Tuesday, December 21, through Wednesday, December 29, 2010: At Soledad Canyon:
The Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails preserve is a bit run down but it remains one of our favorites---for no identifiable reason. We weren't able to park in our usual area because part of the road to it was washed out by the recent (and ongoing) California rainstorms. A frequent visitor told me that the road to that section gets washed out every time there is a substsntial storm here. One might think they should design a solution to avoid a recurrence. But there are very few people here now, so it's not a problem.


Soledad Canyon is in Acton, an hour away from Pasadena, but we made the trip a total of four times, including one to shop for, among other things, two new sport coats for me. We combined the clothes-buying trip with lunch with Honoria Vivell, her son, Stephen, and her new friend, Richard. They seem to be quite an item. Our lunch was at Taylor's Steak house in La Canada, a favorite restaurant of ours.


We spent Christmas at Becky's sister Wendy's home in Pasadena. The usual Shelton gang was there, and we had a great time. It was the first time since 2002 that we had spent Christmas with the family. The next day we returned to Wendy's for a visit with their cousins Bill and Steve Boggs and Steve's wife, Kathy, and their son, Jason. We hadn't seen them in quite a while. It was great catching up, and we even talked about having a reunion of the entire family next August.


We had only a little of the rain that pummeled southern California, but the drizzle was pretty constant. Tuesday, the 28th, was a clear day, however, and we actually played pickle ball that morning for an hour with one of the guests, Paul Earle, a very nice gentleman Becky had first met at the Palm Springs preserve. I hadn't played in several months, and was understandably clumsy, while Becky was her usual superb jock self. Later that day, we returned to Taylor's to have lunch with my brother, Bob. It was good to see him.


The last night, Wednesday, we ventured into downtown Los Angeles to have our free wedding anniversary dinner at the Jonathan Club. It is one of the perks of membership. We both had bone-in filets mignon, a treat we'd never had previously at the Jonathan Club. They were delicious.


It was altogether a nice stay.

Tuesday, December 7, through Monday, December 20, 2010: At Palm Springs:
This stay at Palm Springs was designed to give us a rest after the last few weeks of short stays at each location followed by traveling to a new location. So, I rested. Becky didn't. She plays pickle ball every day for several hours with some very good players. (That's one of the reasons I'm not playing.) She also takes the dogs for long walks several times a day. (Ramsey has a lot of energy.)

Naturally, we hit the Costco several times, and loaded up. We also went to a Chinese buffet that had been highly recommended. What a disappointment. Even though I love Chinese food, this place was well below expectations. The food was good but there were very few choices.

Friday night, we had dinner with Karen (Tolson) Sloat and her husband, Stephen. He is the pastor of the Coachella Valley Christian Church. Karen is a former secretary of mine---from many moons ago, naturally---who went on to law school and has been practicing law for several years. Coincidentally, she was set to open her own office the following Monday. As nearly as we could recall, we last saw them while we were on a ski trip in Snowmass, Colorado, in the '90s. It was great seeing them again. We actually attended their church service Sunday morning.


The following Wednesday (12/15) we had a terrific lunch with Chuck Conway (his treat, thank you Chuck) at one of the two Leon's restaurants at the Indian Canyon Country Club. The restaurants are across the street from each other. Strange. Chuck lives in Palm Springs, but we last saw him in Williamsburg several months ago. It was fun catching up.

Lunch was followed by a visit to the dentist to have our teeth cleaned. We had never been to this dentist before, and were not prepared for his odd procedure. First, they take a zillion x-rays, then make you wait a half hour, then the dentist examines your mouth and recommends a number of corrective procedures, including what type of cleaning you need (which seems to invariably mean a type requiring several more visits), then they make another appointment for the actual basic cleaning we went there for in the first place. (In my case, the dentist recommended removing two of my wisdom teeth which have never come in and have never given me the slightest trouble, because they might someday become a problem.) Becky, in her not-so-subtle way, suggested that we weren't going to play their game, and they suddenly had time to do what we wanted that same day.

Thursday was a day set aside to visit Joshua Tree National Park (it was only a national monument until 1994), a 75 mile round trip.


Ho, hum. We entered the park at the south entrance, which is at the lowest elevation---while the joshua trees are at the higher elevation near the north entrance. While there are many plant-types at each elevation, we got bored quickly. We explored for about fifteen minutes, then headed back. At least, Becky got her national park passport stamped.

On Friday, we went to a terrific and huge restaurant called Jackalope Ranch that has several dining rooms spread over six acres. Very nice.

For some time, I've been looking for a way to improve the appearance of the somewhat beat-up wooden top of our dining area table. I finally settled on having a Corian top made to cover it. It took some effort to find someone to do it, but it finally happened. Yea! Merry Christmas, Becky.

And, of course, we did our Christmas shopping and mailed our Christmas cards (which we send only every two years). We selected a picture from our Italian trip for the cards. The photo was taken at the Piazza Michelangelo in Florence.