Once in awhile-now and again-this is us

Well, the holiday festivities have come and gone. It seems as we age, Christmas takes on a different feeling, even a different meaning. Putting up our little tree brings memories of joy from Christmas’s past, and for me, they mingle with the current year’s happiness bringing more joy to this Christmas. Losing Ted and Midas this time last year, did put a little more stress on that notion.

I think little children that still believe in Santa Clause anticipate Christmas on a much different level than adults. Of course adults get to see the joy the gifts they give bring excitement as the children rip open presents squealing with delight.
But then Santa gets all the credit, until kids figure out the logistics of Santa’s sleigh and flying reindeer?

Besides Santa, there are other beliefs about Christmas. Being catholic, as a child we always had a manger scene with Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and the three kings bringing gifts, with all the animals gathered around on Christmas for his birth. It always sat on the tv. Here’s something from google about that.

We didn’t make new year’s resolutions this year because those always go to the wayside too soon. But we did quit drinking our beloved cocktails and are already seeing a little weight loss. We are trying to eat less, cut down on sweets, and who knows we might even start exercising on a regular basis, maybe even join a gym, but that’s not a resolution, just a thought🤔

We had a very nice Christmas dinner at Tony’s. Since Tracy lives so far away, Tony and his family have taken over the dinner preparations, even the girls participate. Usually I make a pumpkin pie. If Tracy were there I would make a pecan pie too.

But Tony made an apple pie this year

It was delicious.

We spent New Year’s Eve with Frank and Linda in their beautiful home right next door, how lucky are we? Linda is an exceptional cook and never disappoints us with her homemade cooking and beautiful table settings. She tells us in her younger days she often made meals from Julia Child’s cookbook. Have you seen those recipes in that huge book? Yikes! Any of you ever cooked Julia Childs recipes? I haven’t. I did watch her tv show in the 60’s though. I still remember her dropping a chicken on the floor and her comment afterwards😂

We celebrated the ball dropping listening to New York at 9pm. Who stays up until midnight any more? Any of you? We had a glass of champagne, blew whistles, kissed, and hugged, then walked home. A very fun evening.

Here’s a very brief summary of the origins of how the new year got started. (for those of us who didn’t know, well, basically for me) I researched it.

it also has many traditions that people all over the world celebrate:

The only thing we do now is make a pot of black eyed peas. I waited too late to find the dry peas in stores, that’s never happened, so I had to use canned black eyed peas this year. Then going to several stores couldn’t even find a ham hock to simmer with them. So I used the leftover pork shank Linda had given us from Christmas Eve dinner in them. I added broth and simmered them for over an hour. So we did cook them and eat them on New Year’s Day for good luck. They were delicious. I know Tracy cooks black eyed peas also, anyone else use this age old tradition or any of those others?

now a few other things…..

A interesting ‘cirrus intorus’ cloud according to google lens.

I will still see hearts⬇️ sometimes in Jerry’s strawberries

And of course a blog would not be complete without pictures of our great granddaughters, here with their mom and dad.

Taking a selfie.

a beautiful sunset yesterday

we’re going to the Queen Mary for Valentine’s Day ❤️
stay tuned 💗jilly

p.s. that’s ‘tit’ and ‘tat’, delightful crocheted characters that Tracy made for us on the header image😊

The aquarium hasn’t changed much since our last visit several years ago, they still have that same whale hanging from the ceiling from the opening in 1998. Long Beach doesn’t compare to the one in Monterey though, which is so much bigger, and I have to say so much better. In our younger days we spent a lot of time in Monterey and a visit to the aquarium was always included. But we did enjoy this one that day but probably won’t go back. A lot of the exhibits were lacking ‘oomph’, not very exciting. Photos were hard to take because of so much glare on the glass also. It ruined a lot of my shots.

Along with the Queen Mary and the Carnival cruise line, housed in the old Spruce Goose building, Long Beach is definitely a tourist destination. The Queen Mary offers packages for stays before and after a cruise. We met many people doing that. The 2028 Olympics will probably bring a lot of tourists here to enjoy those things too, plus fill up all the hotels. We see evidence of the city fixing a lot of problems lately to make the city presentable, and that’s a good thing.

