This month's calendar Archives
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
After a week of sunshine and relaxation, it's time to head back home. We had a wonderful time here in Phoenix and the weather couldn't have been better. In fact, we hit it just right because after we leave, the temperature is going to drop down into the sixties. But for our entire stay, it was more than 80 degrees each day.
We stayed in San Diego and Coronado with my sister and brother-in-law, Jeanne and Bob until Sunday. As I said last week, we roomed on Coronado Island at the home of their friends while they were away and all we had to do was take care of their two Beagles, Sweetie and Roxie. The home was located within walking distance of the beach and right next to a marina. We could walk along the marina to a private beach or - as I said - we could walk for about 10 minutes to the other side of the island to miles and miles of beautiful Pacific beach. We spent one of our days shopping at the Seaport Village in San Diego. This is located right on the bay and is loaded with specialty shops. The day before we left, we toured Old San Diego where the first city in California was established. There was a lot of history to see and museums to explore. We had the San Diego Zoo on our list of things to see, but just ran out of time. Maybe next time.
We left California on Sunday morning and headed east to Phoenix passing through a lot of desert and interesting rocks. It was interesting to watch the temperature as we drove east. When we left San Diego in the morning, it was in the low 60's. About half way through California at the pass at 4000 feet, it was 34 degrees! By the time we made it across the border to Yuma, Arizona it was 75 - 40 degrees higher than it was an hour and a half before. We stopped in Yuma and filled our car with gas and also our stomachs with In-N-Out burgers. We love those things and you can only find them in the Southwest. Maybe it's because we can't get them at home that they taste sooooo good! Since we were close to the Mexican border, we had to stop and go through a Border Patrol security check (even though we didn't cross the border) as they are always on the lookout for illegals. We also learned that you needed to turn off your cell phone when you are close to the border because otherwise you get charged $20 for an international roaming fee. At least if you have AT&T service. We have Verizon, but Jeanne and Bob are on AT&T and got a text that said they were charged because they got too close to Mexico. Somehow you don't know about this until it is too late because they sure don't advertise about it.
Speaking of phones, after we got to Phoenix, Dave accidently dropped his new smart phone on my sister's kitchen tile floor and shattered the glass. He had to order a new phone and spent one of his vacation days waiting for that to be delivered. It arrived late the next evening and he took it directly to the Verizon store to get it activated. But even after getting all his data transferred to his new phone, he still is unable to hook up to his email service. He left all of that info at home. Fortunately, he's still able to get his email on the broken phone, and can use the replacement phone for everything else. That will work until we get back to West Linn next week.
We reached Phoenix Sunday afternoon and we have been here since. The weather has been in the mid-eighties all week and I guess at home the weather has been awful with record snowfalls of 2-3 inches for March (any snowfall in March at the beach would be record-setting) and then very high winds and a lot of flooding. It kind of makes me want to stay here for awhile, but we have to head north today. I haven't done much except go to the mall shopping with my sister and out for lunch and dinner. She and I don't get a chance to just browse around in the stores very much and I only bought one outfit while I was here. We also went out and picked lots of grapefruit, oranges and lemons to bring back home to everyone. People here are anxious to get all of the ripe fruit off their trees because they are already budding for the next crop. So we're always welcome when we arrive to get fruit. Ordinarily, we have had to cram stuff in suitcases for the plane trip home, which means we don't take much with us. But since we're driving this time, we can take as much as the car will hold. It's been a wonderful trip and it has been a very relaxing time.
Jeanne and Bob had their sons Jesse and Chris with their families over for dinner last night. It was fun to see them once again and how much their kids have grown.
So today we're headed home. We can't go back by way of California. We'd never get past the agricultural inspection station with the load of fruit we have with us. We think we'll drive past Las Vegas to Ely, Nevada tonight. The weather is pretty bad north of Nevada, so we think we'll just go straight home instead of stopping to visit my cousin in Idaho. It's been snowing for three days up there, and while I think the Jeep would handle it okay, we just don't want to take the chance that we couldn't make it home in time for appointments and work on Tuesday. We'll give the weather a couple of months to settle down and go see her later.
