When I was posting my new entry today,(see below), I realized that this connection was finally fast enough to post a few of the pictures I promised you from our recent trip to Scandinavia, St. Petersburg, and Tallinn. If you want the narrative for these, please see my previous post earlier in June.
Copenhagen - first port on the second cruise. Has many fine old buildings, such as this cathedral:

At the scenic inner harbor area called Nyhavn we took a canal boat tour:


As usual, there were lots of big statues and buildings in the city center:

And on the stock exchange building, a very twisty spire:


Stockholm- There is a 24,000 island archipeligo which we went through to get to Stockholm, and again when leaving. Many of the islands have summer homes on them:

We took the Hop On-Hop Off boat to get around because the main part of Stockholm is on 14 big islands. Here are a few buildings as seen from the water:


We attended the changing of the guard ceremony at the palace:


Rosenborg Palace has a nice park which we walked through on our way back to the ship. Here is the front of the palace:


St. Petersburg - the Winter Palace is now called The Hermitage and is a world class art gallery. Here is a shot taken across the river:

And here is a closeup of the front:

The inside architecture is fabulous:

This is one of the ceilings:

The throne room:

One of the reception halls:

A domed ceiling:

One of the display rooms:

Art gallery:

The church of the Spilled Blood had the most spectacular facade and onion domes:

St. Isaics Cathedral has the 3rd largest dome in Europe:

Amber is one of the biggest selling items, apparently, since it is sold everywhere, but quite expensive:

Here we all are in front of a statue of Peter the Great - Carol, Rick, Denice, Elaine and Mary. Thanks Byron for taking this picture:

Smolensky Cathedral was quite beautiful, both inside and out:

Beautiful flowers were planted all over the city:

The Kazan Cathedral was designed to resemble St. Peters in Rome:

Our guide took us to a local indoor market:

They were selling caviar at the market:

Peterhof was about a 30 minute hydrofoil ride outside of the city, and spectacular:

There were lots of fountains on the extensive grounds. This was one of them:

Flowers and fountains:

One of the buildings for ladies in waiting:

The Grand Staircase Fountains:

People in period costume on the grounds:

Grand Staircase Fountain and view towards Gulf of Finland:

No pictures were allowed inside Peterhof, but at Catherine's Palace we took pictures both inside and out:





The most famous room in this palace is the Amber Room, because it is made entirely out of small pieces of amber:

After our tour we went to a typical Russian restaurant for lunch. Here are some shots of the interior:

We ate in a curtained off area in the middle:


I am out of time now, so next time I will post some pictures of Tallinn and Gothenburg.

6/18/11
Just a quick update from Park Sierra. We have been doing rig cleaning and repairs which is always a fairly boring subject. Because I am having carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand on Monday morning, (left hand was done last summer), I have been washing and waxing the RV, shampooing the carpet, etc. while I still have the use of both hands. Elaine's surgery on her right hand, for Dupeytin's Contracture, (left hand was also last summer), will be on June 30. By having this 10 day space, we can take care of each other in recovery, and also one of us will always be able to drive.
The weather here has been nice and warm, with only a few really hot days so far. On one of those days we drove up to Yosemite and the weather was just perfect. Two Australian visitors to the park, Art and Stella, rode up there with us because they don't have a tow car. This was an excellent time to go because with the huge snowpack from the winter melting now, the waterfalls are at their fullest. First we drove up to Glacier Point, because there are excellent views of Yosemite Valley and several of the waterfalls from up there. Some patches of snow were still on the ground as we climbed. The first overlook was Washburn. From this viewpoint we could see Vernal and Nevada Falls. Here is a picture of us sitting on the wall with those 2 falls in the background:

Glacier Point has amazing views of Half Dome, Yosemite Falls (both upper and lower), the entire valley floor, and also Vernal and Nevada Falls. Here is a picture of us with Half Dome behind us.

This was a dome that was sheared off when glaciers carved out this valley sometime between 20,000 and 100,000 years ago. It is over 8,000 feet high, so just imagine how big the glaciers were! And here is a picture of both the upper and lower Yosemite Falls:

We drove down the mountain and towards the valley floor. Just after passing through a mile long tunnel, there is a place to pull over and park on the left where there is a spectacular view of the valley as you enter it. You can see El Capitan cliff on the left, Half Dome in the background, and Bridal Veil Falls on the right:

A little further along is a view of Horsetail Falls:

We stopped to hike a ½ mile trail to Bridal Veil Falls. Several bridges go over the rivers of water that are created when the falls hit the valley floor, and here is Elaine with the raging water behind her.

