Hurricane Hilary, Road Trip and 60th Birthday Party Celebration - Part Two

     This is Part 2 of our crazy trip to Arizona, for part 1 click HERE.

    We had a great nights sleep since both Lisa and I were exhausted! We had planned to spend the day shopping and getting ready for the big party that evening, however our cousin Lydia aka Copa has recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer and just that week on Wednesday she had her first round of Chemo and she wasn't feeling the greatest. Have you ever seen a more beautiful and positive person getting her first chemo treatment? She's a true warrior!

    So we sat with her and just got caught up on everything she had been going through and how our jobs were going and how family was doing and we had a very nice time just being with her.

    Then our cousins in Eloy, Arizona called and said they were all gathered together at our cousin Norrie's house and where were we?? So we put ourselves together and headed to Eloy. Eloy is the city of our ancestors. That is where most of our parents met. Copa told us that we would come back to her house before the party so we didn't take our party clothes or gifts with us...we should have!

    We had so much fun at Norrie's house! They were cooking the food for the party. They had asked Copa what she wanted for her birthday dinner and she had such a crazy idea for a menu, very different from the usual Chile Colorado or Deep Pit BBQ that we usually have at family events. Copa wanted Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Green Salad, Macaroni and Cheese, Rolls and Cake! Norrie rounded up all the cousins that live locally and some were making meatloaf, some potatoes, etc., and they had it covered!

    We finally realized that we had been having so much fun we had missed our opportunity to head back to Phoenix to get dolled up for the party, so we decided to go to a local store that I love called Bealls Outlet. I always go to the one in Parker, Arizona when we head that way, but luckily there was one close by in Casa Grande. Lisa, Copa and I all went praying that we would find something suitable for the party and we did!

    Then we returned to Norrie's house where our niece Sarena did Copa's make up! Sarena is such an angel, she's an RN and just the sweetest, most loving, giving person in the world! Here she is working her magic! Oh yeah, check out Copa's tiara, she's a true queen!

    Love these next shots, you can tell she's very happy with the end results. It took some convincing too as she's not a makeup person, never wears it. I think she's going to be shopping for some makeup in the future! I love the last photo, beautiful ladies. I am so blessed to have such amazing women in my life!

    The rest of this post will be photos that I took at the party with some commentary on who and what.

From left to right - My sister Lisa, our Cousin Copa and me.

    

Copa and the loves of her life, her beautiful daughter Daniella aka Copita and her wonderful son Mark aka Markie. 

L-R: Me, our Aunt Ninfa, Copa and Lisa 

L-R: My brother Federico, my sister Lisa, me and my brother Jaime.

L-R: Brother Federico, Sister Lisa, Cousin Copa, Me and Brother Jaime

 Cousin Copa also wanted all the July and August family and friends to be included in the celebration, so she requested this cake.

Everyone had a wonderful time, there was a raffle with great prizes, we played games, had great food. There was a beautiful desert table filled with candy and popcorn and rice krispie treats and cake pops and almost anything you can imagine!

The party ended around 9:30 and then we drove back to Copa's house in Phoenix as we were all exhausted. We also had heard that there was a Hurricane getting ready to hit California and that where we live was right in the path of it so we wanted to get a good nights sleep so we could get up super early and head home.

Get ready for part three...

Hurricane Hilary, Road Trip and 60th Birthday Party Celebration

    On Friday, August 18th my sister Lisa and I  headed to Phoenix, Arizona to celebrate the 60th birthday party for our cousin Lydia aka Copa. It was going to be a quick trip, up on Friday arriving in Phoenix around 3pm, then Saturday evening the party, then we would head back on Sunday and back to work on Monday. The route that we chose is displayed below and would take 7 hours and 7 minutes. Remember that, 7 hours and 7 minutes! 

    Right away we should have known it was probably a good idea to just cancel and go back to bed! We planned to leave at 4:30 am as we were dropping off her new dog at the groomers house who was going to take care of her for us. I have to share this picture of her dog named Fancy K or Fancy for short. She's so cute and just the sweetest little girl! She's a rescue from the dog shelter and I'm so happy she has a forever home with my sister.

