Follow the Sun

A few weeks ago we left the NW by way of Eastern WA and Oregon, Idaho, Utah, NV and finally AZ to California.  The diversion from the usual I-5 run was to see an RV in Southern Utah.  Amazingly, there was little snow on the route, with clear and pretty weather.  We had enjoyed some nice weather in Vashon before leaving.

View from Vashon Island Deck in January

The RV in Hurricane, UT (the town was aptly named) was a bust, himself declaring that he would have added years to his life just driving it to LA and waiting for a breakdown.  The trip was fun however and topped off by a visit to the Valley of Fire state  park about one hour out of Las Vegas.

The scenery there is exquisite.

Valley of Fire State Park

Valley of Fire State Park, NV

Hoover Dam fro the Arizona side

It was a special treat to see petroglyphs at the state park close up.

We traveled on to Boulder Dam and Boulder city, where we learned a bit of the history of the dam and the city that supported it during its construction.  It is still an impressive undertaking and it was interesting to learn what a score it was to be selected for a a construction job during the depression.  We weren't able to take a tour as Nevada and Arizona laws prohibit leaving dogs in the car, even when the temperatures are in the 60's, there is a sun roof open and the parking structure is covered.  Another example of the idiot few prompting laws that are unnecessary for most with basic common sense.

From there we made the run on to Seal Beach.  We saw Henderson, with many vacant shopping centers and stores as evidence of the economic impact.  It was nice to arrive back in Seal Beach.  While it was chilly the first week I did not complain given the snow storm that hit Vashon at the same time.

While we are busy with the many catch up chores here at the house, we are trying to explore the LA area as well.  Our first outing was to the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda.  It and the Reagan library are so close but we had seen neither.  The Nixon library was lovely and included Nixon's birthplace.  The house was a kit built quickly by Nixon's father as Richard's arrival was imminent The home was surrounded by a citrus farm at the time, which never proved economically viable.  The family later moved to Whittier.  Whittier had the advantage of a larger Quaker community.  There was too much to cover in one visit as I have a 2-3 hour information absorption limit.   The Vietnam war, foreign policy as well as Nixon's early career were particularly interesting.

Nixon's Birthplace

A big treat when we come south is seeing friends, most who still live in the area.  Jane is close by so we enjoyed an outing and a couple of lunches with other friends.  Since Jane is a recent iPad owner and now in the Galapagos she needed to figure out how to blog using the device.  The narrative is easy but importing pictures a bit more complicated.  We worked on it together and discovered that her device that imports pictures from the camera or memory card wouldn't work.  We were going shopping near the Apple Store.  After explaining the urgency and discovering that there was a flaw in the iPad they just handed her a brand new one.  The wonderful service is one reason I am so high on Apple.  There are knowledgeable people easily accessible to help us old folks with our tech problems.

I told Jane that I look at these tech challenges as therapy for the aging brain, at least I think that on a good day.

Boogs is doing pretty well here.  The nice weather permits frequent short, slow walks.  His evening agitation is being handled with food bribes and patience.  The local vet prescribed a psychiatric medicine a couple of weeks ago which caused a seizure within two days.  No more such medicine.
A friend suggested beer.  While he liked it he was still agitated, just weaving.  Being blind is not a good

condition when inebriated.

We are also taking advantage of the better RV market here in SoCal to look and learn about the various options.  Today will be a trip to the San Diego area to look at a couple of RV's.  It should be nice as the forecast is 72 degrees, yesterday was in the 80's when your traveled inland from the beach.  It is scheduled to drop about 10 degrees on Saturday, still pleasant however.

View of Catalina (distant) from Seal Beach