Easter Sunday fun day

We had a low-key Easter, including attending an egg hunt at the park in our neighborhood.
There were plastics eggs as far as the eye could see... well, as far as little kid eyes could see anyway.


My nephew collected some Easter goodies (Ben is guarding them) and we got out of the house on a nice, though slightly chilly morning.


Ben is making great progress in the growing up department. He is holding the head up with minimal wobbling and he is close to sitting up without help.

It's hard to believe he will be 4 months old in just a couple weeks.

We are having fun watching his little changes that seem to happen on a daily basis.

I hope everyone had a nice an Easter as we did.

Congratulations... It's Ben!

Well, it has been a busy few months.

Obviously I have not been busy blogging.

But I have good reason: I have been preparing for the arrival of new family member.

On Dec. 16, 2009 at 1:02 p.m. we welcomed our sweet little Benjamin into the family.

Ben was a whopping 10 pounds, 2 ounces at birth and measured 21 inches long.

He arrived in the world with a hearty holler and a full head of hair.

Mom and dad have been having fun getting to know Ben these past couple days.

We are still in the hospital, but hope to be home in a day or two.

For anyone who has been looking for pictures on Facebook, I tried to post there, but the hospital's free wi-fi does not include access to Facebook for some reason.

As for me, I am doing OK. Since the baby was so big there was a little extra effort needed in the c-section to get him out of there. So I am sore and bruised, but improving.

After a day and a half of bed rest I am now able to get up and walk around the hall, pushing Ben in his bassinet. We look like a sad case, but it is helping to be up and moving a few times a day.

Dad has been a great help with the diapers since I have been useless in that area. I am not even allowed to pick Ben up yet. I have to have people bring him to me.

We are all rooming in together in one very small room that is jammed with my bed, a roll-away torture bed for Dad and Ben's little bassinet. Not to mention all the various chairs, IV stands and our junk from home.

We have happily welcomed family and friends to visit in between feedings, naps, all the various poking and prodding.

I will try to post more photos later here and on Facebook once we are home, but no promises on when since we might be just a little busy getting acquainted with sweet Ben.

Thank you all for the congratulations and good wishes. It is nice to have so many people thinking good thoughts for us as we start this new adventure.

Crazy desert genius

I grew up in the desert. So I can speak from experience about the crazy genius that can only come from too much exposure to sun and cactus.

A prime example of this is Cabot's Adobe Pueblo.

Check out the Web site. Read the history of the place. I think you will agree with me.

In the meantime, pictures...


On the I-10 freeway, just before the turnoff to State Highway 62.

From here on the photos are from Cabot's Adobe Pueblo in Desert Hot Springs, Calif.

Click on the link above to find out more.

It is an odd place. Sort of the dream of Hearst Castle meets a shack in the desert.

Cabot Yerxa was a genius. Cabot Yerxa maybe was a little crazy.

But Cabot Yerxa had a dream and a vision. And he saw both to fruition.

For that, he is a man to be admired.

I remember coming to this place as a child, my father bringing me here.

I did not appreciate it then the way I appreciate it now.

Just like I did not appreciate my father then the way I appreciate him now. Now that he is gone.

From him I learned that sometimes it is OK to be different. From him I learned to appreciate Monty Python. And from him I learned a little piece of desert history that many people probably drive by everyday without even seeing.


And that those are not bad lessons to learn.

Here's to embracing the crazy genius in us all.

Pseudo camping

This past weekend (yeah, I know, almost a whole week ago by now!) a bunch of people went camping.


It was my mom's 60th birthday weekend and we had asked her what she wanted to do. Party? Mini-cruise? Weekend in the mountains?
She chose the weekend in the mountains. It was casual and fun and made it possible for more people to go.


It ended up being Mom, me, manfriend, my sister and her hubby plus their son, my aunt from Texas, my aunt and two cousins from here and my mom's best friend from childhood plus her manfriend.
All in all, a fairly big group.


We stayed at a place in the mountains near Santa Barbara called Rancho Oso.
Now really, this was not camping. Not like camping when I was a kid.
No one was sleeping in tents.


My sister and her husband have a trailer. It's not huge, but it comfy. They hosted my mom and my Texas aunt.
My mom's friend and her manfriend have a huge trailer that they used.
Manfriend and I rented what the campground calls a garden cottage. We stayed in that two nights. One of the nights my local aunt and her two kids stayed there with us.


So this garden cottage? It was a mini mobile home. Really not a trailer at all in the sense that this thing was not going on the road any time soon.


We sat, we talked, we swam, we did a little hike, we tasted a little wine.
Mostly it was just a nice relaxing weekend.


On the way home Sunday manfriend and I stopped at the Chumash Casino nearby.
I started with $40 at a $5 minimum blackjack table. In about 20 minutes I walked away with a $100 chip. Not bad.


We drove back to the L.A. area, stopping along the coast a couple times to take a look at the water.

On the way there manfriend and I stopped at a winery called Alma Rosa. It was very pretty. A rustic but lovely little building. I would put the setting toward the top of the list of my favorite wineries in that area.

It was the first time I had been there and I will go back next time.

Plus the wine was good. That picture above? My purchases.

After this we stopped at Firestone Walker Brewery in Buellton to get a beer and a snack.

This tractor near the entrance intrigued me. Machinery can be so pretty.



The beer sampler was pretty, too. Love that Double Barrel.



Here is the view driving up to our garden cottage thing. We had the one in the middle.







The living room...






kitchen...


dining room...

There also was a little hallway with two bunks and a bedroom area with a queen size bed. Plus a full bathroom. It was tight, but at least my tall manfriend could stand up in most parts of it. The doorways were a little short though.

This was the view from our back deck.

One afternoon we did a little hike to a nearby waterfall. The turn off onto the smaller trail from the horse trail featured the sign below. Plus a little protest by an equine visitor.

On Saturday night we feasted on a variety of grilled meats (pork tenderloin, chicken, brats), potato salad, corn, grilled squash, bread and salad. It was sooooooo good.

The main Saturday activity was wine tasting. We hit three wineries. I bought wine at two of them.

Ready to serve at Rideau Vineyards.

I bought a case of a wine called Fleur Blanche here. It is a lovely, crisp and light white. Not sweet, but still fruity.

Rideau had a beautiful, lush garden. This was just a snippet of it.

Next we went to Gainey Vineyards. We decided to take their guided tour.

They have a nice guest vineyard where they explain the various trellising techniques.

I was surprised that after all the winery tours I have done over the years, I learned new stuff here. I would recommend this tour.

Inside the tank room at Gainey. It was nice and chilly in there after coming in from the heat of the vineyard.

The cask room.

Those plugs in the barrels? They are called the bung. They go in the bung hole.

Seriously.

I liked this room. The light was low and the bottles glowed. The guide said there were about 12,000 bottles in here. All of them were Chardonnay.

Sunday on the way home we took in the view of the dam at Lake Cachuma.

We also stopped along the coast off Highway 101.

And finally, after lunch in Summerland, we headed home.

By early Sunday evening when we got home I was pretty exhausted. But in that good way. That way where you knew you had a good time.