Christmas with family

My niece Dorothy, Jennefer, and I visited my little sister and her family in Atascadero for Christmas! Here's a watercolor-filter of a photo I took in San Luis Obispo, shortly after we arrived, and were already out and about, in search of coffee and Christmas gifts. The miniature palm tree provided a stark contrast to the snow and ice we had left behind in Denver.

My little dog Mandy was a well-behaved traveler, as usual. She curled up in her pet carrier at my feet, and slept through most of the trip. She also used her pet carrier as her home away from home, throughout our visit.

Bob's big pre-Christmas present to all of us, was an afternoon zip-lining adventure in Santa Margarita! It was pouring rain in the morning, and we all expected it to be canceled, but they said they were going, rain or shine, so we showed up, wearing the best clothes we could find, for rain and mud. They were ready for us, with waterproof boots and jackets to borrow. The group before us came back soaked to the bone and shivering, but the rain stopped and the sun came out, just as our shuttle bus left the office for the adventure site. The bus driver gave us a wonderful tour of the central California hills, and we wended our way through the vineyards and cow pastures. We all had a wonderful zip-lining adventure! The worst weather we saw, was a bit of fog and mist, which I thought made it even more fun. There were several (I think six) separate zip-lines. We zipped down the first line, then hiked up to the next launching station, and rode down that one, and so on, until we got to the last station, where the bus picked us up again, and took us back to the office.

Several of us went to see the new Star Wars movie, "Return Of Skywalker." Everyone had their own opinion. I enjoyed it a lot, but I learned a long time ago, to suspend my disbelief, if I want to enjoy a Star Wars movie.

Jennefer and I stopped at the Que Pasa Mexican Cafe by the theater, for a nice warm dinner after the show. When Bob and Dorothy found out we were there, they jumped back in their car, and came back from the house to join us. We enjoyed the fun holiday decorations and our family's company! 

Marissa and Brighton hosted a delicious Christmas Eve dinner at the house they bought late last year, just a mile or so from where they had been renting. They had done an amazing job, of getting it ready for themselves, and for their traditional family dinner. I was so caught up in enjoying the evening, that I didn't take any pictures of their perfectly-furnished and decorated home, oops!

We spent a wonderful Christmas morning with sister's family at her house! My niece Dorothy came with us from Colorado, my two nephews Brighton and Tyler were there with their wives Marissa and Annalisa, Marissa's mom Jodi, my grand-niece Alice!

Jennefer and others helped Mikele prepare an amazing Christmas dinner. Even her cat Misha poked her head into the event.

On the day after Christmas, Bob took the three of us Coloradans to "The Great American Melodrama" in Oceano, which has gotten to be a fun holiday tradition for us. They always have done a serious version of "A Christmas Carol," but they also do several other skits, that are usually very humorous and enjoyable. We all enjoyed it! I was coughing a little during the show, and realized that my throat was a little ticklish. I was hoping it was just something in the air, but alas, it was the harbinger of another of my traditional post-holiday colds. Bob bought us dinner at Old Juan's Cantina, a Mexican place nearby in Oceano, which we had never tried, and enjoyed quite a lot. We had a bit of an adventure getting there and back on highway 101, as CalTrans had closed the I-5 highway that day, due to heavy snow in the Grapevine Hill area, and a lot of that traffic had moved over to 101, and brought it almost to a stop. My Waze driving app helped me find some very effective routes to avoid a lot of that traffic.

On our last day there, we woke up to find the previously sparsely-populated parking lot full of cars, several of them running, in the cold moist early morning. I realized that some of those people jammed up on highway 101 the day before, had finally decided to spend the night in Atascadero, on their way to/from their various post-holiday destinations. It felt a little like the moment just before the Le Mans car race, with the puffs of steam coming out of a bunch of cars, and people scurrying around the parking lot, throwing their last few possessions into their cars, in preparation for jumping back onto the highway for the last part of their race (oops, I mean journey) home.

We met a few of the family, for one last delicious breakfast at our favorite place there, "Country Touch Cafe," before hitting the road for the airport. Just driving the short distance from the motel to the restaurant was interesting, with the 30 degree 100 percent humidity generating thick fog all along El Camino Real through the middle of town. It was burning off quickly, so this photo doesn't really do it justice.