    When Lisa came to pick me up she said that she we needed to stop and put air in the front passenger side tire. But while putting the air in, Lisa noticed that there was a nail or bolt in the tire. Great! We decided we would go ahead and go drop off Fancy at the groomers, then come back to her house and wait until 8am when the tire shops would open up. This would put us way behind, but better safe than sorry.

    On the way to the groomers, we kept an eye on the tire gauge and noticed that it was holding air. After dropping off Fancy we decided to go ahead and proceed to the next leg of our trip so we headed to Tehachapi which was 40 miles away. We got there successfully and stopped to buy some snacks and other items we needed at Walmart, then we picked up coffee and cream cheese Danish at Starbucks and decided to go ahead to the next leg of our trip from Tehachapi to Lancaster and see if we could find a tire shop open there. That was another 45 miles. 

    Lancaster is a beautiful desert city with SO MANY STORES!! I told Lisa definitely we needed to make a day trip with our mom and bring her shopping someday. Lisa who dislikes shopping was not as enthused as I was. As it was still early and the tire shops were still closed, we decided to live life on the wild side and head to the next big city, Indio. 

    I lost track now of where we stopped to eat, but it was somewhere along the way and it was around noonish and we stopped at WaBa Grill. We enjoyed a good, light and healthy lunch of Spicy Asian Salad and I had a side of dumplings or as we call them in our family potstickers. Lisa had a side of some kind of taco which we shared.

    As our tire pressure was still doing well, we decided to just head on down the highway and get to Phoenix and worry about getting the tire fixed or replaced there. We made the mistake of taking a phone call from our mom who was checking to see how we were doing and Lisa mentioned the tire and mom immediately became worried and told us we had to stop NOW and get that taken care of. We didn't want her worried so when we arrived in Indio, we started calling some tire shops. Almost all of them told us it would be between a two to four hour wait and we were already behind schedule big time!

    But the spirits of our ancestors were with us and they wanted us to get to Phoenix safely and I called a company by the name of America's Tire Co at 81124 CA-111, Indio CA. I give you the address because Jeff there is the best guy in the world and if you ever need a tire company in Indio, you need to go there! That's not Jeff in the picture, just FYI.

    We called Jeff and explained our situation and he said, if you come in right now I will get you in an out right away, so we did and he did! We were there less than 30 minutes and he didn't charge us anything to patch the tire, Lisa gave him money and told him to buy himself some lunch with it and he was so appreciative. Good people still do exist!    

    We called our mom and let her know that our tire was fixed and that really set her mind at ease. From there we drove straight through to Blythe where we gassed up. The traffic was a bit heavy in places, but not too bad. We made it to Phoenix by 6pm. More than 12 hours for what should have been a 7 hour trip! But we got there safely, that's what's important! 

***See Part two next***

Retirement Party, Cook your Own Dinner and Spending time with Family in Santa Maria, California

     

    

    So yesterday, my sister Lisa and I were honored to attend the retirement party of our cousin Vera, short for Elvira, she was named after our grandmother and her dad and my dad are brothers. So we are sister/cousins, kind of sisters, kind of cousins. The party was held in Santa Maria, which is about 2 1/2 hours from where Lisa and I live, so we left work at noon so we could take our time getting there.

      The party was held at the Santa Maria Elks Lodge during their Friday Night "Cook Your Own". Now this is one of the most unique, scary, dangerous cookouts I've ever seen. You purchase what type of meat you want, Rib Eye ($30), New York Steak ($25), Fish ($25), Chicken ($25), Pork Ribs ($25) or you can get just the salad plate ($15), no meat. They gave us a ticket for our meal, Lisa and I both chose the New York Steak...GO BIG OR GO HOME, right?

    We had our own private party room and it was set up with a  full bar and tables just for our party. Lisa and I both had a glass of wine and enjoyed the appetizers which consisted of 7 Layer Dip with Chips, Spinach Dip with Bread and/or crackers, Chips and Salsa, and Chicken Salad. We could have been satisfied just eating that spread!

