Beautiful Clearlake in California

Beautiful Clearlake in California
Pacific Ocean/Mendocino Feb 2016
Update: March 6th, 2016.
After a very very long year of learning to live a new life with my most recent handicap. I am getting movement in my arm!! :) It started the end of August and has been progressing, slowly. My issues with paranioia and depression are also getting better. I am confident that things will continue to progress. However, loosing a whole YEAR of my life is devastating to say the least. However, keeping a positive attitude for the most part has been a huge challenge, but I do it. I am grateful to all my family and friends that have been so encouraging and helpful. Thank you..




Friday, August 30, 2013

Ft Bragg, CA with Friends

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We met Jim and Shirley at the junction of hwy 29/hwy 20 and we followed them over to Ft Bragg to the Noyo Harbor to have lunch at Silvers at the Wharf. Ev and I shared a to die for crab melt/bowl of clam chowder! Jim had some enchilada’s and Shirley had? oops forgot.. Lovely day and such great company!! Sun was out and it was nice and warm with no wind! Ocean was flat calm.. really lovely day..

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After lunch we headed up to Westport, just north.. We stayed the night just above the ocean on some cliffs.. Gorgeous views and sunset..We sat out by the fire for till it was dark, then retired early.

Up and ready to for travel the next morning.. We caravanned back down to Cleone. We had thought we might stay at MacKerricher Park, fees are $25 (no hook ups) a night, while the private campground next door at the Cleone Grocery campground and full hook up fee was $31 a night..(It just kills me that the “state campgrounds’ can’t keep their doors up with their high fees and the private people with hook ups can with cheap fees. Guess the state should go private!)
We got all set up at our new humble site.

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We thought we all needed a cocktail, a “margarita” and some “Wrap Turkey Avocado Cranberry Mustard” for lunch. After lunch we decided we should go shopping at the local thrift stores.. Of course we found a couple of treasures to take home with us. After a couple of hours of shopping, we were getting mighty thirsty..

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Found this nice little bar downtown “Tip Top Lounge”. Lots of great atmosphere.. Biker bar.. Nice scenery… quite entertaining actually. It was ‘happy hour”..

152 We decided we should go to the Cliff House Restaurant for our second happy hour cocktail and dinner. Fabulous dinner with breath taking views of the Noyo Harbor! We just made it to get the “early bird special dinner”, 2 entrĂ©e’s and a bottle of wine for $30!!! Wonderful dinner, great atmosphere! However the best was the company!!

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Such a fun fun day! Jim & Shirley you two are so much fun!!
We are going to miss you when you leave tomorrow!! (leaving on Wednesday to go home).
When we got up on Wednesdays, we all thought it would be a great idea to go for breakfast at Eggheads, wonderful crab omelets! Didn’t remember them being so pricey.. oh well..

Wednesday was another wonderful day! Warm sunshine, calm seas, what more could be ask for?? I think the day just got better as it went on.
Once we saw Jim & Shirley off, we packed up the kayaks and headed for MacKerricher Park to the ocean. We launched the kayaks in the bay and started paddling around. Soon we had some very cute entertainment, the seals! They were so cute and playful and one really brave one! He was swimming under us next to us, popping up here and there.. so cute.. Eventually he followed us to shore!! We didn’t stay out too long, I was a bit apprehensive being in the “ocean”.. not feeling real safe.. so we decided we go down the Noyo River and kayak!!

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We arrived at our new destination about 2pm.. It took us a while to find this place to launch the kayaks. It was way  up the river about a mile or so from the harbor. Turned out to be a great place!
We saw so many boats, coming and going.. some coming up the river some going down. the ocean was flat calm and the fishing was terrific! Salmon and Albacore Tuna!!
The river water was calm and easy paddling. We made sure to stay out of the “shipping lane”.. we paddled about 2 and 1/2 miles round trip.. took us about 2 hours.. We were paddling against the tide on the way down and with the tide on the way back.. wheweeeeeeeeeee.. what a great day!!
We stopped at Safeway on the way back to camp to pick up a couple of steaks for dinner.. we were going to get some nice fresh fish, but the '”fresh fish” price from the fisherman was soooo expensive.. so we had steak instead..
By the time we got back to camp some fisherman had arrived over at the cleaning station (which was close to our camp) and they were generous and gave us some of their tuna filets to bring home!! Smile I guess we got about 3 or 4 pounds!! I’ll can it when I bring it home!!

