Wednesday March 27: A Great Time in CA

The trip to California for a visit to the kids went very well. The flights both out and back went great. No drama at all :-)

After the first day, the weather was great with sunny low 70's days and cool nights. I have to say though after 6 days of wearing jeans all of the time it was nice to be back in the warmer weather of Marathon!

And there was only 1 project for Steve on Wendy's list: figure out some way to reinforce the wood patio doors. These doors were one of the greatest bargains! 

Back in 2001, Steve was recently retired and spent maybe a month (?) helping with the then newly purchased home of Matt and Wendy. The doors were shaky to begin with but over the years have turned out to be quite sturdy. The right door just needed a bit of help though.

Check out the length of the drill bit Steve is using to make the fix!!

There was mostly time for fun - and time for glitter as well. Steve has been jealous of my gecko stenciled in glitter on my kindle ever since I put it on back at Christmas.

It was time for his kindle! Wendy had him all set up and with now better experience, showed him how.

First, place the stencil. Add glue. Wait. Now add the glitter. Wait some more. Remove stencil.

Not a bad job for an amateur :-) Of course he did have some expert advice ....

Encinitas (where Matt and Wendy live) has a beautiful beach basically a couple of miles from their home. Our habit of first going out to breakfast is always followed by a stop at the beach - if only for a few minutes or so. Something about watching and hearing the waves come into the shore is very relaxing. Steve and Becky (who drove down from LA on Saturday) walked a short distance to the overlook.

Becky drove down and brought her two mini golden doodles - Trevi 11 lbs and London 30 lbs.

Both great dogs so there were a couple of visits to the really cool dog park in Encinitas.

They travel very well :-)

Both of them slept most of the way home Sunday as it was a very tiring day and a half - lots of new people and trips to the dog park!!

Becky even managed to catch a picture of Trevi sitting on my lap :-)

Very fun!

There was even an opportunity
to meet Karen and Craig from Rahn de Vous for lunch! (Sadly I didn't take a picture but I have lots of them from the summers past!)

We had met them on the Trent Canal in 2016 and were able to travel with them for several summers on both the Trent and Rideau Canals in Ontario.

Now we get together when we are in California as they live in San Juan Capistrano - which is only an hour north of Wendy and Matt.

It was great to see them again even if it was for only a couple of hours :-)


It's good to be home. The boat is ready to go at a moments notice - now we need to wait only for the weather to settle. Three days to travel to the Fort Lauderdale area and we cross the gulf stream to the Bahamas. Not sure when that's going to happen .....