It was cool along here because after all, the water is from snow melt. There was so much mist created by the falling water hitting the ground that we would have been completely soaked if we had tried to hike any nearer.
One of the disadvantages of visiting Yosemite at this time is that it was packed with people and cars. There is a free shuttle to take people to various places in the valley, but people have to drive their cars into the valley to use the shuttles, so parking is a problem. We wanted to go inside at the Ahwahnee Lodge because it is historical and rustic, but we couldn’t find a place to park. Instead we drove to a picnic area for a picnic and then headed toward Mariposa Grove, which is full of majestic sequoia trees. Again, there was no parking so we were sent to an auxiliary parking area and then took the shuttle up to the grove. Sequoias grow in only a few places on earth because of their precise requirements for water, temperature, humidity, and sunshine. There are 75 places in California where they are found, but this is one of the largest. Thank goodness it was protected when Yosemite was created, because it really is located pretty far from the valley area where the waterfalls are. It is quite convenient for people who enter Yosemite on highway 41, which is what we did, of course, since that is the highway that runs right by Park Sierra. Here is a picture of one of the sequoia trees, which are always very tall (60 to 200 feet) and most are between 500 and 2000 years old, although the oldest one was 3,200 years old.

Some of them have fallen over, and here is a picture of Art, Stella & Elaine near the roots of one that fell in 1921.

There is a nice trail taking visitors by some of the largest or most interesting trees. There is also a tram tour, which lots of people were taking, but at more than $25 for an hour, we decided walking the trail was the best idea!
Besides that day trip, we also have entertained ourselves by having a couple of parties at our site. Ginny & Bob O’dell, former park members, were visiting so they had a party at our site, since we have a good spot for it. Then last week we had another one to welcome some neighbors back and also for the 3 Australian couples who were visiting.
This coming weekend, my daughter Laura, and her new guy, Dennis, will be visiting Park Sierra for the first time. I am hoping that I am far enough along in my recovery to be able to do some things with them other than just sitting around!

We have been back at Park Sierra for a few days and I have been trying to post the following report, but every time I attempt to add pictures, the internet connection goes out. So I will post this report for now and put some pictures in when I have a better connection.

