We packed up and left Rick & Lynn’s on Tuesday morning to meet up with Glorianne & Stan in Toppenish, WA.
Rick at the last minute decided to ride his Harley over and meet up with us. He stayed with us in the trailer.. It was pretty HOT!
On Wednesday morning Glorianne made arrangements for us to take a horse drawn wagon tour of Toppenish to see the murals. We were able to take a morning tour before it got too hot!
We only stayed in Toppenish a couple of nights.. then headed to Montana..
Our visit with family and friends in WA was wonderful as it always is.
Now that I have been so laxed on getting this blog back up and running, I can’t remember detailed days.. ? DANG!
However I do have lots of pictures..
I will highlight some days we had fun with family and friends.
Looking back it seems I was also lacking in taking photos..
We made plans to meet Jim & Shirley in Ft Bragg earlier last week.
We were leaving our camp in Manchester to meet them.
We both arrived about the same time at Silvers at the Wharf.
We parked the truck and trailer on a nice long spot where we put the dogs for a few hours.
We had a lovely lunch overlooking the Noyo River. Just about the time we sat down the fishing boats are started lining up out at the mouth of the river to come in. It was a like a parade of fishing boats. It was bright and sunny, the water was a beautiful blue!
We enjoyed a lovely afternoon with Jim & Shirley as we always do! After lunch we decided to go to the “biker bar” Tip Top Lounge in Ft Bragg..
We had one drink there and then back to the trailer.. We also did a tail gate drink before us leaving to come home.. Lovely day with the Walsh's.. Love you guys!
Mike & Maryann invited us to join their group at Manchester on the coast for the for “the abalone” weekend this past Mother’s Day.
Nice to see the faces that aren’t so familiar. I believe our group was about 35-40 people. Divers as well as friends and family all come together for this special time..
Two different dive clubs join together for this special weekend. The “151” club (mostly retired divers) and then the “Douglas” dive club from Southern CA.. they have a heck of a long drive.
We arrived on Thursday along with Mike & Mary Ann.. There were some that arrived earlier in the week and others that joined us on Friday as well as Saturday. Thursday the weather was terribly windy, but bright and no fog. We weren’t so lucky the rest of the weekend. Each day we woke to fog and dampness and cold! Don’t think I have ever been so cold at the coast!
Each morning we mostly all do breakfast together and evening we have a pot luck. Friday night is pretty much a tri-tip cook-off between some the retired divers. Fun evening. Saturday evening is the Abalone Feed.. Divers go and collect the abalone (can be very dangerous diving)<<this is the most work. Then divers donate abalone of what they collect so that all of us can enjoy the unique catch! Then the abalone are cleaned, sliced and pounded. Those that can’t dive offer with the cleaning and pounding..
Pete & Janice do an awesome job cooking the “Ab”!
Each day during the day we all split off into groups and do “our own thing”.. On Friday we went to the “Farmers Market” in Mendocino.
Saturday we hung out and took a walk from camp out to the beach.
We had a great weekend and spent time with so many nice people!
Fun times were had by all.. 
We planned a little ride in the “outback”.
Phil & Toni got a new “side by side” and needed to break it in..
Doc & Pam and Ev and I went for a ride out behind our house. We rode out to Indian Valley Res..
I hadn’t been out on a ride since my injury.. Very challenging.
I rode for a little while my quad, then Phil relieved me and I rode with Toni in the side by side.. 
We had a great day! We rode about 80 miles round trip!!
woo hoo!!
I had told Phil about some of the issues we were having with the trailer, like opening the slide and catching one of the cupboard doors and ripping it from it’s hinges! Fart fan not working, etc.. you get the picture.. He said, “No problem bring it down and I will fix it”! Oh cool!! Finally agreed on a date, so we headed down on Tuesday last week.
In the meantime Toni had posted on FB a cute little photo of their new puppy, Lacey and Mary Ann fell in love with it and made a comment and before you know it, Toni invited Mike & Mary Ann to come and visit too!! 
So there was a crew..
For dinner the first night we had Barb & Lucas (Phil & Toni’s daughter and grandson) and Lindsy, Chris and Colin over for tacos.. It was a nice evening..
The next day was work day on the trailer.. While the “girls” went downtown “Thrift” store shopping.. Great day..
For dinner Mike Mohoff cooked up some lovely fried RIBS!! they were so good!! with lasagna and salad.. good dinner..
Phil tried to fix our “pulling the trailer” problem without success.. Seems the front end is light, steering isn’t good? Trailer looks to be hooked up perfectly.. Came home Friday..
Monday took trailer to Victor in Kelseyville.. had to drive 35 mph all the way there.. scary pulling the trailer.. gotta get this fixed..
We have been invited several times to celebrate Russian Easter with the Mohoff’s and I do believe this was the first time we were able to make it..
