A CHRISTMAS COLLAGE

We are in the middle of Charley's two week stay in California over Christmas & New Years. I'll start off with our latest four generation photo taken yesterday at my dad's house in Roseville.

Four generations of the Bray/Silver family. We got pretty lucky we were all smiling without looking goofy - no easy feat in my family.

Here are the same four generations a little over four years ago when Charley was just a few weeks old. Same chair & lamp but a different house!

Darrin & I decorated her Hayward room with Disney Fairies & Princesses. She loves watching the Disney Fairy movies & I do, too!

Here is her bed with the Fairy blanket & sheets. There are lots more Princess & Fairy stick ons all around her room.

Daddy & Charley embarked on a four night Christmas road trip to Sonora (to visit Grandpa Allen & Marilyn), Sacramento (to visit Gaga & Lou) & Roseville (to visit Pop).

Daddy's little two-seater airplane is up in Columbia near Sonora & Charley flew with Daddy for the first time! She loved it! Look at the expression on her face - it says it all. She was so excited that Daddy let her fly it up in the air! Come to think of it, Daddy looks pretty excited himself to share his passion with his daughter. Another flyer in the family!

It was thumbs up & lots of smiles back on the ground.

Daddy & Charley in their jammies & Santa hats on Christmas morning at Grandpa Allen & Marilyn's.

Baking muffins with Gaga.

A "Baker's dozen" is 13 but we invented the "Charley dozen" which is 11 because she ate so much batter we couldn't fill all 12 cups.

Fresh from the bathtub with wet hair watching "The Princess & the Frog" & eating a lollipop.

In order to accommodate everyone, we had our family's Christmas celebration on December 27th at Pop's house in Roseville with my sister & her husband (Zizi & Steve). 

Zizi & Steve gave Charley a pop-up Frozen house which she made Daddy crawl around in with her. Fortunately it folds up quickly to about 18" around & 3" thick.

Opening her pile of presents with Zizi & Gaga.

One of her gifts from Gaga & Lou was a Fawn (an Animal Fairy) doll which she loved.

But at the end of the day something as simple as a candy cane made her extremely happy. That's Lou in the background watching football with his Forty-Niner Santa hat.

MY SWEET CHARLEY

Earlier this evening I returned home from a four day visit with my granddaughter in New Mexico. Due to circumstances beyond our control Charley & I are no longer able to see each other on a weekly basis.

This was my first visit with her since she & her mother moved on October 20th. It was a huge relief to see her smiling face & be treated to hugs & kisses galore. We played & read & watched movies just like always & I cherished every minute of my time with her.

One of my favorite activities is snuggling up with Charley while we watch movies, Octonauts or Curious George.

Charley, Daddy (my son, Darrin) & I spent a few hours at her favorite "Blue Playground", explored the aquarium, went out to lunch a couple times & generally spent every minute together.

Charley takes after my sister, who she calls Zizi, when it comes to being photographed - she doesn't like it! Selfies with Daddy are about the only time she doesn't protest having her picture taken. I didn't get any good ones at the aquarium or the bugarium.

We won't be the least bit surprised if Charley is competing in American Ninja Warrior in fifteen years. As Darrin says, "Pretty much anything than can be climbed, will be." 

My camera has a 35x zoom so I can sit across the playground, zoom in & get close up shots - at least when I'm not being ordered to play a part in one of her movies or told to "Run, Gaga!"

As Charley & Daddy drove me to the airport this afternoon, my little sweetie must have said "I'm going to miss you, Gaga" about twenty times. I held up pretty well telling her I would miss her, too, but we'll see each other next month & talked about all the fun things we will do.

As I received several enthusiastic hugs & kisses from her car seat while saying good-bye, Gaga started to lose it. I managed to keep my voice fairly even as we said our traditional farewell. Me: See ya later alligator. Charley: After while crocodile. That was followed by more "I love yous", smiles & waves.

I turned to hug Darrin good-bye & was pretty much weeping. Thank goodness I had on my sunglasses. After one more big smile, several waves & a few blown kisses, I turned to walk into the terminal. Once inside I had to sit down, grab a few tissues & compose myself before checking in for my flights.

It hit me again about ten times on the flight home. This little girl has wonderfully & amazingly changed my life forever. Sometimes my travels & my life can be really emotional.

GETTING MY OCEAN FIX

For as long as I can remember when life is weighing heavily on my mind, heading to our Northern California coast seems to lighten my load. Today my son, Darrin, & I took a ride to Half Moon Bay looking for some much needed peace of mind.

