So nice to be back in a multicultural environment...

As much as I enjoy Palm Springs it is a very "white" society.   I'm really pleased they had such a great day for their parade.  It  can often be rainy in April but we seem to have brought home Palm Springs weather!

"Thousands of people, including Federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, take part in the annual Vaisakhi parade in Vancouver Saturday, April 12, 2014. Jason Payne/ PNG"

And you just might be looking at our next Prime Minister!

Another old friend today….

Derek came over this afternoon and brought a bottle of wine so a nice chat and imbibe before Jim and he started working on the B.C. Campus project.

 A Jo Nesbo novel called "Cockroaches" came into the library yesterday…I put holds on a couple of his novels so I read that while they worked.  I'm really enjoying it and not surprised after seeing "Headhunters" on Netflix.

Just an amazing wonderful warm sunny day today!

Old friends and old haunts...

Dick and Susan came over yesterday and brought this wine…seemed very appropriate given our accidents!    Great to see them and we had a lot of laughs as usual.

Then off to The Sylvia where we all had fish and chips and Red Truck Pale Ale.  Great to blow the froth off our favourite beer.

Been missing my lovely quilt!

Love everything about it and the Eiffel Tower is relevant for this next photo of a Ferrari that was in the Safeway parking lot.  When we were in Paris with Richard and 1987 we went to a Ferrari car exhibit since he was really into seeing fancy cars then. And he loved the drive to Monte Carlo and seeing all the fancy cars on the road on the way to and from the Casino.

Update from John:
Hi Janice,
I know the license plate holder says Ferrari but it's actually a Maserati.
John

Wonderful sunset….wonderful meal...

Richard left us some prepared Vij's food….lamb curry and onions tonight.  Great! And we had a wonderful sunset.

Some of my favourite things...

Great to see my freighters,  the sailboats,  the rowers, the kite boarders,  my mountains,  the joggers,  the cyclists,  the walkers... all enjoying the best place on earth.  

Can't wait to get to some of our favourite haunts like Cloud 9,  Las Margaritas,  The Sylvia…Tanpopo (our favourite Japanese restaurant)  will have to wait since there are a lot of stairs and no elevator.

A beautiful West Coast day

Great looking out at our view and sipping tea in my cat mug my dear friend,  Elaine,  give me for my birthday last year.  We should both be completely healed by the time swimming in the ocean is a possibility!

Medical Updates

Ian:  Continued improvement

Jim:  He went to physio today and had a really good session.  He's feeling very confident about making a full recovery.

Me:  I went to my doctor today and he wasn't pleased I have not been keeping my knee immobilized and that I've been doing a lot.  Well,  I didn't really have a lot of choice.  I don't think I've broken the fracture open or I would be feeling a lot of pain I believe.  Follow up X-ray in two weeks.

Home again...

It was great to get back to our home in Vancouver and we hope to be able to stay here for a while.   Jim is off to his first physio today and I see the doctor to see what I should be doing with my knee.

We saw Ian Monday morning before catching the ferry and he seemed pretty good so let's hope he continues to progress.  Andreas,  his landlord,  is visiting him regularly so that's great to know.

We had a super dinner at the Blue Crab Sunday night with Elaine.  Elaine and I began with tempura prawns and Jim had scallops and bacon (we shared our appies…both excellent),  then we all had the "Fish Bowl"…coconut Thai curry sauce with fish and noodles….fabulous!  Then Spanish Coffee for desert.  It was a lovely evening and we enjoyed the great view.

 Our Fish Bowl.

 Our dear friend,  Elaine.

The view.

AWOL

I realize I haven't posted to my blog and I know people start to wonder why if I don't post regularly.  So,  for an update.  When we were returning from Palm Springs,  we were in a traffic tie up at the Massey Tunnel (about 20 minutes drive to our apartment in Vancouver) and I checked my email on my phone and noticed a voice mail.  It was an urgent message from Andreas,  Ian's (Jim' brother) apartment manager to say Ian had taken ill and he had called 911.