We arrived on Saturday the 11th of April mid-afternoon.. No sooner did we get there and Mary Ann’s daughter Tracy and grandson Lyndon arrived! Let the festivities begin..
Both Mike & Mary Ann had been preparing for this celebration for a couple of days.. They had already prepared food by the “plenty”.
We had a casual dinner the 6 of us on Saturday evening.. And watched some TV and retired early.
Sunday morning was busy.. The 5 of them took a nice 5 mile walk while I stayed and took my time getting ready for the day.. 
Takes me longer these days to get things done..
Wasn’t long and they were all back from their walk.. Soon dishes were in crock pots, pressure cookers, ovens, etc.. All the delightful aroma’s were so inviting..
Soon people started arriving.. Family and Friends most of Russian decent of some type.. all except us and a few other friends..
What a fun day it was!! There was lots of VODKA going around.. home made VODKA with different flavors.. and of course you just drank them as a straight shot and down the hatch! I personally had over the course of the day about 6 or so shots.. However Everett I think had slightly more.. Because I saw him looking at people with one eye open and one eye closed.. guess if he had both eyes open he saw double..
It was a fun fun time! Thanks guys for having us!!
Easter (russ.: Пасха [Paskha]) is in Russia the major religious celebration of the year. It is even more important than Christmas. Faithful and atheists, kids
In Russia Easter is usually celebrated later than in the West. This happens because Easter dates are determined by different calendars. The Russian-Orthodox church uses the old Julian calendar, whereas the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches switched to the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century.
On Saturday evening we celebrated Easter at Mike & Julia’s home in Petaluma..We also celebrated Lindsy and Mike’s birthdays.
The evening started with an Easter Egg Hunt at the house..Our grand kids were all in attendance, Colin, Gianna, Gillian and Gemma.. All the neighborhood kids were invited as well. I do believe Julia did about 300 plastic eggs for the kids to hunt for..
Mike & Julia fixed a wonder Easter dinner.. nice ham, ribs, scalloped potatoes, shrimp salad! And a lovely fruit basket cake that Jamie provided.
What a great Easter it was..
Easter weekend! Here for the weekend festivities!
Lindsy’s birthday was actually Thursday April 2nd..
So we planned a Saturday, of wine tasting and lunch.
We left Lindsy & Chris’ house about 930am and headed over to Viansa Winery, arrived there about 1015am or so.. Lindsy’s co-worker Omar was our server at the winery.. He was so nice and so informative about the wines!! We had so much fun with him!
This was Lindsy’s first time wine tasting..
After the winery we headed over to the Rutherford Grill in Napa County at the community of Rutherford…We had made arrangement for Jim & Shirley to meet us at the grill..
We had a wonderful lunch! I think we all had the French dips.. They are so good!!
Colin our grandson played under the lights on Friday night at Major Field at Lucchesi Park in Petaluma. This was the first time Colin has played baseball under the lights! Colin is 8 1/2 yrs old, plays 1st base or 3rd base.. Unfortunately his team “Unique Insurance” lost, 13-9.. They were so fun to watch!! Lots of family and friends out to watch..
Jim & Shirley’s daughter Pam is visiting here from Alaska..
We all got together for dinner at Sicily’s.. It was great to see Pam.. hadn’t seen Jim jr for awhile, so it was a nice visit.
We hadn’t seen Robbie the bartender for a year! Since the last time Pam was here! Robbie did work at the Boars Breath in Middletown previously.
It was great to see him! He is so fun! Pam was happy to see him as well as the rest of us..
We had a delicious dinner! Seemed like everyone had something different..
Poor Pam was so sick with a cold/flu.. she hung in there like a trooper!!
Great idea Rudy & Faith came up with.. They invited us to a campout in the middle of their vineyard on a beautiful grassy knoll.
There were 5 of us rigs.. Rudy & Faith, Milt & Priscilla, Jim & Shirley, Jim & Jan and us.. We even had a couple of delightful guests!! Phil & Toni..
What a great time we had!
March 29th, 30th, came home on the 31st.. Great time..
You guys are so much fun!! All of you!!
Ernie had planned a “surprise” for Shirley’s 60th.. However? Something happened.. so Shirley was not surprised! In spite of the “cat being out the bag”, Shirley enjoyed her “surprise 60th birthday”..
They had quite a group! All great family and friends!
Food was wonderful! Great job Andrea!! 
So proud of our son in law Chris..
He was awarded Police Officer of the Year at a intimate celebration at the Elks lodge in Novato..
Carla is great at throwing a last minute dinner party!
Weather was? a little showers, a little sun.. and lots of fun!
Everyone did their part to help with food..
After dinner we played the dice game! All I know is the house won!! Came from behind and WON!
Thanks guys had a great time!!!