Blog Post - After Jewel Cruise 6/2/11
We recently finished a very busy but enjoyable cruise on the Jewel of the Seas. There were 7 ports in 12 days and all of them were interesting places.
In Copenhagen we had a sunny and warm day walking around with Byron and Carol Hall. Walking into town there were many interesting buildings, fountains, parks, etc. Once we got to Nyhavn Harbor area, we took a canal boat ride for an hour which not only took us through other parts of the city but also through areas where there were unusual apartments. Of course, we took lots of pictures and had an enjoyable day. Stockholm, the next port, we also had a very sunny and nice day. This time we went with Byron and Carol, Irene and Leslie, and took a public bus into the inner city and then a hop on-hop off boat which took us to most of the sights anyone would like to see. The changing of the guard ceremony at the palace was interesting, and then we wandered around the old town, which is called Gamla Stan. There wasn't enough time for the others to go to the Vasa Museum, which was a shame. This showcases a 16th century sailing galleon which was built in Stockholm and which sank in the harbor on its maiden voyage. It was raised from the harbor bottom in 1961 and has been beautifully preserved and restored and is one of the most unique exhibits to visit in the world. We did this in 1997 when we were camping in the Scandinavian countries for several months. Helsinki was the next port and we were very grateful that we had been here before because it was a bitterly cold day with heavy rain, so we decided to stay on the ship.
Then came the highlight of the entire journey – St, Petersburg. Denice & Rick Osborne, Carol & Byron Hall, and Elaine and I did a 2 day private tour with a company called Red October. We got off the ship very early each day and were met by our van, guide and driver for several very full days of sightseeing. The first day was sunny and beautiful which really helped us enjoy the sights. First we did a drive through the city, stopping at several places to admire the many incredible buildings and take pictures. It seemed like every few hundred yards we were passing something amazing, such a onion-domed churches, triumphal arches, obelisks, statues, fountains, etc. Smolny Cathedral was an impressive blue and white building outside and exactly what we expected of a Russian Orthodox church on the inside. There was a choir singing when we entered and they were surprisingly good. Another fabulous cathedral we saw only from the outside was the Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood. It is huge with multi-colored onion-shaped domes and beautiful mosaics. This marvelous Russian-style church was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881, which is how it got this fairly gory name.
Coming to St. Petersburg has always been on our “bucket list” because we wanted to go to the Hermitage, a world famous art museum situated in the winter palace of the Tsars. The Winter Palace was built between 1754 and 1762 for Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great. The building is a marvel of baroque architecture and is as incredible as the art treasures. We toured it after our city tour. Because we were on a private tour, we got in before it was even open to the public, and thus avoided the long lines to get in and the hordes of people in there once it opened. Our guide, Helen, was very knowledgeable about everything, and had supplied us with listening devices so we had earphones and could hear her clearly no matter where we were. It was full of priceless paintings, sculptures, tapestries, urns, furniture, and jewelry.
After several hours in the Hermitage, we went across the street to the riverside pier on the Neva River where we boarded a hydrofoil which took us very quickly out into the Gulf of Finland. We ate our picnic lunches onboard while we motored towards Peterhof. Peterhof is an immensely luxurious and beautifully preserved Imperial estate, founded in 1710 by Peter the Great on the shore of the Gulf of Finland (Baltic Sea). It combines several ornate palaces, a number of beautifully landscaped parks and a dazzling array of magnificent statues and fountains, lending it the epithet "The Russian Versailles". We walked all over the vast grounds where there were beautiful flower displays, forested areas, and tricky fountains designed to surprise and soak unwary people who stepped on the wrong stone. Then we toured the incredible interior, which has so much carved wood covered in gold gilt that visitors are simply dazzled. After our tour there, the van picked us up and we drove back to the ship, which took about an hour but also enabled us to see some of the countryside and the suburbs outside of the main part of St. Petersburg. In the city everyone lives in big apartment blocks, some very nice looking and others very typically Soviet cement and grim-looking. Outside the city there are houses, as well as apartments, but Helen said that the houses are very expensive. And the metro doesn't run outside the city so it is difficult for people to get to work. There was lots of gridlock on the roads every time we were driving anywhere.
The second day we were picked up at the ship and driven about an hour outside the city to Pushkin where there is a marvelous ensemble of palaces and parks. It is particularly famous for its impressive baroque Catherine Palace, where Empress Catherine the Great lived and died. The palace was almost totally destroyed during World War II, but has risen like a phoenix from the ashes due to an extensive restoration program undertaken since the war. The same was true of Peterhof, and indeed, many of the 34 palaces owned by the Russian royal family. This palace is famous for the Amber Room, which was a room made of pieces of amber in many different hues, and quite spectacular. Many of the treasures of the various palaces were taken down and hidden when the Nazis invaded, but the Amber Room was left in the palace and disappeared during World War II. It has never been recovered, so the one in the palace today is a recreation. The day had started out rather overcast and gloomy and by the time we exited the palace, it was raining, so we skipped walking through the grounds, which weren't that impressive anyway compared to the grounds at Peterhof the day before.
Back in the city, we were driven to a small local restaurant where we had nice lunch of typical Russian food. We were seated at a table in the middle of the room with sheer curtains with scenes on them hanging all around us, kind of separating us from the other tables. Besides a salad of local greens served with sour cream dressing, we had very delicious seeded bread, borscht, a hot soup made with beets and beef and also served with sour cream, small dumplings filled with a chicken sausage type meat, and apple strudel with vanilla ice cream. Everything was delicious and very filling.
Red October, our tour company, also has a big shop selling typical Russian handicrafts, art, and souvenirs so we stopped there to pay our invoices and shop. We had visited one of these the day before also. These shops always offer free coffee, tea, vodka and cordials, so we tasted the vodka and a cherry liqueur at each place. The vodka was very good and in a bottle with a nice Russian scene on it, so Elaine bought one for Darran's birthday. The rest of the articles we took pictures of because it was the only way to bring them back – they were expensive and also would take too much luggage room! The girls working in these shops speak very good English and I asked some of them lots of questions to find out about their lives and also what some of the costs and concerns were of regular people living in Russia today. They all said the worst thing is the corruption. Nothing gets done without paying off people, and many successful businesses have to deal with extortion by either government officials or the Russian Mafia. This makes visiting St. Petersburg very expensive. Our 2 day private tour cost us $400 per person, and the ship's tours cost nearly as much also.
It was now mid-afternoon and we went to the Kazan Cathedral, a church built in the same style as St. Peter's in Rome. Again there was very beautiful singing going on as we entered. There were also some incredible buildings located on Nevsky Prospect, the main street of St. Petersburg, near this cathedral.
We were supposed to end this day with a canal boat tour through the city because, after all, it is called “the Venice of the North”. Just as we were waiting to board the boat, the skies opened up and a huge downpour which looked like it would not be a brief one, caused us to change our plans and return to the ship. With that kind of weather, we wouldn't have seen anything on the riverside anyway.
The next day we had sunny weather for our day in Tallinn, although it was a bit nippy and very windy. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, and is located on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland only about 53 miles across the water from Helsinki. At the historical and medieval heart of the city is the hill of Toompea, covered in cobbled streets and filled with medieval houses and alleyways. The lower town spreads out from the foot of the hill, still protected by the remnants of a city wall. This marvelously preserved city is a UNESCO world heritage site, with the first fortress dating back to 1050. It has been invaded and owned by nearly all of its neighbors, especially the Danes and the Russians, but regained its independence in 1991. It is a charming city and we spent a delightful day with Tom & Toby doing a walking tour we downloaded from Rick Steves website. It was easy to walk in from the pier and also explore on our own.
Finally we had a sea day after Tallinn and we all really needed it. We had managed to contact some cruise friends named Myra and Louie Lehmann, Americans who have lived in Sweden for the last 38 years, and they arranged to meet us in our last port, Gothenburg, Sweden. Again it was cold and overcast, but we took the shuttle in and met them at the train station. It was delightful to walk all over town with them, exploring and also questioning them about life in Sweden. After nearly 5 miles of sightseeing, we ended up in the large shopping mall where we found a small restaurant for some lunch. By the time we sat down, it was raining outside. By the time we finished, it had cleared a bit so we went to the arboretum and park nearby. While we were in the solarium, quite a heavy rainstorm hit which was a shame because there was an outside wedding going on. Once it slacked off a bit, Myra and Louie walked us back to the shuttle and we returned to the ship. That was our last port. After one last sea day, in which we packed, we disembarked at Harwich, England. We shared a van to Heathrow airport with Denice & Rick, Carol & Byron, and Andree & Dick, and we flew back to LAX.
It was an interesting and exciting cruise with lots of great ports, wonderful entertainment on the ship, good food, and many happy social hours with new and old friends in the Diamond and Diamond Plus lounge. We booked a couple more cruises for 2012 and 2013 but as always, our plans are flexible and we never know whether we will actually take them or not until final payment time arrives.
The last 2 days we have been staying with Darran & Marielle at their place near Mission Bay in San Diego. Yesterday was his 34th birthday and we pretty much prepared the birthday dinner and baked a carrot cake to celebrate. Marielle's sister, Meg and her husband, Ben joined us for the meal and helped make it a festive occasion. Darran has been working hard to get his new construction business going, and has still been working at UPS in the evenings, so he has been a very busy guy. We were grateful that he took last evening off to be with all of us.
Today, on our drive through LA, we visited Anja, an old friend we met in Mexico 10 years ago, and her 2 year old son, whom we had never seen. Her husband, Ole, was working out of the area so we missed seeing him. Now we are almost back at Park Sierra where we will be getting our rig ready for a summer trip to Oregon and Washington. We have to do this while we both have 2 working hands. On June 20 I will be having my second carpal tunnel surgery and on June 30 Elaine will be having her second surgery for Dupeytin's Contracture. These are the same ones we had last summer only on the other hands. When we recover enough, we will be heading north.

