Right after Christmas, we went on a cruise from Fort Lauderdale along the Caribbean coast of Central America, through the Panama Canal, and north along the Pacific coast to San Diego. We were accompanied by Dot's high school friends, Pete and Mignon Eayre. For details, see Panama Canal Cruise.
February, 2005:
We celebrated Dot's Big Birthday with a weekend at Pajaro Dunes, where we celebrated Fred's, nearly two and a half years ago. We went there on Friday night and met Ken and Joy for dinner at the Shadowbrook Restaurant in Capitola. Here is the birthday girl and the four of us at the table.
Steve and the boys arrived about midnight Friday, so we were all there to enjoy the place on Saturday. Here is the gang on the sofa in the living room (we had a three bedroom, 2 bath condo on two floors).
We all enjoyed a comfortable chair in the corner.
Of course, Ken, Joy, and Steve all brought digital cameras and laptop computers, so we could share pictures. We also enjoyed looking out across the sand at a couple of trees that looked like a horse.
We also enjoyed playing and walking on the beach.
The kids gave Dot this family portrait, done by an artist on the promenade in Santa Monica on the basis of a composite photo that Steve made.
May, 2005:
We spent Mothers' Day weekend on the Mendocino coast. The weather was cool and rainy, just the way our spring has been this year. We took along our new wet weather gear and hiking boots to try them out before our trip to England and Scotland in June. We went for a hike on the Chapman Point - Spring Ranch Headlands Trail that follows the coast a short distance south of the town of Mendocino.
Here is Dot walking toward the shore, and one of the tidepools we found on a large rock formation just off shore.
We saw a number of waterfalls, probably resulting from the wet spring we had this year.
There were lots of wildflowers on the bluffs, many of them 1/4-inch across (or smaller).
Some of the views were quite spectacular, as this one of flowers and rocks, and the one of Mendocino's main street.
The following weekend we spent in southern California, visiting Steve, Tyler, and Ryan.
On Saturday, we took Ryan to Universal Studios, where we out most of the rides and shows (including Shrek, Studio tour, Back to the Future, Animal Planet Live, Terminator 2: 3D, Jurassic Park--the Ride, and WaterWorld) and enjoyed the good food (pizza, dipping dots ice cream, and Cinnabon buns).
On Sunday, we watched Ryan playing basketball with his neighborhood team, and then went to see Tyler swim in a long-course meet.
June, 2005:
We did a quick overnight getaway to Half Moon Bay (south of San Francisco but north of Santa Cruz) because of a promotional offer from the Moss Beach Distillery (a fine restaurant on the coast a few miles north of Half Moon Bay) in cooperation with the Mill Rose Inn (a high-quality Bed & Breakfast in the town of Half Moon Bay). We got a reduced rate on our room and $75 off the restaurant bill (wine included). Unfortunately, there was a lot of traffic that slowed things down considerably, both going there and coming home, even though we bypassed San Francisco. Everything else was just great.
The Inn is a very attractive place, with lots of flowers,
and nice rooms with good facilities; unlike some B&Bs, it was not over-furnished.
We had a fine dinner at the Moss Beach Distillery, with great views of the ocean waves rolling in as the sun set.
The Mill Rose Inn is located about 3/4 of a mile from the Half Moon Bay State Beach, which has a shoreline trail for walkers, runners, and cyclists. We checked the trail out after a good night's sleep and a good breakfast. There were lots of flowering plants along the way and nice views of the beach and nearby hills, even though there was still some morning fog, mainly over the water.
The following week, we spent two days in Yosemite National Park. This was the first time in many years that we were in the Park in June, which is a peak water flow time. This year, the streams and rivers were especially full and fast-flowing because the winter rain and snow amounts were about 20% above normal. Here are pictures of the upper and lower Yosemite Falls:
(Compare with the falls pictures in Yosemite in January.)
We hiked to Mirror Lake, which has shrunk considerably since we were there last. However, we still managed to get a picture of Half Dome (left picture) reflected in the lake (right picture).
We also went to a section of the park that we had never seen, the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, formed by the O'Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River.
It is a very interesting place. Unfortunately, we did not have time to do any extensive hiking.
June and July, 2005:
We went on a walking tour of the Lake District in England and the Borders area of Scotland.
July, 2005:
After two weeks at home, we went to Pennsylvania to visit friends and relatives. We spent several days with Fred's brother Jack and his wife Joan in their new apartment in the Willow Valley Retirement Center, near Lancaster.
We enjoyed looking around Lancaster and its surroundings, including riding on the Strasburg railroad, on one of America's oldest short-line steam trains.
Then we went to the Pocono Mountains to the summer home of Dot's brother Bob and his wife Jeanne. Also there were Dot's cousins Connie and Dick Winchester and Norma and Bob Gerlach. We enjoyed relaxing by the lake on which the home is located.
We also enjoyed eating, drinking, and talking to the cousins group.
December, 2005:
We celebrated Christmas with Steve, Tyler, and Ryan at their home in Thousand Oaks. One afternoon we took Ryan to a nearby shopping mall where they had set up an ice-skating rink. He had never been on ice skates before, but he did very well. We did not skate; we just watched and took pictures.
Here are the boys at opening-presents time:
Ryan was fascinated with the pogo stick we gave him, but needed a little help from his dad.
For more family pictures, go to Family Album, 2004