Picture of the Guest of Honor, our cousin Vera and her daughter Anna

    It was so nice to see Vera so happy to be done with the daily drudge of going to the office and having to deal with the drama and stress of a job. She's got great plans in her future to do more gardening and yardwork, to go camping with her children and grandchildren and hopefully to spend some time visiting me and Lisa!

L-R: Lisa, Me, Vera and Anna

    We met several of her coworkers and they all had wonderful things to say about her, they are truly going to miss having her around.

    Finally it was "Cook your Own" time and it was confusing but next time we will do better. First you stand in line with your ticket by the table that handles what your meal is going to be. We were having New York Steak so they had this huge tray of the most gorgeous steaks I've ever seen and you get to pick which one you want and they put it on a foam plate for you and give you a glass plate. We asked them at this table if we really and truly had to cook our own dinner and they said yes! But they gave us a tip, they said look for one of the guys in a red shirt and let them know it's your first time and they will help you.

    We found a very handsome and sweet man in a red shirt, I wish I had gotten his name but he was just the best. The photo below is of the "seasoning table". This is the first step, they have a spray bottle with brine and shakers with salt, pepper, something that just said seasoning...we added a lot of everything!

Red shirt Hero!

    Mr. Red Shirt then took us over to the grill which you can see in the background behind him. I was lucky that Lisa decided to man (woman) the grill, here's a shot of her standing there watching our steaks.

Brave Lisa standing next to that burning hot grill!

Dangerously hot! You could feel the heat!

    Since Lisa was doing such a good job at the grill, I decided to go and get her a Margarita and they had a very friendly bartender that was really sweet and gave me a free drink to try, he said he had just invented it. It was delicious with the flavors of peach, very tasty and refreshing!

Lisa's Margarita in the background and my free Peach Drink

Friendly bartender, gray haired man in the black shirt.

    On the walls they had several plaques with names on them. I'm not sure what they signified, but as I was standing there sipping my drink, I noticed the one below and had to get a picture because I follow a YouTube channel called Arne and Carlos. They are two knitting and yarn designers living in Norway, absolutely love them and how weird that the name on this sign is almost the name of their channel!

Arne and Carlos sign

    Finally our steaks were done and we made our way out of the grill room to the next station where they had several side dishes, baked potatoes, chili beans, salad, macaroni salad, French fries, garlic bread and various salsa and sauces. I loaded my plate and it was all delicious, so delicious that I didn't even think to take a picture. 

    We were stuffed and I only ate 1/3 of my steak. Luckily they give you bags to take your steak home. We continued to visit with cousins that were arriving late and finally it was 9pm and Lisa and I had planned to leave no later than 8:30 pm as it's a 2-hour drive home, but it was hard to leave as we were having a good time.

    We arrived home safely and we had a fabulous time and we wish Vera every happiness in the new chapter of her life. We love you cousin!

Crocheting While Watching TV

     My mom has always been a very crafty person and we grew up on a ranch with only a few channels on TV and not much to do, so she kept us entertained by teaching us to crochet, embroider, quilt, sew, almost all the fiber arts. 

When I was growing up in the 70’s, the big thing was embroidery on our jeans and blouses. It was the era of the love child and I can remember embroidering flowers and little birds all over my jeans! 

Embroidery on Jeans - Flower Power

I also remember taking Home Ec (Economics) in high school and one year Mrs. Watte had us sew a dress from the very beginning, choosing the pattern and fabric and pinning it down and cutting out the pattern then sewing it. As a grand finale of the project, we had a fashion show in the school cafeteria and our parents were invited. I had made the most gorgeous dress. I called it my Gypsy dress and it fit me beautifully. I wish I had a picture, but it looked like the white dress is this photo only it was not white. I can’t even remember the color of the dress, but I remember how it fit and how beautiful I felt wearing it!

My Gypsy Dress

When my daughter was born, I did a lot of sewing and when she started Kindergarten, I made dozens of dresses. I always made her Halloween Costumes and one year I went totally crazy and made her the most beautiful Snow White costume. It took me weeks to get just the sleeves right. It looked very much like this one only the skirt was a much brighter yellow. But after a while, she didn’t want the clothes that I made and wanted store bought so I quit sewing.

