May 21, 2012

After a few of days of work, the next adventure was a Whale Watching cruise.  Although it’s called a Whale Watching Tour, after you get out in the bay they announce that if they don’t find whales or dolphins, you get your money back.  That’s an important phrase because they pretty much always know where the dolphins are!  But that’s OK because even without whales (and we were entirely without whales that day), it was a great trip.  First stop was a large buoy in the bay where five or six harbor seals had draped themselves.  They were so laid back they didn’t even move when we stopped by.

The ship cruised out further into the bay and found a really big group of Common Dolphins, exactly where the crew knew they would be.  And they were amazing!!!  We have never seen so many dolphins together in one place - there must have been at least forty.  They were feasting on anchovies and as long as we cruised around slowly, they ignored us.  But when the boat’s captain revved the engine and raced forward, dolphins from everywhere came racing over to us, just to speed along beside the boat and ride the bow waves. 

We moved a bit further out in the bay, looking for whales.  And instead we found a small group of Risso dolphins.  This was something new to us.  They are larger than most of the dolphins we’ve seen, and they look sort of like narwhales, without the spire.  They have rounded heads without the bottlenose that we associate with dolphins. 

They are light gray but apparently they scar white.  And these guys had a lot of scars!

2012 May 16

We are still working part-time at the park, and here the schedule is usually a split-shift.  It's common for us to work from 8 am to 11 am, take a break and then work 3 pm to 7.  It beats working 8 hours straight but it does take up the whole day and we usually don’t get anything else done on days when we work.  So on the days we’re off, we’re trying to get out.  Recently a couple came into the park a day late because of engine trouble.  It robbed them of a day at Disney and all Randy and I could do was commensurate with them, from one RVer to another.  They shook it off and had two wonderful days at Disney and when they left, they offered us their extra day’s tickets.  Well, OK, let’s have another free day at Disneyland!

We started off at California Adventure because we love the Tower of Terror.  But the ride was closed and nobody could (or would) tell us what was going on.  That was a bummer so we decided to change things up by just going on rides where we would not have to wait in long lines.  We went over to Disneyland and started in Tommorowland.  I get a kick out of Tomorrowland because the architecture is still what people in the 1950‘s thought of as futuristic.

We went to most of the rides without a line - Monorail, Jungle Ride, Railroad, Captain Eo, and we watched the very first Mickey Mouse film.  And we went on rides with short lines - Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Manson and the Ferris wheel.  We went on the Indiana Jones Adventure and then decided we'd done so much that we would stand in line for one ride - the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage.  Another nice day at Disneyland - it's amazing how much "free" adds to the enjoyment!

A few days later we went to the Medieval Times Dinner Tournament.  That was a special event for me because they have some of the most beautiful horses there.  When I learned their horses performed the “Airs Above Ground” maneuvers, I assumed they were Lipizzans because that’s the only horse I know who does those moves.  But they are Andalusian horses!  Andalusians are gorgeous Spanish horses - very muscular with long, thick manes and tails.  And they are wonderful at dressage.  Medieval Times uses white Andalusians for the classical dressage show and uses other horse breeds for the tournament.  I think Andalusians would also be great at tournament but perhaps they are too expensive for that.  At any rate, the dressage show was wonderful.  Unbelievably, I choose that night to forget to bring my camera (!!!) so the only picture I have is from a postcard, but at least I have something to remind me of those beautiful horses!

While the dressage show was going on in the arena we were served dinner.  Our server ladled Tomato Bisque into our bowls, joking about serving us Dragon’s Blood.  We waited a few moments for him to return with spoons before we realized that wasn’t going to happen.  So we just supped from the bowls, and it worked out fine.  The next course was Focaccia bread which I think it was supposed to be served with the soup, but our server was a too slow.  That was (eventually) followed by half of an oven-roasted chicken, a BBQ rib and potato wedges, with apple strudel for dessert.  All pretty good, and all eaten without the help of utensils.

Before the actual tournament started a Falconer came out and did a short show with a falcon.  Very cool!  The tournament itself was OK - it was fun to watch, although the acting was pretty mediocre. And we got a kick out of the guy announcing each knight - he did a great imitation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s introductions in “A Knight’s Tale”.

We worked the few days at the park and then went to Riverside to celebrate Mother’s Day with the Burns/Booth clan.  As always, there was lots of great food and a great visit.  We miss them a lot now that we're in Anaheim.  We thought we would be able to visit more, but the traffic here is awful.  A 30 mile trip can take well over 2 hours.

Here's some good news - our RV is finally painted!  There are a couple of touch ups needed but the bulk of the work is done and we have moved back into it.  It was so generous of our Riverside cousins to lend us their 5^th wheel, but it is good to be back home - and what a difference!

April 27, 2012

Randy has been looking for things to do while we are here, and this week he found a doozy.  We went to the Imperial Spa in nearby Fullerton where we each signed up for a Body Scrub and Acupressure Massage.  

