May Dayz...

May is over already - wow.

Spent a few days in Utah around Mother's day, so I was able to attend church with my son's family and see his little girls sing.  They made dinner for us later - that's always a treat!

 Jennie is so clever - she had built some little garden boxes that go up the back fence, and the girls had each planted their own choice of plants in one of them.  I wish I were more creative with things that are actually useful.
It looks something like this, but in smaller sections...

(via Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/131378514105073535/ )

We took some flowers up to the cemetery, since we wouldn't be there for Memorial Day...

 

We also drove through the cemetery in Aurora, where hubby's family came from - you can find his whole genealogy there...

We then stopped and had a visit with my sister in Richfield.  Haven't been able to do that for quite a while - we went to lunch and had a nice visit - never enough time though...

  Had a few fun events the past couple of weeks.  :-)  A week ago Friday, our Stake had a musical presentation in conjunction with our Stake Conference.  Hubby got off work just in time to go.
It was really inspiring, and showcased some great talent down here!

Saturday, hubby's sister & brother in law came down for vacation.  The Helldorado Days Rodeo was going on,  and hubby had free tickets, since his store is a sponsor.  I spent a lot of time at rodeo's in the good ol' days as a kid, so it's always a fun thing to do...

Sunday we took them to church with us - it was our stake conference here, it's always so inspiring and uplifting :-)  Then we took some Kentucky fried and went to the "dinosaur" park for lunch.  (It has a dinosaur themed playground.)  It was the perfect day for it - just breezy enough to make the temperature mild.  We watched all the turtles and ducks in the pond, and walked around the waterfall - pleasant afternoon.

Monday, Mark drove us downtown to visit a store he's been dying to see.  On the way, we stopped to do something very touristy...

We had to stand in line to get a picture here (but luckily it wasn't too long...)

Bass Pro is a giant sporting goods store, but it's kind of amazing with all the taxidermied animal displays...

Giant fish tanks (with giant fish!)

Even a full size giraffe!  (Cute clothes too!)

It was quite the adventure...

After that, we grabbed a quick burger, then drove up to the strip.  We try to avoid that area, but that's what most people come here to see.  *Sigh*

We took them to a few of the places the kids showed us when they were here -
Cesar's Palace...

The Noble Roman himself...

The Conservatory at the Billagio...

The Billagio's Chocolate Shop

Various sights from the strip...  (Love that dome - picture doesn't do it justice)

...And, after all the times I've been down there, I finally got to see the fountains go off!
Tuesday, they had plans in the morinng, but we went to the casino for dinner and a movie later...
Then, they went on to San Diego to visit a sister.

Last saturday, my friends invited me to go down to Henderson to go to Hobby Lobby.  It sure makes me appreciate my past life in a small community, where everything is close - and the traffic is tolerable...
Later that afternoon, we got back together at my friend's house to cool off in her pool, and to barbecue.  This is the first time since college that I have had friends to go play with like this...

Fun!

It's always a let down when company leaves, but I have kept myself busy the last couple of weeks - I've read two books, attended church socials, and crafted my brains out.

It's getting seriously hot now, so anything to stay inside...
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Winding Down...

All good things must come to an end.  Headed back to Reno on Friday, but first one last swing around the beach...

 Debbie jumped out of the truck and ran right down the steps, kicked off her shoes and started rolling up her jeans - didn't have to tell me twice, I was right behind her. Last chance to get some sand between those toes. Waded in up to the knees, found some shells, then good bye to the beach...

 Sad attempt at a selfie

Deer grazing on someone's lawn...

Good bye to my little lighthouse...

It took forever to get back - the traffic was bumper to bumper all the way - then when we started to climb the mountain, we ran into this:

Snowstorm on Donner Pass!  Trucks were lined up for miles and miles putting chains on their tires to get over the hill.  Luckily, we sailed on by - and luckily, we had stopped for dinner before ascending the mountain, so nobody had to be eaten...

It was nice to have a quiet day at Debbie's to rest up from the trip - sleep in, have naps and play with the critters.

Diego and Joaquin - at least I know these guys are going to miss me when I'm gone :)

Later, Nate came over and brought Addie (and his guitar) with him.  Last time I was here, this little princess wouldn't speak or even look at me, so it was a major score that she let me play littlest pet shops with her this time - (even though she informed me I was doing it wrong most of the time.)
Beleive it or not, I even got her to sing to me - Princess Anna's song from Frozen.  So darned adorable!

We had pizza, and then Dana & Nate sang for us.  I enjoy this so much - reminds me of the good old days when my brothers would serenade us with their guitars...

What a great time.


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San Simmeon

The last item on our list was to visit Hurst Castle...

More whale watching along the way.  I really worried about Dana keeping up with us, especially on yesterday's hike - after all that he's been through, I think it was harder than he let on.  He's a trooper.

Along the road in Big Sur, there is this lovely place; McWay falls.  I never would have imagined it was there - from the road it's just a dusty little trail next to a rusty gate.  Also called Julia Pfeiffer Burns state park.  At one time it was the home of the afore named lady, who inherited it from her husband, who was a cattle rancher.  It is said that she abandoned it because it was so isolated and she was so lonely there - you would think I would get that, being in somewhat the same situation, but looking at this view made it hard to imagine...

After hiking all over this place, I took a little snooze in the truck - when I woke up, we were at a fenced in beach where there were lots of people parked, looking over a chain link fence.  I was a bit confused, having no idea where we were.  It wasn't a particularly pretty section of beach or anything...  This little guy was sitting on a bush just over the fence - he seemed as confused as I was...

Turns out, what the people were staring at was a hoard of elephant seals who come up on this beach to rest, socialize and molt in the warm sand.

There were so many of them lined up all the way down the beach - they were kind of funny to watch - they're not the most graceful creatures on land, and they kept flipping sand on themselves to keep cool.  When the whole slew of them were doing it at once, it was quite a sight!

We arrived at San Simeon about lunch time, and we pulled into this little historic area to feed at the local burger joint.  This is the only place in the area to eat, and the line was a long one - but it was worth it - best burger I've ever eaten!  This little school house is on the lot...

There were some horses grazing in the field in front of it, and people were making a fuss over them while I was trying to get this shot - one of them looked at me a little accusingly, because I wasn't paying him any attention - I said, ok - I'll take your picture - at that, he turned around and backed his behind up against the fence, right in my face!  True story.

I loved this house that is also on the lot - used to be occupied by Hurst's ranch hands...

The place is so expansive, that there are several different tours that you can take.  We opted for the upstairs suites.

The grounds and the gardens were so beautiful, but I'm afraid the house was a bit of a disappointment to me.  It was so dark and medieval looking...  Like moving around in an elaborate tomb.

The library.  Too dark to read!

I did love these doors... and the ceiling below was my favorite of all of them.

 Mr. Hurst used this room as his office.  It was said he spent most of his time here...

Hurst's father made his fortune when he found silver on the land - it shows in all the massive silver sconces in the house...

One of the balconies

I have to say, the pools were impressive...

As close to the high life as we'll ever get :-)  And no, we didn't plan the matching outfits...