Newport Beach California

Last week we took a 5 day trip to Newport Beach, California.  We flew into Orange County Airport then drove about 10 miles to the Marriott Newport Coast Villas.  It is a sprawling resort set on the side of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. 







  

Photo taken from Marriott Website

Our 2 bedroom 2 bath villa overlooked the golf course and the ocean.  We had a fully equipped kitchen and lovely balcony.  There were 3 pools on the property.  All the comforts of home but a much better view.  The weather was warm for them - in the eighties during the day and 70's at night.  Perfect for us to get away from the Texas heat.



We ate well at a variety of restaurants.  Two of our favorites were The Chart House and The Rusty Pelican - next to each other on the inland waterway.  We had some fabulous fish and seafood.  There were beautiful yachts to drool over while eating on the patios.  But the best were the "wedding cruises".  We saw a number of them - on very large 3 and 4 level boats.  All parties seemed to be having a great time. 

Another favorite was an old English pub and restaurant in town.  We ate in the smaller part which reminded us of our trip to England in 1991. 

Our last night we found a restaurant called Gulfstream.  That was our best fish and seafood meal of the week.

The highlight of our trip was the day we took a whale watching cruise in Dana Point.  The whole area was beautiful and one of my favorites of the trip.  But the whale watching cruise was the icing on the cake.  We saw close to a dozen blue whales, which are the biggest.  They came as close as 50 feet from our catamaran which was a little intimidating because of their size.  And countless dolphin putting on a show right next to the boat.  The one thing I really wanted to see was a sea lion and I wasn't disappointed.

Just a few miles from the resort we stumbled upon Balboa Island - full of little streets, a few shops and lots of tiny (but million dollar) bungalows. 

Of course no trip with Rich is complete without finding old cars and this one was no exception!

 Real estate in California is quite pricey.  One day we sat at one of the pools looking across at huge houses on top of a cliff.  Technology nerd that I am I broke out Zillow on my iPhone and looked up the prices of the houses we were looking at.  The one below is on the market for $18 million but there was one for $35 million that we couldn't see.

We had a great 5 days.  Below are some random shots.  We now look forward to our next adventure in Oahu next year.  Love the retired life!





Dana Point



This boat was in the Pirate of the Carribbean movies





Laguna Beach



Memorial Day Memories

When I was little my parents joined a private lake club in New Jersey called Deer Lake.  The official opening day of the summer season was Memorial Day and I don't think we ever missed going on that day every year.  In 1965 we purchased our campsite in the camping area.  There were a lot of wooden platforms where people would set up their large tents, generally old army tents, moved in makeshift furniture and spent the summer.  Memorial Day weekend was always the BEST!  I had numerous friends there, many of whom I did not see during the fall and winter months.  It was so exciting to see everyone again.  As so many others did, my mom and I spent the summer there while my father commuted to work from the tent.  The campground originated during WWII during the gas shortage so people could just stay at the lake. 

We camped every summer all through high school and up until I got married.  My parents kept the campsite and and we and our kids would go almost every day just for the day.  After my father passed away my mom continued to camp by herself every weekend.  My girls loved the lake as much as Rich and I did and made many friends.  In 1988 we were transferred to Pennsylvania but not far enough away that we couldn't go to the lake.  We resumed camping with my mom every weekend until we were transferred to Texas in 1991.  She continued camping for another 2 years until she made the move to Texas. 

Once Deer Lake gets "into your blood" it never leaves.  Evey Memorial Day I think of the lake and all the fun we had growing up there.   We sailed and raced our Sunfish sailboat, we participated in swimming races, rowboat and canoe races and mile long swims.  We all learned to swim there and Rich and I took lifesaving classes.  We go back to visit once in a while and it always feels like going home.  Jennifer has also taken Lacie there twice.    My grandparents were original members and my aunt and uncle and cousins also were members.  Rich grew up there with his family but weird as it may seem that is not where we met.  Most of our friends moved away years ago, although a few still go every summer.  Unfortunately we lost contact with a lot of our old friends over the years.