First we had to take a shower.  I went to the Ladies shower and to my surprise, the changing room had no private rooms and the showers had no walls.  Everyone was pretty much out in the open.  I was the only non-Korean there, and in the middle of a group of dark-haired, 4-and-5 foot tall naked ladies speaking Korean, I felt a little conspicuous.  I showered and wrapped myself in a short white bathrobe which was made for a woman a lot shorter than me - the belt loops sat just below my shoulder blades.  But at least it closed in front - barely, but enough.

A nice lady came in and motioned for me to follow her.  She wasn’t naked, she was in her underwear and she spoke about 5 words of English.  I followed her into a small room, doffed the robe, laid down on a plastic-covered bench and got splashed with warm water scooped out of a big plastic bin that looked like the garbage cans they sell at Lowes.  Next she scrubbed me from neck to toes, using loofa-like mitts, lotion and a lot of water.  It was a combination of massage and scrub and I felt like a million dollars when she got done. 

I didn’t want to move but it was time for my Acupressure Massage.  A different lady (this one was dressed) let me to another little room, covered me with a light sheet and gave me a great massage.  She was a little rough on my shoulders but overall it was wonderful.  Later I learned that the tiny Korean lady who gave Randy a massage walked on his back; funny, he never asks me to do that!

After the massage was over, I checked out some of the Sauna rooms.   The Red Clay Sauna room is a large, quiet, low-lit room with rows of small arched rooms, each about 4 feet high and 8 feet long.  They looked like little caves and are made of red clay.  On the ceiling of each little cave is a red light and on the floor is a braided mat.  I crawled in to one, laid down on the mat, draped a little hand towel over my eyes, and simply went to sleep.  Red Clay is supposed to provide energy that increases metabolism and delays the aging process. I don’t know if I delayed the aging process but I sure felt wonderful.

Next I checked out the Red Clay Ball Room, where instead of little caves they had 4 x 8 areas on the floor full of marble-sized balls of red clay.  The areas were heated from below so lying on them was very comfortable, but I didn’t go to sleep.  Every time I (or anyone else) moved even a little, those red clay balls rattled against each other and kept me awake. 

I also spent some time in the Salt Brick Sauna Room, sitting in a recliner and watching a Korean Soap Opera on a big flat screen TV.  Eventually it was time to go so we took one more shower and then the pampering was over.  We will definitely be back.

We ended the day by going to Soup Plantation, which is suddenly one of my favorite restaurants.  What a great day!

April 22, 2012

We've been here awhile now, and when the Disney fireworks start I react like the locals and think "Oh, that again, hope it stops soon!".  And we understand why, when you ask how far it is to someplace, they answer in time, not miles - it's because the traffic is so reliably bad.

  

Saturday we braved the traffic to go to Riverside and visit with the Burns clan.  Teresa fixed dinner (great as always) before we went to Aunt Jean's to visit.  And Teresa got Frostbites for everyone - creamy frozen custard topped with fruity Italian ice.  I haven't seen these elsewhere but they should catch on 'cause they're really good.

We also drove out to see how our RV is doing.  It should look great when it's done, but it's kind of a mess now.  

April 16, 2012

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Titanic's maiden voyage, when she sailed into history by sinking to the bottom of the ocean, we went to see Titanic in 3D.  It's the first 3D movie I've seen and I thought that some of it was a little fuzzy.  Maybe that's because it wasn't filmed for 3D?  But it's still a great show.  It gets me thinking what I would do in that situation (probably drown). 

Last night was COLD again.  I've had enough cold weather, that is not what we hoped for when we came to California!  But today the sun is shining, so perhaps it will warm up now.

April 15, 2012

The other night around midnight I thought I heard some knocking outside.  I rolled over and went back to sleep but the knocking continued.  Finally I got up and checked at the door where the Security guy was waiting to tell me that our water line was spraying water all over.  I was not in the mood to check it out at midnight so I let him shut the water off.  In the morning we turned the water back on to see what was going on and sure enough, water spray everywhere from a hose under the RV.  It was easy to see where the end of the hose had cracked, so we got a new section of hose from an RV store and replaced the cracked piece.  And just in time - it was sprinkling while we were finishing up, and right after that it poured!  And it was surprisingly COLD.  Cold rain - just peachy.  We decided to go the Cheesecake Factory since it was likely to be less crowded on a rainy day.  We were able to get right and ordered pizza.  It was OK, but nobody goes to the Cheesecake Factory for pizza.  So for dessert Randy ordered the Tower of Chocolate and I got the Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake.  And by golly, they do dessert well!

It rained through the night and this place isn’t set up for that much rain - areas in the RV lot looked like a lake because there’s no proper drainage.  And it stayed cold - what happened to the sun?

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!