We spent a short, but a sweet two nights camping in San Clemente. It was chilly, windy and a bit rainy, but we kept moving, had good fires and a well-working camper heater. All was good!
Camping for us frequently involves eating out. This night we chose the Fisherman’s Bar and Grill. We shared a variety of foods, including fish and chips. The food was excellent, but even better was the sunset view, and the heat lamps.
Also delicious was our breakfast the next morning. The meal was accompanied by some am screen time, and not pictured, Starbucks coffees.
We visited Casa Romantica – a new to us hidden gem. This place is a cultural center and gardens that once was the home of Ole Hanson, the founder of San Clemente. We paid $5 to see this beautiful property perched on the cliffs.
We rounded out the day with a visit from Kathy Stark. We sat around the fire and walked on the beach and then celebrated her birthday with a delicious meal of tri-tip steak, au gratin potatoes, salad and birthday cake, warm and out of the wind in Cathy and Tom’s trailer.
These weather-y days bring the best sunsets.
We ate our final breakfast at the Sugar Shack, packed up and headed home. We are headed back to the beach in two weeks. This time we will camp at South Carlsbad and spend a little more time. Winter beach camping is so good!
This was a far more “normal” Christmas than ’20 or ’21. We had our Stark Family party, indoors (!), and we had family and friends at our house for Christmas dinner. We received several lovely gifts of homemade goodies and did some quantity food cooking.
First, our backyard view on a pre-Christmas evening.
Our new tree and tree topper.
So much good food.
Pics from our Stark Family Christmas Party. We gathered at The Framsted’s. The gifts and food were abundant.
Back home, we served dinner Christmas night for a small group.
We haven’t been to Las Vegas I don’t think since 2013 so when Chris suggested a few days there I was all for it. We spent three nights at the Aria Hotel (which we loved, except for the lack of a coffee maker in the room), roamed through many fancy hotels, drove out of the city for some great hikes and ate good food.
We stopped on our way into town at the Springs Preserve. This 180 acres of nature is just a few miles off the LV Strip. It is very wintery there now, but we still saw color and got some miles in on the trails around the preserve. We visited both the museums and then had lunch at the Springs Cafe.
We then checked into the hotel. The Aria hotel is new-ish and very high tech. The casino is huge (and very nice as casinos go) and the Christmas decorations were over the top. Our room was on the 21st floor with a view for miles and an iPad to control lights, temp and window shades.
We accessed other nearby hotels via a tram and continued to be dazzled by the Christmas decorations. Two examples… one of many trees at the Bellagio and edible packages at the Aria.
We spent most of day two at Valley of Fire State Park. It is about an hour north of the city and is the largest state park in Nevada. We did several short hikes and ate a brought-from-home picnic lunch. The highlight was a small slot canyon.
We ended the day with dinner at Shake Shack at the New York, New York and more roaming around, in and out, up and down.
On day three we headed out to the Lake Mead area and did about 5 miles on a trail through old historic train tunnels. This was a mellow, flat, though chilly walk through five tunnels high above the lake. So unique.
We planned to picnic again, but instead found ourselves at a cute little Italian place in Boulder City. We explored a couple of vintage shops there as well (no purchases) and then headed back to the city. Again we spent the evening back on the tram, and then on foot covering a lot of ground exploring more hotels and shopping meccas.
Our last meal was at Nacho Daddy’s. We just happened upon this place and liked the vibe. Chris had a massive meal of Fajita Nachos and here is my more modest meal of filet mignon street tacos. I had them hold the onion and cilantro so they look a bit spartan but were delicious.
We headed home after Starbucks the next morning and were back in LA by 1pm. Now time to think about Christmas festivities and plan some meals.
I am just back from a few days visiting Jan and Mark in Nor Cal. I flew up Friday morning; back Monday morning and in between we were, as Jan says, “girls on the go”. I immediatley introduced Jan to my new pastime of estate sale shopping. We went to three (!) sales. Our only purchase was made by Jan – some very nice wicker baskets at the low cost of $8 each. We had a good lunch out, visited a Christmas craft fair at the local museum and then headed to Trader Joe’s where we picked up our foods for the TJ party Jan hosted Saturday. Six guests arrived during a pouring rain/wind storm. We sampled many favorite foods, chatted and then packed our canvas totes with a food from each guest to take home.
The Tomsic house is beautifully decorated! Their tree is a nine footer!
We spent most of Sunday wandering around San Francisco, ducking and dodging rain all day. We visited multiple hotels to check out the holiday decor, walked around Union Square, shopped at the Levi Store (Mark bought a classic jean jacket), and ate lunch.
After lunch we were happy to escape the weather at SF MOMA.
We roamed through multiple galleries and saw much modern art. A few of note below…
We ended Sunday with dinner at home. I made chicken and dumplings and we wrapped up the evening with peppermint ice cream and some tv viewing. Jan buzzed me back to the airport Monday morning on her way to work. Nor Cal never disappoints.
We stayed close to home this past month. We took a few day trips, did some baking, celebrated Thanksgiving and spent time at home. It was a good month.
We spent a couple of Sunday mornings roaming around DTLA. On this day we split an Egg Slut sandwich and hash browns at Grand Central Market and then walked about 4 miles. We passed through a farmers’ market, sat in on a bit of service at Our Lady Queen of Angels, encountered a celebration on the steps of city hall… and more.
We hiked a new to us trail, Schabarum Skyline, in Walnut a few Saturdays ago. It was a good workout with great views and we topped off the morning with breakfast burritos.
We celebrated Thanksgiving at The Smiths. I contributed cranberry sauce and a pecan tort. I also made a pumpkin pie and roasted a turkey breast for us to enjoy over the weekend. We have also enjoyed many oranges!
Our “golden hour’ and sunsets have been spectacular lately.
I haven’t had a puzzle out recently; this was a fun one.
The Friday following Thanksgiving we took a road trip to Oak Glen and then headed to Riverside where we roamed around the beautifully decorated Mission Inn and had delicious tamales for lunch.
Due to low temps we had to change our plans several times – each time for a lower elevation. We ended up in Bishop (down to about 4000 feet, from 10,000 feet) where it still got cold, but only about 30 degrees as compared with teens and 20s. And the wind! Thankfully it died down by day 2.
As is not uncommon, trailer maintenance was needed. The heater didn’t click on… thankfully, Chris got it going. It made for a much more pleasant mornings.
We hiked along Bishop Creek, around Rock Creek Lake, on the Little Lakes Valley and Sabrina Lake trails and around Convict Lake. We were a little late for max fall colors, but found pockets of color and had the usual Eastern Sierra views.
A little fishing (not catching) on the Owens River.
This was a find… Keogh Hot Springs. Out in the middle of nowhere is this old school “resort”. You pay your $12 and get to soak in two mineral water warm pools – one 88 degrees and one 104 degrees. Heaven.
This trip was a bit “camping lite” – we ate simple breakfasts, had picnic lunches and ate out for dinner. Night one was Mexican, night two was BBQ and night three was a fancy dinner at Convict Lake Resort. This Sampler Platter at Holy Smoke Texas Style BBQ in Bishop was, while not beautiful, so so good.
More Apple Slices 