Blogs from Bakersfield, California, United States, North America
Wonderful Weekend of Laughs and Love
Published: May 13th 2012North America » United States » California » Bakersfield
May 13th 2012
Friday morning we left Cattail Cove SP and drove into Lake Havasu City to an rv dealer, where we bought a new grease hub cover (or whatever) for the camper. Then on to California. We drove through many miles of Mojave Desert to Barstow on I-40, then Hwy 58 over the Tehachapi Mountains and into Bakersfield. We had an appointment with an rv dealer in Bakersfield to fix an electrical problem that showed up the night before. There the service manager recommended we just get a new gfi outlet at Walmart or Home Depot and change it out ourselves. This was without looking at the camper, just his assumption that that was the problem. Turns out it wasn’t, but that wasn’t evident until Saturday, when Kerry changed it out. Luckily his cousins, Jim and Jerry, are ... read more
Preparing for a Move Abroad
Published: April 24th 2012North America » United States » California » Bakersfield
April 24th 2012
We have thought for some time that we’d like to live in other places for a time. We’d originally thought we’d live away for a year at a time but now have reconsidered that. We think that our grandkids wouldn’t be able to visit more than once and my mom would not visit at all. Also, after last year’s emergency with our granddaughter we realized that we can’t leave for so long so think that 4 months would be a good fit for now. We’d originally thought that we’d go to Alaska for our first stint but after dreaming about operas in Europe for the past few months we think it would be good to start in Europe. We were thinking something close to Vienna, Salzburg and Prague would be good. I sent out an email ... read more
Addicted to Downton Abbey
Published: February 21st 2012North America » United States » California » Bakersfield
February 21st 2012
My husband, Dale, and I have been completely immersed in all things “Downton Abbey”. He was still working last year when Season 1 aired so I watched it alone, hooked. Just before Season 2 started in January our Public Television station aired season 1 and I insisted that he watch. After a few minutes he was hooked as well. So on nearly all of our Sunday evenings for some time now, we could be found in front of out telly! We’d cry at the sad parts and tell the characters what they needed to do. Then we started watching the episodes of Season 1 on Netflix during the week. We are amazed at what we missed the first round. When we sat down for Season 2 Episode 6 we decided to have champagne while we watched. ... read more
Not So Quick Last Minute Trip
Published: January 24th 2012North America » United States » California » BakersfieldJanuary 24th 2012
Last minute travel, not all options are great. So my son called this morning asking if I could come up by 11 tomorrow morning. The new baby will have her heart surgery and they really need someone to care for the 16 month old. Babysitter leaves at 11a.m. and my son has no time off available so they really need someone to help. I looked at United but there are no flights available for tomorrow morning. The flight for early a.m. isn’t available. Then looked at Amtrak but that arrives at 11:40. It is only $49 but just a little too late and the return is too early. Looked at rental cars, esh- $120 + gas. Realized that I’ll need a round trip so looked at United again but it is $450 even though there is ... read more
Starting our Grandkids Trip to San Francisco
Published: January 15th 2012North America » United States » California » BakersfieldJanuary 15th 2012
Finally, we are on the road! 3 little kids in car seats in the back seat of our truck, 2 adults and 2 big kids in the RV. We gave the 2 big kids Dale’s laptop and Justin brought his, so they will use the hotspot card we have and be online until we lose our signal, an hour or so up I-5. I have a hotspot in my phone so we have that here in the truck for my laptop. Getting ready was such a chore, had a bunch of laundry to do and kids had made shambles out of the house. I did get bathrooms cleaned, sheets changes and with my grandkids help we cleaned the rest of the house plus washed the kitchen floor to avoid the ants. As usual, the only way ... read more
Ready for San Francisco
Published: January 14th 2012North America » United States » California » BakersfieldJanuary 14th 2012
We have 3 days in San Francisco, well mostly 3 days. So Monday we will eat lunch with our middle son at Lucas Films cafeteria in Marin, then we will want to leave as early as we can on Tues so another short day there. There are 3 things that top the list of to do’s with grandkids: 1. Zoo, 2. Exploratorium, 3. Aquarium/Natural History/Planetarium. 3 things in 3 days. I looked up the 3 different things; hours opened and cost. Aquarium/combo is the most expensive by far and probably has more available for all 5 kids. This would be smart to do for the day we have the most time. So for a heads up, there is a $5. Per ticket charge for those tickets purchased at the door during prime times, MLK being one ... read more
Pots from the Picuris Pueblo
Published: January 12th 2012North America » United States » California » BakersfieldJanuary 12th 2012
Many years ago I was in New Mexico and stopped at a shop for coffee, I ended up buying a bowl, about 900 years old. It had been broken and glued together so it didn’t cost much, maybe $40.00. That was the beginning of my antiquities collection. Now there are people who do not think that these items belong in private collections, I like my bowls so there it is. Since that early bowl I’ve collected a few others, I prefer the old ones, you can feel the places where the maker placed their fingers. They are not fancy but were used for meals or everyday containers. There is a connection. Dale bought a book on pots that we found at the Grand Canyon, turned out that our pot was discussed, or at least one like ... read more
January 10th 2012
Geez, so now that we are planning to go to New Mexico next week, yes next week, I realized that our San Francisco trip will make things really crazy. We were not planning to go to the Fancy Foods Expo this year but then our sons asked if we’d drive the guys up, babysit kids during show hours and then the guys could have a place to sleep in our RV. This would save our son, Nate, a bunch of money. We said yes thinking that we’d just do a mini version of a grandkids trip in combination. So I thought that the Fancy Food’s was Sat, Sun and Monday; we’d leave here on Friday and return home Monday night then fly to New Mexico on Wed a.m. and all would be hunky dory. Wrong! Fancy ... read more
Saving the Frequent Flyer Miles
Published: January 5th 2012North America » United States » California » BakersfieldJanuary 5th 2012
So I got an email from United saying that one of our frequent flyer accounts was going to expire if not used by Jan 31st. Looking up the account found that it was belonging to my husband. Since he has nearly enough miles for a free ticket we decided that we didn’t want to lose the miles. First I got into the United site and started looking at flights to San Francisco; we could make a quick trip up to our son’s plus see our 2 granddaughters. $260 for that. Then I looked up a flight to Albuquerque, NM and that was only $218. HUM! A flight to NM with 2 legs is less than a straight thru to SFO. Crazy but true. I booked the flight to NM for 2 weeks from today with a ... read more
Living with Life's Complications
Published: January 3rd 2012North America » United States » California » BakersfieldJanuary 3rd 2012
Blogging has been difficult for the past couple of months, hard to focus, hard to always find that little something that would be of interest in a blog. I mostly think about blogging about the difficulties of our granddaughter’s medical situation; my niece has a blog about her cancer journey. Or about our life with the mostly DIY remodel that has dragged on for months upon months. This is not what I wanted for my blogs to be, they have been about those off thing that happen. Unfortunately, most of our life for the past couple of months has been consumed with both of the above. Flying to San Francisco several Sunday’s to stay for a week to care for our 15 month old granddaughter, visiting our new granddaughter when possible (driving 1 hour each way) ... read more
