Palos Verdes Peninsula

Aloha Everyone,

A short drive from my Mother's house towards the Pacific Ocean is the Palos Verdes Peninsula. This is one of the best road trips you can do in a few hours in the Southern California.

This was one of our favorite routes J.J. and I used to take when we were dating.

Those days we recall seeing large "castle-like" estates high on hilltops over looking the blue Pacific.

There were also lots of open fields and hiking trails which we could take from the top of the hill all the way down to the sandy beach.

One can follow the Palos Verdes scenic drive from Palos Verdes Estates to Rancho Palos Verdes and finish at San Pedro Harbor.

It took us only 23 miles to make the round-trip loop from my Mother's house.

For residents, we refer to the area as "PV". Palos Verdes actually includes Palos Verdes Hills, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills & Rolling Hills Estates.

These are affluent coastal cities. Some part of the drive is reminiscent of Amalfi Coast in Italy, other area the drive up to the Peak in Hong Kong and yet others are like the winding road from Hanauma Bay towards Sealife Park on Oahu, Hawaii.

Gated developments now dots once pastoral hillsides making us long for the good old days when the peninsula was not so crowded and land developer had not yet divided the land to build homes.

One of the advertisement was announcing new homes for sale where the starting price is $1,290,000.

Aloha -- Cathi

My Mother's Garden

Aloha Everyone,

My Mother's home has a formal Japanese Garden in the front, wisteria vines and grape vines on one side of the house and vine tomatoes and papaya on the other side. In the backyard, she has lemon, orange, persimmon, guava and kumquat trees plus a shelves of Bonsai Plants. She has been an active member of the Bonsai Club for the past 14 years. Next week, her Bonsai group will be holding their monthly meeting at her home and will be working on her Bonsai plants. Thereafter, she will welcome me to feature her bonsais.

My Mother spends at least 1 to 2 hours a day working in her garden. She says that her gardener is good at cutting her trees and maintaining her lawns trimmed but the plants require her personal attention to grow and thrive. I recall that she always had green thumbs. If she plants an avocado seed in the ground, it will grown into a small avocado tree. She has buried sweet potato in the ground to "remove any chemical fertilizer" and the potato has sprouted and there are a couple of potato plants growing.

Today J.J. and I "hanged around" with my Mother. We went to Wal-Mart, Costco, Target and to a post office. However every time we came home, she is out in her yard watering or removing leaves and tending to her flowers and fruits.

So here are some photos in Mother's garden.

"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul."  - Luther Burbank

"To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour." - William Blake

"The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul." - Alfred Austin

"A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them." - Liberty Hyde Bailey

"A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust." - Gertrude Jekyll

"Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air." - Georges Bernanos

"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." - Khalil Gibran

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." - A. A. Milne

Aloha -- Cathi

Heritage Park, Cerritos, CA

Aloha Everyone,

Today, J.J. and  spent the day with our niece and her 4 boys at the Heritage Park located in Cerritos, CA. A statue of Paul Revere greets the visitors to the park.

The children enjoyed exploring the island playground full of hidden stairs, towers and rooms.

This is a beautiful and well-designed park with features such as mini waterfalls, lakes and a ship.

Today being a Sunday with perfect California weather, there were many families out having picnics and birthday parties.

Here are the boys found a way to recycle their paper plates after our picnic.

Aloha -- Cathi

First Day Of Summer

Aloha Everyone,

Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. J.J. and I left the San Diego area taking I-805, I-5, I-405 to I-110 to visit my Mother in the South Bay area.

It was a hazy, summer day. Everything looked as if we were looking through a light shade of gray to reduce the brightness of sunlight.

The newest daily exercise my Mother is doing is using an exerciser called "Leg Magic." It is a simple contraption where you step on pedals and move your legs in and out. Most if us are familiar with exerciser where it lets you walk forward adjusting your pace from very slow stroll to running. With Leg Magic, your motion is in and out maintaining your back straight, knees slightly bent and repeat the in and out motion. Suggested for beginner is to start with 60 seconds, taking necessary breaks and do it at your own pace.

In my Mother's backyard, she currently has Kumquat and lemons ready for picking.

Aloha -- Cathi

Souplantation and My Walk

Aloha Everyone,

Today, J.J. and I met one of his contacts for the overseas retirement care project. Richard & Wilma Vargas and their two sons met us at the Soup Plantation restaurant in Claremont Mesa.

The concept of Souplantation is an "all you can eat" buffet. Impressive array of excellent salads and just for that I felt the price of $10.99 per person was well-worth it. In addition, there was soup bar, pasta bar, pizza, bread and muffins. For dessert, there were ice-cream and fruits bars.

Here are Richard and his gracious wife, Wilma.

We came home to an empty house where the robot was busy cleaning the living room floor.

This neighborhood has a very well defined pedestrian walk areas. This afternoon I went out for a solo walk for an hour. Today was a perfect day for walking. With so many colorful flowers along the path, it was very enjoyable.

This is my turn around point if I am doing only 60 minutes of walk.

The small shopping center has a CVS Pharmacy as it's anchor tenant.  They have excellent dining options including specialty restaurants we frequent.

This is the end of my walk and tonight my granddaughter and I will finish the movie "Frozen".

Aloha -- Cathi