Colorado Weekend

Henry and I spent a long weekend in Colorado. The weather was cool and the trees were all changing color. And Alicia and Kyle were such wonderful hosts - thanks, you guys!

Alicia cooked for us at home and at work. Everything she made was awesome!

  

We did some local hiking.

Dave came up from Denver and joined us for some beer tasting and dinner.

 

Henry and I visited the town of Golden and thought it was really beautiful.

On our last day Alicia, Henry and I visited Dave at the Colorado School of Mines, where he works. We got a tour and then we all had lunch.

Dave had to go back to work, so he couldn't join us at the Coors brewery where we stopped on our way to the airport.

We took a self-guided tour...

and did some tasting.

It was great spending some time with Alicia, Kyle and Dave.

We love Colorado in the fall!

Thanks to Kyle for contributing a couple of pictures!

A Day at the Races

JPL held an event for all employees at the Santa Anita race track. We had our own area with tables and food in the center of the track. It was a gorgeous day, although the temperature was in the 90's and we were pretty hot.

Henry had never been to the racetrack before. So we watched the races and tried to pick the winners. Henry didn't seem to understand that you're supposed to pick who's going to be in FIRST place, not LAST place... it's a good thing he didn't bet any money!

In-between races we wandered around a car show. There were lots of amazing, restored vintage cars.

 

Henry  was, of course, fascinated by the John Deere equipment used to smooth the track after every race. They had 4 big tractors just to smooth out the hoofprints in the dirt - not exactly real farming.

We also met the horse that played the part of Seabiscuit in the movie a few years ago.  I jumped right after this shot was taken because he started nibbling my hand! It turns out that he just wanted to be petted.

We had a good time. Going to the racetrack is a fun thing to do every now and then.

It's Apple Season

This weekend we went out to some apple orchards to get some freshly picked apples. The orchards are close to Redlands, where I lived for about 3 years when I was 4 to 6 years old. I remembered my old address (probably because it was the first one I ever learned) and we were able to find my old house. It looks so "sixties," but I did live there in the early sixties.

 

We noticed that there was a historical landmark very close to the house and so we went to look at it. It's an 1897 victorian house on 6 acres of land that was owned by J. Alfred Kimberly, a founder of the Kimberly-Clark paper company. The house and the italian-style gardens were amazing, but we couldn't go into the house because it wasn't open for visitors at the time of day we were there.

We left Relands and went on to Oak Glen, a little town with several apple farms where you can pick your own apples or buy fresh apples and cider.

They also have a petting zoo with a strange assortment of animals - goats and ostriches.

You can pick your own raspberries, although we didn't this time.

Have you ever heard of apple tasting? One farm had slices of the 15 or 20 different types of apples that they grow for visitors to taste!

 

And of course the best part of the whole trip was getting a slice of fresh apple pie a la mode!

Go Dodgers!

We spent a warm LA Friday night at a Dodger game.

The Dodgers were playing the Colorado Rockies - fun for former Colorado resident Henry!

By the time we got to my favorite part - the 7th inning stretch - it wasn't looking good for the Rockies. But the Dodger fans were pumped up and sang their hearts out.

In the end, the Dodgers slaughtered the Rockies, 8 to 0! (sorry Henry)  Every Friday night after the game they let people onto the field and do a fireworks show. We've never stayed before, but since the Dodgers so efficiently wiped out the competition (oops, sorry again Henry), it was still pretty early and so we stayed for the show.

The fireworks were great - can't believe they do a show like that every week!  The coolest one was a type that expanded into a red heart shape.

The season is just about over and this was the last game we'll be attending until next spring. It was a great way to end the season. Well, at least for some of us!!

Rattlesnake!

I can now add "Rattlesnake" to the list of wildlife that I've seen in my yard!

Note how he is moving directly towards the photographer's (Henry's) ankle in this shot. Yikes! I grabbed the cat and we went inside. Henry caught the snake and deposited him in the canyon.

Sunday Night Football

It's football season again! Time for evenings of football, food, and friends.

 Dawn made her world-famous jambalaya and the Hoffmans brought homemade sorbets for dessert!

Kind of miss having seven little kids running around, but still love getting together with our extended family. We've known each other for 20+ years. And what a great game! Who was playing again??

Ventura Beach Day

It's Labor Day weekend and we decided to take a break from the heat and head to the coast. We spent the day at Ventura beach.

75 degrees and an ocean breeze. This is the life!

After hanging out on the beach, we walked around the harbor area and took a few photos.

We ended the day with dinner at the BJ's in Ventura. We reminisced about having dinner and watching the world cup at that very same BJ's two summers ago. We were watching Spain play in the world cup while Alicia was on her graduation trip in Spain, also watching the game!