A Day Of Adventure To View Super Bloom in Anza-Bottego Desert State Park

Aloha Everyone,

Anza-Bottego Desert State Park is located in the Colorado Desert of Southern California. Borrego is the Spanish word for bighorn sheep where the animals reside favoring its rocky hilly habitat. The state park is the largest in California with 600,000 acres and the second largest in the contiguous United State after Adirondack Park in New York.

My daughter-in-law's invitation to this new destination and hearing that this year the wild flowers are cited as "Super bloom" was especially alluring for me.

Our first excitement came when we saw several cars parked along the side of the mountain road. Seeing some people with binoculars and telephoto lens, we stopped the car and inquired what we were supposed to be viewing. If you look at the upper section of the left half of the hill, you might be able to discern white shapes with legs. Longhorn sheep! We counted 10 of them, but unfortunately my iPhone 5 camera is not powerful enough to capture their images.

The park visitor center's parking lot was full. We were directed to the Mall where there was a flower viewing information table manned by Jimmy.

With a map in hand, my daughter-in-law and I soon found our way into miles and miles of flower fields.

Each fields had different patches of colors, some had mixture of bright colors, yet others had nearly monochromatic blanket of yellow. Both of us snapping photos of flowers and each other that the time sped by us quickly.

One unexpected incident  was when a large yellow and black striped caterpillar we saw in abundance decided to hitch a ride. I felt something, looked down and saw this wiggling caterpillar scaling vertically up my pants. I called out to my daughter-in-law to help me remove it with the map she was holding. She happily obliged but not before snapping several photos of the creature  for the rest of the family to see.  :-)

This was a truly a wonderful outing. We spent a total of 9 hours enjoying the drive through beautiful countryside, viewing the super bloom, and giving a chance for the two of us to bond.

For our family, we purchased a couple of slices of delicious apple pies from the Julian Pie Company located in Santa Ysabel.

(This is part 1 of 3 series.)

Aloha -- Cathi

Driving Back To La Jolla

Aloha Everyone,

The driving distance between my Mother's home to our son's home in La Jolla (San Diego) California is approximately 115 miles. Honu has made it as short as in 90 minutes or as long as 180 minutes depending on traffic conditions.

It was a tense drive for J.J. The traffic came down to a crawl for about 45 minutes caused by an accident on US 405 Freeway. I focused on taking photos of the sceneries instead of cars on the road.

J.J. and I joined our son and daughter-in-law to watch our granddaughter play the flute for her school musical performance.

Tonight, a combined celebration prepared by our daughter-in-law with Thai food take outs and delicious mini cakes from a Cuban bakery.

I got my sufficient evening work out by engaging in a high energy pillow fight interspersed with push-ups with my granddaughter.

Aloha -- Cathi

Farmers Market, Meeting Laka and Philippine Post Card

Aloha Everyone,

J.J. and I accompanied my Mother to the Tuesday Farmers Market at the Wilson Park to purchase fresh vegetables. Due to the expected stormy weather, about 30% of the vendors were absent.

Laka is an American Bulldog. The name in Hawaiian means "gentle" or "tame". Laka is an appropriate  name. He is gentle while looking fierce because of his massive size.

Rescued by his human friends, Christina (r) and Rita(l), Laka happily obliged and posed to for photographs.

J.J. and I purchased postcards while in the Philippines. Unable to find a post office or to purchase stamps, I brought them home and put US postage and mailed them the day after our return. After 6 days from posting at the Torrance post office, the card sent to my Mother was in her PO box located in the same post office.

Postcards are old fashion. Most prefer using the Internet.

Aloha -- Cathi

Little Big Shots

Aloha Everyone,

A variety show hosted by Steve Harvey features elementary school age children. They are talented young achievers coming from all over the world. They dance, act, sing, play musical instruments. Some have expertise in magic tricks, martial arts, gymnastic or even obscure but yet impressive talent.

Steve Harvey's personality and gift in making his young guests comfortable and at ease is evident when he engages in conversations with these amazing achievers. The common traits they all possess irregardless of ethnicity or nationality is confidence, maturity, poise and unwavering positive mental attitude. Among so many impressive guests, seven year old Gavin Stevens singing of the National Anthem put him above all others. Gavin was born with a rare disease called Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis, or LCA, which is known for causing a severe loss of vision.

Instead of succumbing to the disease, Gavin with his parents travel around the country performing the National Anthem.

Gavin sang his heart out touching Steve Harvey's heart and those in the audience.  As Gavin delivered a passionate rendition of the National Anthem, putting his soul into each and every word, I am sure that television audiences around the world felt that they just heard a heavenly voice.

Here is the link to hear Gavin singing the National Anthem:

Aloha -- Cathi

Movie (The Sense of an Ending) & Lunch Date (Fish Bonz Grill)

Aloha Everyone,

Today was J.J.'s turn to pick a movie and the restaurant.

The Sense of an Ending is based on a novel written in 2011 by Julian Barnes, a British author. The story is about friendship, family, love and philosophical reflection on the twist and turn of life. A low budget film with no named actors, but good performances, sensitive direction and Intelligent story telling with a satisfactory ending. The two of us enjoyed the film and spent sometime discussing the merits. I am curious and doing further research on Julian Barnes and the books he has written.

Stepping out into the bright midday sun from the AMC 20 Theaters in Rolling Hills Plaza, we saw the Fish Bonz, Casual Seafood Grill located about 100 yards away.

A very popular restaurant with two outdoors and one inside seating areas, Fish Bonz was nearly packed. While J.J. waited at the order line, I found an empty table and sat down. J.J. chose Wahoo (tuna) served with coleslaw and French fries and I selected the red snapper served with coleslaw and rice. 

Carmen, a regular patron with a friendly smile, explained to me which salsas are mild, hot or spicy and agreed to be featured in our blog. http://www.fishbonzgrill.com/location.html

The cost for this pleasurable date was $13 for movie with the Senior Discount and $23.96 for no frill, but great healthy food. Today we made an ordinary day into an extraordinary and a memorable one.

Aloha -- Cathi