There’s more to Hawaii than just business…

A early morning walk along the famous Waikiki beach before heading out for meetings…

…and then realizing you have enough time between the Army Housing site walk and Air Force housing meeting to run to the North shore for a plate of jumbo shrimp

Business trips to Hawaii aren’t always dreadful.

it's a May weekend

This weekend we decided it was time to get the hydroponic garden going so....we took it all apart, scrubbed it, put it back together, and the planted tomatoes, cucumbers and peas.


After all that hard work, we deserved some foil dinners cooked on the BBQ and enjoyed outdoors.

Look What We Found in Cambria…

While on our trip up the coast we were browsing through the quaint little stores in Cambria. Dad found this on some children’s t-shirts. We had a good laugh. They reminded us of our camping trips when you guys were small. Who knows why this would remind us of our camping trips?

A Day at the Aquarium…

What a grand idea it was to turn the old sardine cannery into the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It makes it so much more interesting and even packs a little history into your day. Dad was so interested that he even bought a book about the cannery row days.


That it was originally a cannery is most evident at the entrance where the old boilers are still in place.

The first exhibit you encounter is the kelp forest. It is a huge round tank with everything from large schools of tiny, silver anchovies doing their synchronized swimming act, to a lone leopard shark. It is almost hypnotizing with the kelp swaying in the water and all the fish going round and round.


Of course we loved watching the otters at play. The river otters were having a wonderful time chasing around and jumping on each other, but who can resist the cute, fuzzy face of the sea otters. Don’t you wish you could take one home with you?

A whole section of the Aquarium was dedicated to jellyfish. They are amazing creatures. We saw some that were as small as a quarter.

And some that were at least a foot and a half in diameter. And the colors were absolutely fabulous. They are so beautiful, but so deadly.

Doesn’t this look just like a Dr. Seuss forest? I kept expecting a little man to pop out and say, “I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.”

After leaving the aquarium we spent some time walking around Cannery Row. It is a very lively and happening place. We couldn’t believe how much it had changed since the last time we were there. It has become a fun tourist attraction in itself.

A Visit to Hearst Castle…

It’s hard to find the right words to describe Hearst Castle. It’s opulent, whimsical, inspiring, unfinished, beautiful, ridiculous, fun, and just plain fantastic. William Randolph Hearst inherited the land from his mother when she died. He was in his fifties. His mother always said that she didn’t leave it to him years earlier, because she was afraid that he would start building something and get carried away. Huh!! I guess she knew him pretty well.

Hearst hired a family friend, Julia Morgan, a famous woman architect, to design and oversee construction of his dream house. The worked together on it for 27 years. Hearst was famous for changing his mind about what he wanted. It was still unfinished when he died.

The tour started at the Neptune Pool. It is the most beautiful pool I have ever seen. The water is startlingly blue, and it is surprisingly deep, 10 feet. The pool was built and finished, but Hearst changed his mind and they had to tear it up and build it over again. Twice. But they ended up with something truly wonderful. There is a statue of Neptune by the stairs, hence the name Neptune Pool. Our guide told us that the people who are employed there get to bring their families up to swim sometimes in the summer. Nice, huh?

The grounds were beautiful. But they were a crazy mixture of English flower beds, roman statues, Egyptian sculptures, street lights and palm trees. Hearst was famous for the house parties he gave at “the ranch”, as he called it. He wanted his guests to enjoy their stay. There was plenty for them to do. Besides the Neptune Pool, there was an indoor pool that was patterned after a roman bath, with inlaid gold in the walls and floor of the pool. There were horses to ride with miles of trails. A movie theatre, a tennis court, and even his own private zoo.

One of my favorite rooms was the library, of course. Hundreds of books lined the walls. Wouldn’t you just love to find a comfortable chair and read to your hearts content?

At the end of the day the guests would gather together in the sitting room. Can you imagine having an interesting discussion with Winston Churchill, Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, Jimmy Stewart, or Charles Lindbergh? Those were just some of the frequent guests that were mentioned in the tour.

The kitchen was a very interesting place. I can imagine whipping up dinner for 30 or so special guests. It would be a very busy place.

The thing that was so fun about Hearst Castle was that there was no one theme or style. Whatever William Randolph Hearst liked, he put in his castle, whether it went with anything else or not, and it all seemed to work and make it the amazing place that it is.

The perfect spring road trip

We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect spring road trip. We traveled along the PCH and basked in the sunshine, the gorgeous green rolling hills and the spectacular rocky shoreline of the California coast.

One advantage of traveling in the spring is that you get to see the beautiful wildflowers. The lupine, daises and the California poppies and were in full bloom.

We stopped in the quaint little seaside town of Cambria, and ate at the Main Street Grill, which had such extremely tasty fries, that we had to stop there again on our way back down for a second helping.

We stopped along the beach which is famous for a close-up view of what seemed like hundreds of elephant seals. We have to admit that they aren’t the most attractive animals, but they certainly are interesting. What is especially interesting is watching them move around on the sand. They seem to push themselves along with their body fat……kind of like a giant slug.

Some of the most spectacular scenery we saw was at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. A short hike along a nature trail led us to the most beautiful view of a stream that falls about 80 feet right onto the sand on the beach below……it was breathtaking.

Some other highlights of our trip were visits to Hearst Castle and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. So stay tuned…..

Who cares about the turkey? It's all about the stuffing!

The day before Thanksgiving was raining and gloomy. We were concerned that it might be too cold to have the Thanksgiving feast in the lanai. How could we squeeze 28 people into the dining/living room? Luckily, when we got up on Thanksgiving morning the skies were clear, and things warmed up nicely.
And yes... we had 28 people for Thanksgiving dinner.
Should I list them all? Well, start with Grandma and Grandpa. Then count Dave, Annette and Adam. Add in Dard, Derek and Drew. With Andrea, Jay, and their three kids. (We missed Diane, who is still battling with migraines.) And there was Alice and Joe. With Nathan, Tyler, and Matthew. Plus Michael P. and his girlfriend, Joy. Joyce was there, of course. And Glenn. And last but not least, M & D, N3, M4, and S5. Quite a group, huh?
Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. But I didn’t mind, after all we couldn’t be without our favorites; stuffing, and yams and rolls.
After dinner, Grandma brought out her Christmas Bingo game. With only a few groans she got everyone to play. It was all right though, because she had prizes. Then we got into some serious gaming. Like scum.
And of course we can’t forget the pies!! We had four different choices of pie, plus cheesecake. I also had made some cookies, so everyone had plenty of dessert, and left on a sugar high. Anyway, it was a wonderful day, with good food, good company and good fun. We missed those of you who were away, and wish you could have been with us.