Life is Good!: Happy April - Is it Catchup or Ketsup or Catsup or Ketchup???

California vacation done; back home; Easter family dinner hosted at our house; loads of laundry, 2 days of sunshiny walks in Minnesota - life is good.

After spending 8 nights in Newport Beach CA in an apartment on the boardwalk with views of the surf and sand we are home. As usual in travel only had a couple glitches! I arranged the usual airport transfer from our house allowing extra time as always and after 45 minutes of waiting, Ross on the phone checking with no results, we ended up taking our own car! First stop park n ride - no room as of course it is spring break and I have in the past made reservations - so we ended up parking at the airport for $26 a day. What do you do when that is the only option - do it!

Next glitch - we had a 6:45am flight home from Santa Ana CA so I had my phone alarm set for 4am; 10pm as I was dozing off airline message saying our flight was delayed until 10:30am!!

So the good stuff - this was our view from the apartment and front patio of the little 2 bedroom on the beach. It was amazing and not crowded with lots of restaurants within walking distance.

Jenny and I sitting on the little patio having a little chat with our morning coffee and yet I am in my pajamas!.

Beautiful sunny day every day and granddaughter 13 year old Rooke and I did at least 3 miles a day all around Balboa Pensinsula where we stayed.

We called this her boyfriend and his name is Henry but she did split with him after a few days - might be better to have someone who could walk and talk right?😄

And the Pacific Ocean and lots of soft sand beach right out front:

I like to chat and as we passed this couple on the Newport Pier I waved to them and they started chatting and I could tell they enjoyed that a lot. They live nearby and have been married 63 years and he pushed her around the area in her wheelchair - how sweet is that? He worked in Winnipeg Canada for a while and I told him I went there on my high school class trip as our town was 75 miles from the border. He talked about Bud Grant coaching the Winnipeg Blues football team before the Vikings.

This happened to be our second day there and my 74th birthday and what a place to enjoy it especially after the past year of cancer, chemo and COVID. Blessings abound and I am grateful each day!

When I saw all the news photos of the packed spring break Florida beaches this was hard to believe and for sure a bonus for us.

View from the pier - I moved to LA in 1969 with a couple girlfriends and it was so smoggy we barely knew there were hills or mountains anywhere near us. It's been much cleaner for many years now.

Happy birthday dinner at sunset and outside - the restaurants were all packed and of course we did not have reservations on our first night so we got to try a place called Charlie's Chili.

Next up - Rooke and I walked 3 miles and took the Balboa Pier Auto ferry (plus 12 people or so) the 4-5 minutes to Balboa Island. Looking for the daily ice cream some guy told us Dad's was the best so we walked another mile on the island and he was right!

Awesome memorial state on a boardwalk bench and the sign said they were married 54 years and sat on that bench a lot.

Another great ice cream place was called Cowafornia and it was so good of course we had to walk a couple miles to go there again.

Beach time for Jenny and Rooke and I did put my feet in and it was a "bit chilly" as we say in Minnesota and found out the water was 57 degrees but clear and blue with beautiful waves.

Lifeguard station on the pier - and no these are not the lifeguards but they certainly are all over the place as are "ambassadors" who walk around and police presence but we saw no problems.

Every night we tried to get to the pier 3 minutes away to catch the sunset. As always if you are 5 minutes late you miss it!

This is the Cowafornia ice cream place and we got there 5 minutes early as we didn't even know the hours but now I know it opens at noon!

Every time we go out there we do a couple hour whale watch and we have done this same one several times and this is the socially distanced limited space line and I did make reservations ahead and got a fantastic deal with a coupon of course.

That is our usual whale watching boat and it was so clean and sanitized and of course Ross, Jenny and I all have been COVID vaccinated.

And lucky us - usually we see a ton of dolphins and this time we caught the gray whales and they put on quite a show including spouting water.

Sea lions taking a nap and the "house" was full and one little guy was trying to get on and finally they squeezed together and made a space.

Nephew Andrew and his fancy sports car which we got to ride it and he can rev it up - lots of fun for sure.

And we got to have dinner out at what else but a Mexican restaurant which we did 6 of 7 nights.

This was a "local globe" and I did love the note on it and good advice!!! As usual click to enlarge photos.

Ice cream shop right next door to our lodging - who could ask for more and they got to know us well and have an excellent business going but noone bothered us as it's just fun people watching.

So every year when we go to California I get to see my old roommate, great friend Jan and her husband and we talk a LOT. It always feels like just yesterday when we start talking. I met her in Torrance CA in 1969 and eventually was my roommate before I returned to MN. I knew her mom well and she would have us over for home cooked dinner. She was born and raised in CA. We also worked in the same main office at the Torrance Unified School District; me as assistant secretary to the superintendent and she worked at the keypunch machine!!

And her husband Frank and Ross enjoying the next door ice cream and they know each other so well, get along great and have the same ideas about "stuff"!!

Dinner out and we did do one night Italian for a break from the excellent Mexican menus - totally unlike what we have in MN!

And 2nd trip via the auto/people ferry to Balboa Island and even my family and friends who live in CA did not know this Statue of Liberty was there. I say - if you travel you explore everything!

OK so this house on Balboa Island is for sale and I checked. It is 1875 square feet (to compare ours is out 3500 and our first house was 2400) and the price is $2.7 million - yes MILLION!

Real flower on our walk - love these!

I'm known as Thrifty Grammy and of course this ice cream is a good deal for the price!

The young guy working there also had to deal with one side as a bike rental place and he was helping several younger people to choose the expensive rental bikes so he asked us to wait and he would be with us soon. He returned, apologized, said he was always worried that someone would walk off with a bike and gave us a HUGE what he called kid's cup size for $4 each and said we deserved it. $8 and I had a $10 bill and told him to keep the change - his reply: "Are you sure"? - I hope so much he does well in life.

Brother Brian has lived in CA since 1988 and served 20 years in the Navy and had us for dinner in his backyard. So darn much fun and I love my crazy, tall tale, laughing family!

Nephew Andrew and his bestie Kaori and she is actually coming to Minnesota in August for Jolly Fisherman so she has met quite a few of the family except for the MN mosquitoes.

Right next to us - could have gone fishing and also bought fresh fish except I did not want to cook on vacation!

Last day on the beach and Jenny is discussing with Rooke the water temperature before she jumps in.

I had constant "beach hair" and I had no control over it - ever!

Last night dinner 2nd time at the same place with the same waitress and she remembered what wine and food we liked from a few nights before. Hard to believe in California or anywhere for that matter.

So - a couple days before returning after Chris and Amy's Hawaii vacation with her mom got cancelled due to their COVID they email they are available for Easter. Fine with me! And we found this bottle of red wine flavor "Penitentiary Red" a gift from a friend and it actually had tiny handcuffs on the neck of it.

Back home and our forsythia always blooms in April and it is beautiful and bright yellow and flowers don't last long.

Park walk - no sand and just some snow left on the cross country trails. I am determined to continue my daily 3 mile walk as the more I read the more I know it is good for my physical and mental health - especially after the ovarian cancer!

So this is the gas station the night we got home and that morning we filled our rental car tank in CA and it was $4.79 a gallon so $2 cheaper in MN. Not new but crazy with the high taxes in CA.

Diamond dot art - hooked on it and I brought my Paris street scene with me - easy to pack and then Rooke wanted one as did Jenny so we head to the nearest craft store and they get theirs. Of course they were close to half done by the time we went home!

OK Easter Sunday - kids with us for 5 hours and after dinner the game time with "you cheated" and "we'll win for sure" heard over and over and of course Ross won again!!!