5/15/11 Hello from the Jewel of the Seas, which is forging ahead towards Brest, France, our port for tomorrow. This is a small town on the coast of Brittany, with not any major sights so probably we will just poke around and try to absorb the ambiance. The next day the port is Cherbourg, where some people will be going to Mont St. Michel, the second most visited place in France. We were there years ago when we were camping through Europe for the summer, so we will stay in Cherbourg and see what appeals to us.
This cruise started May 6, in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and we have mostly had sea days so far - Elaine's favorite. Usually we try to work out every day in the gym when we are sailing, but we have missed a few days this time because we have been so wiped out by the time changes. First we lost 3 hours when we flew to Florida. Then, nearly every sea day we have lost another hour. This messes up our sleep time, so we are up late and then sleep later in the morning. This is part of the reason why we like an inside room. It is so dark in here that I even slept until 11:30AM one morning. I don't think that has ever happened before in my entire life! Usually I am an early riser.
Our first port was 2 days ago and it was Punta Delgada in the Azores, islands which belong to Portugal. We have been there many times so we weren't going to be going sightseeing anyway, but the weather was ugly the whole day. There is a nearby small mall with free WiFi so we spent our time there. I intended to update this blog then, but Blogger was not working at that time.
This cruise has been fun because we are on board with friends from previous cruises, and we have made some new friends in the Diamond Lounge in the evenings. Here is a group picture of our gang:
The people in the Diamond Plus lounge are a bit snooty, but on this ship they allow us to get our drinks in there and then carry them in to the Diamond Lounge, which is much nicer than our lounge (and bigger because there are more Diamond members). Much better views looking out too. The other day we saw quite a few dolphins and also a whale came up near the ship quite a few times.
Here is a picture of our entire group of friends from the lounges:

One night we went with Rick & Denice and Byron & Carol to the specialty restaurant called Chops.

The food was good and we had a great time. Several days later we went to Portofino, the other upscale restaurant and it was horrible. But we looked nice anyway, don't you think?

There have been three formal nights and we all dressed up. Here is a picture of Rick & Denice, Byron & Carole looking really fine:

On the last formal night we had pictures taken with Mark & Harald, friends from a previous cruise who are getting married in Germany in 3 weeks. (they live there)

(Today we are wandering around Brest with them and it is fun!)
On the 18th we will arrive in Harwich, England, where this cruise ends and we are staying on board for the next cruise. That is also a 12 day cruise which goes to the Scandinavian countries, St. Petersburg, and Tallinn, Estonia. We haven't been to Scandinavia since 1997 when we camped through Denmark, Sweden, and Norway in a camper van and also took an overnight ship to Helsinki for a day. We enjoyed these places then and I'm sure it will be interesting to see them again now. But the most exciting part will be seeing St. Peterburg for 2 days. Our friend, Denice has arranged a 2 day tour with a private company called Red October for 6 of us which is costing $800 per couple! Quite expensive. But the ship's tours are double that. And, we will have our own van.
Our next posting will be after we have a few more adventures.