We learned that Ian had a burst appendix and received surgery Wed night.   On Friday morning we received a call from the surgeon that Ian wasn't doing well.  We came in on the ferry Friday afternoon and saw Ian and the various doctors and nurses.   Saturday he was doing much better and today even better so things are looking very positive.

It's been a stressful time but we just had a wonderful lunch at Fern and John's and Fern created her usual magic with food….wow…thanks so much!  It was very relaxing to talk with old friends and look at their wonderful view over the Gorge and the weather cooperated by being very sunny and warm.  

I had a good visit with Elaine yesterday and we are all going to the Blue Crab for dinner tonight.

We are currently staying at the Hotel Grand Pacific (our favourite hotel in Victoria and a wonderful place to stay in troubled times!) until Monday.  We both have doctors and physio appointments to deal with our own health issues of my fractured patella and Jim's torn meniscus beginning Tuesday.

Ah well….it's just life.

If I was a billionaire….

Arrived safely home and while looking at our wonderful, wonderful ocean view we  both thought that if we were billionaires we couldn't do any better (for us anyway!) than have our two fabulous places….the ocean and the desert.

And to arrive back to our apartment in Vancouver and have it absolutely sparkling and wine and beer in the fridge and goodies and easy dinner makings all ready and fixings for tomorrow's breakfast.   And a sweet thank you card from Richard and our favourite Easter eggs!  We were pretty bagged from our trip so great to not have to do some shopping.  Thank you so much,  Richard,  you are a wonderful son!

Day 3 over….

Well,  going through the mountains is probably the hardest day but wasn't too bad.  We began rather terribly with torrential rain (they really need it so that's ok!) and visibility bad from trucks splashing up and then just before Weed we got snow!  Actually,  the snow was ok because it was quite light….better than the rain.  Then after Weed all the way to Salem it brightened and great conditions.

Better weather than we heard on the news last night….tornedos and thunder storms but they were for the area of Redding.

We figured we'd probably be doing the fast food thing for lunch but ended up in this restaurant called "Heaven On Earth"  off the road and got wonderful home-made soup and salad.  Perfect and different.

Tomorrow shouldn't be too bad of a day and tomorrow night we'll be in our own bed!   We should miss  the Portland and Seattle rush hours and the border should be ok with Nexus.

All things considered it hasn't been too bad since we're both gimped up with knees.

Kind of like a winter wonderland…so we did see snow after all!

 Yeah…this place had amazing deserts and pastries.  We made do with the free samples.

 Jim's goulash

 My "chicken pot pie soup"….excellent

Day 2 on the road

Most of today's drive was in good weather and just normal traffic.  No tie ups even around Sacremento.  We were really looking forward to getting to Williams to have lunch at an old haunt of ours,  Granzella's Restaurant and Deli.  It started to rain cats and dogs just as we arrived so it was great to sit by the fire.  Wonderful lunch and picked up some wine and deli stuff to go along with the cheese we brought from PS to have for dinner tonight in our room.  We won't feel like dining out tonight.  Quite rainstorm from Williams to Redding.  They really need it in this area but a bit of a shock to the system.

We are actually in Red Bluff.  The Holiday Inn Express we have stayed in around Redding doesn't seem to around anymore.  This is a particularly nice one but we do hear the train….ah well,  we'll pretend we're in Europe.  Often hard to avoid the sound of trains on the road there.

A few scenes from Granzella's

Lots of goodies of all kinds.

 Our table was right by the fire.

 And we looked at this cool poster from Siena…one of our favourite places in the world.

  200 bottled beers from all over the world available.

 Now in Spain,  these hams would be hung from the rafters without any covering.

 These pickles looked great but I don't want to deal with glass and we're pretty packed full.

 One of the Fat Ladies loved capers….she would have bought this for sure!

Back to reality….sigh….

First day down….

We managed to get away by 11:15 yesterday.  Tough to get everything done with me pretty much incapacitated and Jim' s knee not great either.   We've arranged for Benjamin,  the fellow who looks after our place when we're away,  to do some things and Erna and Marvin will look after things until they leave.  We're really going to miss them!  The one problem with the two communities is that we miss the people we leave behind.