We were lazy Thursday morning, slept in some, watched a movie, ate breakfast and then we finally left for home about 12:30pm.. Its about a 2 hour plus drive home.. only about 80 miles but lots of winding road....

Kitchen Prayer

God bless my little kitchen
I love it's every nook.
And bless me as I do my work,
wash pots and pans and cook.
And may the meals that I prepare
be seasoned from above,
With Thy blessing and Thy grace,
but most of all Thy love.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Lindsy/Chris/Kelly/Tony/Jeff/Cesar-Visit

The kids arrived mid-evening on Friday.. So excited for the weekend they would be able to just “chill’.. Nothing to do but eat/drink/party/and enjoy one another’s company.
We brought the kayaks for them.. Chris was hoping to get in some fishing?? Didn’t happen.. seemed this weekend was a well deserved break in our normal heat.. Very mild temps, below 90 with a strong breeze on the lake all the day they were here. Made it difficult to do some kayaking..

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Despite the cooler temps and breezy lake. Fun was had by all!
Friday night Ev & I joined them for dinner as well as bringing the kayaks in.. Chris cooked up some wonderful Chicken, not sure who gets the credit for the marinade, but it was dam good! We had so much food we could have fed the whole neighborhood!
It is such a pleasure to have my family and friends visit us here at Clearlake!! We love it! Extra special treat this time.. Got to spend a little time with my niece Kelly.. Haven’t gotten to spend time with her for many many years! Time just seems to pass by, minutes are hours, days turn into years and before you know it, it is more than a decade!! It was truly a blissful weekend! Ev and I stayed late on Friday night, nearly 11pm when we left for home.
On the way home as you have seen in the blog earlier that we came upon a wildfire just below our house. Frightening to say the least!! Soon the firefighters had it under control.. All is well..GREENSMILESSS
Saturday was going to be a quite day.. movie day..?? Well sort of?? First another fire broke out across the lake from us!! We watched as the fire fighters got that all under control
Second, Matt & Jordona (great people!) came by with the girls.. haven’t seen those girls in such a long time.. getting all  grown up!!
We enjoyed a beer or two or three? But who's counting.. GREENSMILESSS
The little girls ( I can't ever remember their names, dang!) played in the hot (cold) tub while we all visited for awhile..
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Second night at the Beach House, after a slow day on Saturday.. Party was on once again!! Got a call earlier in the day, “Mom can you bring the karaoke machine”.. no problem..
I arrived without Ev, he had some alone time at home. I got to the Paradise Beach House about 6ish.. Jeff was wonderful to come down and unload the Toyota and bring up the karaoke machine.. Wasn’t long and we were all singing.. Be happy YOU weren’t  there.. GREENSMILESSS We (me?) were a bit “off key”??, but we had soooooooooo much fun! I think Lindsy & Kelly were the most dynamic or should I say dramatic?? GREENSMILESSS It was fun! Check it out.. GREENSMILESSS

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We did play some game?? Apples and Oranges?? Probably not the name, but it was fun.. Chris/Jeff/Tony were the Chef’s of choice for the weekend! MAN THEY CAN COOK FOR ME ANYTIME!! soo good!!!!! Carne Asada/Coleslaw/mac salad/ too much to mention, thanks guys!
We hope you will  come back for a work weekend?? Painting?? maybe in October? Will let you know.. GREENSMILESSS

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Our Home here at Clearlake Oaks

We have amazing views! It’s beautiful here!!

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Fire Down Below..

Amazing photos this photographer took!!
It was scary coming home to this last night!!! We were coming home from spending time over at the Paradise Beach House with Lindsy/Chris/Jeff/Cesar/Kelly/Tony..
Thankfully it was totally under control by the time we got home.. some of the photos actually show that Hwy 20 was blocked for a while..

