We headed for Palm Desert at about 9:30AM on Wednesday. We had no difficulty with the hydraulics, using the work-arounds we learned when we left Arizona. It was an easy 9 1/2 miles to the Thousand Trails park. Our first two selected sites had already been taken, but we found a nice site in the same area, and Becky backed the trailer in like a pro. After settling in, we went shopping for a Christmas tree and lights. We already had ornaments, bought in anticipation. It's the first time in the 11 years since we hit the road that we have had an actual tree for Christmas. We set it up on the picnic table at our site.
It's fun to have one, again. We spent the rest of the day getting back into our normal routine at this park, including taking the dogs for a walk in the desert. Kelsey had a ball running in the sand for what we assume was her first time.
Thursday morning, while Becky played pickleball I finished The Innocent Man, John Grisham's only non-fiction book. Its portrait of parts of the criminal justice system is creepy.
Friday, Saturday, and much of Sunday were very normal---Becky played pickleball and walked the dogs and I read and did crossword puzzles. We also did some last-minute shopping.
Sunday night, we watched 2 Guns from the Redbox. It starred Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. Very good.
Late Monday morning, we took the dogs to The Grand Paw to spend four days while we headed to Los Angeles for Christmas. At 3:15PM, the pet resort called to say the food we left for the dogs had worms, and it would not be served to the dogs. I jumped into the truck to buy some replacement food and get it to the resort before 4:00, the deadline they gave me. I made it on time and had them show me the gross things (I later learned they were maggots) that were in the food. Ugh. I came home and threw out the rest of the almost new 35-pound bag of food.
Monday night, we actually missed the dogs a little, but Becky did enjoy the relief.
In the late
morning on Tuesday (Christmas Eve) we packed up and headed for the Jonathan Club
in downtown Los Angeles. After checking
in, we relaxed and watched some TV, preparing to go to two friends’ homes for pre-Christmas
cocktails. One of the friends contacted
Becky to cancel the invitation due to an injury while setting up. So, we ended up going only to the home of
Sara Edwards’s mother, Jeane, in San Marino.
(Sara was a high school buddy of Becky’s.)
We had previously opted out of having dinner there, not wanting to impose on their family gathering. We were having a nice time (Sara’s two brothers, Ace and Rick, and their families were there) and started to leave when Sara pressed me into service to carve the turkey---a specialty of mine, which no one else seemed to want to do. It turned out to be quite a hoot. Somehow, the turkey had exploded in the oven, had lost much of its stuffing, most of its drumsticks and wings, all of its skin, and had turned a ghastly brownish-grey color. It was a challenge to carve, to say the least. But most of the people didn’t notice. We ended up staying for dinner, which was just fine, after all.
We had a very nice breakfast in the Tap Room at the club on Christmas morning. There were only two tables of diners. Apparently, not a lot of people stay at the club over Christmas. The gentleman at the other table was wearing jeans, breaking a serious rule of the club’s dress code, but under the circumstances the maitre‘d decided to waive the rule after mentioning it to the gentleman.
We had previously opted out of having dinner there, not wanting to impose on their family gathering. We were having a nice time (Sara’s two brothers, Ace and Rick, and their families were there) and started to leave when Sara pressed me into service to carve the turkey---a specialty of mine, which no one else seemed to want to do. It turned out to be quite a hoot. Somehow, the turkey had exploded in the oven, had lost much of its stuffing, most of its drumsticks and wings, all of its skin, and had turned a ghastly brownish-grey color. It was a challenge to carve, to say the least. But most of the people didn’t notice. We ended up staying for dinner, which was just fine, after all.
We had a very nice breakfast in the Tap Room at the club on Christmas morning. There were only two tables of diners. Apparently, not a lot of people stay at the club over Christmas. The gentleman at the other table was wearing jeans, breaking a serious rule of the club’s dress code, but under the circumstances the maitre‘d decided to waive the rule after mentioning it to the gentleman.
We arrived at
Becky's sister Wendy’s for the family gathering just before 2:00PM, and were
the first ones there for quite a while.
Eventually, everyone showed up and we had the usual terrific time.
Thursday, we finally
slept in, finally checking out of the club at 11:00, and heading back to the
desert. All went swimmingly until we hit
Colton. From there until Cabazon (about
30 miles) the traffic was bumper-to-bumper.
It was very frustrating.
We decided to take advantage of not having to pick up the dogs until Friday and see a movie. We saw American Hustle at the Regal Cinema in Palm Desert. What a terrific movie! Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, and Bradley Cooper were magnificent.
We decided to take advantage of not having to pick up the dogs until Friday and see a movie. We saw American Hustle at the Regal Cinema in Palm Desert. What a terrific movie! Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, and Bradley Cooper were magnificent.
Friday
morning, we picked up Ramsey and Kelsey and returned to our normal routine. Saturday was pickleball for Becky and football on TV for me.
Saturday we were scheduled to have dinner with Honoria Vivell and Richard Petrie, who had come to the desert for the weekend, but I wasn't feeling well and Becky went with them alone.
The word is that they had a great time at Mitchell's Seafood. I snapped back on Sunday, just in time to watch great regular-season-ending NFL games.
On Sunday morning, Becky headed for Pasadena to see her father, who wasn't feeling well. She wasn't sure how long she would be gone. It turned out that all five of her brothers and sisters showed up as well.
I had full responsibility for Ramsey and Kelsey for the first time. It was challenging, but I managed very well. To increase the odds of not screwing up the dogs' complicated routine, I stayed off wine and coffee for the duration. Becky returned late Monday afternoon, with dinner from Panda Express, which was delicious, as usual. On Tuesday, Becky took the dogs to the local dog park and returned with two DVDs from the Redbox---Red 2 and Man of Steel, neither of which I watched. We then celebrated New Years Eve in our usual fashion---we watched part of a couple of college bowl games and were asleep by 9:01PM. That's 12:01AM in New York---The ball had dropped! Thus ended 2013.
Saturday we were scheduled to have dinner with Honoria Vivell and Richard Petrie, who had come to the desert for the weekend, but I wasn't feeling well and Becky went with them alone.
The word is that they had a great time at Mitchell's Seafood. I snapped back on Sunday, just in time to watch great regular-season-ending NFL games.
On Sunday morning, Becky headed for Pasadena to see her father, who wasn't feeling well. She wasn't sure how long she would be gone. It turned out that all five of her brothers and sisters showed up as well.
I had full responsibility for Ramsey and Kelsey for the first time. It was challenging, but I managed very well. To increase the odds of not screwing up the dogs' complicated routine, I stayed off wine and coffee for the duration. Becky returned late Monday afternoon, with dinner from Panda Express, which was delicious, as usual. On Tuesday, Becky took the dogs to the local dog park and returned with two DVDs from the Redbox---Red 2 and Man of Steel, neither of which I watched. We then celebrated New Years Eve in our usual fashion---we watched part of a couple of college bowl games and were asleep by 9:01PM. That's 12:01AM in New York---The ball had dropped! Thus ended 2013.
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