Sunday, October 30, 2016

Patti's 90th Birthday Bash

In mid August during the height of a nasty fire season, we head south for a family celebration of Patti's 90th birthday.  The giant Soberanes fire in the Los Padres National Forest of Big Sur has already been raging for almost a month and will continue to burn for yet another two months devouring over 130,000 acres before finally being tamed. Although Soberanes hasn't been California's biggest fire ever recorded, it did turn out to be the state's most expensive fire to fight, mostly due to the difficult terrain. I often wonder how the trees and vegetation will change if these drought cycles continue as the climate scientists predict. Only time will tell.

We reach the Bradly Rest Stop around mid afternoon. As we step out of our air conditioned car, we are immediately hit by the 105+ degree temperatures.  Parked along the edge is a long line of fire trucks from different cities (Davis, Sonoma, Bakersfield, etc). The fire fighters are friendly and explain they are moving from the Soberanes fire to a new one currently threatening Bakersfield. I sincerely thank them for their hard work. They shrug their shoulders and say it's all part of the job to fight different fires in hot weather.

As we drive further south, Google maps navigation tells us part of Hwy 101 is being closed down due to a new fire a little north of Santa Barbara.  We are rerouted onto Hwy 154 which is a beautiful drive and takes us into Santa Barbara from the east.
Fire trucks parked at Bradley Rest Stop

Detouring onto Hwy 154


Santa Barbara Mission

Back on Hwy 101 the fog greets us north of Ventura


Shadows lengthen close to Thousand Oaks

Full moon raising over LA

Dinner with friends in Leucadia

The next afternoon, we meet Sarah who is renting us her lovely home to Jill/Mark and their family as well as ourselves.  It's a large beautiful home and we feel very fortunate to have such a lovely place to stay for the next several days.







After the east coasters arrive, it's time to explore nearby Swami's Beach. This beach was named after the nearby Self-Realization Fellowship founded by Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, which is required reading for anyone living in North County San Diego. When I lived in Cardiff during the 1970's, Swami's was my favorite beach for hiking and taking photos.
Jono, PD, Tracy, & Alex

Tiki welcome

Self-Realization Fellowship

Looking north

Looking south as we descend the stairs

Peter tests the water

Low tide reveals a small reef

Water draining off cliffs

Rocky shelf

That evening just we enjoy being together as we haven't seen each other in several years.
Jono gives me a quizzical look

PD plays for us

Jill and Mark set out drinks and snacks

The next afternoon, a group of us meet at the Hunter Steak House in Oceanside before the party to set up decorations.
Our first stop is the bar

Holly demos the Queen Frog headpiece

Ahh - dirty vodka martinis all around

After the staff has set up the tables and chairs, we swing into action putting up decorations.
Happy 90th Birthday

Balloons

and cake - of course!

As people arrive and get seated, everyone puts on their frog eyes and gets photos of themselves with the guest of honor - Miss Patti, Queen of the Frogs.
Karen & Patti


Patti & me

Colin

Beth & Lorelei

Pete

Peter & Patti

Alex

Tracy

PD

Colin & crew
Patti, Jennie + new no-care puppy

Neighbors and friends


After the celebrations, we return home to Patti's where the family beauties pose for photos. Sorry ladies, Lorelei seems to have all of us beat in the beauty department.
Lorelei

Beth, Tracy, and Holly

Lorelei

That evening PD initiates a wresting match with his much larger uncle Colin. It's not much of a match, but PD keeps coming back for more. Who knows maybe one day PD will finally defeat Colin?



In the morning, we take a day off to see the San Diego Botanic Garden. At first, we are attracted to the striking pieces of sculpture displayed throughout the grounds. Many are for sale and we are even more stunned when we take a look at the prices... ouch!
Motorcycle

Mermaid

Froggy

We do see some pretty incredible plants along the way.
Sago Palm

Bromeliads

Topiary Mariachi Band

Then we have to stop and take photos of ourselves on this fun outing.
The In-laws: Mark, Jill, Tracy, PD, Jono, Alex

The Out-laws: Mark & me


It been a fun family event, but everything has to end so we all prepare to go our separate ways. We stop at Simon's where Suzy gives us an array of her beautiful veggies.
Suzy picking tomatoes

Suzy & me

Vegetables as art piece (photo by Jill)

We pack up the car and head north towards home. Fortunately, most of the traffic is heading south.  Around Camarillo, our DQ app tells us one is nearby. So we navigate to a local shopping center for ice cream.  This shopping center turns out to be a factory outlet where there's a nice seating area just outside a North Face store.  As we sit and enjoy our ice creams we watch a wide variety of different international visitors coming in and out of North Face.  Naturally, we have to check the store out and discover they are having an end-of-summer sale with very good prices.  Inside the store, we hear visitors speaking French, English with British accents, German, and an assortment of Asian languages. Intrigued we ask a friendly store clerk about all of the foreign visitors here.  He laughs and points out this is the last factory outlet on the way back to LAX. Ohhh - who would have thunk? Camarillo is now on the map for international shoppers.
Help get me off this LA freeway

North Face factory outlet in Camarillo

Back through forest fire smoke 

Ahhh - back to the green fields of the Pajaro Valley




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Retired and enjoying life.