Those sleeves are hard to make!

Off and on I would start a crocheting project, I even started a Blue and Gold blanket for my daughter when she started high school as those were her school colors. She finished high school, her younger brother finished high school, all her cousins finished high school and that blanket never got finished. I finally donated it with all the yarn to the Goodwill…hopefully someone really did finish it.

Recently I wanted something to do at night while watching TV because I found that for sure “idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.” Eating while watching TV became a problem for me because I was becoming a snackaholic! I was putting on weight and I was not happy about it. I decided I needed to do something to keep my hands busy while watching TV and one day on YouTube, I found channel called Jayda In Stitches and she had done a year long project of crocheting what’s called a Mighty Mile-A-Minute Calendar Blanket. Here's her video if you want to check it out. 

I had quite a bit of yarn I had bought at The Dollar Tree, didn't know why I was buying it, but just thought it would be a good idea to have it on hand. I didn't quite follow her directions and did each strip with the same crochet stitch and she showed a different one every month, but it still turned out beautifully!

Mile A Minute

        That was so fun and I got so many compliments that I wanted to do another project. I remembered that I used to do a lot of crocheted doilies, so I thought of doing one but using yard instead of cotton thread, which made a bigger doily and then I turned it into a Wall Hanging and I love it!

First Mandala Wall Art, although mine is on a door.

Mandala Close Up

            

I had a lot of fun making this and it looks beautiful on my door in my bedroom. I'm working on two other ones now, but you never forget your first!

What crafts do you do and who taught you?

By The Sea, By The Stormy, Stormy Sea and The Cemetery Industry

      **This post was written on Friday, March 24th and being published today**

    I've just come back to our hotel room after having the complimentary breakfast at The Embassy Suites in Seaside, California. I loved the oatmeal and the eggs and potatoes, but for the second day in a row they had no BACON, only sausage which I detest!! But it is complimentary, especially for me as this whole trip is paid for by my sisters job.

Embassy Suites in Seaside California

    I took Thursday and Friday off from work and we drove here to Seaside on Thursday. We took our time and stopped in Paso Robles for some shopping at TJ Maxx, one of my favorite stores. Then we decided to eat on the run rather than waste time at a sit down restaurant and we drove through McDonalds, then on to Seaside.

    Seaside is such a beautiful place and the whole drive here was fabulous because we've had tons of rain in California and it now looks like the California I remember when we used to come and visit my dad's family in Santa Maria. Green and lush with beautiful blue skies and puffy white clouds. 

    Thursday night we had a meet and greet downstairs and we barely had time to get ready for that. I always enjoy the meet and greets because they have a bunch of vendors there selling anything and everything associated with cemetery management. Yes...you read that correctly...cemetery vendors. I know for some that may seem shocking, I know it was for me at first, but both my sister Lisa and I have been involved in the funeral industry since 1993. Lisa is now a Cemetery Manager which is why we were here. I left the funeral industry in the year 200o'ish. 

    So the vendors have a lot of unique things they are selling, from cemetery plot mapping by computer to vaults and urns and niche plates. They're a great bunch of people and even though most of them fell into the industry by chance, some felt it was their calling. Lisa fell into it by chance, but definitely it is a calling for her. Her compassion and dedication to service makes her an excellent manager and I am so proud of her.

    Friday I spent the day shopping. There aren't a lot of shopping centers or stores in Seaside or Monterey, I guess they really don't want you to spend your time shopping but they prefer that you go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and all the little shops along Cannery Row, which is what I did last time I visited. Friday evening there was a special dinner with dancing and a photo booth.

    We took advantage of the photo booth but the pictures were so small they really are not very sharp, but here you go. In the first one we included one of the board members that was there. They had a lot of props and things we could use to make the photos more fun, so these are pretty silly, but we had fun!

    We headed back home on Sunday and as always, there's no place like home, but it was a fun little adventure!

Blogging Inspiration - Where do I get ideas from

 I just realized today that when I was blogging regularly I always had a lot of things to blog about, sometimes I would do two or three posts in a day, but then it seemed like the well dried up and it was a chore to think about what to blog about.