Every year, sometime between November & March, a big wave surfing contest is held about a mile out from this site. It is called Mavericks & is quite famous in the Bay Area. Waves can reach 50 feet or higher when conditions are right & surfers have died attempting to ride these enormous waves. Competitors have 48 hours to get to there once conditions are right. In all the years we've been coming here, neither Darrin or I have explored Mavericks, so today we did.

An old pier & building in Pillar Point Harbor which is just north of Half Moon Bay about 20 miles south of San Francisco.

We only spent a few hours at the ocean but we saw a variety of things in the space of about a mile long hike along Mavericks Beach & the cliffs above it.

This seagull was exploring Mavericks Beach along with us.

After a long time just watching the surf from the bluffs, we turned around to see this "pirate ship" leaving Pillar Point Harbor. Actually my research found it was the "Lady Washington" which travels around the country giving tours.

Paddle boarding was popular with people in the fairly calm waters. This man took his best friend along for the ride!

A vulture soared overhead & I was able to snap this photo as he glided past with his wingtip feathers extended.

There must have been a sailing club or competition that these colorful boats were taking part in since they all left at the same time. They remained in the harbor circling pylons.

Several times we simply stopped & watched the waves crashing on the shore. I've always found it soothing to think about those waves washing ashore over & over & over for thousands of years. And they will continue breaking on the beach for eternity. It tends to make a person feel insignificant but in a good way - like there are things so much bigger than your problems.

I have always felt renewed & calmed by the ocean. But I have a healthy respect for it & don't necessarily want to be in it or on it, just observing it from shore. My friend, M'Lynn, had a term for it as she told me her father had "a spiritual connection to the coast". Yeah, I get it - me, too!

These three pictures were taken from various locations in the span of maybe 300 feet but just moving a short distance completely changes the perspective.

The weather was just gorgeous & the waters looked so calm. It is hard to believe that huge waves will be breaking a mile out to sea sometime in the next few months. We even saw whales spouting water off this point today.

It renewed my spirit, opened my heart & calmed my soul to share this time with my son when we are both so much in need of these things. Now that he has moved back to Hayward, he is only 45 minutes away from the ocean again.

 

Here is another view of Pillar Point Harbor from the bluffs overlooking Mavericks.

Right after he took this photo, Darrin announced that you can't be at the coast & not have a beer & some fish & chips! So, we headed down to Half Moon Bay Brewery for a great lunch!

GULF COAST - Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana & a tiny little piece of Texas

Lou & I embarked on a ten day 2100 mile road trip through parts of six states just over two weeks ago. I try to get these posts done quickly upon my return but we came home to my son & granddaughter staying with us for a week. Of course, my adorable granddaughter takes priority over a trip report any day.

But better late than never, here we go. We landed in Little Rock, Arkansas, to find the state capitol closed on weekends (not according to their website & the tour book) so we swapped plans & heading to the Clinton Library instead.

The William J. Clinton Presidential Library sits on the shore of the Arkansas River. There are full size replicas of the Oval Office & the Cabinet Room.

The largest room in the interior of the Clinton Library houses thousands of artifacts & papers from the eight years of Bill Clinton's presidency.

One of the most profound experiences of our trip was the tour of Little Rock Central High School where nine black students sought to end segregation by attending school back in 1957. It was a horrible episode in our history that I intend to write about in detail on my "Everyday Musings of a 60-Something Grandma" blog soon.

Little Rock Central High School is a beautiful building that was the site of  some ugly events in September 1957. I was saddened & disgusted that adults could treat children with such hate simply because of the color of their skin. 

From Little Rock we headed to Jackson, Mississippi, with a few stops along the Blues Highway & a visit to the State Capitol followed by a drive along the gulf coast to Biloxi.

The Blues Highway extends through most of Mississippi chronicling the history of the blues in the United States. Most of what we saw has seen better days - towns were deserted & buildings were run down.

This is the side of the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson. The dome has been covered in scaffolding for over a year as they completely refurbish it. I hate it when these cities do that & ruin our photo ops!

The interior of the building was beautiful. This is the Senate Chamber. That's Lou & our tour guide in the upper left corner of the picture.

The Biloxi Lighthouse is right in the middle of the main highway along the coast.

I've heard lots of negative comments about Biloxi but their beaches & coast side road looked inviting & impressive. I would spend a few days there relaxing for sure.

