chose one where both of us had a nice smile, but doing so I had to pick one that didn't show what was written on my hat. I will not spell out the whole name, but the initials are UCLA.
Our daughter Nina brought a friend with her: Alyssa. Here they are sitting on the back of the life guard's jeep. We took a walk the Friday evening out on to the pier, and along the beach. It was noticeably cooler than during the day, and that June Gloom cloud cover only got thicker.

Here we have me and Laura taken by Brady. (see, my hat isn't chopped off). Laura is holding up my beer belly, as I am sucking in.

And here without me having to move an inch, we have the birthday boy, Brady, and Nina.

So this concludes the "family" portion of our vacation. The part 2 portion of my post will focus on Brady's birthday party. See you next Saturday morning.

Thanskgiving '08 - Charlie's Place - part two

Continuing from my last post - our family spent Thanksgiving out in the desert with our off road club, the D.O.M. This is the way my family (just my wife and kids, that is) traditionally spends Thanksgiving.

On Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, the club had a poker run. A poker run is a game where you draw five cards and the person with the highest hand wins. And so there just isn't one winner, the pot is split with the person with the lowest hand. Since this is a fundraiser for the club, the "split" is divided up 3-ways with the high hand getting the biggest cut, the low hand getting the second biggest cut, and the club getting the smallest cut.

Also, since we're an ATV-riding club, the poker run requires participants to ride from one location to another on a marked trail. When you get to a location you draw a card from a deck. However, just to make it interesting, you have to perform a feat in order to earn your card. You do this a total of four times. The fifth card comes at the end of the run, and you get to draw your last card for completing the whole series.

With the exception of the first location, which we forgot to photograph, here are some pictures of us doing the various feats. At the second location, we had to suck the juice from a lemon wedge. Laura didn't like this at all, as you can tell by the sour face:

At the third location, we had to paddle a Superball back and forth 5 times. It took Nina and Laura about 5 tries before they could reach 5 cycles of back and forth. Here they are with their success smile:

At the fourth location, we had to spin a Hula Hoop around our body 5 times. Nina did this with ease:

Laura couldn't spin the hoop around twice. I learned from last year that the easiest way for me to do this is by spinning it around my neck:

Just in case you were wondering, none of us won. Also, just in case you were wondering, at the first station, participants had to blow a bubble with bubble bum until it popped in their face. And finally, just in case you were wondering, Brady is not in any of the pictures because he was in a group with his friends. He's too cool to hang with his parents and sister.

Later on Saturday afternoon, a few of us went on a ride to one of the mines in the area. On the way back, we stopped at some rock formations that look really weird. I'm sure Geologists or Earth Scientists know how these rocks are formed, and probably know the name of the formations. I just think they look cool. Here's Nina sitting on one:

That's all for this post. Bye for now - Dan

Thanksgiving '08 - Charlie's Place - part one

Our family spent Thanksgiving the same way we've done for the past few years: out in the desert with our off road club, the Dirty Old Men. The D.O.M. goes out to a location known as Charlie's Place. This is my personal favorite place our club goes to because of the variety of riding and the sights to be seen.

Our family was originally planning to leave on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving day, but that turned out to be too busy. Not only is it one of the worst days to try and drive out of the Los Angeles area in any direction, but my wife Laura had unfinished "cheer" business that had to get done. I can write an entire post just on Laura's involvement in La Habra Pop Warner and Cheer, but I'll bore you with that on some other occasion. This post is about our Thanksgiving weekend. So, we left for the desert on Thursday morning at about 7:30 a.m.

We arrived just about 3 hours later, which is pretty good time in my opinion. Our destination was only about 160 miles away, but we had to take the Cajon Pass out of San Bernardino. This is a steep climb along Interstate 15, and gets slow for those of us pulling a trailer. I'm sure many of the people speeding by us were hurrying off to Las Vegas. Once in our camp area, we quickly leveled our trailer and unloaded our quads, and we otherwise transformed the cargo area of our travel trailer into our living space. We spent the rest of the day visiting with friends and getting ready for the Thanksgiving potluck that the club traditionally has. The club provides the turkey, and all the members bring side dishes and desserts.

The members who want to eat together near the potluck table bring their own tables to the area. Nina put this place-holder on our table. It says: "Reserved for Danny Nina Laura Brady or whom we let"

Here's Laura and Nina eating their Thanksgiving dinner. Laura has a Margarita, Nina has pink lemonade in the Margarita glass. You can also see the people standing at the potluck table in the background. (the dog with no legs did not get to eat off of the potluck table)

And here's me and Nina eating. It was such a beautiful sunny day with no wind, and warm enough to keep our jackets off until nightfall. This picture was taken at about 4:30 p.m.