Today I figured out where I was getting my inspiration from before! It was from reading other bloggers post. Many times I would read a post and it would bring up a thought or memory and I would write about it. 

I just read a blog post by Urspo at Spo-Reflections titled I Drive Like an Old Woman, you can read his post HERE. His post inspired me to write a story about my dad and when he would take Lisa and I to high school dances.

We grew up in a small community with a high school that probably boasted a whole 200 students grades 9-12. So any event hosted by the school...we were there! 

Because my dad was a farmer, we lived on the ranch outside of town, probably 8 to 10 miles away and we rode the bus to and from school everyday, we weren't city kids by any means. We didn't know what it was like to play with the kids we went to school with. We played with each other and the other kids that lived on the ranch. 

This was our home in Calipatria. This is a more recent photo, but it hasn't change much.

Our schools would host a dance about once a month and Lisa and I have always loved to dance, so we rarely missed the opportunity, but we did twice because of our dad.

The first time that we missed a dance was because dad was driving us to the dance in his pickup truck, it was him, then our mom next to him on the big bench seat, then Lisa, then me. That was way before the days of everyone having to wear seatbelts. 

Dad was talking away to mom and showing her different farms and talking about the crops they were growing. The more dad talked, the slower he drove and I have never been the most patient of people and I really hate being late to anything! So I made the mistake of reminding dad twice that he was driving too slow. The first time he did speed up but then he got to talking again and slowing down and the second time I reminded him he turned around and took us back home...no matter how much Lisa and I cried and pleaded he didn't budge. I think he just wasn't too thrilled about his two little girls going to a dance to dance with boys!

The second time we missed the dance we actually made it to the school. Again we were in dad's truck, but this time mom was missing, it was dad, Lisa and me on the bench seat again with no seatbelts! We drove up to the front of the high school cafeteria since that was where the dances were held and as we drove up this girl was heading in the front door and these boys jumped out of the bushes to frighten her...that was all dad needed to see! No way was he leaving his little girls with these animals and again, no matter how much we cried and begged on the way home, he refused to budge.

Dad was not an unfair man, he did all he could to make us happy, but there were just certain times that he would not budge. 

So thank you Urspo for giving me the inspiration and for jogging my memory.

Alicia

My Sister Lisa says I have to keep Blogging

My dear sister Lisa has mentioned several times that I have to keep blogging because my blog is the "Keeper of our Memories" and I have to admit there are so many times that we can't remember something and she says, "Check your blog" and sure enough there will be a blog post about what we wanted to remember. 

But we all know that there are only so many hours in the day and so many things we want to do. If you have read my blog in the past you know that in 2016 I was invited to a birthday party paint night and I never looked back, I was hooked on painting. I took some art classes and had paint nights with my sister and our friend Lupe.

Painting took me into the world of Mixed Media which I also loved and I started collecting so much of the stuff that is necessary for Mixed Media, cardboard, paper, string, fabric, paints, inks, beads, old jewelry, well almost anything can be used for mixed media. My art room is still filled with it although I don't believe I've done much since Covid hit our world.

Covid made a big, huge change in my life because one day I'm just going along living my life and the next day they send us home with all our office equipment so we can work from home for a few weeks or months until they get this "little bug" worked out. Well....I'm still working from home and had to get rid of my art desk because I need my standing desk and that put an end to having space to do mixed media. You need to really spread out when doing mixed media.

I then got into Zentangle and that sort of saved my life because I needed something to do that would take me out of my own head and everything that was going on in the world and how our lives would never be the same again. No longer could we just run out to the grocery store to pick up a few things, now we had to suit up and make sure we had our masks and hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes. No more could we head to our favorite restaurant for lunch because everything was closed and mom and I had to learn to drive-thru (mom hates fast food) and eat in the car (she hates eating in the car too).

We have a bit more freedom now, we get out a little bit more, but it will never be the same. If we are in a store and we hear someone cough we all turn to see who the culprit is and we shoot them a dirty look like they are carrying the plague and that's because we think they might be. It's sad but true because there have been times that I have been the one coughing and I know how people looked at me!

