Enjoying the pleasures of Santa Cruz

Early this morning we were woken up by the sound of Ralph's phone ringing.  It was around 6:30 a.m. and the Insurance Company was calling to discuss with us about the forms to be completed.  We were happy that they are actively pursuing this on our behalf.

After an early breakfast we headed out to the Santa Cruz Pier where we spent a couple of hours enjoying the Sea Lions.  They were all around the pier and it was so much fun to watch them.  I could certainly spend the whole day here watching their crazy antics as they played with each other.

Fisherman talk - have you caught anything?

Playful sea lions

This is referred to as a "Raft".  It was so cool to see.

How did he get up here?

My happy face!!

Looking across the bay.

Waves washing up on shore.

Anticipating the surf!!

We enjoyed lunch that we made ourselves from the leftover Sour Dough bread and chicken.  While enjoying our lunch we struck up a conversation with a family that was getting ready to surf.  I noticed their license plate was from Minnesota so I commented on how far away from home they were.  We had a really enjoyable conversation and they ended up telling us about this park called "Henry Cowell Redwood State Park".  It was only a short 30 minute drive from the coast so we went there to explore. It was amazing.  We had such a wonderful time walking through the forest filled with Redwoods. They are so majestic.   

See how big!!

Look up up up...

We went down to the beach to watch the sun set.  Ralph and I practiced doing some time lapse photography.  We're pretty happy with how it turned out.

Evening sunset.

We finished our day with a really nice dinner at Firefish Grill.  The food was amazing.  It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

Santa Cruz

We enjoyed a leisurely morning over breakfast and packing up our suitcases.  We enjoyed a nice sermon from R.C. Sproul that Ralph downloaded.

We arrived in Santa Cruz around noon.  We were able to check into our hotel right away and unload our suitcases.  We decided to go and see the Pier but found that it was too busy so we continued driving until we found a nice little park to stop and enjoy some lunch.  We made delicious sandwiches using the sour dough bread that we had bought yesterday in San Francisco.  It was amazing.  

After lunch was finished we drove to Moss Landing to see where we needed to go to catch the boat for our whale watching cruise.  Satisfied that we knew where to go and who to meet we headed for the beach.  Wow!!!  The waves were so high and the ocean was so rough.  We called it a very angry ocean.  It was really windy as well and quite cool but at the same time it felt so good to be there and enjoy the beautiful afternoon.

For dinner we went to Aptos Street BBQ.  We had live entertainment from a group called Chicken Slim Bone - which we thought was an unusual name.  They were really nice to listen too.  It was jazz music and reminded Ralph and I of a place that we had visited in Florida with Grace and John.  The food was delicious.

With all the fresh air, we are pretty tired so I suspect it will be an early night.

San Francisco

The day started out a bit rainy but cleared up nicely as time progressed. We went downtown to a camera store called Sammy’s. They were very helpful and set us up with a new camera and lens along with a bag and card to get us started. Fortunately we still have our wide angle lenses and our large 400 mm zoom for the whale watching tour later this week.  Unfortunately the battery wasn't charged so when we made coffee stops and lunch stops we were using the outlets at the restaurants to help get some juice into the battery so that we could use it for pictures.

After making our camera purchase we drove downtown and enjoyed the day exploring. We rode the cable cars, explored the lakeshore, went to Pier 39, Fishermans Wharf and enjoyed a chocolate treat at Ghirardelli's (yummy ice cream and chocolate).  It's a good thing we did all that walking!!

Dinner was spent on Pier 39 at the Crab House.  What a feast.  They have the most amazing dungeness crab. We ordered the Killer Crab Feast which comes on a sizzling platter that is loaded to the top.  It was so delicious and was a challenge to eat it all.

It was a perfect day to be out.  Not hot but not cold either.  The Golden Gate bridge was not really visible today as there was a lot of cloud and mist on the water.  We thought we might try to get sunset pictures of the bridge, but by the time the sun went down the bridge simply disappeared from view.

We received the news on Friday night that they had closed Yosemite Park due to mudslides and flooding.  We quickly made reservations in Santa Cruz for the next couple of days.  We're all disappointed that we won't be able to see those majestic mountains and waterfalls but recognize that it's dangerous to be out there with the wet conditions that they have been experiencing.  The bed and breakfast place that we had booked - Yosemite Rose was very gracious and also advised that it was a good idea to stay away.  I guess we have to plan to come back again.

It's time to say goodbye to San Francisco and "thanks for the memories".

Smash and grab

We woke up early this morning and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and made plans for the day.  First stop would be coffee at Starbucks and then we planned to drive into the city to enjoy the sights.

We were only in Starbucks for 10 minutes.  When we had gotten our coffee Teresa, Ralph and I decided to check out a menu of the restaurant that was next door while Lawrence went to the vehicle. He immediately started calling out to us.  We thought he had spied a snake or some kind of animal.

When we got to the van we discovered that the side window had been smashed in and my camera bag had been stolen.  There was also another vehicle 2 cars down that also had their window smashed.