Since Nina finished all of her turkey, we let her have a big piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Laura and I had pumpkin pie. Brady ate with his friends in their motorhome, that's why he is not in these pictures.

That evening, we stayed in our trailer and watched a movie. We had not quite adjusted to the cold temperatures at night. Besides, we still had two more chances to go to the campfire over the next two nights.

On Friday, I took a lone ride to Randsburg. Randsburg, an old mining town that is now a tourist attraction, is about 17 miles away. I missed out on going there last year, which you can read about here if you want. This year I was going no matter what, and selfishly I didn't want to have to take a group of other riders. It took me just about an hour to get there on my quad, and I grabbed a seat at the bar and watched some college football. I ate a cheeseburger and an order of fries, and I had a couple of beers to wash it down. Then I returned for our camp via a different route. It was very enjoyable, but I don't have pictures to share. The camera stayed with Laura.

While I was gone, Brady joined the big group ride to the pinnacles, and Nina stayed back at camp and played in the sand. Here's she is along with a birthday cake she made:

Also, just like during our first ride of the year, the Ice Cream Man came out to the desert again! So even though Nina and Laura didn't go on a long ride on their quad, they did get cake and ice cream.

Part two to follow in a week or so. Bye for now.

Vacation Pictures (sort of)

Despite my best efforts, this is the only [useable] picture from our family vacation in Las Vegas. This was taken on Saturday night, June 28, while the four of us were at a Latin Music club called Luna Y Sol. L-R are Laura, me, Elaine and Frank. Frank is having a better time than his expression indicates. At the same time this picture was taken, several stories up in our hotel room, the kids were having a good time too.
The four of us, and our kids, plus a bunch of other friends and relatives also had a fun time at our backyard pool party and BBQ held this past weekend.  This next picture was taken during the party, and is of Casey & Kenny.  They are our friends from our off road club, the D.O.M.
This next picture was taken later Saturday night, also during the party & BBQ. These are our friends Terry & Robin, and their beautiful daughter Ellie.  Elyssa actually, but she's affectionately called Ellie.  (I hope I'm spelling that right)
When Terry, Robin & Ellie were leaving, we gave them the Barbie Jeep that Nina used to ride when she was Ellie's age.  We hope that Ellie has as much fun with that Jeep as Nina did.

This last picture is of Kira (Nina's cousin), Krisha (Kira's mom / Laura's sister), and Nina.  This was taken late at night during the party / BBQ.

So that's it for my vacation pictures.  Unfortunately, I didn't take that many.  Maybe Brady has some from Las Vegas.  If I find some from the cruise that Laura and I took, I'll be sure and post those.

Our Family Vacation(s)

We returned home late yesterday afternoon from our family vacation. It was just a weekend trip to Las Vegas, but it was great fun and fairly relaxing. I say fairly relaxing because we did a lot of walking. However, I was able to take a nap each day over the weekend, and that I find relaxing.

We spent the last two days with our friends Frank and Elaine, and their daughter Frankie. Frankie and our daughter Nina are very good friends, and love to spend time together. They've been on the same softball team and cheerleading squad for two years now. Frank was the softball coach this past season; Elaine and my wife Laura were his team moms. On the cheerleading side of the equation, Laura was the cheer coach, and Elaine was her assistant.

Anyway, the two families had planned this trip to Las Vegas a while back. However, Frank and Elaine's son Jared decided not to go at the last minute. We were counting on Jared and our son Brady to watch their little sisters on Saturday night when us parents were planning to go to a club. So Brady invited his friend Joey. We are also good friends with Joey's parents, and know them from our off road club (the D.O.M.). So Joey joined us and helped out Brady by watching Nina and Frankie. Us old folks made it to our club and enjoyed great Latin music and refreshing drinks.

We stayed at the Circus Circus where it's kid-friendly. They also have this huge fun zone covered by a dome. It's called the Adventure Dome, and there are several rides and a lot of games for children of all ages. We bought one-day passes for all the kids. The boys really got their (our) money's worth: they rode the roller coaster over 20 times. Nina hardly went on any rides, as she is still scared from the incident nearly two years ago at Sea World. Frankie went on a few rides by herself after Nina backed out. All-in-all it was well worth it, and everyone - especially the kids - had a great time.

Between the arcade games in the casino and the ones at the Adventure Dome, the kids also brought back several stuffed animals. Playing these games was really the highlight for Nina, as she just doesn't enjoy the rides. The swimming pool was also a treat for the kids. I forgot to mention that we stopped at State Line on the way to Las Vegas, and again on the way home. The boys got to ride Desperado - a really tall roller coaster at Buffalo Bills. The girls got to play more arcade games. And finally on the trip home, we stopped at the outlet mall in Barstow. Laura got a Coach purse, and was very happy.

