Resting for Christmas

We finally got the tree lot packed up yesterday morning and headed over to Walnut Creek to spend Christmas with our daughter's family. The plans are to do some serious R & R until after Christmas...oh wait...there are those two little grandkids to play with...and the cookie baking...and the perogie making...and going to see Avatar with my son-in-law (and maybe our son)...and our son and family coming down from Oregon soon...and visiting with friends...and the candle light Christmas Eve service at the church where Gary was confirmed many years ago...and opening the presents on Christmas morning. Oh well! The R & R will have to wait for a while. We just wish we could spend some time around the holidays with our cute nieces but that will have to wait until after Christmas.

Ain't life grand?!

The Season is Almost Over

Yes, we are almost done with Christmas trees for another season. We will close the lot on Sunday night, hopefully pack up on Monday and move on over to our daughter's on Tuesday. This one has seemed a little bit longer than most. It has also been a bit weird. Our first weekend in December, which is always our busiest time, broke all records for sales and was basically a madhouse. However, overall sales for the season are down a bit. But considering the economy we have done very well.

The owner's main base lot closed down last Sunday and we got most of their remaining trees on Monday. Another lot closed down last night and we should get their remaining trees today and still another lot will close today which will send us their remaining trees on Sunday morning. Since we are the largest lot in size and sales, we are always the last to close. Hopefully we can sell most of them.

As I said, we hope to head to our daughter's on Tuesday and spend five or six days there making cookies, perogies, seeing movies and watching the grandkids open presents. Oh, and we plan on relaxing after all this too!

Ain't life grand! Merry Christmas!!

Pumpkin Patch

This was from an earlier wind storm where the front awning was damaged

Another shot of the earlier storm...the fencing bit the dust

The above two shots are from right after we got here. All that setup work still to be done!

We are back again at the Pumpkin Patch in Burlingame, CA and boy are we bored to death! This year the owner of the lot got a complaint from one of our neighbors that we were "running a carnival" on her lot. So this year she would not allow us to have the slide and the bounce houses for the kids. The result is that business is way down mainly because of the lack of visibility but also because parents would bring their kids to the inflatables and would figure that they may as well buy a pumpkin or three while they were here. Last year I complained about having to be babysitter for the kids going down the slide but I sure do wish the slide was back!

The only excitement we have had was the storm that blew through on Tuesday. Some of the locals that have lived here since the 60's told me that this was the most intense storm they had ever seen here. The local TV news also called it a 50-year storm. I would have gotten pictures of it but I was spending too much time afterwards cleaning up. All of our temporary fencing was down, our signs out front came loose, some of the light poles came looose from the fence and yes, even the porta potty was spun around about ninety degrees.

The weather has been great since the storm left so hopefully we will have a busy weekend.

Ain't life grand!

Skunk Heaven in Oregon

Set the trap down, prop open the door and get back about 50 feet

After about 5-10 minutes the skunk pokes it's head out

It seems OK out here

Checking things out a bit more

I'm outta here!

One of the less appealing aspects of my job here at Promontory Park is dealing with our rather large skunk population. Since we started here in early July we have probably trapped and relocated more than thirty skunks. Some of the campers here think that we should drop the skunks, still in the traps, into the lake and leave them for an hour or so. No way. You either come and see nature in ALL it's glory or go stay at the Motel 6. (getting down off my soapbox now)

When I say that we relocate them, we actually drive them down the road about four miles, cross the river and take them about six miles up in the mountains before we release them...very carefully.

I've attached some pictures of the process. This is the ideal way...set the trap down, open the door, back way off and wait for five to ten minutes. Sometimes a skunk just won't come out and you have to turn the opened trap on end and shake him/her out. This is done very carefully because when you do that they are not in a good mood.

Ain't life grand!?

Gary
hoping I never get sprayed!

Roadtrip to Eastern Oregon

Some of the country we drove through to find the casino

Surprise, here it is

View from Timothy Lake campground

Boaters out on Timothy Lake

We decided to get away from the campground for the day so headed out to really get away from it all...sort of.

First we stopped off at Timothy Lake to scout out the place. The people we are now working for plan to take over operation of four campgrounds located on the lake so we did some looking to see if we might be interested. We like the fact that it is so remote and love the fact that the campgrounds are on a lake. It is also close to Mt. Hood which is a plus.

Next we headed south of Mt. Hood to check out another of the company's campgrounds. This one is located on the edge of the high desert just outside of Warm Springs Oregon. We decided that we didn't much care for this one, mainly because of the 90+ degree temps there in the summer.

On our way back through Warm Springs we saw a sign for a casino. Knowing that Cecile hates to pass by any casino, we turned off the highway and went to find it. We started to think that the sign was a joke after driving through about twenty miles of semi-desert country. Finally we found it. It was a gorgeous resort-type place with a golf course, RV park, hotel and very nice casino. Cecile was in heaven...AND we actually won money!

Ain't life grand!?