5/4/11 Today we are in sunny San Diego where we stayed with Darran & Marielle last night. Darran needed a new truck and we found a very good used one for him at Park Sierra, so we drove it down to him yesterday. It is a 2005 Dodge Dakota 4x4, and will be perfect for his new business, which is commercial building contracting work. It was actually over 90 degrees yesterday when we arrived which is unusual for this area because it is so close to Mission Bay and also the ocean.
This afternoon Elaine and I will drive down to a hotel near LAX where they have a good park and fly package. We can stay there one night and leave our car there free for 14 days. Since we will be gone 25 days, and will be staying overnight there again when we get back, we are going to try to convince them to let us park there free the whole 25 days. They also have a free airport shuttle, which we will use early on Thursday to go to LAX for our flight to Fort Lauderdale. Then on Friday we will board the Jewel of the Seas to leave on the transatlantic to England. Rick & Denice Osborne and Carol & Byron Hall will be onboard with us, so that will make it more fun.
We are both doing much better now that we have had a few weeks of recovery from back pain. For some unknown reason, my back went out one week, and then Elaine's went out the next week. And we had even been walking regularly and doing our usual daily exercises in the rig. Could it be the dreaded getting older factor??!! Nah.
Next post will be from far-flung places, we hope.

4/22/11 Yes, we are finally having some warm weather here at Park Sierra. Not as warm as usual, but much better than the past few weeks. It was great that it started in time for Stagecoach Daze, which is the major fundraiser, with the money going to the social part of the park called Sierra Oaks. It funds the various breakfasts, lunches and dinners as well as other special events which occur here all year long.
Before it started, Bill and Gisela Pollock were here, as I mentioned in my last post. Just before they left, last Monday they had us over for a delicious dinner in their lovely rig. Here is a picture of the 4 happy eaters:

They splurged and served beef tenderloin steaks, which had been grilled perfectly and were fork tender. We paired them with one of the delicious red wines we had bought the day before on the Madera wine trail.
The next day there was a big lunch picnic gathering at the pole barn for the unveiling of the newly refurbished stage coach. Many of the members had been working on repairing the stagecoach for months, and also building a new covering for it. The many woodpeckers here in the park had done quite a thorough job on it, and it was riddled with holes. Now the new covering structure has netting all around it to keep the critters out. Here is a picture of the new stagecoach:

Some people even dressed up for the occasion, such as our friends Ken & Carolyn Kimpton:

After some speeches recognizing people who were founding park members, they hooked up the stagecoach to a tow vehicle and a parade of golf carts and people formed behind it. Some park members acted as the "horses":

It was hauled down the hill to the spot near the clubhouse where the new enclosure was built for it, and now it is elegantly parked there for all to see as they enter our park.
Throughout the next few days a lot of entertainment was presented. After the first dinner, our neighbor, Jeanne Taylor, acted as the "bag lady" in this skit about 2 ladies trying to outdo each other at a bus stop. It was hilarious.

And here is a picture of Elaine with Rich and Mary Baumann, our across the street neighbors, at one of the meals:

Our Boomer friend, Betty Prange arrived after the first day and was able to join us for the Social Hour on Thursday. Here she is in between Mary & Dave Fountain:

Two other couples of gals are also park members here, and they have become our good friends. In this picture they are (left to right) Elleen and Glenda, Vicky & Jan.

There was also a casino night where we played poker all evening, although there were other options.

A prize was given at the end of the night for the person with the most money, but I only came in third. When I was whining about it on the way out of the clubhouse, the sheriff put me in jail:

Betty joined us for dinner on Saturday night, so here we are together at the table.

There were lots of raffle prizes, door prizes, and 50-50 drawings during all of the Stagecoach Daze events, but we didn't win any of them!!!! Oh well, the event made over $10,000 for Sierra Oaks, which is just wonderful.
Now I have to get ready for the Friday night social, and later Elaine and I are going over to Chukchansi Casino for a performance by Journey Unauthorized. They gave us free tickets, so of course, we will go. Hopefully, these free tickets won't cost us a lot as we pass by the gaming tables and the slot machines!

4/10/11 Hi from sunny Park Sierra, although it still isn't really very warm here yet. In fact, 2 days ago we woke up to about 2-3 inches of snow all over everything, with more big, wet flakes falling! Here is a picture of our rig and car on our lot:

From our living room slide we could see all the trees in the greenbelt next to us covered with snow.