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Sunday, August 18, 2013

Blue Lake w/Phil & Toni

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Phil & Toni have been up all week. They came by here on Tuesday this week and invited us over to their camp at the Narrows at Blue Lakes. We made arrangements to meet them on Thursday.
We only just got back from our long trip to Oregon on Monday evening.. I needed to get the Moose Newsletter done, so that was my main objective/priority was to get that done! I finished it early Thursday morning and then we could get packed up and go over and do some kayaking and enjoy Phil & Toni for the day. They were getting ready for a big group to start coming in on Friday (their kids and more friends).. We had a nice day sitting on the beach doing some people watching and kayaking.. Just kick’in back.. Nice.. Smile
Friday Ev and I had to go and clean the Paradise Beach House as we had guests arriving later that day. We also had a campaign committee meeting over at Jim & Olga Steele’s home that evening. Jim is running for district #3 (Clearlake Oaks, Lucerne, Nice area) supervisor of Lake County.
Met up with Phil & Toni on Saturday morning at the Moose’s Yard Sale.. They invited us over again to the Narrows at Blue Lakes with all the “Girls” and the kids.. Ev decided he wanted to stay home. So I went and took kayaks.. had a fun time with all the girls and kids.
Driving home there was a gorgeous sunset.. Fun day.. Thanks guys!!

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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Oregon to meet with Friends/Family

Florence, OR087

Honestly the last couple of weeks have been just a blur. We have had so much going.. And with all my volunteering for different things I am feeling very  over whelmed and I am amazed that things are falling into place. With my back being out made things much more difficult to get done.
As you know I am the Senior Regent of the Moose Lodge as well as now the editor of our newsletter as well as the “artist” for making the flyers and web master/designer for the moose website. Getting the information for the newsletter is very challenging to say the least. But I will keep plugging away.I am also the President/Secretary for our Philosophical Society of Lake County that meets once a month on the second Sunday of the month. My duties are pretty simple, but still time consuming. Ev and I haven’t been able to make one of the meetings in months and it looks like it will probably be October before we will make one. We are also helping to campaign for a friend of ours Jim Steele for district #3 (Clearlake Oaks area) supervisor for Lake County.. We can’t do much as we have so much on our plate, but will support his efforts as much as we can.. We also have the our vacation home that always needs our attention.. Smile Ev spends much more time there fixing/maintaining the outside/etc..
Our trip to Oregon was sort of impromptu, we were taking our boat up to drop with my brother Rick so he could take it to WA where he lives to have it fixed a better price than we were quoted here. And the plus was that we would get to spend time with him and friends. Smile..Ev and I would now miss out on a well planned huge function at the Moose. However, there were so very competent woman/my friends that made the event a GRAND SUCCESS! I was sorry we couldn't be there..  We did know about coming to Oregon for about 3 weeks and I was able to make reservation for a vacation rental in Newport, OR where our destination was to meet up with my brother Rich, wife Lynn and friends Randy & Amy.
I called my good friend Gail and her husband Don whom live in Roseburg and asked them if I could “use” them to come stay as we traveled coming and going.. plus it was a good excuse to stop and see them. They were nice enough to watch our dogs for a couple of days while we were in Newport. Dogs loved them!!
As we traveled up I-5 after going through Redding we noticed a lot of smoke.. Seemed there were lots of fires burning due to lightening strikes earlier in the week. The smoke got more dense as we climbed into the Siskiyou mountains..It wasn’t till we were past Grant Pass, OR did the smoke start to clear.. It was nice and clear by the time we arrived at Gail & Don’s.. However I didn’t expect the weather to be so hot there.. surprise surprise surprise..who used to say that??
Gail is so sweet and had a nice dinner all ready to go for us.. I know she hasn’t been feeling great and we so appreciated all they did for us!! Cooking, watching our furkids, putting up with us.. you know..?? Smile
When we left Gail & Don’s on Friday morning about 11am after a nice breakfast.. The sun was out and it was pretty HOT! We headed over to the coast by way of Sutherlin over to Reedsport and then up the 101 coast hwy. Ev and I decided we wanted to “Moose” hop while we were traveling up the hwy.. So we stopped at the Moose in Reedsport and visited.. Then off we were to Florence where the sun was out and it was gorgeous! We had a fabulous lunch at The Bridgewater Restaurant and Zebra Bar! Ev and I enjoyed a bowl of clam chowder and a wonderful crab melt sandwich.. we shared it.. total cost was about $20..
We traveled up the coast to Waldport and stopped at the Moose Lodge there too.. Had a drink and visited with everyone.. very nice day all in all..
while driving we were texting with my brother and his wife.. it was nice because we all arrived at the vacation house about the same time.. 5:30-6pm.. By the time we all got unpacked, had to run to the store for this and that.. it was getting late.. We had dinner in (at the house) that night.. everyone pitched in and did their part.. It was early night..
Saturday was a whirlwind day.. We were up had a nice big camp type breakfast and then off we went.. The day was very dreary.. overcast with drizzle.. ick! At home it was a balmy 95 plus.. cool nights were nice for sleeping.. but that was the only thing that yucky weather was good for.. We couldn’t even see the ocean!!!!!!!!!!! We went up to Chinook Winds casino in Lincoln City so brother Rick could win $500 while the rest of us weren’t so lucky.. ummm.. We left the casino and stopped in Depoe Bay.. was hoping the weather would have been better? NOT! Didn’t stop us from doing a little shopping.. And we had a little lunch at the Chowder place there.. NOT SOO GOOD! not like the day before.. but it filled the “void”.. Smile  After a few hours there we headed down to the Newport Bay where there were shops, etc..

