Oh the blog neglect! I'm sure some people would just advise that I wait until next year and just roll it into one post. I thought about it, but nah...
My "annual" reflection post allows me to get back to this blog and also reminds me of how I don't keep up with it much. I've been "focusing" on the
creative blog and started up #humpdayhaikus again, well frankly, because I have the time!
2017 had its ups and downs, but, I'll focus on and appreciate the good because, well, it just feels better. :)
As per my usual since returning from the east coast in 2011, I spent many an afternoon strolling along local beaches and capturing more sunsets in a year that most people see in a decade. This is my version of stopping to smell the roses since my sense of smell is pretty non-existent. The locale changed from Newport Beach to Torrey Pines State Beach because, at long last, I finally made my way back down to San Diego. FINALLY! and couldn't be happier to be here.
My brother got me an annual pass to Disneyland for Christmas 2016 and boy did I take advantage of that, even though I moved down to SD in April. Life can't be all that bad if you are hanging out with good company at the" Happiest Place on Earth", right?
The great thing was, my brother and several friends also had/have a pass so I had several opportunities to relive my childhood and also have experiences with my friend's kids. I LOVE that! It reminds me of when I used to go with my cousins when we were all much younger and ticket prices were maybe around $20 pp. Those were the days!
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| With Nina and Brysen on the Mader ride at DCA |
The cool thing about going with a toddler is going back to the kiddy rides. I stopped going to them if I didn't have kids with me, so they were forgotten. In fact, I went on the Peter Pan ride for the first time ever and it was pretty awesome! The Pooh ride was a bit psychedelic too. Snow White is a bit "scarier" than I would have anticipated for being a kid's ride, but I'm digressing...
EPIC RAIN
There was some epic rain in the beginning of the 2017 year. This prompted trips to Mammoth for snowboarding and adventures to local (and not so local) parks to see the insane wildflower growth.
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| Canyon Park |
I haven't been snowboarding in about 6 years or so. I went once when I was living on the East coast and was excited to get back to powder. It just so happens that the weekend that we went (3rd week of January) was when there was a huge storm. There was already a ton of snow so that we sank as soon as we got off the lifts. All the black diamond slopes turned to blue black, all the blue black turned to blue, etc. It was like landing on a pillow, albeit a cold one.
On the 2nd day, it was dumping and the winds were so strong that most of the lifts were closed. Only one side was open and when we got there, we saw that everyone else was there too. Took almost an hour to get to the front and one set of friends got stuck on the lift for about 30 min. We took the hint and once we got everyone back together again, we called it a day. We were supposed to stay another night, but the forecast showed that the conditions would only worsen and that we might be stuck on the mountain for a full day just sitting inside the cabin. We also took that hint and headed back home.
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| Fairview Park |
Elsewhere in the state, the plentiful rain allowed flowers (and weeds) to grow like something else! In my old local park, the wildflowers were easily clearing 6 to 7 feet! It was almost like a corn maze, but with pretty yellow flowers.
In some of these parks, the area was usually just dirt. Mountain bikes would race across the hills, blowing up dust and dirt in their wake. But the rains of early 2017 transformed the landscape.
Speaking of wild flowers, my good friend and I decided to wake up
early on a Saturday to make our way out to Anza Borrego. Even
Travel & Leisure had to comment on the desert blooms and for good reason. In different areas of the desert, flowers blanketed the horizon in seas of yellow and purple. I'm glad we left early because even in March, the weather was pretty darn hot out there. I practiced some of my DSLR skills and posted some of the unedited pictures
here.
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| Anza Borrego |
ROAD TRIP
Although I've moved across the US a few times in my life, I took my first cross country road trip from Southern California to Florida with my brother and his girlfriend. I got to see some family and sites along the way, which was pretty exciting.
As we drove through Texas, we kept seeing billboards for Buc-ee's. We came across so many of them that curiosity got the best of us and we looked it up. They boasted about their aware winning
83 bathroom thrones and something like 200 soda fountains. My brother's girlfriend kept seeing "Beaver Nuts" but that's another story.
We decided to stop and boy were we glad we did! They weren't kidding about how clean their bathrooms are. Though there may not have been 83 at this particular location, there was definitely no wait and it was immaculate. I think we counted a good 30 soda/ slurpee fountains, but we also saw that the store had a large food section of both prepared and packaged foods and a merchandise section for pretty much everything. Now I don't want to become a blogging advertisement, but it was a lot of fun! Buc-ee the Beaver merch was fun to look through as well. Ranging from stuffed animals to potholders to pajamas to towels, you could find that bucktoothed beaver on a great variety of things.
