Giggles

Song - The Mad Tea Party Ride in Disneyland

I remember this moment so well.  We were in Disneyland around 1988 with our two boys at the time.  Jon was having the time of his life shaking Parmesan cheese onto his spaghetti. He was so happy that he could "do it myself" that he clogged up the shaker with sauce.  Jon always, always kept us smiling.

 But the shocker was how B-I-G Mr. B's glasses were!!!

The only other person that I could think of that wore this style......

Yep.  Good ol' Clark Griswald!

Of course, I just spotted a photo of my niece with her new glasses on Facebook and they are equally as large.  Maybe it's back in fashion or these two guys were just ahead of their time?

 "The time to laugh is when you don't have time for it."    

-- Argus Poster

Dawgs

Song - Walking the Dog by Rufus Thomas


This is my friend Gwen's sweet doggie named Grace.  She loves her mom, stuffed animals and carrots! A truly gentle soul.

I loved this pose of her relaxing on her front foot, while keeping an eye that Gwen was still nearby.

Since I had bought Gwen a birthday present but wasn't allowed to bring it on the plane (a large candle in glass - what was I thinking?), I painted Grace for her. The mandala in the background is from the Pema Chodron & K. D. Lang event brochure.

"Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails."    Max Eastman

Under the Boardwalk

Song - Stars & Stripes Forever by the U.S. Marine Band

For the Fourth of July we headed down to Santa Cruz for a few days but it didn't look like the above picture......

It looked more like this! PACKED!

Luckily we were a few miles away in the Redwood Forest.

Painting, reading, walking and relaxing.  It was incredible weather and we ate dinner on the deck every night.

We brought our guard dog Mika with us!

There was a parade down our little lane that began with the new fire truck blowing its siren.

Followed by the old fire truck blowing its rickety old siren.

Followed by kids young and old.

 

People decorated their cars, trucks, golf carts, bikes, strollers, skateboards and shoes.  Anything that moved.  Mr. B and I just parked our lawn chairs in front of our cabin and ate our lunch while waving to the parade going by.

Heckle and Jeckle were in the tree nearby, cheering on the crowd! Every morning we would wake to them making a weird clacking sound. Apparently it is the noise of dominate females.  They sounded just like the bushmen tribe in "The Gods Must be Crazy".

 

Later in the day we took a drive to Lighthouse Point to watch the surfers but there were few waves and even fewer surfers. 

People were enjoying their Fourth out on the water.

And on the wild rides at the Boardwalk.  We got caught in a major traffic jam so I was able to take plenty of photos from the car.

How often do you think they inspect those bolts????





"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family 
picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flied die from happiness.  You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism." -- Erma Bombeck

Deja Vu

Song - Going to the Chapel of Love by the Dixie Cups

Mr. B and I attended a wedding on Sunday and it happened to be at the same venue where we were married - Hacienda de las Flores in Moraga almost 36 years ago!

They had classical pre-wedding music. 

Sarah & John said their vows in the exact location where we exchanged our vows.  The bride wore a beautiful long gown that was laced up the back and the groom wore khaki's & a plaid shirt. The whole wedding had a casual elegance to it.  Very welcoming!

They had a food truck serving delicious Mexican-Asian fusion food and a mimosa bar.

The stone bench cut into the garden wall was still where I remembered it.

 My niece Katie and my brother Tim taking a little wedding break in 1979 on that same bench!

They used their family's antique saber to cut their cake with. Apparently all members of the family have used that saber for weddings for multiple generations.

In the end, it's all about family, friends, dessert and being comfy!  This is the groom's daughter, Bella.

And in the end all you need is LOVE!

"The best thing to hold onto in life is each other." 

- Audrey Hepburn

An Evening in Los Angeles

Song - Hallelujah by K.D. Lang

I have so much to share with you.....

Over the weekend, I flew (all my myself) to Los Angeles!  Now for those of you who know me, I am not a confident flyer.  I have to sit myself down and give myself a good talking to, in order to be able to step on a plane. 

So this weekend, I was visiting a good friend and going with her to an evening event at UCLA.

Gwen and myself at Royce Hall

But before we get to that, we had some time to play so we went to the Getty Museum and gardens. It was amazing.  I never even knew that they had a garden!

You walk down a wooden & stone walkway that zig-zags you over a stream and waterfalls. But because of the drought, it wasn't at its full roar!  The stream ends up pouring into this floating azalea maze.

They had metal trees with Bougainvillea growing inside in a variety of colors.

There were a lot of semi-tropical plants which I didn't know the names of because we can't grow them in Northern California. I especially liked this one below.

It was quite warm and the kids were playing in the stone studded stream.

Then we only had a wee bit of time to go inside........but just look what we found!

Van Gogh

Monet

Khnopff

Godward

By the time we got back to Gwen's car, it was just a few blocks to get to our event.

I have never been on the UCLA campus before. 

The event consisted of a Spiritual discussion with Pema Chodron and K.D. Lang.  Leading the discussion was the founder & CEO of Sounds True, Tami Simon.  You can read more about the evening here. 

Tami & Pema

K.D. Lang helping Pema off stage

After a brief intermission, K.D. held a concert.  Her voice is as smooth and lovely as ever.  In fact, one of the songs she sang was the one I included at the top of this post - Hallelujah.  

Spectacular evening!

This quote was displayed in one of the greeting rooms at Royce Hall. 

Hooray for flying and good friends!!!!