April 10 2012

When we started RVing Becca used to tease us that we were living in our car.  Now we're living in someone else's car!  We hired someone to peel off the awful Diamond coating that a previous owner put across the front of the RV, knowing that the front would have to be repainted afterwards. 

But instead of just painting the front, we have decided to have the whole thing painted.  Since the RV has to be in the shop for a couple of weeks, Jack and Teresa have very generously loaned us their 5th wheel to live in.  We could not do this without them!


The busy season of Spring Break continues so we are still working extra hours.  Management took everyone out for dinner, which was a nice perk.  An even better one was when they gave away a free Kindle and Randy won it!  

We are checking out the local foods.  If you come to Anaheim, I recommend going to Le Mirage Pastries for light, luscious desserts.  

I also recommend that you skip Mama’s Cozza’s restaurant.  Unless their pizza is a lot better than their other dishes, it isn’t very good.  Of course, I have been influenced by the excellent Italian cuisine on The Hill in St. Louis!  Another Anaheim restaurant we tried was Angelo’s Drive-in Hamburgers.  It was fun to be served by a car hop on roller skates (even though we sat inside), but the burgers weren’t anything great.  Even so, they were much better than the local Carl Jr’s.  Oh, well, we will keep trying to find the wonderful local restaurants that we are sure are here.

Last week was Spring Break for the Riverside schools.  Teresa took her family to Doheny Beach and we were able to join them on Tuesday.  Doheny Beach is  well-known for it’s tide pools, which are fascinating; some of the pools are covered with sea anemones

while in other pools, big purple starfish (that’s a type, as well as a color) sit plump on the side of boulders, waiting for the tide to come back in.  

To get to the tide pools you have to climb over a lot of great big boulders - fun if you are a small kid, but trickier if you are, well, my age.   

So after awhile I got out of the tide pool area, to sit in the sun and listen to the ocean.  As each wave goes out, it rolls the small shore rocks until it sounds like castanets. 

Eventually we all left the tide pool area and went to the sandy part of the beach.  I laid down on a beach towel, draped another one over my albino-white legs, and went right to sleep.  Occasionally I would drift awake long enough to wonder if my scalp was getting sunburned, but not enough to care.  Fortunately I didn’t burn anywhere, I just got the best nap of my life!  Teresa’s grandson and his friend played on the shore, racing in and out with the tide.  I bet they slept well that night!

Later that week we headed back to Doheny to meet up with them again.  This time we walked to the Harbor, checking out boats and yachts and discussing which ones were worth having.  Teresa and Jack’s main criteria is good fishing access, while Randy’s preference is bigger boats.  My criteria is something big enough to have a BBQ grill on it, so Randy can cook the fish that Jack and Teresa catch.


Later that day we drove to Seal Beach to meet up with Brian.  Randy worked for Brian back in his days at Boeing, and it had been several years since we all got together.  Brian has a great apartment near the beach and he knows his way around the area, so we walked down to the beach, out on the pier, and then downtown for dinner.  We went to a good sushi restaurant where Randy and Brian enjoyed their sushi, while I experimented with something called Monkey Brains.  Of course it's not real Monkey Brains, it's mushrooms stuffed with crab meat and spicy tuna.  I'm proud of myself for ordering something new, but really - who would steam a mushroom?  I can't say I loved it, but I did love the big chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting that we got at the bakery across the street!