A Wonderful Week of Sightseeing

It's hard to believe another week has passed but as the saying goes when you're having fun time flies. We have had fun and the week flew by. Here are a few pictures of the past week.

Thomas with his mom on the beach.

We decided to stroll along the beach for Valentine's Day. While we were there Gina found this rock in the shape of a heart. This really made her day.

The weather here in southern California has been beautiful. We decided to drive the car down the Pacific Coast Highway which follows the beach with the top down enjoying the sun. Here we are entering Dana Point.

Here's a picture of Laguna Beach. Gina loves watching the water hitting the cliffs. I told her we need to go to the Oregon coast where there are big cliffs overlooking the ocean.

I never knew Gina had a pizza restaurant but here it is. We probably would have stopped if the traffic wasn't so backed up in every direction.

Ol Boudreaux from the bayous of Louisiana must have taken a trip to California in the past and needed to get around and all he could find were surfboards so he adapted. These Californian's must have seen him. A picture of a California pirogue.

Looking down at Dana Point Harbor


A beautiful picture of the entrance to Dana Point harbor


Gina on the Beach admiring the sun going down.


Another beautiful day in California and what better way to end it than a beautiful sunset.

This is the place I spent two days with my truck trying to get our electrical system working correctly. They treated us great and I would highly recommend them if you're in the area and need work done on Magnum inverters or any type of marine equipment.

A small water garden located by the harbor in Point Loma.


Looking across the bay at downtown San Diego.


While we were waiting on the inverter to get fixed Gina decided to do a little sewing for Thomas.

We decided to try some seafood while we were at Point Loma. This place came with high recommendation. However, the food was just okay nothing to rave about. Nothing compares to Louisiana Seafood.

One day decided to take a drive to the Naval Base in San Diego so I could get a base decal on the car for Thomas. Everyone told us it would be easier and it was. It took all of five minutes and I didn't have to go get a smog check which is required at Camp Pendleton. From there we decided we wanted to go inland a little since we have been spending all our time on or near the water. Our destination would be a small town northeast of San Diego called Julian.

There is snow in them there mountains. We must get closer!!!


We finally found it and Gina had to put her foot in it to prove that she found it.



The road to Julian was beautiful and quite curvy.


A few of the deer that we saw on our drive.

Lake Cuyamaca is a 110 acre lake located at an elevation of 4600 feet. The scenery is absolutely beautiful.

Another view of the valley below as we were driving

Main Street of Julian, California. This was our destination. Julian is an old mining town established in 1870. The town is known for there apple orchards and their apple pies.

During harvest time The Julian Pie Company will make approximately 10,000 pies a day which are shipped throughout California. We first bought one slice to try and then decided to buy a whole pie. The apple pie tasted delicious.

After we left Julian we decided to head back toward Camp Pendleton. About 10 miles away we found this trail so we decided to stop and take a little hike.

There is a small stream down there in the rocks. We could hear the water flowing but could not see it.

The view was great as we walked.

Here's Gina walking ahead of me. We didn't walk the whole trail since the sun was going down behind the mountains. We finally made it home around eight o'clock and enjoyed another slice of apple pie with ice cream.

Our friends, Gayle and Jim. They're another couple here at the campground which let our dogs out for us today since we didn't know how long we would be. They invited us over to their place for hamburgers the next night. They tasted wonderful and we had a great time visiting with them.

Gina loves walking along the beach so I just had to add one last picture of what she enjoys.

We have had so much fun this past week. I guess up until this week I haven't been able to really enjoy myself much since I have spent so much of my time getting our electrical system working properly. Finally by the end of the week I felt confident that everything was working correctly as I had designed it to work.


Thomas got home from the field Friday night and Gina cooked fried chicken strips and homemade mashed potatoes for him since he was wanting some home cooked food. We were going to leave Camp Pendleton on Sunday. However, there was still some more sightseeing that we want to do so we decided to stay one more week. We are planning on leaving here this Saturday and slowly make our way toward Arizona.


Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Sunny California or Snow in the South

It’s Friday morning and we woke up to the news of snow in Louisiana. What’s up with all this global warming Mr. Al Gore?? Ok, it may be snowing throughout the south but here in Southern California it's a nice sunny 64 degrees.

Our House in South Louisiana


How about this view to wake up to?

Ok, we haven't done much since I last posted other than me spending a lot of time on the phone trying to get problems fixed and tracking our car that is being shipped to California. Now I could enlighten you all with our problems. However, they are all minor in the big scheme of things. It just takes a lot of time making telephone calls then waiting for someone to call you back for you to try something else. We were supposed to go to San Diego Wednesday to get the control board in our new inverter changed. However, they called me on Tuesday evening saying they did not receive the new board so they rescheduled my appointment to Friday. This caused a conflict with our move from the campsite that we are currently in. We made the decision to move to another site yesterday since we wouldn't be able to move on Friday. So we packed up our trailer and moved to another site only to be called Thursday evening informing us that the board had still not arrived and they would have to reschedule our appointment to next week. The other issue this week has been the lights in our living room. They just quit working.

Lights hanging down trying to figure out the problem

The issue with them is that somehow they lost their ground. This is not something I can fix so I have an RV dealership located in Arizona that will take a look at it once we leave California. Thomas's car has still not arrived and I want to get a base decal on it for him before we leave. Thomas will be in the field all next week. We are thinking that since we will not be able to spend any time with him we may just take the car and go driving along the pacific coast highway. I guess we'll be in California for a little while longer.

We met two young Marines who are brothers. Justin, is getting out in April and Brett, is leaving today for Afghanistan. We enjoyed talking to them yesterday and wanted to ask all our followers to keep Brett in your prayers as he goes in harm’s way. We also wish Justin the best of luck as he moves back to Texas and starts college. Gina and I are so proud of all the men and women who have served and are still serving our country.