Here is a picture of Elaine on our snowy patio:

But by mid afternoon, the sun was out and most of the snow had melted:

Two days before all this snow and cold, we had a Happy Hour gathering at our lot in honor of Gary & Cecile Thompson, who were giving up their lot at the park. It was so nice that people were sitting outside in their shirtsleeves! Here is a picture of June and Stan Dean, with our next-door neighbor Alan Rodely, and our friend Carolyn Kimpton:

And here is Elaine with Gary Thompson, and his neighbors Gloria and Marvin Taylor:

Our Boomer friends Bill and Gisela Pollock had arrived on Tuesday, and we advised them to go to Yosemite National Park on Wednesday because we had heard there was going to be a big change in the weather. Also, if there was a government shut down, the park would be closed. So they went on Wednesday and had a beautiful day there. We have been having fun social times with them ever since they arrived. Here is a picture of the 4 of us together at the Park Sierra social gathering on Friday:

Other good friends, Judy Farrow & Lou Stoetzer, and Mary & Dave Fountain shared our table with us:

Yesterday we went to two of the wineries on the Madera Wine Trail with Bill and Gisela. Our favorite is Birdstone, which has wonderful wines and a charming tasting room:

Additionally, the owners and winemakers, Kim and Tony Kirk, are warm and welcoming. We met them last year and shared a few glasses of wine at the Isle Hour winery event in Oakhurst last summer. It was great to see Kim again when we were at their winery yesterday. Here is a picture of the 4 of us with Kim at the tasting room:

Our second stop was at Chateau Lasgoity, where the wines were also good and we enjoyed chatting with the owner, John Lasgoity. He told us that he has established a connection with Chinese wine merchants and had an interesting visit to China last year where he observed a lot of their growing and wine making techniques. The Chinese now buy all his wine which is left over at the end of the season.
Bill and Gisela are having us over for dinner tomorrow and then leaving on Tuesday. Too bad they can't stay because the biggest event of the year at Park Sierra starts Wednesday. It is Stagecoach Daze, and it will be 4 days of meals, auctions, craft shows, craft classes, games, raffles, a casino night, a melodrama, and stagecoach rides. We will be helping with some of these events, and enjoying all of them, I'm sure.
In any spare time we have, we are still working on slimming down before our May cruises, and also getting our paperwork in order for future travels. I also managed to get our taxes done, and we got our shed cleaned up a bit. By the time we leave Park Sierra on May 4, it will be our longest stay here (5 weeks) since we became lot holders in 2002!!!

3/27/11 Finally, a partially sunny day here at Park Sierra with no rain!!! And the forecast is for gradually warming dry days in the week ahead, so we are now happier campers. Last Monday night was when we returned to Park Sierra, after spending the weekend at the Fremont Elks. Our intent was to work on cleaning up the backyard at the Santa Clara rental house, and cutting back some of the trees while we had free pickup by the city out in the street. But the weather was so bad, with freezing temps and constant heavy rain, that we couldn't do anything except inspect the place. The tenants might be moving in July, so we will tackle the mess then. The one positive weekend event was having some time to see Elaine's daughter Tarra, and her family who live in Fremont. Can't post any pictures because we hadn't received our camera back from Olympus repair yet. They all are doing fine and look happy and healthy.
Monday we stopped in Fresno to have some recall work done on the RV brakes, which should not have cost us any money. But when they took the wheels off and exposed the rotors, they were very badly cracked. This was probably caused by the sticking calipers which was what the recall was about, but of course, Workhorse won't pay for the damage to the rotors, just what it costs to fix the calipers. So $1189 later, the RV was fixed and we drove to Park Sierra. Our very nice neighbors, David & Brenda Neil, had a delicious dinner waiting for us. It was great to have some visiting time with them. Here is a picture of them on Ken's deck today:

There have been so many social events since we returned to the park that our weight loss program, which was going well in Sacramento, has now stalled. Today we were at a birthday party for Ken Kimpton down at their lot, and we also had dinner there one night too. Here is a picture of Carol Rodely, Carolyn Kimpton, Elaine & Brenda Neil on the Kimpton's deck:

Last night there was a tostada dinner for everyone in the park to celebrate the Volunteers, with homemade cake for dessert. Here is a picture of Elaine with Viv Rogers, our neighbor Jeanne Taylor, & Brenda:

Every Friday there is a big park Happy Hour with "heavy" appetizers so that usually is dinner. And Elaine cooked a big corned beef dinner for some friends this week too. Since it was raining almost every minute, these social events were certainly welcome because it got people out of their rigs where they had been trapped for weeks. And we have been having a wonderful time catching up with the news and doings of friends.
As the weather improves and we can be outside, there are rig projects and other chores on the lot we need to take care of. In mid-April, the main park fund raiser, called Stagecoach Daze, will be held for 4 days. There will be lots of activities and meals, and we will try to do something to help. Ken & Carolyn are handling the auction, so I suspect we will be working on that with them. This 5 1/2 week period of being here is probably the longest time we have ever been here, and we have been members since 2002!
One of our park members took some pictures of Coarsegold Creek, which runs through the park down near the bottom of the property which I will post below. In the summer this creek is nearly dry. Last week it was a raging torrent with a constant roar.
Here is an overview look from the hill above:

Here is the place where members usually drive across in their golf carts:

