California June 12 - 19, 2009

After what seemed like months of planning and things not going quite as expected, we were off. I had planned to fly on airmiles but after finding out they would route us through CALGARY, Alberta when we left from Vancouver, that idea was quickly done away with. Imagine it taking 6 hours or more to get to a place that is only 2 hours and 45 minutes from home. It just didn't make sense. Then we had planned to stay in a time share. We were pretty much assured it would become available before we left. Well, we waited and waited and about 2 weeks before we were scheduled to leave, we got very nervous and booked into a hotel. The Sheraton Park hotel which I stayed at last year. We still held out hope the time share would come available but as it turns out, it was a good thing we had a secondary plan and a hotel booked! The hotel is very nice! I booked a rental car from National as I am familiar with them and had discount coupons through the Entertainment Book. That went very well and we were given a very nice car with Florida licence plates on it. Alas...one night we figured out why none of the parking spots close to the building but under trees were occupied...we parked there one night and came out the next morning and the car from there on out was known as "Florida Pooh"....the birds apparently sleep in those trees over night and didn't really care our rental car was below!! On the way down, we flew on Alaska's Disneyland plane. The outside is decorated with Disney characters and the inside has the pictures of Tinkerbell and Disneyland on the overhead bin covers. There is also a photo of Florida Pooh below.

Vancouver Airport

graphics on the plane overhead bins of Disneyland and Tinkerbell

This is the center island where the buses to Anaheim pick up at LAX airport (the green overhead...the words won't quite move to where the picture is located for some reason)

The car with the Florida Poo plate is what fondly became named Florida Pooh for our stay.

Looks like wine but is really sparkling grape juice...nummy. We shopped at Von's on Chapman Street for some snacks and sandwich fixings which we used towards the end of our stay for a couple of picnics by the pool...which were a lot of fun! We had looked forward to this but alas the weather would not co-operate for us. Of course it got nice about the time we were ready to leave...Murphy's Law you know! And as an interesting sidenote, our Safeway Club cards from Canada are linked into Von's system....quite spooky when the receipt says thank you and your actual name at the bottom when you check out. The information and electronic era truly is fascinating....

the hotel pool...note it is empty because it was cold!
american Girl Emily

The words somehow don't correspond to the photos when the article posts so you will have to figure out the pictures and descriptions as best you can. Seems as though there must be an easier way but I haven't quite got it figured out yet. At one time I was able to move pictures and supply descriptions easily but something changed and now it is difficult. In this section there is an American Girl Emily mini doll who seems to travel with me a lot. I bought her full sized sister at the store when we were there (love her) but that will come in another post. Emily is standing under the coffee maker in the hotel room which also doubled quite nicely as a place for my Minnie Ears to hang out. Loretta and I bought the Minnie Ears on our first trip to Disneyland together in 2006 and it was a mad scramble for me before I left to find the safe place I had them hidden in! That and the little travel neck fans we had bought on the last trip...turns out that was redundant and a little personal heater would have worked better this trip as it was downright chilly most days and certainly during the evenings but staying in a hotel with maid service and not cooking made it all worth well. More on the local food in another post also...to say we didn't starve is putting it mildly!! LOL

Despite the cooler weather or perhaps because of it, the flowers were in full bloom everywhere we went. Stunning garden and trees in bloom.

These planter gardens are at the back end of the pool area which the hotel uses as a reception area for weddings and conventions. the flora and fauna in that section is stunning. They have tables and chairs set up all over and it is quite pleasant to sit and just vegetate in the atmosphere after long days at the park or gadding about the local area. It was so nice having a car and Loretta's hubby as a driver. We had a lot of fun gallivanting off in the Florida Pooh car.

That is it for now, this is day one. We spent some time at Downtown Disney in the evening and saw the fireworks from between the two parks but the photos are not that great. I will include some in a future post though.

PINK SATURDAY

I am going to start my post this week with some beautiful flowers I founds while visiting California in June. The first picture is of a beautiful pink variegated rose. It had a special name but at the moment of course I can't remember it! I am also really hoping to break my own record of 30 comments for my post this week so if you stop by, please comment! I appreciate all the kind words you leave!

This gorgeous shocking pink blooming tree reminds me of a large umbrella! I am not sure of it's name but it sure is pretty!

This is Mickey and friend in a teacup and part of the Disney Precious Moments series that they sell in the park. My daughter in law collects Precious Moments figurines so this display of them caught my eye.

Green frog in a pink Tutu...how cute is this?

What little girl wouldn't just love to call this room her own?

Well, it is once again Pink Saturday! We went and saw a wonderful prize home last weekend that had a lot of lovely pinks, and of course I had to take a few pictures for Pink Saturday!
A Shocking pink Daisy! It went well with the bright yellow one alongside of it. This was such a pretty little girl's room. The house is a lottery prize home in a hospital lottery called "Winfall". Some lucky family or person will win the home and decor when the winning ticket is drawn! It is an ocean view home and very lovely. For more lovely pinks, please go and visit Beverly's blog at How Sweet the Sound! The link is in my sidebar...hopefully...I have been having issues with the sidebar and why on earth it would sink to the bottom of the page. It took many hours but I think I now have it fixed. I hope everyone has a wonderful Pink Saturday, thanks for stopping by and I enjoy reading all your comments!