We had an uneventful flight home, with Mandy being her usual calm traveler self. We were a little surprised, to see so much snow on the southern Sierra mountains, but it all made sense, when we remembered the news stories about everyone's holiday adventures on the highways.

Thanksgiving in New Hampshire!

We enjoyed a delightful Thanksgiving with my relatives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire! I finally found some time to download the pictures from my phone, so I could post them here. Some of them are modified - I've started using the Waterlogue app to add a little watercolor touch to my stories.

We flew out of Denver, just a few minutes before the beginning of what turned out to be a heavy snowfall, that left nearly two feet of snow on the ground behind us. Lucky us! Here's a pic of the cold threatening sky, while we were having breakfast at my favorite Denver airport restaurant - Pour La France.

Denver snow pics, courtesy of my neighbor, about halfway through the storm.

Portsmouth was cold and breezy. We managed to take some fun, chilly, windy walks around the local neighborhood, to the Hannaford grocery store, and in a few local parks. My cousin gave us several guided tours of the local area, as we were driving around. We visited Odiorne Point State Park, and the Seacoast Science Center, on one of those cold and windy days.

The Science Center in the park included some fun aquariums. There was an interesting story about the birth and migration path of a young whale, and how the sea lanes can have a disastrous effect on the whale population. My niece had never seen a live seahorse before!

The walking path along the shoreline provided some wonderful views of the Piscataqua River, the Whaleback Light observation point, Fort Foster, and many other beautiful points of interest on the opposite shore.

We followed one of Odiorne Park's loop trails out into the local forest for awhile. It was very peaceful, with a few historical monuments to be found.

Thanksgiving day was fun - everyone helped get the food ready, and the dinner was delicious! We enjoyed the meal with my cousins, and their extended family and close friends. It was very pleasant, even for someone like me - out of my element with people I don't see regularly.



We enjoyed a short walk in the Urban Forestry Center, and my cousin discovered a new trail there. I felt privileged to be offered the opportunity to walk their dog Midnight, who was very rambunctious and energetic. Managing her leash took both hands, so I didn't get to take any pictures.

We ventured into downtown Portsmouth for a meal or two, some sightseeing, and window shopping. It's a beautiful New England town! Here's a pic of Portsmouth's Pilot boat, in front of their three very colorful signature tugboats. We visited a pop-up shop nearby. Interesting concept - it's a popular ice cream shop during the warm season, and a venue for local artists to display their wares, during the holiday season.

A big snowstorm hit New England while we were there, starting just a day before we were due to fly back home from Boston Logan airport. It started when we were inside the theater, watching the "Knives Out" movie, which was well done and very entertaining. We were surprised to find it snowing heavily, as we walked out to our car. This is the pretty little snow-covered bench in my cousin's front yard, the next morning.

The snow lightened up, just before we had to drive our rental car to the airport. We were a little concerned about the drive  in the new snow, but the roads were fairly good, and we made it to Logan as easy as pie. The highway was lined with beautiful snow-frosted trees, most of the way down the coast. There were a few slushy slippery adventures in lane 1, and the usual mayhem approaching Boston on I-95 and SR-1. I'm not a fan of relying on shuttle buses to get from the car rental to the terminal, but it is what it is... And the unexpected twist is, we jumped on the blue line bus, settled in for the ride, and then learned, long after it had passed our terminal, that they don’t all stop at every terminal. Luckily, and partly due to my extra-cautious advanced planning, we had lots of time, so we were able to enjoy the extra walking back to our departure terminal.

Continuing our airport experience... we were at our gate with plenty of time, so we were delighted to be able to run off and grab some crab cakes for dinner at Legal Sea Foods. I remembered really enjoying this restaurant, when we were at Logan two years ago, but didn't realize it had moved to a far more convenient location since then.

We were finally aboard our delayed flight home from Boston... and the aircraft’s windows were frozen over. My camera saw through it way better than I could. With that much ice on the vertical window, I wondered how much must have accumulated on the horizontal surfaces of the fuselage and wings. I was a little surprised when a mobile deicing vehicle came to do the job, but so glad that they were ready and able to deice our plane.

Finishing up my story, with a watercolor filtered photo of the tail of a nearby aircraft, as we were pushing back from our gate. We were glad to have an uneventful, albeit late-night, flight home.