3000 miles back to the Keys, Alamo, San Antonio, Golden Anniversary!

The extraordinary view from our RV site of the historical Bahia Honda Bridge.

Sometimes, the park rangers let us play with the "Big Toys"..

One of our neighbors, a 6 foot iguana.

This is a top of the line, electric GEM cart provided by the park.

Ilea strikes a tantalizing pose with her trash pick up equipment, putting the squeeze on enemy #1.

"Getting a bit crazy, we enjoy zig-zagging thru the park paths on our cart, impressing the campers.

Stopped off at West Palm to celebrate the awesome 50th Golden Wedding Anniversay of Mom and Dad!

On the 5 day 3000 mile trek from San Diego to the Keys, the only place we really stopped was Texas... here is an 'exciting' rv park in the Lone Star State...

The only tourist spot we took in was the ALAMO... Did you know that back when Mexico owned this area in 1830, the MEXICANS were gravely concerned about the uncontrolled influx of AMERICAN immigrants into their territory! This is one of the reasons which led to the ALAMO being a part of history (when we stole the area from them!)

Downtown San Antonio is quite interesting, being somewhat like Venice Italy! There are numerous canals that connect restaurants and shops.

Back in the Keys... we meet up with an old friend, the Great White Heron.

This is the view from most of the roads we ride on daily through the Bahia Honda State Park where we are now volunteering till Sept 1st.

DAY AT DISNEY .... planes buzzin around.... and Spicing up our anniversary #25!

Did the Tower of Terror and lived to tell about it ......

Ilea, Bill, Jess and Gary at Disney Day.... note cool custom shirts Jessica made for us all!

For our 25th anniversary, decided to spice things up a bit and went to a herbal garden! After that we went to a nudist colony - REALLY no joking!!!


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Saw a very unusual plane race at San Diego Bay. What you see are four blow up cones on the water. The planes in the competition had to run a real obstacle course which consisted of them flying their planes in between the cones, SIDEWAYS, just a few feet above the water! C R A Z Y !!!!!!
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Ilea, Caylan, and her bud Loren getting freaky in Beverly Hills....

April 26 Trip to Catalina Island.....

Ventured out to Catalina Island on a gorgeous spring day.....


Along the way, we saw many birds and sailing ships....


Stayed at very quaint Casa Mariquita (similar to the brothel we visited in Baja.


This is a CRAZY 'sphinx moth' which flies and hovers like a hummingbird!!! They are HUGE, and quite numerous around the island. Carefully look at its eye, and you can see that it REALLY has its eye ON ME, cautiously watching my every move, as I took the picture!


Sadly, most of the restaurants we visited did not allow animals.


Along out walk to Mt. Ada, this was one of many great views. We actually walked about 10 miles up and down the streets of Avalon (only city of Catalina Island.)


Another view slightly higher up.


At the very top of Mt. Ada, this view shows the circular building known as the 'Casino' which, by the way is NOT a real casino! This also shows the Avalon Harbor. On the boat trip back to the mainland, we had the extraordinary experience of seeing literally 100's of dolphins in every direction! Just when we thought it could not get any better, we saw some humpback whales breaching - all the while we were still seeing all these dolphins...... W O W !!!!

"Grunion Lovin"

WOW- Went to a "Grunion Run" ..... Grunion are small fish (about 6 inches) that actually catch a Pacific Ocean wave, and wiggle UP ON TO THE SAND as far as they can, to REPRODUCE! This happens on a strict biological clock: it only happens during a few spring months, only for a few nights AFTER a full or new moon, and only during a specific few hours! You can see a lot (HUNDREDS)of the shiny critters in one photo. Note in that photo, at the bottom right, you can see a female starting to bury itself tail first into the sand to lay its eggs.




In this close up shot, you see the female grunion half buried, with the males around her lying on the sand - after the wave and water has LEFT the area! Male wiggles around female and deposits sperm to 'complete the deed.'



We have all heard of 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush....' BUT what is a FISH IN THE HAND WORTH?? Well, after it seemed one particularly LARGE female had apparently done its egg laying and popped out of her hole to catch the next wave back into the ocean, Bill decided to pick her up for a closer inspection. As is evidenced in the photo- he got 'egged' ! It is all over his hand. Ewwww.

Lots of SUN !!! Spring has SPRUNG !!!

Went for a ride out to the desert.... wow!!! Never have we seen such an incredible spread of natural colors! The view you see in this shot of Ilea actually can be seen 360 degrees - any direction! The hum of the bees is quite evident, BUT oddly, you do not see them (much.) The flowers only stick around for a number of weeks & then they are gone.