Through the miracle of Facebook I started a Deer Lake Group page a couple of years ago in the hopes of reconnecting with some of these old friends.  I succeeded - there are almost 200 members of the group and I have once again been in contact with friends I hadn't seen or heard from in 40 years!  All my Deer Lake friends are very special to me and always will be.  We created life-long friendships and memories at the most special place on earth!

Now my Memorial Days are spent at home in Texas with the family in our pool.  Yesterday they all came for a swim and "breakfast for lunch".  It is amazing how fast one family can fill a pool!  They swam in the morning then we cooked a pancake lunch on our grill's built in griddle.  I have no idea how Jennifer and James can afford to feed these kids!  We went through 2/3 of a box of pancake mix, 1-1/2 pounds of bacon and half a family size bag of sausage.  They were still hungry so Jennifer scrambled 9 eggs for them.  And after that they devoured most of a large home-made cheesecake.  We ate outside in

our outdoor room that Rich built last year.  My Deer Lake friends might think they recocognize the design of the structure.  Yes, we were thinking of the camper's shelter when we

drew up the plans.  You can't see very good in the picture but the

railing around the structure is a duplicate of the railing on the bridge to

the campground.  And if anyone remembers Janet Farnow and her

renouned cheesecake - that is the recipe I used.  And as usual we talked about past summers spent at Deer Lake and how much we miss it. 

Happy Birthday Lacie

Yesterday was Lacie's 10 birthday!  Seems like just yesterday that she was born.  She has blossomed into a beautiful young woman who makes us all proud.

Her celebration started Friday nigh with a sleepover at home with 8 girls.  So as not to bother the party we had 2 of the other kids, Georgia and Daphne, overnight and Gabbie and Grant went to Hoyt and Beth's, the other grandparents.  It was your typical late night sleepover with a bunch of giggly girls.  How fun!

Sunday afternoon was her family party.  Lots of kids, presents and of course a cake made by Jennifer.

Our present to Lacie was an overnight stay at our house last night followed by a trip to The American Girl Doll Store in Dallas today.  As most girls would be she was quite excited at the prospects of picking out her first very special American Girl Doll.  On the way home last night we stopped for dinner at Chilis along with Mimi.  After breakfast this morning we peaked at dolls on the internet before we headed out to "the store".   I was pretty sure she had already decided what she wanted from our internet browsing.  I had hoped for one who looked just like her but she had other ideas.  She fell in love with a beautiful Native American Indian doll named Kaya in a blue dress.  Of course the doll came in a brown dress, the blue one being sold seperately.  But it was her special present and we left the store with doll and blue dress. 

On the way home we treated her to lunch at The Rainforest Cafe.  Of course her new best friend also attended. 

If I haven't mentioned before (and I am sure I have) Lacie is a very special young girl to us.  She is of course beautiful but also kind, thoughtful, smart, sensitive, caring and just an all around good child who has never given any of us any trouble.  She is the product of her great up bringing by Jennifer and James and a true gift from God.

Happy Birthday Lacie - we love and treasure you!

Cruising

On January 29, 2012 Rich and I took our first cruise.  We went on the Carnival Magic, a new ship sailing out of Galveston, TX.  It stopped on Cozymel, Grand Cayman and Montego Bay, Jamaica.  We left on Sunday.  Monday was spent at sea  - a very rough sea.  According to seasoned cruisers it was unusually rough.  My lunch menu was Dramamine and Pepto Bismol.  That helped but it was tough.  That night we went to a show and watched the spotlights swaying pretty bad.  Even the cruise director mentioned how bad it was.  On the walk back to our cabin I was literally bouncing from wall to wall.  Luckily we woke up to calm seas on Tuesday and it stayed that way the rest of the trip.  Phew!