This was an ambitious trip even for us. We lived out of a suitcase with every night in a different city until late in the trip. Our next stop was Tallahassee, Florida, which included a tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Spring House given by a woman who still owns it & lived there for many years.

The outside of the Spring House in Tallahassee. This is another of Lou's finds - our tour guide owns the home & is working on obtaining funds to have it restored & eventually opened for daily tours. It is a difficult job but she seems determined.

The woman's parents commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design the home. Their family lived in it from 1957 until 2011. It was quite interesting talking to someone who lived in the home as a child & an adult.

This is the Old Florida State Capitol with the dome. Behind it is the current State Capitol which is pretty much just a high rise building. We were standing just behind the high rise building not knowing it was the new capitol & asked a man how to get to the Capitol. He replied, "Just walk up the stairs over there." Duh!

I know that Spanish Moss is basically a parasite but we loved it & thought it made for some interesting photos.

The gulf coast has some beautiful lighthouses. Several were moved or rebuilt after being destroyed by hurricanes over the years.

Crooked River Lighthouse on the Florida Gulf Coast.

Cape St. George Lighthouse on St. George Island. We were able to climb  this lighthouse. The only one open when we were there.

We ate our picnic lunch with this view of Cape San Blas Lighthouse.

We continued through Panama City Beach ending up in Pensacola on Florida's western end of the panhandle.

Panama City Beach with its powdery, white sand beaches.

This Snowy Egret walking along the beach made for a gorgeous photo op.

We arrived at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola half an hour before closing. We did a quick run through snapping photos to look at later. These are the Blue Angels suspended from the ceiling

Pensacola Lighthouse - unfortunately we arrived here just at closing, also, but it still made a great picture.

As we made our way across Louisiana, we took a detour to New Orleans. Lou visited the National World War II Museum & I explored the French Quarter. We stayed two nights in Baton Rouge since we arrived late & had lots to see in the city.

Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

One of the ornate balconies that people decorate on Bourbon Street. 

The Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Huey Long is buried on the grounds & there is still a visible bullet hole from his assassination in 1935.

The view from the observation deck of the Baton Rouge capitol.

The Old Louisiana State Capitol. This city has one of the biggest contrasts between the old castle style capitol & the current high rise capitol.

The LSU Rural Life Museum houses a collection of over 35 old structures from all over the state which are preserved here at the museum.

A long horn steer enjoying his morning snack.

The following day we hit the road again with our first stop being Cane River Creole Historical Site which turned out to be a great destination. The Prudhomme family who owned the plantation was holding an open house with descendants telling the stories of their ancestors. A sharecropper held me spellbound with his tales of living in the sparse cabin until 1962.

The Oakland Plantation main house.

This former slave cabin was converted to a sharecropper home. I estimated the man telling his story of living here to be about my age. That would have made him about 12 in 1962 when his family left. Can you imagine living with no electricity or running water until you were 12? I couldn't.

Lou grew up in Bossier City, Louisiana, where we found his old elementary school, his house & the air force base where he spent many hours in the base pool. Just across the river, we headed into town to see the Shreveport Memorial Auditorium where Elvis Presley made his debut performance earning a grand total of $18!

The art deco Shreveport Memorial Auditorium.

A statue commemorating Elvis's debut performance at the auditorium.

Our final full day began with a stop in Hope, Arkansas, the birthplace of President Clinton. From there we did some diamond hunting at Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, Arkansas, followed by a visit to Hot Springs National Park.

The home where Bill's mother, Virginia, lived with her parents when Bill was born. His biological father died a few months before his birth.

Little Billy Blythe's room for the first four years of his life. Later he took his stepfather's last name of Clinton as a teenager.

Years ago Lou & I saw a show on the Travel Channel about Crater of Diamonds State Park. We decided that someday we needed to do a little diamond hunting - now we have - with no luck. It was fun but pretty hard on my back. Geez, I look pale in this pic.

About 700 diamonds a year are found in the fields here but all we found were a couple of quartz crystals & lots of jasper. 

One of the eight 1930s era bath houses preserved in Hot Springs National Park.

A spring that bubbled up from the ground. It was around 130 degrees & quite hot to the touch.

We had a few hours before catching our flight home so we headed to the Arkansas State Capitol that was closed on our first day.

The Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock.

One of their main attractions is an old vault that is a true work of art.

The vault houses over $524,000 in cash. One of the perks of the tour is that they let you hold it - I have $250,00 in my hands & Lou has $200,000. We wondered if there was anyway we could make a run for it!