We loved the octopus exhibit.

Because they have no bones they can fit in tight places even a crevice the width of a quarter. They can change colors and textures and can spray the enemy with a cloudy substance to get away quickly. Very interesting creatures.

We spent a lot of time at the octopus tank. They kind of look like aliens, but are so fascinating to watch. We recently watched a Netflix series about oceans of the world. They cover 71% of the earth, making us the ‘Blue Planet’🌎 We learned so many things we didn’t know. It’s apparent that all the oceans of the world are in some real trouble now.

The jelly fish an are always amazing too.

and the sea nettles

There were a lot of informational signs around the aquarium to read about the oceans, the fish, and climate change and what we can do about it. California is a leader in that area, but it’s still happening. We won’t see it in our lifetime but California is losing its snowpack.

But we will always still have things to make us smile;

a smiling lemon

and a praying mantis makes me smile🙂because it looks like it’s smiling

Hope you all have a very merry Christmas 🎄

stay tuned

💗jilly

It was a great way to spend Jerry’s birthday walking around on this beautiful ship. There weren’t many people on deck that day.

But looking at some of the displayed photos on the walls the deck would get crowded.

Old photographs from that era always seem to show men in suits, ties, and hats. The women are always dressed up and wearing hats and probably were wearing nylons, with garter belts! egads! The horror of garter belts. I remember how I hated getting runs in my nylons and then using nail polish to stop them.

They even played games in suits

Many famous people traveled on the Queen Mary, here’s just a few that were displayed.

A lot of royalty, including the Queen, travelled on the Queen Mary also. This couple looks like they were accommodated very well. 155 pieces of luggage? Maybe it was a trip around the world.

Some of these guys look awfully young, like children. The ship could hold 2,000 passengers, you do the math.

The next time we’re here I would love to take a tour. But Jerry wanted to go to the aquarium for his birthday. I didn’t take many pictures and only a few were good enough to post.

but stay tuned anyway😉

💗jilly

Hannah sent a picture of Melody reading to Scarlett, so sweet🥰

I’m very thankful to have all of you followers to share tidbits of our lives with. And thank you Ray for opening up this highway to happiness for me😘
Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving🦃we did.

💗jilly

We celebrated our 63rd 🎉wedding anniversary aboard the Queen Mary this year💕
When traveling and we tell people we’re from Long Beach, they will sometimes ask about the Queen Mary. So now we can tell them, it’s a wonderful adventure and we had a great time.

that’s Liberace in the poster

The hallway to our room, we were about 10 doors down.

When we checked in Jerry mentioned it was our anniversary, so we were upgraded to the city view room instead of the port view room we had reserved, at no extra charge.

That bed was so comfortable 💤

The wood interior looked so elegant, I loved the atmosphere it created.

After getting settled in, we decided to have our cocktails in the Promenade Bar instead of the restaurant. We ordered a spinach and artichoke dip with our drinks and just relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere and another city view with lights.

We were enjoying our surroundings and the excellent service quite a bit so we decided to stay a little while longer. We ordered another drink and another appetizer, two little boa buns filled with pork belly. WOW. They were fantastic. Thuy makes us delicious boa buns that look and taste like restaurant quality and we enjoy them so much. (Thuy, just to let you know pork belly tastes really good in the buns too). We said to heck with dinner and ordered another round. We closed with the bar at 9:00.

We celebrated 🎉at the Promenade Cafe which was included with our room, and since we hadn’t eaten much for dinner we were hungry. There was a nice variety of choices on the menu or you could do the buffet. Biscuits and gravy were on the menu💖Jerry’s favorite💖and it came with two over easy eggs on top😋so we ordered from the menu. I got the bacon and eggs which had the best potatoes ever. We couldn’t finish those large proportions.

After checking out at 11:00, we could spend as much time as we wanted to walk around the ship, so we did and it was a lot of fun and very interesting.

