California Tourists!

For our "big" trip this year we decided to go on a 10-day Pacific adventure - first to California, then to Kauai. What made this trip more exciting for us was that we were bringing our good friends Mike and Lisa, who had never been to either place. Well, Mike had once been to Riverside on a business trip, but we'd been telling him for 2 years that Riverside is really not an accurate representation of southern California. So, for all intents and purposes, we said that he he had not really been to California. :-) We wanted to show them some of the traditional "touristy" parts but also some of our favorite, more scenic parts. And so, our adventure begins....

Driving down Pacific Coast Highway toward Malibu

Venice Beach

We were there during one of the season's

worst fires. This huge cloud of smoke was

visible from miles away. I suppose of all

the possible natural disasters typical of

California that we could have introduced to

Mike and Lisa, this was probably better

than earthquakes, floods, or landslides.

It's funny how you can live somewhere your whole

life and never do many of the "touristy" things.

I was actually thrilled when Neal found a map

of star homes that we could tour. We passed

by a number of houses where he quickly read off the

owner's names, but the only house we stopped at

long enough for me to get a photo was none other

than Hugh Hefner's . Next time I think the girls

have to be in charge of that tour!

Shopping on Rodeo Drive

Hollywood Walk of Fame

View of the Hollywood sign from

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

After walking all over Venice Beach, Santa

Monica, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood, we

came back to mom and dad's for a nice

evening under the stars in the hot tub. Of

course, we had to have a little Bailey's Irish

Cream to make the night complete. :-)

When Neal and I ordered our wedding cake

3 years ago, one of the things we liked about

our vendor was that they agreed to make us

a free top layer of our wedding cake within

the year after our wedding, if we brought them

a picture of our finished wedding cake. While we

had beautiful pictures of the cake, we could

never claim our free top layer since we moved

the day after we got married. Finally, 3 years later,

we picked up our white cake with fresh strawberry

filling, and it was as good as it tasted on our wedding

day. And, we got to share this one with family and

friends as well, so it was the perfect time to have it.

On Sunday we headed north to Ventura and

Santa Barbara, which we all agreed was much

more our pace than the L.A. scene. Above is a

view of Surfer's Point in Ventura.

For years I dreamt of living in these apartments

on the beach, though I could never afford them

since the rent is as much as a mortgage.

State Street, Santa Barbara

Mike & Neal driving our 4-person beach buggy

Shoreline Park, where we had our engagement

photos taken. We were shocked to see that since

the last time we'd been here, a whole chunk of

the cliff had just fallen off! In this photo you can

see where the sidewalks used to connect.

Stairs down to the beach below

Shoreline Park

After we got home, my parents had a fun

gathering of their friends and ours. It was so

great to see everybody and to introduce our

new friends to some of our old friends. What a

perfect way to end the weekend!

Jackson Hole

One of Neal's best friends, and probably his oldest childhood friend (dating all the way back to kindergarten!), got engaged earlier this year and will be married in September. Neal will be one of the groomsmen and for the bachelor party, all of the guys in the wedding party, along with the fathers of the bride and groom, went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for a fishing trip. The photos he came back with were phenomenal! The weekend was such a great opportunity for these guys to get together and spend some quality time with nature.

One of their high school buddies, Scott

I was assured that they did return the fish

to their rightful home just after catching them

Neal with his fishing guide

Amazing shot of a bald eagle

The gang

They even saw a moose

Before leaving they had a chance to drive up

to Grand Teton National Park. It was a bit

overcast but they still got some great scenery.

Arkansas

For some time now Lynn has wanted to pass along to us some china she inherited from Neal's paternal grandmother, Willa (Willamena). We never wanted to have it shipped for fear that it might get damaged in transit, so we came up with a better solution - a family road trip to meet halfway between Houston and Omaha, to drive the china safely home. Neal found a nice state park for us to stay in Arkansas (a state which I had not been to yet) and so the three of us met Lynn and Carolyn in the beautiful Ouachita Mountains.

A nice view to keep us going through the

8-hour drive

Ironically, the place we stayed at was called

Queen Wilhelmena (pronounced "Willamena"),

which had the same name as Neal's grandmother

whose china we were inheriting. Here we

are on the drive up with the welcome sign.

There was a fantastic little restaurant on the

premises that served very inexpensive breakfasts.

This pancake Neal is holding is the largest any

of us had ever seen, and it was only $2.95 for 2 of them!

On Saturday we took a scenic drive through the

mountains, which happened to cross over into

Oklahoma, another state I hadn't been to. The

sites were so picturesque, perfect for family

photo op's. :-)

Our view from the car

These webs were everywhere, created by bagworms,

common to the area. Wherever they build their webs,

that part of the tree turns completely brown (as you

can see above) since they feed off of it.

Grasshopper close-up

At the end of the scenic drive was an old-fashioned
ice cream shop, which we were thrilled to find after
being out in the hot sun. We enjoyed floats,
malts and milkshakes.

Our digs

Neal's awesome humming bird shot

(If you click on the photo it will enlarge

for a better view)

Another sweet shot - this time the bird has

its wings spread while feeding

Queen Wilhelmina had a put put course just down

the hill, so of course we had to partake. Everyone

(well, almost everyone :-) got a hole in one at

some point on the course - Lynn got 3!! She's

such a pro - she put us all to shame, though Neal

ended up with the victory win.

Saturday night we took a wagon ride on which

a tour guide gave us some of the historical

background of the park.

From the wagon....

Just after we got back, the view from our hotel

was spectacular.

Another grasshopper close-up

There were these pink and yellow moths

everywhere, some of which looked like

bubble gum and were almost unnoticeable

until you realized what they were.

About to head home on Sunday - some last

minute family shots

Poor Neal, all he wanted this weekend was

to see a bear, and this one in the hotel lobby

was the closest he came.