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We got there hit a few shops and we were all ready to head back to the rental house for a cocktail/rest/to get ready for a nice dinner out.. While at the house we played a few hands of “31” we were all having fun playing that and then before you know it was time for us to go for dinner down on the bay at the Embarcadero/Bridges Restaurant.. DON’T EVER GO HERE! The “Purple Cats” a jazz band were playing. They were playing sooooooooooooooo loud, we had to get up and leave just as we got our dinner. We asked if they could turn it down and the lead guy harmonica player, refused.. So we were at the restaurant for 50 minutes, spent $200 for a dinner we couldn’t enjoy! I called the restaurant, and they said oh well sorry.. they are playing here a few more times I will have to talk with them.. REALLY??????????? believe me I will be writing a review on YELP/TRIPADVISOR/ETC.. Smile We tried not to let it ruin our night.. so we all went back to the vacation rental resumed our “31” card game and just enjoyed each other the rest of the evening.. It was so nice to be with everyone! In spite of the obstacles we had to overcome.. didn’t go into all the details.. but what the heck.. we made the best of it!
On the way back down the coast.. we stopped at the Heceta LightHouse.. It was so nice.. during our walk up to the lighthouse, there was a lovely Jewish wedding happening..
We drove about 1200 miles plus over the 5 days we were gone..

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Evee’ Birthday 8/6

Happy Birthday Eveeeeeeee!!
This past week wasn’t very pleasant week for me. I have been in so much pain that I couldn’t even plan anything for Ev’s birthday.. I went to the doctor on Monday this week and so today Tuesday I am feeling much better, but still sore..
We got this impromptu phone call from our dear friends Jim & Shirley!! They are just the best friends any one could ever have! They called about 11am and asked if we would like to go for lunch to Happy Garden? I told them that we probably would and that I would call Ev as he was over at the Paradise house working..Called Ev and he was up for it too.. Smile I was feeling so much better than I had for a week.. and it was Ev’s birthday so it was a good day for lunch with good friends! We met them at Happy Garden.. And then it was “let the party begin”.. we always have great times with Jim & Shirley!! They had impeccable timing! We had such a fun time, had a wonderful lunch/drinks then came up to house for just one more, before we called it a day..
We no sooner arrived and Lee & Laura arrive too with a wonderful gift for Everett. A mosquito fern and lovely card.. We all visited for a short time.. and then we were left to relax for the evening.. Smile 

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Monday, August 5, 2013

Moose Lodge District Meeting Aug 2,3, 2013

Seems as though the summer is just whizzing by!! This Moose district meeting has been planned for months. We set it up so we could camp at the Sonoma Lodge for Friday and Saturday nights.
There was Doc & Pam, Eric & Donna and us camping at the lodge. There were others but but they backed out because the Charley Baker Band wasn’t going to playing..
Eric & Donna road down with us, but bunked in with Pam & Doc. We mainly stayed in camp and not much in the lodge.. I think everyone was hanging with us because I wasn’t feeling well at all.. My back was out and had been off and on for a month. And this weekend was the worst! Took lots of pain meds.. didn’t sleep much either.
I invited my sister and she asked if Sharon could come and I said of course the more the merrier.. right? Charles also came and to my surprise he had someone else with him so they didn’t stay.. Sharon ended up leaving and Kim stayed in with us on the Blow up bed that went FLAT again.. this is the new blow up bed we just got from the dealer.. of course she really didn’t sleep well either.. I don’t know about everyone else.. but I made the best of it due to my back and I was in so much pain..

The Sonoma Moose Lodge is really nice.. they served us a couple meals.. The barbq on Saturday and then breakfast before we all headed home on Sunday..