During all this time of various art media and Covid and working from home, I lost the will to blog. At first it was because we didn't go anywhere or do anything because of Covid and now I think I've lost the ability to just take a trip spur of the moment. Covid really did a number on us, well on me. 

I guess I need to learn how to live again in this Brave New World. I need to start blogging again and continue being the Keeper of our Memories. I really have missed it and like anything else, if you stop doing it you lose the ability to do it and you have to start up again taking baby steps and building up your skills, like with any form of exercise or even with cooking. I will have to do a post about cooking and how Alicia lost her Groove when it comes to cooking.

Have you found that your life has changed since Covid? Has it changed for the better? What do you miss most about life pre-Covid?

Well, this is all for now, back to the real world and to the job that pays the rent...well the mortgage anyway. 

When a Book Grabs you and Reels you in

 I'm an avid reader and have to read something every day. Recently I've been really lucky in the books that I have found to read.

I don't buy books in book shops, although I would love to, I just can't fathom purchasing a book for $15 to $35 that I will read in a week or less, depending on how good it is. Last year I read 34 books; if I had paid $15 for each book I would have spend $510 in one year!! At $25 per book it would have been $850 and well, you catch my drift. 

So where do I buy my books you ask? Mostly at thrift stores, our local Goodwill has paperbacks for $1.00. I also buy them online from Thriftbooks.com but that is only when I can't find something that has been recommended to me and I don't want to wait to come across it at a thrift store.

So this is a long intro just to let you know that I bought this book for $1.00 and I'm about 3 pages into it and I'm ready to quit my job and just sit and read until I'm done and then cry when I can't pay my bills since I quit my job, but hopefully it will have been worth it!

Just the cover grabs you...a little boy sitting alone, is he the one being sold, why is he being sold? Who is selling him, who could part with a little child like this? 

The story takes place in 1931 and starts out with a newspaper reporter who is out on a different story but has to stop on a country road on a hot and dusty day to let his engine cool down. He picks up his camera and starts looking around, taking pictures as he goes and he hears a "plink, plink" sound and finds two little boys tossing pebbles into a can. He immediately takes their picture without noticing a sign next to them painted on a piece of old wood that says "Two Children for Sale". 

I read that and looked at the illustration of the sign itself and I was hooked! And that is why I want to quit my job and just read until I get the rest of the story.

What book has grabbed you like that? I just may be up all night long reading, but then again I may just read a bit here and there and savor it and make it last, kind of like how I eat a box of Chocolates!

Camping for Halloween - Pismo Coast Village and Lunch with the Cousins

    I know! I know! I have not done the second part of my post regarding the funeral for my brother in law Sean. I will, because it was one of the most amazing and special funerals I've ever attended. 

    Since his passing on August 4th, I have been spending the nights with my sister. She has never been alone, from living with our parents she went to live with her husband and I knew it was going to be difficult for her to be alone, especially in the beginning. 

    So my routine since then has been that I wake up at her home around 5:45 a.m. and get dressed and head to my house which is probably four blocks away. I do my normal morning routine and since I work from home and have since Covid began, I put in my eight hours of work. After work I spend a bit of time with my mom and then head over to Lisa's house where we have dinner, talk about the day, on Monday's we go to Grief Share, a grief therapy group that meets for two hours, then we start the routine all over again the next morning.

    Lisa and Sean LOVED camping! It was their greatest passion, after their children and grandchildren. They own a beautiful 5th Wheel motor home which they store at the coast and when they want to go camping, they make a reservation and the RV park picks up their RV and moves it to the campsite they will be in, they set it all up and hook up the water, sewer and electricity, they just come in and organize the inside and relax. 

    They had an annual tradition of coming the week of Halloween as all the RV's are decorated for the holiday. Because of the popularity of the event it books up fast so they had made and paid for their reservations months ago. Lisa wanted to go ahead and come, I was not so sure. I felt it was too soon, but if she wanted to do it, then I was coming with her.

    We left on Friday morning and her son Sean Jr came by to see us off, he's such a great young man and I'm so proud of him. You can see by the smile on their faces how much they still hurt for their dad and husband.