Dakotah's Preschool Graduation

The Little Graduate
Miss Caroline and Grace

The preschool class

Ariel and Miss Caroline




Ayianna and Miss Caroline

Dakotah and Miss Candace

Dakotah and Ariel

Paige and Trista were doing fine until they looked out and saw how many parents were in the audience...so they "graduated" while sitting on Mommy Debbie's knee!










Dakotah and Auntie YaYa

The party afterwards..yum yum

And last but certainly not least Princess Belle, who is Ariel's sister.

Jaime has adored Belle almost all their lives...lol..

I have been very neglectful of my blog this summer. Time just seems to rush by and of course we had a bit of nice weather which tends to make me want to be outside more. Actually being outside became a necessity when we hit record breaking temperatures. For several days in a row it was well over a hundred degrees on my lanai. But that is a distant memory now as we have spent the last week or more in our usual mix of cloud, showers and the occasional sunny break. Today it is very grey and yucky outside and I actually had my jacket on when I was outside earlier. I have my fingers crossed that this is not the start of winter and 10 months of inclement weather!

I am going to go back and start posting some photos and events from the past couple of months. Mid June Dakotah graduated from preschool. A big occasion for a five year old and she was very pleased when both her Mother and Father were able to get time off of work to come and then really surprised when Auntie YaYa came too!

White Rock

The beach with Marine Drive residences in the background.

The beach at White Rock looking towards the pier. The tide was out and there was miles of sand. The dogs would have loved it but they are not allowed on the beach until the end of September. The houses in the next two photos are the view from the beach looking back across the street. The street is Marine Drive. When I was a little girl we had a summer cottage one street up from Marine Drive. The townhouses and multiplex dwellings were not there then. The fish and chip restaurants were, though. The one we visit is called Coney Island. I have been eating there since i was less than two years old. The ownership has changed many times, one time it burnt down and was rebuilt, but still it survives and still we visit whenever we are in White Rock.

Me with the ocean and sandbars in the background. There were a few folks out by the water but not many. I think White Rock and their warmer temperatures is a closely guarded secret...shhhh.... I know when I lived in the area for many years it was a lot warmer, got little if any snow, many more hours of sunshine a year and rarely any fog.

These gorgeous flowers are on the pathway leading down to the beach! I am not sure what they are but they sure are pretty!

If you look really closely, you will see the "white rock" in the back right of the photo...this is the rock the beach was named for. Also, when I was a teenager, on grad night grad students from other schools would come and put graffiti all over the white rock and it was up to our schools graduating class to go down and paint over it all!!

From Wikipedia, here is the legend of the White Rock... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rock,_British_Columbia

"The white rock in White Rock
The large, white rock figures prominently in narratives of the local Coast Salish native peoples. One legend holds that the Transformers, emissaries of the Sagalie Tyee, the Creator, once passed. Another legend holds that the white rock marks the landing spot of a stone that was hurled across the Strait of Georgia by a young Indian chief. It was said that he and his bride would move from Vancouver Island to wherever the rock landed to make a home together. It was their descendants who became the Semiahmoo first nation. ('Semiahmoo' is the Coast Salish word for 'half-moon', describing the shape of the bay.) "

"White Rock is named for a distinctive large white boulder found on its beach near the promenade: a glacial erratic that migrated south during the last glaciation. The 486-ton granite boulder was kept white by shellfish-eating seabirds, whose guano covered the rock, so much so that sailors in the 19th century used it as a beacon. However, it now remains white through frequent applications of white paint by the city parks department, as it has been a popular graffiti target for over thirty years."

This would be me with the ocean in the background. I love the ocean!




A seagull caught in mid flight. There are tons of seagulls there as across the street from the beach is a row of fish and chip restaurants (yummy) and a lot of folks buy their food and bring them to the picnic tables overlooking the beach. The seagulls then harass them for their food!



The picture above is a view from the Winfall prize home we had gone to view in the White Rock area. We love looking at these hospital lottery prize homes and go to quite a few of them each year.

It is hard to believe we are almost half way through August...well the 13th is close to half way through! Summer seems to be galloping to a close. We had some very hot weather for these parts, broke a few records, but are back to our usual cool weather and showers now. I am hoping summer is not over yet. I was listening to one of the US TV stations earlier and they said it will be going back up to the 80's in the Seattle area next week. Fingers crossed that includes us as well. We have been doing some of the outdoor work lately. Actually I have been watching kids but hubby has been working outside. He has put in the stairs to the sundeck and the stairs down the side of the house. Both are big improvements. Now if he could just get to the railings. It seems it is hard to get quotes...two companies have not shown up for scheduled appointments to give an estimate this week.
We took a trip down to White Rock beach on Sunday. It was not very nice in town but was lovely down there. The sun was out and the ocean water was even warm! I could have spent the day had I thought to wear lighter clothing.