We left on the Sunday to get less traffic but it was a nightmare yesterday and we arrived about one and a half hours later than normal.    We had a wonderfully relaxing dinner….a bit of surf and turf.  Jim had the ribeye and I had the halibut which was the best halibut I've ever had!  And we shared a bit of each others.

Heading to Redding today.

Last night in Palm Springs!

Given our health issues we decided we might as well head home and we  did want to leave on a Sunday so we are leaving tomorrow,  a week early.  It's been pretty easy to pack up since we don't have to leave things for anybody else.   Quite a change from the work involved in leaving our place to renters or exchangers.

We have a short drive tomorrow….4 1/2 hours and then staying at The Harris Ranch…an old favourite of ours.  We have booked a suite overlooking the pool…viewing the pool will be the only thing I'll be doing!  And then reservations for dinner in their great steak house.

First,  "Marilyn" left Palm Springs,  now us….

And a 5.1 earthquake to end the day!

Just after 9pm last night we felt a small shaking…didn't affect us much but was felt quite a bit and there was damage and power outages in the area of the epicentre….La Habra.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/29/quake-calif-la-orange/7045563/

Well,  part of living in our two paradises.

Jim took some photos of our new bikes.  I know we're really going to enjoy them next year.  You can go a lot of places around here without even getting off the bike paths and large sidewalks that people use for biking and walking.

A bit of bad luck…and good luck.

We had a wonderful time with Roger and Kerry and Katie and the kids yesterday but I unfortunately took a fall.  Well,  long story short,  I went to Emergency today and after an indeterminate x-ray they gave me a CAT scan that showed a hairline fracture.  So,  am in a knee immobilizer. It could have been much worse!

 Good thing Jim's knee is quite a bit better and we only plan to drive a maximum of 6 hours on the way home.  And everything is completely level both here and at home in Vancouver.

It's been a wonderful time down here in our desert home and we feel very blessed.  This too shall pass.

And now for the good luck.  Jim ran into a couple from North Vancouver a week or so ago buying bikes at Walmart.  They were down here for only two week and it was cheaper for them to buy bikes than rent them.  They sold them to us for less than half price!  So, now we have two cool bikes and we will enjoy them next year for sure.  They are also a really neat couple and they have already invited us to their place when we return.

And the other good news is Jim was successful in a contract application to B.C. Campus to create an "open textbook" i.e. an online textbook for a second year English course that will be free to all B.C. students.   He is very excited about the project!

Bar-b-q at the Ocotillo Lodge….very cool!

"The Famous Ocotillo Lodge was designed by Palm Springs Architect William Krisel and was built in 1957. The resort was the premier destination and “hot spot” to many celebrities from Presidents to Hollywood Actors to musicians to sports legends."

We've always been very curious about the Ocotillo Lodge and you can't really visit it unless you know someone so it was great that Linda and Brian,  who live in the same apartment building as us in Vancouver,  invited us for a Bar-b-Q.  It has a very cool mid-century modern feel and lots of stories.

The villa that they rent was apparently the one Marilyn Monro used to frequent and there is a remains of a door frame in the closet (apparently no other unit has this) where there was a secret door that Jack Kennedy used to use to visit her.  Well,  a good story even if it isn't true!

Brian bar-b-wed beef, chicken, potatoes and Linda served her secret old family recipe for fudge.  Wow…fantastic fudge and we even got some to take home.  We are very spoiled these days.  A great view of the mountains from their patio where we dined.

 Thea famous doorframe in the closet.

 Marilyn photos and paintings everywhere.

 View from the living room…love these upper windows.

 Marilyn clock.

Ma

 Linda, Brian, and me.

 Living room art…a little bit of the south of France!

 This was a well known restaurant and bar overlooking the pool.  The piano played by the likes of Frank Sinatra,  Sammy Davies Jr.  Now a common room for the guests.

 The swimming pool is in the shape of a champagne cork.

 Gene Autry owned the place at one time and loved Dalmations so this was his.

 Lots of great cacti.

Pool looks great at night.