    We always stop at TJ Maxx in Paso Robles to shop. Lisa doesn't really enjoy shopping and even less now that she is grieving, but she made the effort. We didn't buy much, but Lisa did buy me a beautiful coffee mug with Nutcrackers on it, I'll share that when I put up my Christmas decorations sometime in December.

    We headed to Pismo where we had lunch at The Sidewalk Cafe where we each had the most amazing Asian Salad. It was huge too, we actually had it that night for dinner and I still ended up throwing about 1/4 of it away. 

    We got to the campsite soon after and I was so worried that Lisa was going to be devastated seeing the RV and walking inside for the first time without Sean, but the people that were supposed to set up the sewer, water and electricity had done nothing and all the hoses and pipes were strewn about in the back of the RV! Lisa was LIVID!  I think it was a blessing in disguise, she was so focused on getting everything fixed that she didn't remember to pay attention to the fact that this was the first time she was back in the RV without Sean. Death sucks so much, this is such a hard time for her.

    After all that drama we decided to walk to the clubhouse and then to the small store next door where Lisa bought two beers and some pretzels and we headed to a small table where she and Sean used to go when they came together. We said a toast to Sean and sat there drinking our beer. We then realized that we are Arizona girls and we don't do beach weather well (it was cold) and we headed back to the RV.

Beer in a can in a brown paper bag. Sean's favorite beer would have been Bud Light but they were out of that so we had Michelob Ultra. It was a beautiful spot but way to cold to stay long with the wind blowing.

    We set everything up and organized ourselves and decided where we each were going to sleep and then we watched some TV and played some cards and finally decided to get some sleep as we had plans to go to lunch the next day with two cousins that live close by.

    The next morning we slept in for a bit and woke up and had coffee, we planned our day because we knew we were meeting our cousins Diana and Vera at 1pm for lunch. We ran a few errands and cleaned up some more and then met them for lunch at this lovely place, Marisol at the Cliffs Restaurant. You can see the ocean in the background in the picture below.

Enjoying a Jalapeno Melon Margarita with the cousins. My sister Lisa in front taking the photo. Left to Right is our cousin Diana, daughter to my dad's sister Leonor and Elvira aka Vera daughter to my dads brother Manuel, then me.

    We had such a great time, there was a lot of laughter, a few tears and many shared memories. 

    For dinner I had the Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps, which were fabulous!

    Lisa had the bacon and eggs, the bacon looked really good, but she didn't share! 

Cousin Vera I believe had fish tacos with potatoes.

Cousin Vera deep in conversation.

    Cousin Diana had the nachos which she shared with us all and still had enough to take home!

Cousin Diana enjoying her nachos.

    Afterwards they wanted to come and see Lisa's motor home, so here's a picture of the four of us. We had such a great time and can't wait to get together again!

Great shot of the four us and Lisa's motor home. Left to right: Vera, Diana, me in the front and Lisa behind me.

    There is nothing like family. We never spent a lot of time with my dad's side of the family, but my mom and dad both used to say to us all the time that "blood calls" and it does. Even though we seldom see these cousins there is a bond that we can't break, our ancestors blood runs through our veins and calls for us to be family even though we are literally strangers.

    I'm not going to lie and say that this has been a great trip, Lisa is here in body, but not in spirit or in mind or heart. Her spirit, mind and heart is with her husband and she is going through an agony that is unimaginable. Earlier that day we were driving through a busy part of town that has a lot of little shops and I had a memory while passing a bead store of my sister in law Connie and I bringing mom right before Covid to Pismo and taking her to several bead shops and there is one we particularly enjoyed with her and as we drove by I remembered that day and how happy my mom was and how special she felt and I also realized that someday my mom is going to be gone and my heart clenched in pain and it was brief, maybe a few seconds, but I then knew exactly how Lisa is feeling, it's an incapacitating pain and you feel as though your heart will explode  and there is nothing that you can do....except to be brave like my poor, dear sister is being brave. 

    More to come as I'm writing this several days later. Dinner with the cousins was Sunday afternoon. I'm writing this on Wednesday afternoon, October 26th and this morning they invited us to get together again with them for dinner and drinks tonight.