May 21st-B: Fun in California

 

I received a great phone call from Warren, Linda's oldest brother who lives near the Drouhard Farm in Loudonville, Ohio. He found enough morel mushrooms to dry some for Tom and me. He sent mine to me in California and Tom's to Flagstaff. 

The mushrooms arrived in great shape. 

Linda introduced me to morel mushrooms. Finding morel mushrooms on the farm was an annual treat. The mushrooms brought back many great memories. Here are a few pictures of the farm, Linda hunting mushrooms and some nice morels I found. Linda was actually better than me at finding them but I couldn't find a picture of her holding any. 

Linda looking for mushrooms at the Drouhard farm

Morel Mushrooms at the farm

 

Rebecca was coming to visit Saturday, partially to show us her new Electric Mustang. Wendy and I  decided to meet Rebecca for breakfast at the Encinitas Cafe on her way into town. Turned out there was a huge street fair. Breakfast outside with London and Trevi was fun and delicious. You can see some of the vendors in the background. There must have been over 100 vendors with art, food, wood carvings, jewelry, etc. We saw them all!

This is a picture of the new Mustang in Rebecca's driveway. Her house is looking very nice due to some improvements she made.

The car is very shiny! No more gas stations for Rebecca!

Rebecca and the morel mushrooms

I saved the mushrooms for the weekend because Rebecca was coming and she loves morel mushrooms.

I fried the mushrooms as soon as we arrived back at Matt and Wendy's house. They were great. Many thanks Warren! 

I have enjoyed spending time with my new friend Fran. We are both boaters and enjoy outdoor activities. We met for a short hike along the water in San Clemente and then had a great dinner on the pier overlooking the ocean. The hike was interesting. We walked past a mud slide where part of a house slid down the cliff due to the tremendous amount of rain this year. Most of the debris had been cleaned up.

Craig and Karen ordering at the bar

Fran had invited Craig, Karen and me for a boat ride on her boat. Fran's husband passed away about the same time as Linda and we both lamented the time during COVID that seemed to make time stand still. I couldn't get to Canada on Guppy and Fran couldn't use her boat either. Fran has been anxious to get back to boating on her very nice 40 foot Jersey Boat. She typically took care of the lines while her husband drove the boat. So she was looking forward to getting driving instruction. We were waiting for some decent weather. We settled for a visit to Fran's son's Brewery in Laguna Beach.

View from the master bedroom 

We picked Fran up at her Laguna Beach Home. Her home is right on the beach with 100 steps down to the water. Fran and her husband built the home 36 years ago. They were both physicians working at the Laguna Beach Hospital and they wanted to build so they could walk to work and the beach! What a great idea! Fran has three sons and six grand children and she told us her house and beach are well used. 

View from Fran's deck

We had a fun evening and enjoyed a spectacular view of the moon as we walked the long distance back to our car. The weather was supposed to be clear the following week for our boat ride. We made plans to cruise to Newport Beach, (about a 2 hr. cruise) and have lunch at a yacht club. The Rahns and Fran belong to Dana West Yacht Club and they have reciprocal agreements.

 

Sealion

It turned out that the Sunday before our cruise date, the weather was beautiful. I drove up to Dana Point to help Fran get the boat ready and go for a dinghy ride around the large harbor. All went well and we saw a very large sealion relaxing on some empty docks. (Not unusual)

Craig, Karen and
 Fran on the flybridge

The weather cooperated and we were able to go for our cruise Thursday, May 11th. The timing wasn't my first choice. I was leaving Friday, May 12th to fly to Phoenix to see Tom again, then on to Florida to spend a week on Yesterday's Dream, next to Burlington, Vermont to visit with my sister Terri's family, then on to Canada to stay with the Peterson's for a few days while getting Guppy ready for cruising the Trent and Georgian Bay. Oh, and also, I would be travelling to Ireland from Toronto July 15th - 28th with my niece Christi's family the Toracks. So.... I was packing for the summer. I had decided it didn't really matter. I could only pack so much stuff and I had it ready to go Wednesday.

It was a beautiful day and Fran enjoyed being the captain.

We cruised up along the coast and marveled at the homes all along the cliffs and beaches.

We docked on the end, an easy slip for Fran to practice on. 

Fran's boat Rahna on the end

As we were leaving the Newport Beach harbor we passed John Wayne's yacht, the Wild Goose. It had originally been used during the war and he had it converted to this very nice looking Yacht.

We returned to the dock around 3 pm so I had plenty of time to get home and get ready for my 12PM flight the next day. Next stop, Flagstaff, AZ to visit with Tom.