This was actually the 2nd of two weekend trips that Laura and I took. Last weekend, she and I went on a cruise together. No kids, no friends, just us. We had a great time! That trip was really relaxing, because we didn't have to break up any fights between Brady and Nina, and we didn't have to cater to any of their needs. We took in a lot of sun, and got a lot of sleep.

Next weekend is the fourth of July, and our third consecutive long weekend. Good times.

Ensenada - Part Dos

Before I continue with my story of the cruise that my wife and I took a couple of weekends ago, I need to clarify something regarding the pictures on this post. Every one of them was taken by a professional photographer; an employee of Carnival. You see, even though we brought our own camera and intended to take lots of pictures - we didn't. Not because we forgot. It's just that there wasn't much to take pictures of.

There's something else I need to clarify. The weather was not clear and sunny as you would think considering this time of the year. It was really overcast, especially on Sunday. I'm talking major June Gloom. We only had two full days on this cruise, even though the website describes it as a 4-day, 3-night cruise. (The cruise leaves late afternoon / early evening on Fri., and returns early Mon. morning). So Sat. in Ensenada was overcast, but the sun kind-of burned off the clouds late in the day - right about the time we were leaving. Sunday was worse; the clouds remained all day.

All that to restate that there was really nothing to take pictures of in terms of scenery, and I'm not one to take pictures of strangers. So 3 of the 4 pictures I posted on "Part Uno" was it. That's all we took. All that film we bought wasted. . . . . . What's that Honey? Oh, we have a digital camera? Never mind about the film.

So I left off at the part where Laura and I were returning to the ship. But I forgot to show you two pictures that were taken when we got off the ship in Ensenada on Sat. morning. These were taken with an authentic local actor dressed up as an Aztec Indian.

Okay, now I'll resume my story. So Laura and I go through all kinds of security to get back on the ship, and then kill some time waiting for the early dinner seating. We go up to Lido Deck and listen to the Reggae band and watch people dance. But it wasn't just Reggae music. They had a little bit for everyone: Country line dancing, the Macarena, and some other dance that everyone (except me) seemed to know.

Then Laura and I got ready for dinner. Sat. night was the formal night in the dinning rooms. Everyone at our table was dressed very nice. I told you about our tablemates in Part Uno. On this evening one couple (Sauce and Angie) didn't show, but a new couple (Esteban and Norma) joined us instead. Towards the middle of dinner I began to feel sick. I saw out of the corner of my eye that the ship had begun to move out of port. I could also barely feel the ship move. By the time I got my main course I had lost my appetite. My tablemates noticed I looked pale, and I felt warm. The fact that I was wearing a tie didn't help. I felt somewhat strangled. Well I made it through dinner and it was time to walk the Promenade Deck and take pictures.

If you've ever been on a Carnival cruise, you would know that they set up photographers with various backgrounds throughout the Promenade Deck. We took pictures at several, and ended up buying three poses. The one that looked the best is this black and white close up.

After we took pictures, we went to the big room where stage shows are held. We wanted to get a good seat for the show that evening. They had a bingo game scheduled before the big show, so since we were already there waiting we played. Well can you believe that Laura won the grand prize of $500? How lucky is that? The show was really great - fantastic singers /dancers all in beautiful costumes, and performing to live music.

Sunday we were parked somewhere out in the ocean. There were only three things that could be seen the whole day: water, clouds, and the ship we were on. We listened to the Reggae band on Lido Deck for a while, we played bingo again in the big show room, and we watched a live show held by the cruise director that had 3 couples trying to guess their partner's answers to several questions. There was a newly wed couple on their honeymoon (married on 7-7-07), a couple who have been married 50 years, and a couple who have been married 25 years. It was a very funny show.

Dinner on Sun. night was casual, and the same tablemates from the night before joined us. After dinner we saw another great stage show in the big room. Same singers / dancers, but different songs / music, and of course, different costumes. I liked this show better than the first one, but both were great. I forgot to mention that after dinner (but before the show) Laura wanted to take more pictures. Of the 2 or 3 backgrounds we took pictures in front of, this one came out the best, and we bought the print: We woke up Mon. morning and found ourselves back home in Long Beach. After breakfast, we gathered our luggage and souvenirs, and off the ship we went. This is the quickest we've ever gotten off the ship. On the previous cruises, it took hours of waiting before you were allowed off. This time we had to wait in line at customs, but that takes place off the ship.

Laura and I had a great time on our cruise. Three mornings of sleeping in and no kids to bug us. More food than we should have eaten, and none of which we had to prepare ourselves. Time to ourselves without having to be somewhere or do something. Everything was on our terms, and we enjoyed every minute of it. It may be a long time before we can do this again.