Here is Bill doing some "Whale Watching....." uh, wait a moment... that can't be right- he's looking toward Ilea!

Time flys !!! March already!!!

The impressive skyline of San Diego includes the Convention Center which is the longest enclosed structure in the US. Ilea happily shows off one of the more than FIFTY sand dollars that we found along the beach during our walk at Silver Strand. A beautiful walk along the Silver Strand State Beach in San Diego shows a nice view of Point Loma and Cabrillo National Park in the distance. The "Silver Strand" beach actually has sand that looks more like it has GOLD flakes in it as you can see in the photo.

New Year ..... New Adventures......

We have aspired to this! Professional Bingo Callers !! Our families are SOOoo Proud! (((NOTE- after having done this mind-numbing activity once a week for the last couple months, Bill needed to feed his brain. He has taken a part time BIO teaching position at the University of San Diego for the Spring Term )))


Having gained the reputation as "Popcorn Man", here he is pushing his kernels during the football playoffs.


Trying to pawn off her, uh, taco ... here is Ilea serving up snacks for football playoffs.


Attended yet another wedding while on the west coast! This one was for our daughter's friends, Jessie and Jeanine - who had attended Jessica and Gary's Vegas wedding last month. Unusual event in that it had karaoke in an Irish Pub, which featured mainly country style songs ala Alabama (where the groom's family is from.)


Here we are in the new year, and Ilea is checking out SpongeBob already ......



Not to be outdone by Ilea's new partner, SpongeBob ..... Bill picks up a new bird to ride on the carousel at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.


This handsome kitty was only about 20 feet away in the San Diego Wild Animal Park.... fortunately, he did not get out of his area while we were visiting!

Holidays in Chula Vista

Last post of 2007..... Here we are all "ELFED" up for the xmas pot luck dinner at the resort- surely you are green with envy over these sweet costumes..... We continue to do our camphost duties which include BINGO CALLING, game nights, karaoke nights and other things. Visited with Jess and Gary for the xmas eve and xmas day dinners. All and all, a very tranquil transition to a new year which follows an entire year of incredible adventure!!! Happy Holidays to all!!

Hey Hon - How 'bout before we do that Red Eye flight across the continent, we stop first in Vegas and Paris??

As we were calmly preparing for our eastbound airplane trip from San Diego to Orlando BOY DID WE GET SOME NEWS .... It seems that Jessica and Gary were going to go to Las Vegas in a few days to TIE THE KNOT!! We had tixs to fly out of San Diego on a Red Eye Sunday night - and they planned a 730pm Saturday Night Elvis style wedding!! We were ecstatic to be among the few privlidged to be able to attend on such short notice. The wedding featured a ride in a antique pink Cadillac (owned by Lucille Ball), chauffered by the King himself, which actually delivers the bride right into the chappel!!! Gary wore his heritage to the event ( his Scottish kilt), while Jess had an astonishing Victoria Secrets -like dress.....



Elvis does the entire deal - he sings, dances, and is the justice of the peace .... Just look at that beaming smile on the new bride!!!! The chappel actually fills with fog during the ceremony ...... you can see more pix of the wedding at this link : http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=3368212 (copy - paste to url and then click 'CONTINUE' button - do not need to log in)




While in Vegas, Jessica and Gary decided that we should all go to Paris ! The Paris hotel, that is - to have the wedding dinner at the Eiffel Tower restaurant. Quite the exquisite culinary experience, with a spectacular view of Vegas!!



On a pleasant afternoon, Bill cruises the bay of San Diego bordering the Chula Vista campground we currently call home. Out upon these waters, he checked out an abandoned houseboat ... ehh , actually a 'housebrothel' which used to recently be in the babe for hire business. Must have been quite the unique tourist trap.....




Perhaps one of the most anticipated stops of our rv adventure .... a visit back to the Orlando house we purchased to see daughter Caylan !!! It had been almost a year since we saw her last ..... she took us to see the Blue Man Group - who she works with- at Universal Studios. Very entertaining night, preceded by a special dinner at Emeril's for celebration of Caylan's 21st b-day.



While in Florida, stopped by Mom and Dad's in West Palm to celebrate Dad's birthday..They were thrilled not only about Jessica's marriage to Gary, but also because the date they chose - Dec 8th - to get married, is the same day Mom and Dad met 50 years prior!! Lets hear it for the happy couples !!!!