Gary & Cecile

Settled in at Promontory Park

Our campsite at Promontory Park

North Fork Resevoir

North Fork Resevoir from our dock

Entrance to Promontory Park

A boater who had a very bad day!

We are settled in here Promontory Park which is about seven miles southeast of Estacada, Oregon. The park is operated by Portland General Electric as part of their permitting requirements for operating their hydro-electric plants. It is actually a very beautiful park. We are working in the 50-site campground here, Cecile working in the office and Gary working on general maintenance. They also have a marina near here owned by PGE but operated by a sub-contractor. In our spare time we are trying to keep up with Pegs & Jokers orders. Although it is a nice place, it is still work. Luckily our time here ends soon after Labor Day. Having almost daily campfires helps pass the time too.

Ain't life grand!

Hawaii follow-up, etc

The overcast skies in the morning made for some terrific sunsets

The pool area of our condo complex...yes, it's beyond the hedgerow!

The pool area of the Grand Hyatt Kauai

Large koi pond at the Grand Hyatt...and no, the swan is not eating them

View of the Pacific Ocean from the Grand Hyatt lobby

Having heard some 'concern' that I never finished up with our Hawaii trip, here goes. On Day 6 we went back to Poipu beach to enjoy the sun and so Cecile could snorkel some more. That night we went to the Grand Hyatt for a luau. The weather ended up turning windy and nasty so they had to move the whole thing inside. It was a bit pricey but the food was excellent, the mai-tais kept coming and the show was really good so it ended up being worth it.

Our last day was kind of overcast and little drizzly so we spent most of the day inside, getting ready to fly out that evening. We were able to break away during a break in the weather to go down to the pool. All in all we had a great time there and would probably opt to go back if the opportunity presented itself.

Ain't life grand!?

Hawaii Day 5

Today was a road trip day. We drove south and then east around the island to Waimea canyon. Our vantage point near the end of the road was at about 3500' above sea level which provided a pretty spectacular view of the canyon. The actual view was much better than any of the pictures that I took. We tried to go up to the actual end of the road at about 4000' but the extra altitude put us above the cloud layer so visibility was next to zero.

After spending time up in the clouds we headed back down to sea level. A bit of shopping and then we headed for our resort and enjoyed the pool and hot tub.

Ain't life grand?!

Hawaii Day 4

Hawaiian Monk Seal lounging in the sun

Snorkel area at Poipu Beach

View up coast from Poipu Beach

One of the many local 'wild' chickens

Today we headed up the eastern coast a bit to spend some time at Poipu beach which B says is the best snorkeling beaches on the island. We dropped K off at one of the local resorts so she could pick up on their WiFi to prepare for an interview she was having this morning. As we were heading for the beach, B looked off to the side of the road and saw a group of 5 or 6 big sea turtles just off one of the smaller beaches. We stopped to watch them for a while but unfortunately did not get a great picture of the group of them. They were fun to watch though.

On to the beach, which was very nice and very spread out. Cecile headed out to the water to do a little snorkeling, B took little W out to one of the calmer more protected coves off the beach and I stayed under the shaded canopy up from the beach to watch our posessions...and do some reading. After B and W came back, I took a walk out to the beach and walked in the surf a bit. I did come across a roped off area where a Hawaiian Monk Seal was relaxing. Apparently there are less than 500 of these gentle creatures still alive in the wild.

After K came back from her interview and the rest of the gang wore themselves out in the water, we took a ride further up the coast to check out the local botanical gardens and see a rather interesting blow hole. The hole itself is less than a foot across but, under the right conditions, the water spurts up 15-20 feet in the air.

We came back to the resort where some took naps and some sat and read for a couple hours. Then it was time for the trek to the pool area. Another great day.

Ain't life grand?!

Hawaii Day 3

Wailua Falls

Opaeka Falls

This was pretty much a kick-back day. We left mid-morning on a short road trip to a couple of the local waterfalls. One of them was the waterfall that was always shown on the TV show Fantasy Island. The falls were nice but the lush vegetation was even more impressive. Near the end of our road trip we stopped at the Coconut Mall and browsed in the various upscale shops there. Cecile says that we will be going back there again.

The afternoon found us again at the pool. After pruning up there for several hours we headed back to the room to settle in for the night. Mom & Dad went out to a well deserved dinner while Cecile & I stayed home to watch a movie with little W before putting him down to bed. He is such a cutie. More later.

Ain't life grand?!

Hawaii Day 2

Little W playing in the resort wading pool

View of the Kiauea coast

Beautiful cove near the lighthouse

The lighthouse

The front of our resort

We started the day out by taking little W out for a walk to give Mom & Dad a little break. This started about 6:30am and those who know Cecile should be appropriately awed by now. We walked around and explored the grounds a bit and then headed across the street to the Starbucks and hung out for a while...little W loved his pieces of scone! The local variety shop next door to Starbucks opened early so we went browsing for a while there.

