Wanderings of the Warrens

Friday, January 2, 2015

Happy New Year and Vacation Plans

With the new year we begin to think about vacation plans for the summer. We had so much fun and positive response when blogging about our trip last summer that we want you all to know our New Year's resolution is to do it again this year.

After reviewing the trip last year we decided two things 1) we left a little too early - we had planned 3 full months and maybe a week or two more. But the best laid plans of mice and men don't always go the way we want - we were home by mid-August (we had left Memorial Day weekend). As most of you know August and September are the hottest and wettest days of the summer in Phoenix. This year we plan to leave closer to the 4th of July and be home by late September. 2) Although we did a lot of sightseeing and went to places we'd never been, we spent too much time hurrying to get to the next place on our agenda. This year we plan on taking it a little slower and being gone a full 3 months.

some of our sights from last summer
(sorry goes too fast, must learn to master this)

Our plans are to visit the far western coast of the United States - from San Diego all the way up to the Canadian border. We have plans to be with family and friends, time for just the 2 of us and plans for lots of sightseeing. While in California we hope to visit our son in Long Beach, my cousin in Yorba Linda, hubs sister and brother-in-law, my cousin and my baby sister. We also hope to travel through and stay at some of the awesome National Parks (Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings River). We plan to continue the trip up into Oregon where we hope to see my dad's sister, Aunt Shirley and her children (my cousins).....it's been several years since seeing them. From there we'll go to Washington state (visiting more friends), over to Idaho (where my mom was born and spent some of her youngest years), Montana (to see Glacier National Park), then head south - down through Wyoming (Yellowstone), into Colorado, New Mexico, over to Nevada and then down home. If you live in any of these areas, or are just visiting during this time, and want to get together let's work on making that happen! Email or private message or call or leave a message below and we'll see what we can work out.

Be sure & bookmark our blog: www.WanderingsOfTheWarrens.Blogspot.com by clicking the link and then right clicking to save the page. I'll try and post here when there are updates so all you will have to do is click through. I did find sometimes last summer that I would forget this last step....so just be sure to check it out occasionally.

For the next few months I'll just be updating this blog occasionally....be sure to keep an eye out for the updates....once the trip starts I'll work hard to update daily.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

August 9 - Winding Down

We left Solvang about 8am today after spending several days shopping, eating and having fun with special friends we had not seen in 25+ years. What a great time was had by all!!!

We left about 8am and arrived in Long Beach to have lunch with eldest son in Los Alamitos at Taco Surf on Los Alamitos near Katella. Great food, great company. Bill surprised us with his 65 lb weight loss....he looks GREAT!

After lunch we headed to Santa Ana to spend some time with my cousin Hillary. Such a sweet lady, who suffers with Alzheimer's. She paid more attention to Howard than me...having fun flirting with him. She loves to whistle along with the music. We visited with her for some time and then jumped in the car to head to Yuma AZ to visit our youngest.

California coastline near San Diego

We arrived in Yuma about 6:30 pm, grabbed some fast food for supper, visited for awhile and are now ready to drop in bed.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

August 7 - Fun Day in Solvang

What a fun day we had today! Nothing like being with special friends we hadn't seen in years. We started with Danish Blueberry Pancakes at Ellen's Danish Pancake House in Solvang. We got our exercise by walking the streets, and shopping the stores, of Solvang. For those who don't know Solvang is a quaint little town in the foothills northeast of Santa Barbara (about 25 miles). We used to come here often in the 80's before moving from southern California and had not been back since.

After a short rest we headed to Andersen's Pea Soup for a light supper and then came back to our hotel for a few rousing games of "Chicken Foot". We quit about 9:30pm and retired to our rooms for what hopefully will be a good nights rest.

This is where we ate Friday night in Solvang.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

August 6 - Fun in Cali

Of all the places we have been this summer we have had THE BEST weather in California! Monday was absolutely gorgeous as we toured the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Tuesday was just as wonderful as we kicked back and recupped from the previous day. We also had lunch at Marie Calendar's in Camerrello and took a driving tour of the area. In the evening we met hub's sister & her hub's friends - enjoying Lemon Merrangue pie and lots of talk.

