Arizona

We took a very quick trip over to AZ today to visit my grandparents before they went home for the season.



















Alan, Yvonne & Beckett



















A beautiful CA/AZ sunset

Our New Home

From the front door, looking in. The boys' bedroom and bathroom is to the right, and the master bedroom is through the archway on the left.



From the living room, looking back towards the kitchen






The boys' bedroom






The fountain out in our driveway circle



One of the roads that leads into our circle drive




The entrance to the pool and the pool













Big lemon trees surround the pool area




























Trolley station at the end of our circle drive (and right out our windows/balconies)




Outside of our building

Moving Roadtrip Day 5: Los Angeles, CA to San Diego!

Plan for today: make our way through this mass of humanity. In the rain. And in this city, when it rains, people put on their hazard lights and slow down (the only time they don't drive 85 on the freeway, I think).


We did try to do some sightseeing on our way through, but it was raining too much to see anything on either side of the freeway, or to get out and walk around. We did run out to the end of the Santa Monica Pier. I didn't realize that this was the end of Rte. 66....Mom and I had been on Rte 66 this past fall when we went to visit Leon in New Mexico.















And, after just under 1700 miles, we made it to San Diego! I'll post pictures of our condo soon.....

Moving Roadtrip Day 4: Monterey, CA to Los Angeles, CA

We woke up this morning to more.....rain! Hmmm....we thought we were coming to *sunny* CA?! We had to leave our perfect ocean view room behind...but not before taking a few more pictures of the waves......












Our original plan was to drive as much of the coast as we could on Hwy 1, but with all the news reports on mudslides and flooding, we decided it would be best to head inland a little and travel south on the 101. There were some beautiful vineyards and artichoke crops along the way. And we saw ANOTHER rainbow today!



You really have to look close to see it...its behind the wires on the left side of the window.









You can see how much standing water there was from all the rain






We stopped in Pismo Beach (where we spotted a Beckett street sign) for lunch and to let the boys run around for a bit, and then kept driving into northern LA before stopping for the night.

Moving Roadtrip Day 3: Martinez, CA to Monterey, CA...and Happy Birthday to me!!!

We got up this morning and after a blueberry pancake feast, we said goodbye to David & family.









We decided to do some sightseeing on our way through San Francisco, and got some great pictures by the Golden Gate Bridge (or "Golden Bridge" as Beckett called it) on our way south. We somehow timed it that we got these pictures in the 5 minute window that it wasn't raining and the sun came out!





Alcatraz









even though it wasn't raining, it was still really windy








We wanted to drive along the ocean on Hwy 1 as much as we could, so we headed down towards Monterey on the 1, and ran into some nasty spurts of rain along the way..... And then we got our first glimpse of the ocean! As you can see, the storms were creating pretty big waves. In any case, it was beautiful scenery.














We stopped in Monterey for the night and got a hotel right on the beach, with an ocean view. What a treat! Even with the stormy weather, it was amazing. This was our view for the evening:





We went out to eat on the Fisherman's Wharf at a restaurant called Old Fisherman's Grotto to celebrate my 28th birthday.
















Traveling across the Golden Gate Bridge....foamy Pacific Ocean waves.....Seafood dinner in Monterey?? That's definitely a birthday to remember!