Earlier that morning, Ralph and I had decided to only take one camera bag since we planned to do a lot of walking and it didn't make sense to lug around a lot of equipment.  Thankfully, we left his bag at the hotel and I had emptied my bag of most of my lens's and other miscellaneous camera equipment although I had left my zoom lens and extender  in the bag just in case we wanted to take some close ups.  Sadly both of our cameras were stolen along with my tripod and most of my camera cards and a RF remote.  My new card from Teresa and Lawrence for my video camera was also stolen.

I am so thankful that we had taken the other equipment out of our bags and left Ralph's behind.  The really sad thing is that we are leaving in 2 days for Yosemite and this is what both Ralph and I have been looking forward too with respect to taking pictures.  We hope to purchase a new camera tomorrow in San Francisco.  We went to a camera store today but they didn't have our particular camera.  They were really nice and called another place in San Francisco and put a camera on hold for us.  Unfortunately, we'll only purchase one camera until we can settle things with our insurance.  Thankfully my smaller camera was in my purse and our video camera was also in there so at least we didn't loose everything.

We spent the morning filing police reports, calling insurance, visa etc and returning the rental vehicle and exchanging it for a new one.  We are especially thankful to Wilf and Lydia for helping us by sending us the information for our stolen camera gear.  At least the police have something to use in their investigation.

On a more positive note, we were able to spend a few hours exploring the area by doing some shopping at the golf stores to get some golf balls in anticipation of our upcoming rounds.  Lawrence found the deal of the day - a dozen Crystal golf balls for $4.97.  Needless to say Teresa and I each snatched up a dozen.

By the time we were finished and back near our hotel it was about 8:30.  We enjoyed dinner at a Filipino Restaurant called Gerry's Grill.  Very interesting food although not really a favourite for Ralph.

In case you were wondering we weren't affected by the earthquake yesterday (we were still flying) however we are thankful to hear that there weren't any casualties.

We have arrived

After spending most of the day flying, we have arrived in San Francisco.  The temperature is a moderate 61F.   It's time to go exploring and find a nice place for dinner.

Can you see the waterfall?  I'm not sure if this is Yosemite but it's not that far (by air) from San Francisco

Lots of snow in the mountains

Happy travellers

Beautiful cloud formation

Only 1 more sleep

Wooo hooo.  The time has finally come and we're about to embark on a nice lengthy vacation.  Our bags are packed, the camera's are all charged up and the cards have been formatted and are ready to be used.  Hopefully we haven't forgotten anything.

The biggest challenge was knowing what to pack

Camera bags are almost as big as our suitcases

Hmmm I hope I can golf with only 1 of 7 clubs to choose from

We had fun planning this vacation over the last 6 months. From mountains to deserts to waterfalls and giant Redwoods.   The sights will be amazing.  Hopefully we'll see a lot of wildlife along the way and enjoy the cacti as they start coming into bloom.

Here is a look at our "high level" schedule.  Nothing is really set in stone except for the golf and whale watching tours.  We can move things around if the weather doesn't look good.

April 5 -  San Francisco

April 8 - Yosemite National Park

April 11 - Pacific Grove/Monterey

April 14 - Ventura

April 15 - San Diego

April 18 - Palm Springs.

April 21 - We'll be dropping Lawrence and Teresa off at the airport and then Ralph and I will be driving to Los Angeles.

April 22 - Kauai

May 7 - Hilo

It's going to be an adventure of a lifetime.

The end has come

Sadly, a week ago, Ralph experienced his last day working in the office at Sears.  .  In June Ralph will have worked for Sears for 40 years.    God blessed him richly by giving him plenty of different opportunities during the time that he worked there.  When we were first married, he worked in the Warehouse.  This offered him the opportunity to work evenings and allowed him the time needed to put a new addition on our house.  He worked long days then, tearing down the old house, building up new walls with his brother Ed and making a new home for us.  During the evening, he faithfully went into work and spent 8 hours driving a fork lift machine "picking" orders off the shelves and getting them ready for delivery.  From there he went downtown as a manager at Head Office.  He changed jobs a few times where he eventually landed in the Finance Department.  While it was frustrating to see him work 6 days a week and on vacation, he never complained and was happy to help whenever he was asked.  His experience in the Wharehouse made him an invaluable resource to Sears.

 Little did we know that this job would be his last although Ralph had predicted that this would happen almost 8 years ago.

At the end it was only a small group of people still working.  Seeing a company close their doors for the final time is a sad thing to experience.  I'm thankful that Ralph was able to stay till the end and we both look forward to a new beginning.  We're excited to see what God has planned for us.

This picture was taken on February 8, 2018.  This is the total sum of employees that were still working at Sears.  It's hard to imagine that they used to employ 11,240 employee's in 2017.  If you look closely, you will see Ralph at the very back of the group.

He went downtown this week and met up with a few of his colleagues for lunch and used it as a opportunity to reminisce about the good times that they had.  Ralph is still connected to Sears in the event that they require some data for reporting.  He went home with a computer and all his accesses to the network are still connected.  We commented today that it's been a week already and he hasn't had a call.  It's amazing how fast the time goes although he has managed to keep himself busy working in the house.

We try to get our walks in each day.  In 3 days I had already walked almost 70,000 steps.  I say walk but it's almost a run for me keeping up with him.  He has such a long stride.  Today we reactivated our membership at the gym and plan to visit there on a regular basis as well.  I really enjoy having him home.  I'm amazed at how much we are enjoying our time together.