We were supposed to go horseback riding on Thursday with a group of friends we meet at our campground. But shortly after we arrived there was a flurry of activity with horses from the earlier ride running back to camp without some of their riders. A swarm of African killer bees attacked the group some of whom got thrown from there horses as they panicked. It was terrible because there were a few fairly young kids involved who got stung…
Today we went to the University of Arizona biosphere. The biosphere was a combined project between a philanthropist and an ecologist as a way to study the feasibility of surviving on another planet in 1984 and built in 1991. Their first attempt started with 8 people and numerous different farm animals and lasted 2 years. Inside they had numerous ecosystems including an ocean, rain forest, desert, savannah and a wetlands. Farming took place including animals, plants and insects to replicate…
After Bisbee we headed to Tombstone, the location of the famous “gunfight at the ok coral”. Where the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday took down the Clantons and Mclowrys. This town was also famous for its prostitution, outlaws and, of course, the birdcage theater, which saw plenty of killings and is now supposedly haunted. The hotel is also supposed to be haunted and you can stay there. We almost did but we decided to think about it over a beer…
Today we hit two old west mining towns. The first was called Bisbee, a sleepy old town that’s kind of turned artsy. We walked around a bit, had lunch, then went into their mine for a tour. You take a little train that takes you deep into the mine and down a couple hundred feet. They give you an interesting talk on how they break through the rock using a combination of manual and air driven tools and, of course,…
Today I dropped Jamie off to head to work and then went to play golf. Poor me. I went to a very nice resort course called The Lodge at Ventana Canyon. Weather and course were beautiful and I had a great day. The next morning I got a call at 7am that Winnie’s water broke. So I roused myself up, figured out how to get to NJ and barely made it to the airport for the earliest flight that would…
Today we went to one of the caves just outside Tucson. This one was called the Colossal caves. We did 2 tours. One was the basic tour through the easily accessible areas of the caves. The second tour was called their ladder your where you go to places that are much harder to get through and deeper into the caves. That was the tour we really enjoyed. There were some pretty narrow places and we had to practically crawl through…
On the 7th we went to the Titan missile launch site. That was pretty cool. Part of the tour was given by a woman that was stationed at this very site. We went into the bunker and got to see the control room and missile silo which still had a titan missile in it. Thing was huge. Supposedly decommissioned. We didn’t wait around to make sure. I also included some pictures of signs with interesting facts. Click on the picture…
On the 6th we went to the Pina air museum. They have who knows how many airplanes there. Everything from a small single engine Cessna 150 to a Boeing 787 to B-52s to a couple of air force ones to some crazy places I’ve never seen before. Over 100 planes inside and out. Jamie wanted to take pictures with me in front of all the planes I’ve flown. They didn’t have all that I flew but they had a few….
We were only booked at Camp Pendleton till the February 7 and although Winnie’s due date was the 2nd all indications were that she was still a little ways away from delivering. So to avoid having to move the rv when the baby came we decided to move on to Arizona so when the baby came we could leave without worrying. So we took off for Tucson on the 4th. On the way we heard loud jet noise and lo…
On February 2nd we booked a tour of Hollywood homes of the stars. First we went to another of my best sandwich of America places called JR’s bbq. What an interesting place. It’s in a not so nice neighborhood and you drive up and it looks like a dive. In fact, even inside it looks like a dive but they have all kinds of pictures of famous people that have eaten there, many with autographs. We took some pics, ordered…
On the 26th I dropped Jamie off at the airport for work and I went to Torrey Pines to watch the Farmers open. It was Tiger Woods first tournament back so that created quite a stir. I followed that group which also included Jason Day and Dustin Johnson so that was a fun group. I got to see Tiger hook the heck out of a ball into a waste hazard losing his ball. I think he took a double bogey…
I can’t remember what we did Monday and Tuesday but on Wednesday we went to the San Diego zoo. For the most part I think if you’ve seen one zoo you’ve seen them all and this was no exception. But we did enjoy it and did get entertained by a couple of the tenants. A lion gave us a nice presentation of his roar and a great chest thumping from a father gorilla that I unfortunately didn’t catch on video….
Jamie was having wine withdrawals so she found a winery called Bernardo winery that had free music on Sundays. So we took a ride there and found a cool little place with great wine and great music on a beautiful day. Great time. Click on the picture above to see the rest of the pictures.
Apparently I wasn’t as recovered from my cold as I thought cuz after Vegas I felt horrible again and called in sick for work on the 11th. After a couple down days I felt much better so on the 14th we decided to take a ride down to Tijuana. What a trip that was. We drove to the border, parked the car and walked over the bridge into Mexico. Soon as we got there we were accosted by a guy…
While in San Diego we got a call from our friends, Tiff and Lori, that they were gonna be in Las Vegas the weekend of the 8th. I was feeling a bit better so when I discovered it was only a 5 hour drive to get there we decided to go meet them for the weekend. They left Sunday and we decided to go to a show. We went to see a show called Absinthe and it was great. Basically…
Sooo, it’s only been almost 3 months since I last posted on the blog. First there wasn’t anything worth posting as we spent about 3 weeks visiting family for the holidays starting mid December. Then between laziness, being sick and lack of Wi-Fi here I am finally getting back into it. I got a cold right after Christmas and couldn’t shake it for about a month. Finally went back to work Jan 27th to Mumbai and had a relapse. But…
We got back from NJ on Monday. Tuesday we headed to San Francisco planning on going to Alcatraz. We left a bit late and stopped for lunch at another “best sandwiches of America” spots. The winner of the San Francisco spot was closed down but there was a runner up that we went to called Ike’s place. It was truly one of the best sandwiches I ever had. The roll was extremely soft and fresh and the flavor was outstanding….
Thursday we left for Travis AFB, between San Francisco and Sacramento. We had to leave Saturday for Winnie’s baby shower on Sunday so we wanted to get to Travis a day early to set up. On the way we got a beautiful view of Mt. Shasta, which is about 14,000′. Got to Travis and set up. Another very nice military campground. Saturday we flew to NJ for the baby shower and stayed there until Monday. Just a few pictures but…
Here are the pictures from day 2 in Redwood national park. Click on the header to see them.
We got back to Portland Monday after thanksgiving and the next morning left for Redwood national park. Found a nice campsite right inside the park and headed out for dinner and a ride around the area. Saw a large herd(?) of moose just hanging around someone’s front lawn which was cool. Over the next two days we did a mix of the park, drive through the tree, a “mystery of tree” hike and other sight seeing. I took so many…