We absolutely loved the cruise!  I was afraid I might freak out when I couldn't see land or other boats but that was not a problem.  It took us most of the week to explore the boat.  It was as long as 3 football fields and 14 decks tall.  Our cabin was on deck 2 in what they call a cove balcony.  We really liked being close to the water and really enjoyed the balcony.  The room was quite spacious and comfortable.  Our room key worked the lights in the cabin.  Upon entering we had to insert the key into a slot for the lights to come on.  When leaving, we removed it and the lights went off.  What a great energy saving program and source of anusement for me. 

We chose "our time" dining which was really nice since we could eat whenever we wanted.  Most nights we went to the main dining room, also most breakfasts.  Lunches were spent at the many buffets.  We had 2 "dress up" nights which was nice.  The food was wonderful.  Even with my lapband I was able to enjoy a wide variety of dishes.  Every night we met new people - everyone was very nice.  Most were seasoned cruisers and gave us a lot of tips.  Every night in the dining room they dimmed the lights and the wait staff danced for about 5 minutes.  Quite amusing!

Here are some pictures from the inside of the ship.  Everything was brand new and shiny.  We saw three Vegas type shows and 3 comedy shows.  There was lots of various entertaiment everyday including trivia games, live bands and karaoke.  Regretfully I couldn't talk Rich into the karaoke.  The casino was fun but not very profitable for us.  There was one deck full of shops, luckily not very profitable for them. 

 A good chunk of our time was spent on the outside decks.  There were two pools and numerous hot tubs.  There was a large water park - Rich went down both slides.  We played miniature golf, pool and Rich went on an overhead ropes course.  We got in lots of sun and relaxation time, especially enjoying the adults only Serenity Deck.  I mostly relaxed and read!

Our first stop was Cozymel.  We got off the ship and shopped for about an hour but didn't have any excursions scheduled.  It was quite colorful! 

The second stop was Grand Cayman.  We had previously scheduled an excursion to swim with the dolphins and stingrays.  There was no dock in Cayman so we had to take what was called a "tender" - a small boat that transported us from the ship to shore.  From there we took vans to where the dolphins were.   We then boarded another boat for a 5 mile ride to Stingray City, a beautiful sandbar in a cove.  There were numerous other boats there.  It took a little courage for me to exit the boat via a ladder but I finally summoned all my courage and did it.  We were chest deep in the bluest water I have ever seen surrounded by stringrays with a 5' span.  These creatures were extremely large and incredibly soft and we had a great time playing with them.  Of course there were professional photographers with steep prices but these pictures are priceless to me.  The underwater pictures were taken by Rich.

Getting back on the boat via the ladder was another challenge but I managed.  We then went back to where we started with the dolphins.  We donned life vests in preparation for our swim with the dolphins.  Again - another ladder!  I just could not do it with a bad knee and sore shoulders from the previous ladder so I finally just jumped in!  Hence the wonderful hairdo in the pictures.  Again, there was a professional photographer and we ended up purchasing pictures and a DVD.   This was a once in a lifetime experience!

Stop 3 was in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  We investigated exursions before hand but none got very good reviews so we decided to pass.  We were warned about getting off the ship and being accosted by drug dealers.  That didn't sound like much fun so we stayed on the ship.  Actually, excursion day is the best time to say on board since we almost had the boat to ourselves.  We really enjoyed it.

Being in the middle of the ocean with almost nothing around you is great for viewing sunsets and sunrises.

Although while sailing we didn't see many other boats we apparently were not alone.  We saw quite a few other ships while at the various ports.  The shear size of these ships is amazing.

Every night when returning to our cabin after dinner we were treated to chocolates and various towel sculptures created by our staff. 

All in all our experience was fabulous and something we will ever forget.  The boat was georgous, the food was wonderful and the staff was fabulous.  I don't have one bad thing to say about the trip and would recommend it to anyone who hasn't already tried it.  This was our first cruise but it won't be our last!!!