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| Bu-cee's assortment of items |
We saw a lot of kitschy items, particularly if you are a fan of the country decor. They were fun.
We decided to get some t-shirts to commemorate the experience because, shoot, we got some beaver fever and were so tickled by this place, we just HAD to! I'm sure the locals thought we were ridiculous and while I may not have actually SEEN them laughing at/with us, I have no doubts they were as we posed in front of the store with our newly purchased Bu-cee's apparel with Bu-cee the Beaver himself.
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| obligatory shot with Bu-cee |
For full disclosure, my brother and his girlfriend have returned to Texas in 2018 and have assured me that they will be revisiting this amazing place and that I shouldn't be too surprised if they bring back some Beaver goodness.
I can't wait!
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| With my eldest uncle on my dad's side |
I have to admit, I was also pretty excited to see family as well. Some of them I haven't seen in a few decades. DECADES (plural!!)!! My cousins hadn't seen us in so long, they couldn't remember if we were cousins or if they were our aunts/uncles. I can't blame them. My brother and I are right in the middle (age wise) of the generations and it was pretty amazing to see the people my 2nd cousins have become, especially since I only had a picture of when two of them were babies in my collection of old photos.
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| some of my cousins |
Considering there was a hurricane several months before, I was surprised not to see much damage there. They live in the Houston area, which was hit pretty hard.
My family told us what the neighborhood looked like during that time, sharing stories of others that struggled and some that didn't make it home. How they had to gut a lot of the walls downstairs and replace whole rooms because of the water damage. I'm grateful that they all survived it and have been steadily rebuilding.
I'm happy that my brother will be seeing them again while he's out there. We had a really nice time catching up with them and the extended family. I hope that I'll be able to make it out there to see them again soon as well. I have a lot of fond memories of them when I was young and it's always a good time to make new memories, if possible.
Next stop: NOLA. None of us had been there before and this will sound silly, but it felt super familiar because of Disneyland's New Orleans Square. The hurricane damage here didn't look too bad either, but I didn't really have much to compare it to. Only a few roads looked a bit messed up, but from what I could tell, businesses were open and even for November it was busy. No where near busy what it could be like during Mardis Gras, no doubt.
It was fun to look up different places to eat and enjoy Cafe Du Monde as it was meant to be. One thing I will say is that if you don't eat the beignets when they are fresh might as well not eat them. We brought some back with us and it doesn't hold up well once they are room temp. Fresh is where it's at!
Our main reason for taking the road trip was to help my brother's girlfriend move stuff from CA to FL for her uncle. Boy were we happy to unload the car and have some leg room once we did that!
It was great to meet her family who greeted us very warmly. My brother has been out there many times before, so he knew everyone. We had some good times, taking her niece and nephew to Miami though only the 3 of us ventured up to Orlando to go to Walt Disney World and Universal. Disney is always busy. We got on the People Mover to escape some heat. We played some games while waiting for Space Mountain (they should TOTALLY implement that at Disneyland; made the wait go by so fast!), and we went on the Snow White ride twice because it was something we didn't have at home and was so much fun!!
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| Minions! |
Seems like there is no "down season" for Disney, but that definitely wasn't the case for Universal Studios. The longest we had to wait for a ride was 30 minutes. We were able to go on the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride several times in a row with at most a 10 min wait in between. That ride was AMAZING!!! Diagon Alley was also AMAZING! Considering they are a movie studio, I would have been a bit disappointed if I didn't feel like I was fully immersed in the wizarding world and I'm so glad they made it happen!
When I'm in amusement parks, I feel like a kid again. I was "
this" close to buying a robe, but thank goodness it was HOT out and it got me thinking "when would I wear this again?", which in turn, helped me talk myself out of purchasing anything. Not even a single minion!... even though THAT was really tempting! (Phew!) Didn't help at Bu-cee's though!
Overall, there was a lot of GREAT in 2017 and not much bad. I'm lucky indeed!
Book List
1.* Post Office - Charles Bukowski
2. We're All Damaged - Matthew Norman
3. The Caller - Karin Fossum
4. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
5. *Another Brooklyn - Jacqueline Woodson
6. Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
7. I am Watching You - Teresa Driscol
8. The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness - Sy Montgomery
* Virtual/Lazy Book Club picks
Concerts:
1. Garbage/Blondie
2. Ed Sheeran
3. U2
4. Bleachers
5. Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul
6. High Rolling Loners
I am not complaining. I don't advertise anything and on occasion, I will post the link up when I've written something, but heck, even I forget to look at it!