3/16/11 Two more weeks have gone by since my last post, but we have been VERY busy. Working on the rental house everyday keeps us busy from early morning until 5 or 6PM. Then we drive back to the RV, fix dinner, and try to catch up on other things such as e-mails or paperwork. Our sympathies go out to you people who still work every day!!! This is reminding us how great it usually is to be retired.
One big social event we have had during our time here was that my daughter Laura, my granddaughter Michaela, and Laura's new guy, Dennis, all drove down one Saturday for a visit. We fixed a nice dinner to have at the RV so we could sit and chat with them and get to know Dennis. He seems to be a great guy and Laura clearly is very enamored with him. We hope that they find much happiness together. It was also wonderful to have time to talk to Michaela and find out what is going on in her life. She is 15 and we feel like we barely know her because her Father would never let her have visits with us. He felt like we would corrupt her, I guess. So one of the big benefits of Laura's divorce is starting to have a better relationship with her. Here is a picture of me with the three of them:

The second social event was 2 nights ago when we drove over to Cal Expo RV park to see Laurie & Odel who are staying there a while so Odel can have a knee replacement at a local hospital. The renovations they had done in their RV look wonderful, and so do they! We had a drink and snacks and chatted a while, then walked over to Applebee's, which is not very far away. They like to eat there when they are on Weight Watchers because Applebee's puts the point counts in the menu for some of their dishes. The food was good and we enjoyed being with them, as always! Couldn't take a picture because my camera is still being repaired by Olympus.
Now that we have spent two weeks working very hard on the rental house, it is ready for new tenants. Last Friday night we put it on Craig's list, and on Saturday three sets of people had come to see it and we had 2 applications. Sunday 2 more couples came to see it. One of the applicants seem perfect and their information checks out so we agreed to rent to them. Tomorrow at 5:30PM they are meeting us at the house and we are collecting the deposit and giving them the keys. They wanted our house because it is large (4 bedrooms and very spacious) and near Zamora School, which some say is the best school in Woodland. They have 3 kids and one on the way and the oldest one is 6. So we hope they decide to stay in our house until ALL of the kids get through school!!!!
Friday we will be driving down to Fremont to stay at the Elks Club. The Santa Clara rental house is badly in need of some cutting back of trees and shrubs in the backyard so we will be doing that this weekend. Santa Clara has a "clean up campaign" every Spring which allows us to put any amount of anything out on the street and they haul it to the dump for free. And this is our weekend to do that. We will also be seeing Elaine's daughter, Tarra, and her family, who live in our Fremont house.
Some people are wondering when we will be returning to Park Sierra. Monday we will be driving back to our lot there, if all goes well in the Bay Area. We are looking forward to some much needed rest and socializing with friends!! Also, Stagecoach Days will be mid-April, and that is always a very fun event there.

3/2/11 Can't believe it has been two weeks since I last posted! Sorry for the delay. We have been moving fast and seeing lots of people since we got off the Explorer of the Seas. The day that we docked back in New Jersey was sunny and warm and quite a bit of the snow had melted. We got off the ship early because we had packed light and were taking our own luggage off. At the airport, we waited for our flight to Atlanta (with a subsequent flight from there to Phoenix) and we realized that every flight that was leaving was overbooked. This was probably because it was President's weekend and everyone had an extra day off. They were calling for volunteers to give up their seats. Finally, the gate agent called us up by name and said that if we allowed them (Delta) to change our flight so that we went through Minneapolis and then on to Phoenix, they would give us each a $400 voucher for future travel, a $7 lunch voucher, and put us in first class for the Minneapolis to Phoenix leg. We would be arriving only 1 1/2 hours later than planned. So we took it. Wow, it is neat to fly first class!!!
Back in Phoenix, we slept in the rig at the Elks Club, and then the next day had lunch with Joyce and Don Lipari, Elaine's former sister-in-law and her husband. After a nice meal with them and cheesecake and coffee in their new home in Mesa, we headed for Tucson, arriving just at dark. Once again we stayed in the yard of Elaine's Aunt Marion and spent the weekend having fun with her, and also Penny, Elaine's sister. We had no food in our rig because we had been away so Penny brought over some food, and Sunday Aunt Marion's friend Louise took all of us to a nearby casino for a delicious prime rib dinner.
Monday we left and headed for Yuma, where we stayed on the lot of Ron & Carol Leonard in the Foothills. Diane & Jim FisherBaker were also staying there, as were 2 of Carol's nieces. We had several enjoyable Happy Hours with them over the course of the next few days, had a delightful time and delicious dinner with Lee & Susie Blattner at their rig at the SKP park, got to see the new mobile home and lot that Diane and Jim had just purchased about 1/2 mile from Carol & Ron's, and had a quick visit at Dan & Jenny Shepherds casita. Sure wish I could be posting pictures of all these enjoyable events, but I still have not been able to get my camera repaired.
Our Yuma visit was also short because we needed to head back to CA to deal with some rental issues. We drove to Jojoba SKP park for a quick visit with Joe & Carla Calwell and Dick and Carole Schneider. Had intended to stay both Thursday and Friday but the weather forecast was for very cold temps and snow down to 500 feet starting Friday. We needed to get through the mountains surrounding Los Angeles before snow fell, so we decided to leave early Friday. That gave us Thursday with our friends, so we all went to a nearby BBQ restaurant for lunch and then to the Shadow Mountain Winery for an excellent wine tasting - and some buying as well. Nearly every one of their wines was excellent! That evening Joe and Carla had us all over to their 5th wheel for a delightful dinner of green chili stew, with lots of talking, drinking wine, laughing, and catching up on each others news. It was great.
Friday we left early and yes, beat the bad weather and made it over the mountains, although there was snow on the ground in the Tehachipi's. It took 2 days for us to drive up to Sacramento where we set up our rig on Ron & Carol's property. The weather was cold but sunny for the next few days. We made several visits to our property in Woodland to try to hurry along the moving process of our tenant, but it still took her until last night at 7PM to get totally out. We were happy that she left without necessitating the hiring of an eviction attorney. So today we had the locks changed and started cleaning up the big mess that she left us. Tomorrow we will be able to start painting. We are hoping to have this place fairly well cleaned up and ready to show to new prospective tenants within a few weeks. We will also have to drive down to the Santa Clara house for a few days mid-month to do some yard cutback and cleanup during the annual cleanup campaign that the city has every spring. It is a chance to get rid of huge amounts of stuff because the city picks it up off the street at no charge for 2 days. These rental issues are a lot of work but since we have no pensions, only rental income, and we like to eat, we periodically have to pay attention to business!!!