Thanks for your comments and thanks for coming back to see the Queen Mary on the insides, there’s more in the next post, so y’all come back again

💗jlly

Tracy and Daryl were in England in September 11th-25th on one of their castle sightseeing adventure tours. How many have you seen now Tracy? Daryl was a contractor during his working days so the construction of castles intrigues him. After the tour was over they went to York to have some time to themselves and relax before that long flight home. One of Tracy’s photos ⬆️ she sent me was of a typical quaint street scene they had walked down to shop and sightsee.

Frank and Linda were in England for almost three weeks October7th-31st to visit her nephew, Jack, who’s in Birmingham and then London to treat him to the play Oliver. Their trip ended in York also. The photo below ⬇️is one Linda sent me. It’s from the very same street that Tracy and Daryl had just been on. Talk about “Serendipity”.

She did go in that shop though and got me this cute little ghost to put on my shelves, I love it Tracy. It’s right along side a beautiful heart Tony had bought me years ago that I treasure. You guys are the best💗

I’m going to include a few photos from both Tracy’s and Linda’s trips for you to enjoy.

Tracy’s first

~~~~~and here are some of Linda’s~~~~~~

Jack loved his visit with Frank and Linda and enjoyed seeing his first ever play in London.

I always enjoy getting photos from all of you out there. So don’t hesitate to send me some and let me know if you don’t mind me sharing them here,

and of course I’ll always share photos of the newest members of the family with you.

“the curiosity of kids, isn’t it wonderful”?

The Queen Mary is next – stay tuned

💗jilly

I wrapped our driftwood up tight in some wide Christmas Saran wrap that I had put in the coach a long time ago. It was still there and came in handy that day, I wanted to keep sand and any bugs it had trapped. We haven’t put them in the yard yet, we’re still deciding where they should go.

The black tape above the cab is where all the damage is. Hannah and Javier loved the coach but all the rain that Washington gets was not kind to that corner. They didn’t have the time, with two little adorable girls, or the money it would take to fix it. You can always come down and use it guys😃

We took the coach to a repair shop Friday to have that long list of other repairs and a few cosmetic things done. We are grateful for Ted’s inheritance to be able to get all the those necessary repairs to keep our beloved coach running to take us safely on our journeys💗

Our first stop was the Hitching Post in Buellton. We made it just in time for dinner. We were looking forward to the exceptionally delicious food we have always enjoyed there. The special attention from the wait staff and friendly atmosphere make it extra special and you can watch your food being cooked by friendly and talented cooks and say “hi” and they let us stay overnight in the parking lot.

The 101 and 1 are slower than the 5freeway, but a much more enjoyable drive. We caught the 1 in Oxnard where there are thrift stores that we always stop at, and then drive on to Ventura where there are 2more. It’s a break from driving for Jerry, before he has all that stop and go traffic getting home. Plus he likes thrift stores too.

I have a harder time finding unopened puzzles from thrift stores now, but this trip I found 8 all together, 4 at the Ventura store. Plus we found a lot of other good stuff, useful stuff for the coach. Most thrift stores have a lot of new merchandise now at lower prices. We got some great new socks.

I’m not buying opened puzzles anymore but I found 2 Norman Rockwell opened puzzles. I love those so I took a chance and bought them, and they were at different thrift stores, one in Washington and one in Ventura, imagine that.

The next day we stopped at Thornhill Broom campground at Pt. Magu State Park. I was hoping to stay the night but it was still early and Jerry was anxious to get home. It wasn’t full so the park ranger let us drive through and look around after we told him our story about how long we have been going there, 30 years at least and how much we love it. It was our very first campground. But it’s susceptible to storm surges and frequent flooding that change the topography constantly. They lost a lot of campsites in 2014, including our favorite #26, when it got hit with a huge storm. Over the years it’s also lost miles of rocks that we used to walk over and collect and are now completely covered by sand.

We hope to spend lots of time there again in the coming years. It’s close and we can relax, watch Vandenberg, now called Vandenberg Space Force Base, rocket launches, Pt. Magu air shows, sunsets, people watch, and thrift store shopping, and for sure have dinner at the Hitching Post.

