Calendar Girl

I just realized that some of you probably are not on Facebook or don't check Facebook........

Annie has a chance to be a "Calendar (2012) Girl"!  Goldenbond Rescue is holding a contest and there are some great photos, and you can select up to 18 photos, so please vote for my girl.  Here is the link http://goldenbondrescue.com/events/calendar-contest.html.

Since some of them look alike, the photo #'s are 10, 47, and 66.

Hurry, the contest ends August 7th!

Carmel

Oh, my gosh, how much do I love Carmel...............I am not a beach person,  although when I was young I did go to the beach quite often and that is because I was the child of a "beach person".  I'm not big as far as getting sand in every nook and cranny.

Before Rocky was born Pete and I made a couple of trips to Carmel and stayed at the sweetest B&B, The Cobblestone Inn, I'm happy to report it's still there.  Not much has changed, except some of the shops, but then again they always had GREAT shops.

We parked and walked down to the beach where Annie had a great ole time.  Don't you just love these homes right on the beach!  Of course when walking around you can't help loving every home in Carmel (by the Sea). After, we walked back up into town and explored a little (too little for me, afterall, I was with 2 men). 

Very "pet" friendly town, we were able to take Annie into shops.  Or course they have to be, Doris Day lives here and she is (or was) big into animal rescue.

After, we drove into the valley and had lunch at a great spot, "Rio Grill" and then went to the old Mission.  I told Pete I would not leave Carmel until I'd gone through the mission, we never did it the other times we were there. 

After the mission, we stopped at a couple of wineries and then we were headed back to our campsite.

Other than Ashland, this is the place I would love to live, if I was a millionaire.

Check a later post to see those photos.

Pt. Cabrillo

Pt. Cabrillo in the Mendocini area, near where we camped........

Pete and I did the little hike up to the lighthouse (Rocky stayed in the car with Annie).  It was worth the walk, but boy, it sure was chilly!  I had on a hooded sweatshirt, Pete was still in Summer-mode.  It was drearier (is that a word ?) then the photos appear, I lighted up the photos.....

The original lightkeeper's home was turned into a museum so those are the photos you're seeing.

The "light", lens in the lighthouse was quite beautiful, wish I had taken a close up or better photo.  It was made in France and I believe, one of three in the world. 

Couldn't resist taking a photo of this squirrel that could not stop munching! 

Agriculture/Calif.

The last place we camped was in a town called Watsonville.  The State Park was "Sunset Beach", although we didn't stay "on the beach", it was a short walk to the beach.  The park was good, I wouldn't say, "I have to stay there again", but I would recommend it if you needed to stay in this area. 

Watsonville was okay, no big attraction, but it was minutes away from Monterey and Carmel, so that for us was the attraction. 
The funny part was that the park was totally surrounded by agriculture and actually the whole town was too.  We stopped by one of the local produce stands thinking we were going to find great deals, but no, I guess everyone is trying to make money, can't blame them. 

Photo shoot/Carmel

Pete and I messing around at Carmel by the Sea! 

guess who loved the coast more than anyone.....

This was Carmel by the Sea, we took off her leash and she went wild!

This was when we were checking out Russian Gulch State Park, in Mendocino County, down the road from where we camped

Carmel was very dog friendly, she was able to go into some of the stores with us.

This part, not so much fun............but she is an excellent traveler!  She sat in the back with Rocky, we put down the seat and it made into a bed for her so she was very comfortable.  

Jedidiah Smith State Park.....it had been over 25 years since Pete and I had been there and we wanted to re -visit since we were now a lot closer.  It is still beautiful and a great place to camp.  Pete and I will definitely be going back, if you haven't been it's outside of Crescent City.  We liked our site but we scoped out a couple of other sites that we would prefer.  It is State Park so there are no "hook-ups" so Rocky was a little upset but they do have nice bathrooms with flush tiolets and showers (50 cents for 5 minutes).
This was the beginning of our vacation so we only stayed 1 night since I kinda over booked us.  Off we were first thing on Sunday morning to Mendocino, or off we were when Rocky finally woke up!

VACATION

I will be M.I.A. for this week.

  I planned our vacation in January hoping to get some great campgrounds and campsites, I'll let you know if that happened when I get back.

I'm very excited to do Highway 1 and head down south on the California coast.  

It's been a long time since I've been in that neck of the woods and Rocky's never been, so we should have a good time.  

Bob will be house sitting and hopefully making sure the critters don't eat all our landscaping (lol).  Annie is coming with, so Bob will only be cuddling with Lizzie.  

 Mom went back to Henderson and is waiting for her trip to David's house in Las Cruces.  She did not want to stay at our house alone or else she probably would have stayed longer.  

Even picking blueberries didn't entice her - ha!

Plants

The mystery plant is no longer a mystery..........................
I tried my hand a couple of winters ago with growing starter plants from seed.  Last year a couple made it and most did not.  This one was one that didn't make it!  Well, this Spring the other one pooped out and this one came back, BUT, I did not remember what it was!!!!  So we've been watching it and waiting for a clue.......finally, I figured out it was a daisy!  Yea, I already cut a few and put them in a small vase but, there are quite a few more ready to pop!

My little dream is slowly coming to fruition; to have a cutting garden. I still have a couple of things to figure out in my planters but, by next Spring I will be done and some of the small stuff will be a lot bigger!


(sorry, the second photo is not the best.....)

Senior year book

I bought this album at CKC last year with no plans on what I was going to do with it!

This year it hit me; make a book of Rocky's senior year.  Thanks to Facebook, I was able to download lots of photos of him and his friends, plus I had a couple.  Actually....... I had too many photos and I had to add a mini-book within the mini-book!

At CKC this year, I bought the paper and the sheet of great stickers that were very apropos.  

I completed the album at the retreat a couple of weeks ago.  

I was very pleased with the way it came out.