Blog Update From The Explorer
2/15/11
Today is the first of three straight sea days because the ship is heading back to New Jersey from the Caribbean. There is a special performance of the ice show for repeat cruisers, which we will attend in a few minutes. Every late afternoon and evening we have been enjoying the drinks and appetizers in the Concierge Lounge with the Boy Toys and other new friends.
And there have been four singing and dancing production shows which have been excellent. Mornings we have been spending a lot of time working out in the gym on the elliptical machines, and also doing some weights in an effort to get in better shape, as well as take off the “bread roll” we acquired on our India trip last Nov. The weather has been pretty good, and we especially enjoy the warmth, which we will perhaps be losing as we head north.
There were 6 port days in a row on this cruise, with the first one being Labadee, Haiti. This is really just a tropical peninsula with nice beaches and other amenities which is privately owned by Royal Caribbean. Roger and Martin arranged for the 5 of us (Jack was with us) to rent a cabana for the day in an area that had restricted entry. Here is a picture of us in the cabana:

It was a nice, shady place to hang out, with tables and a special buffet lunch served right behind it. Here is a picture of the gang at lunch:

About 20 yards in front of our cabana was a very nice beach with floating mats and snorkeling equipment we could use. And, it was such a nice sunny day that we enjoyed going in the water.
Unfortunately, there aren't any more pictures from the other places we have been because the new camera which I bought on the Adventure of the Seas in December, has already gone kaput. I will have to try getting Olympus to fix it once we return to the USA.
The other ports of call were Semana, Dominican Republic, St. Kitts, St. John's, Antigua, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. Most of these places were repeat visits for us, so we either didn't get off the ship, or we just walked around a bit in the towns. Usually the only activities are going to the beach or shopping, unless you book an overpriced shore excursion from the ship. In Semana, we took the tender boat ashore, and then walked to a local outdoor restaurant Roger and Martin knew, where we ate plantains and drank local beer. It has actually been hot a couple of the days, especially yesterday in St. Maarten.
This cruise started in Bayonne, New Jersey on Feb. 6. We were lucky because there was decent enough weather that we were able to fly in there on Feb. 5 with only a 2 hour delay in our arrival. The day the ship sailed was a very clear and cool day, and we could see New York and the Statue of Liberty quite well across the harbor. Here is a picture of us with New York in the background.

There was also an interesting memorial right in the port at Bayonne called the Russian Teardrop. It is a big granite piece, split in the middle with a big metal teardrop there, and the names of all the victims of the 9/11 attack etched in the base. It was donated by Russia. This information was supplied by our shuttle bus driver, so I hope it is accurate.
If you ever have a cruise leaving from Bayonne, be prepared for a huge mess at the port. There is only one lane of traffic to get to the area where cars park and taxis and buses drop off passengers, and there is a huge backup. Also, you leave your luggage in a big tent area with the porters and then there is another long line just to get into the building where Royal Caribbean checks you in. Then you have to get on a shuttle bus which takes you about 150 yards to the entry to the ship. Not a very efficient way to check in thousands of people in a short period of time.
We will be disembarking from the ship on Friday morning and taking a shuttle to the airport. Our rig is at the Elks Lodge in Phoenix, where we hope to arrive in the evening. After a day or two in Tucson, visiting Elaine's sister and aunt, we will be heading back to California to deal with some rental problems.