We returned after about an hour and a half and made plans for our day's road trip. We headed up the east coast of Kauai toward Princeville. Our first stop was at the Kilauae lighthouse. The lighthouse reminded me a bit of the lighthouse just north of Mendocino...it was built about the same time, around 1907. The lighthouse was nice but the grounds and coastline surrounding the lighthouse were absolutely beautiful. There were also quite a few birds with nesting grounds in the area.

We then headed a little further north to Princeville, which it seems is the ritzy area of the island. There were several beautiful resorts and lots of nice homes.

We continued on north and then west to literally the end of the road at Ke'e beach and the start of the Napoli coast of Kauai. The only way to continue on to the Napoli coast is on foot. We found a parking place and packed out our picnic lunch (and stuff) and headed for the beach. This place was fairly crowded but turned out to be a great place for Cecile to go snorkeling. Cecile said that this was the best place she had ever snorkeled. After spending a couple of hours at the beach, we started working our way back to our resort with plans to take advantage of the pool.

The pool area here is huge and gorgeous with hot tubs, wading pools for kids and three slides that wind their way down into the pool. I'll include pictures of that in the next blog. Later Mom and Dad left W in our care and they headed out for a dinner together. W was exhausted and fell asleep almost immediately after they left so it was an easy night for us. More later.

Ain't life grand?!

Hawaii Days One & (early) Two

Mt. Wai'ale'ale - the wettest place on Earth

A view from our balcony

One of the local date palms

Another view from our balcony

We woke up at 3:00am so that we could make the 6am flight out of Fresno. Since we were very excited, the early time did not make much of a difference...not much. The flight was on time and we quickly completed our 29 minute flight to San Francisco. BR, KR and little W came in on a later flight from Portland and met us at the gate to wait for our 9am flight to Hawaii. We were really looking forward to spending the week with them.

Our flight to Hawaii was a direct flight to Lihue airport on the island of Kaua'i. The flight was almost six hours longs, which is a long time to be crammed into United Airlines 767 sardine can. Little W was one of the lucky ones as he slept for almost five hours of the flight. Our room was not ready when we arrived so we drove south a bit and stopped at one of the local hot spots,Dukes, for lunch. Theis is generally a very popular place but since it is off season here we got in and served very quickly. Nothing spectacular but after the long flight, it tasted great. Being out of sorts from the lack of sleep and the long flight, we didn't do much for the rest of Day 1 except relax.

Our condo complex is a really nice, upscale place. We are on the 4th floor with a great view of Mt. Wi'ale'ale which is supposed to be the wettest place on Earth (500 to 600 inches of rain per year). The view also includes the local Safeway and shopping center but the price was right. Apparently the weekly price for the ocean view side was $1800 more. We like this place a lot.

I nodded off shortly after 8p (11p in Calif) and Cecile went out before she could finish watching the finale of one of her favorite shows.

Woke up before 5 and ended up watching the Little W show as he had a very restless night and was out in the living area shortly after I got up. It looks like Cecile and I are taking Will to the pool this morning so that KW and BW can relax, take a shower, etc. The plan is to go out exploring a bit today. More later.

Ain't life grand!

Getting Ready

We've been spending the past few days getting ready for our Caribbean cruise...plus getting Pegs & Jokers sets ready to fill some last minute orders. We are really looking forward to relaxing on our balcony while we sail in WARM weather. When we leave Park Sierra at 5:00am the temp will be in the low 30's. By the time we land in Ft. Lauderdale it is supposed to be in the low 80's. I'm hoping that we don't see a temp below 65 for at least seven days.

Cecile is already worrying about missing the cat but I keep assuring her that Aunt Patty O'Hare will take real good care of her. I won't miss the cat as I'll have other things on my mind...being warm.

A check of the weather along our route looks pretty nice with our last port, Nassau Bahamas, being the coolest of all the stops. Cecile is hoping that the water will be warm enough so that she and the Ryders can go snorkeling. Since I have been a stone all my life (I even sunk in salt water when I weighed less than 200 lbs), I will be enjoying other activities while they swim.

Less than 48 hours until our ship leaves Florida! You can tell that I'm not excited...yeah right!

Ain't life grand?!

Site Warming Party

Mittens enjoying her new hunting grounds

Resting after the meal

We had our best friends over to our site warming on Monday afternoon. We fired up the smoker and smoked some salmon, ribs and a whole chicken. The chicken turned out great but the ribs were a bit on the overdone side. That aside, with the side dishes that our friends brought, everyone had a great time...enjoying the good food and the good view.

Ain't life grand!

We've moved!

The view out to our "back yard"

Our grassy side yard and the rock grotto

Our finch feeder

View from behind site

Shed view

It's been a long time since this blog has been updated but there hasn't been much new to report. We have been busy...finishing Pegs & Jokers sets and now, moving to a new site here at Park Sierra. The previous site we were on was on the edge of the Park but was a little too close to our neighbors on either side. Our new site, 529, is on the creekside edge of the Park with a great view. We both are enjoying the more secluded nature of our new site. Our closest neighbor is at least 50 feet away. The pictures I'm including here give you a good idea of our view and seclusion.