Wednesday we arose early, packed, snapped a couple pictures and said our goodbyes before heading north to Solvang. We stopped for a couple hours in Oxnard for lunch with my brother at The Lazy Dog...great food and lots of fun playing 'catch-up'! Tonight we met up with our good friends in Solvang. We went to 'The Red Viking Restaurant', a Danish Smorgasbord in the heart of Solvang. Tomorrow we plan to do the touristy things and see how much damage we can cause and how much $$$$ we can spend/save

Howard and Dorothy

Monday, August 4, 2014

August 4 - Summer Trip - Phase 2

Yesterday we started phase 2 of our summer trip. After recuperating from phase 1 we took off into the pouring rain and headed to southern California where we are now visiting hub's sister and brother-in-law. We arrived here Sunday night after a 7 hour drive. After a short rest we all went to Chili's for some supper and then came back home for some early shut-eye.

Up early this morning, we all headed to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley,...what a beautiful and interesting place.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

July 29 - Reprieve Time

We planned to take a few days and stay away from the heat of home but our trip was cut shot when on Saturday night there was a large storm in Phoenix and we decided rather than stopping in Flagstaff we would go directly home and see if everything was ok at home. We left Albuquerque early Sunday morning and arrived home to find we had not been affected by the storm (thankfully) although many of our friends had. What we did discover when we got home was a HOT condo. The AC had gone out and it was 97 degrees inside (110 outside). Thankfully our condo association fees cover the AC (no additional cost to us) but being Sunday they could not get anyone out to fix it until the next morning. We debated about getting a hotel room but opted to borrow a couple fans from our daughter, those plus our ceiling fans helped to make things bearable. We slept in the living room with doors and windows opened - that helped.

The AC man showed up about 9:30 Monday morning and was working on it for over 3 hours (poor guy, we thought we were hot, can't imagine how hot it was on the roof!). It took the better part of Monday to cool things back down but last night we were able to return the fans. I spent most of Monday cleaning an empty refrigerator, doing laundry, dusting floors and furniture and repacking items for the next part of the trip.

We plan to leave Friday or Saturday and drive to California to visit #1 son, Howard's sister and husband, my brother, meet friends in Solvang and then stop in Yuma to visit #2 son on our way back to Phoenix. We should be gone no longer than 2-3 weeks, if that.

I posted pictures of the first part of our vacation on my last post - below are more pictures from the 2nd half. Be sure and keep reading as there will be more posts to come as we complete this phase of our 'Wanderings'.

Friends in Partlow VA

Savannah River (South Carolina)

Deer on our friend's property in GA

Friends in Georgia

Entering Tennessee

Relatives in Louisville

Ducks at KOA in Joplin, Missouri

Amish buggy in Jamesport, Missouri

Friends from Kansas in Jamesport, Missouri

Sunday, July 27, 2014

July 26 - 27 Albuquerque, New Mexico

Saturday was a quiet day - we slept in and took it easy most of the morning and then we drove around Albuquerque checking out the sights. The afternoon was nap time and then time to catch up on TV watching. It was a fairly warm day but nothing compared to the 115 of Phoenix. Tonight we went to an IHOP just up the street from us. They give a 20% discount discount, which was a nice bonus! As I type this it is looking like we may get some rain tonight and the wind is blowing which is cooling down the air immensely.

A small Baptist church is within walking distance of the campground and our plans are to go there before heading out of town. After church we will leave for Flagstaff where we may or may not spend a couple days. We are close to home now - just 400 +/- miles...we really don't want to end the trip but we know that we have to get home someday. The good part about going home is within a few days of arriving home we plan to continue on to southern California where we will visit family and friends we have not seen in a long time. We also plan to drive up to Solvang. So just because this phase of our trip is almost over don't let that stop you from checking out this blog....it will continue as we travel when possible.

Some interesting pics from our trip (more pictures on tomorrow's blog)