Justin and Brett
Thank you both for serving our Great Nation


Brett (our Prayers are with you, your wife and daughter)


US Air Force C-5 Galaxy

Gina was able to capture this shot of the plane that will fly Brett to Afghanistan as it was flying over the campground.

Now this is a Big Aircraft

Finding a picture with a big truck just made it even more fitting. The cargo / troop area mearsures 17.2 ft wide x 13.5 ft tall x 100 ft long and can carry 180,000 pounds. Now that can haul some Marines.

Here are some pictures of the mountains on Camp Pendleton. I would like to say that we took them. However, Thomas took these as he was out working this week.

As you can tell we have not done a whole lot but we're still having the time of our life being with each other and spending time with Thomas. Life is GOOD!!!

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Ronald Reagan's Presidential Library

We woke up early this morning and had our coffee together. Then we hurried up and got dressed and loaded up the truck and headed north to Simi Valley. The one item that we wanted to see was the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The pictures below are just the ones that touched us.

We don't usually buy staged photo's but this one was just to memorable to pass up.


Ronald Reagan "Rawhide" statue at the entrance


A piece of concrete that he poured in 1952 at their first home as newlyweds


Air Force One (A beautiful Exhibit)

This plane served seven presidents. As we were walking through it we told one another, "if only these walls could talk what a story they could tell".

We are both fascinated with the Presidential Seal


The oval office

The quote on the desk states "it can be done". This is an exact replica of the oval office. President Reagan insisted on it. In order for it to be exact they had to dig down into the foundation to get the exact height. It was told to us that it was Ronald Reagan's desire to make it identical to the oval office in the White House since most Americans will never have a chance to see the real oval office.

After he and Nancy moved back to California from the White House he engraved this wooden heart. The one theme that stands out in all his letters and actions was his love for Nancy.

President Reagan loved sports too


An actual piece of the Berlin wall


Rest in Peace President Reagan

I will not talk politics in our blog. However, we both believe Ronald Reagan was and will be the best president in our lifetime. This is a must see if you ever come close to Southern California. In addition to the library they have the last Air Force One fully restored.

We spent the day there and really enjoyed ourselves. We will go back again if we are ever out here again. After we left there we drove around Simi Valley just to sight see and to get something to eat. Around eight o’clock we decided to drive back home.

Later in the week we went for a bike ride. The mountains around the campground are beautiful. I guess I needed a little adventure while Gina was looking for rocks.

Picture of the campground from the other side of the lake


Couldn't pass up this picture while we were bike riding


Of course Gina had to stop to look for rocks


My adventure, really the boy in me comes out


Ok, I did crash and Gina couldn't resist capturing it with pictures


Sweetheart, I'm OK no broken bones just a few scratches


I did make it down and Wow, was it FUN!!!

Now leave it to Gina to bring reality to the situation that it probably wasn't to smart of me to ride my bike down the hill. She gave me the lecture of having to leave me there hurt while she had to go get help which would have been over two miles away. Maybe next time I'll rethink my adrenline rushing adventures but then again maybe not, there will always be the boy in me.

Gina walking her bike through the water, look close at her basket it's full of rocks


Looking back at the hill that I rode my bike down


There are a lot of ducks here and this one Gina caught eating


After the bike ride we then went for a walk around the lake so Gina could search for more rocks

We haven’t really been going anywhere so our sightseeing has been here on base and visiting with some new friends we have met here.

Paul & Roberta, They were here for a Marine reunion

We really have enjoyed our time with Thomas. Orginally, he was told that he would be deploying at end of January. However, his schedule has changed and he should have at least six months here. With Camp Pendleton being so big and instead of Thomas trying to buy a car we decided to ship our car from Louisiana instead. I do want to thank Rickey my brother in law for meeting the truck with the car otherwise I don't know how it could have happened. Saturday morning we were awakened by Thomas surprising us with bacon and homemade biscuits. Breakfast tasted great and Thomas and I really thanked Gina for cleaning up the mess in the kitchen. Thomas wanted to chill out for the day. So while he chilled Gina gave me a haircut. After she finished we decided to run a few errands today. The most important errand was to stop by a unique grocery store called Trader Joe’s. Our good friends Mike and Pat had asked us to pick up some stuff for them since we will see them later this month in Congress, Arizona. After we got home I grilled the last steak we had bought while we were in Kansas. Instead of baked potatoes Gina made homemade mashed potatoes. The steak tasted great and we’ll have to buy more when we get back to Kansas.

Sunday morning found us excited and on edge waiting for the Super Bowl. It’s amazing how all the Sunday morning political shows kind of put politics to the side and instead talked Super Bowl. Gina was going to make Gumbo but since no one was coming over to watch the game we decided to grill sausage and make dirty rice. Thomas fried chicken strips and Gina made Velveeta cheese dip. We’re ready for the Super Bowl. What a game and Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints!!!! WHO DAT

After our exhilarating evening watching the New Orleans Saints win their first Super Bowl we decided to just take it easy today. Gina made a ham and cheese quiche for breakfast then she bathed and groomed Angel and Zoey. From there we just sat outside enjoying the beautiful weather. Temperature was a fantastic 65 degrees. We are going to San Diego on Wednesday morning to get our inverter looked at. Everything works fine except the transfer relay which allows the AC power to be transferred through it. I hope it doesn’t take long to troubleshoot the problem. We really need it fixed before we head to Arizona.

I would like to apologize since I forgot to add the link to Jim and Ellie's blog in my last post where she posted the recipe for the smore's brownies. Here is the link and we both agree that they taste wonderful!! http://www.justravelin.blogspot.com/

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.