.It was a fun trip, but we knew the rest was going to be slow going. We would hit a lot of traffic on 1 through all the beach traffic. It was sad driving through Malibu. All those beautiful beach front houses that butted up to the hwy were now just pillars jutting up in the sand. All debris has been cleared so that’s all that’s left. We saw some for sale signs and some heavy equipment working at others. I read people, you would have to be wealthy, are still willing to pay millions just to live on the beach, even if it’s only on stilts. I didn’t take any pictures, it was just too sad. Plus we’ve all already seen too much of that tragedy on tv.

When Jerry was registering the coach he casually asked if we could use our old vanity plates, of course we had saved them. She had to do some checking even though I doubt anyone else would have used those letters, so we did get to keep our ‘JNJSBNB’ ‘jerryandjillsbedandbreakfast’ plates. For $170.00 that is, but it’s so worth it to us.

It’s good to be home, but soon as the coach is ready we will probably be in it going somewhere.

so stay tuned

💗jilly

Did any of you here in Southern California see the sunset Tuesday night?

We started the drive home from Washington hoping to stop at the beachs and look for driftwood. I’ve heard about the copious amounts they get up here. We weren’t finding any. So we talked to a man walking his dog about it. He said so many people come during the summer months the smaller pieces get collected quickly.

We looked out but there was none here⬆️

or none at this beach⬇️

This was Driftwood Beach so we thought for sure we would find some. As we walked along the friendliest dog, a border collie, would run up to us to say “hi” then let us pet him and then he’d run back. Then do it all over again, It was so much fun.

And then we spotted the driftwood. Eureka!

These are going to look nice in the front yard. Thanks for cleaning them up and dragging them back to the coach Jerry 💗

but needless to say we had a great time beach-coming.

We had fun the whole trip. We’re looking forward to getting the coach fixed up and cleaned up so we can have many more adventures in it. Even just overnight journeys are so much fun. We don’t know how long it has left – anymore than we know how much time we have left 🤔

but always stay tuned

you never know about us

💗jilly

There she is, right out front where we can see her from our front row seat in the dining room🤩

We got home last night. We had a great day driving on highway 101 and 1. Familiar to us for so many years. A lot of our trips we started on those roads going north.

Thank you all for your wonderful comments and support for my ramblings of our travels all these years. It’s a pleasure to receive such heartfelt words.

I’ll wrap up this trip up soon. As you all know, there are things that have to be done the minute you walk through the door from a trip🙄😲😵Thank you Frank and Linda for taking such good care of the house and mail. I’m glad we can provide for each other. 💖💕🩷

so until next time,

love you all,

and stay tuned

💗jilly

Our route for today. We saw Jerry’s cousin and wife yesterday. The ones we used to go camping with, they were included in a lot of the posts here. We are all the same age and had a lot of fun with them. They aren’t able to get around as well as Jerry and I so don’t camp anymore. We had pizza for dinner and talked over old times. Again had a lot of fun😂

We got up early, ate at McDonald’s, and got on the 680 freeway and started home. But first we’ll stop in Bulleton to have dinner at the Hitching Post.😋😋

A sign in McDonald’s window

our route

The windows uncovered. You can drive on some of the beaches.

I blew Jerry away on this hand of 500 rummy

looking out those windows on our last campground on the Sacramento River.

Your driving has been impeccable Jerry, good job. You deserve a nap 💤

the spot we lost power on a overpass, but Jerry got it down there by the green sign out of the lane.

Dunsmuir is a railroad town. We found out Amtrak goes through here on the train we were on. But it’s in the middle of the night so we didn’t know that .

One of our favorite stores is the hardware store. It’s been there since 1894. You walk in and the first thing you notice is the tin ceiling.

Jerry loves hardware stores, don’t all men?

I liked this. Do you see Jerry back there is still looking

The houses have lost some of their charm since we were here last. This one was all decked out for Halloween. Notice the macabre doll on a swing. I love the rock wall.

I think there aren’t a lot of rules about colors of paint to use on you house.

our first visit here was 2010. The people haven’t changed but the town has a little.

If we get up this way again we’ll be sure to stop by.

stay tuned

💗jilly