California Trip (2 of 2)

Here's the "rest of the story" on our California trip.

On Tuesday, August 7, we had a big day at Disneyland. We got over there a bit late due to mixup on the opening time for the park, but (as discussed below) we made up time once we arrived. The weather was absolutely gorgeous if not a bit hot when standing around in the sun.

We worked our way through the parking lot and ticketing queues. Had decided that Nana would use a wheelchair (thanks to her recent but iffy knee surgery). The advance party went immediately to Space Mountain. Patricia, Nana and I followed later via the handicapped entrance and ended up getting on at about the same time. I must admit that I was wondering whether this was a good idea - I personally don't get along well with the faster rides - but Nana did great (per photo) and we were on to the next ride. Folks wanted to try the Matterhorn bobsleds but the line didn't look promising. So we went over to the Haunted Mansion - which hasn't aged all that well. Pirates of the Carribean is always fun, that is probably my favorite. The wheelchair saved us lots of time - it was amazing how many rides we were able to get on in such a short period of time. The park was busy but not overly so.

Next was "Splash Mountain" - defeated a very long line, then Nana, Patricia and Dan "changed their mind" about riding at the last minute and the remaining six of us went (per photo). And they didn't revoke anybody's pass over this scam.

The three non-Splash Mountain riders and I next went to lunch; after a short wait, had a surprisingly good meal at the Orleans Cafe. The others went off to some ride or the other and weren't so lucky when it came to food: a long wait at our restaurant, so they ended up getting some pizza.

More riding: Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones (Dan did not like my driving). Also rode the monorail. Waited in line for the Nemo Submarine for awhile before figuring out it was going nowhere; Dan was quite excited for this, though Arnie didn't think it was realistic.

We also rode the train around the perimeter of the park - this actually was quite fun. Nice to be off our feet, weather great, and the conductor looked like Patrick's friend (Brie).

Finished off with the Matterhorn bobsleds and then Paul Jr., Dan, Nicole and I went on this rocket ride. It was fun but a little weird when one of the riders just ahead of us was so obese that his (her?) fat hung over the side of the "rocket." Yuk.

So this was a fun day. I don't really understand why, but I always enjoy the day at Disneyland. It's a great group activity.

We then tried to find a prime rib restaurant that Arnie had spotted; located it, went inside, and walked out asap. The place was pretty well dead. Walked across the parking lot to El Torito. I didn't have the greatest memories of that chain, but I certainly liked the meal we had that evening. Folks were pretty tired after a huge day. Fun.

On Wednesday, August 8, we went for our daily breakfast downstairs. There was a series of discussions about extending our stay (scheduled to leave that day) and we decided to wait to drive back to Phoenix until the evening. So we packed, set aside beach stuff, checked out, and drove down to Laguna Beach. Parking was a bit of an adventure, but then we found one bench that had shade; the rest of us sat immediately behind under this big shade tree. Some were in the water quite a bit. Weather and views were gorgeous from this vantage point. Some hobo was interested in scamming for money. Other hobos were hanging around under the other side of the tree. There was a group of sand volleyball players that was actually quite talented, so we watched them a bit.

Some folks did a bit of shopping, then we had a meal at a seaside place - again great views all around, it was nice out on the patio. And Patrick and I got carded. One last tour through the shops; then said our goodbyes. It actually was a very good idea to meet up over there; always fun when we go to Chicago, but this was a good change of pace. Hit the road around 6:25p.

Made it to Phoenix about 1:05a. Some traffic in the LA area but all in all everything was very smooth. The car was very quiet. Picked up gasoline, coffee and a bite at the usual border town.

California Trip (1 of 2)

Patricia, Patrick, Paul Jr. and I drove to California on Saturday August 4. Our idea was to meet up with "Nana," Arnie, Joann, Nicole and Danny, who were flying in that day from Illinois. Made a mistake along the way and had lunch at Coco's. Smooth trip except I switched over to navigator position to get us through an iffy area in the Google maps directions, and then promptly got us lost. Arrived at about 5p at the Ayres Hotel in Costa Mesa, California.

The hotel served our purpose fine. You can see information about it right here. The only downsides were that it was pretty far from the beaches, and also a bit isolated along freeways and other busy roads. Chatted a bit, went to the Elephant Bar for mediocre food and fine chatting. Except Nicole and Dan were falling asleep on the spot (time change, travel day, etc.) Patrick and Paul Jr. used the sleeper sofa in the "living room" of our suite. It was too small and collapsed toward the center, otherwise was awesome.

Sunday, August 5

Full breakfast at the hotel - this actually was a good daily routine. The idea developed rather spontaneously that we would take the boat to Catalina Island. The spontaneity was of course spontaneous, but also resulted in a couple hours or so of driving. We started by driving south down the Pacific Coast Highway to Dana Point. The drive was beautiful and Dana Point was beautiful - but spots on the boat to Catalina Island were filled up through the next week or so. But did we give up? No. We decided to drive up to Long Beach to catch the last boat there. This gave us a good, long look at the Pacific Coast Highway, northbound. Once we got to Long Beach, we had the chance to drive around the city quite awhile before we figured out where the boat landing was. Including a couple neighborhoods that were kind of scary looking. Including asking directions from some service station slacker who was helpful. Then raced through a quick pizza meal and hit the road, I mean the water, for Catalina Island.

The boat ride over was very enjoyable; lasted about an hour. We sat up top; perfect weather, good views. There is a little town over there named Avalon, so we just wandered around there a bit. Pretty typical seaside shops and restaurants, but a bit different flavor because it's an island with limited population, fewer cars, etc. Having taken the last boat over, unfortunately we missed the chance to tour the island. We did settle into a restaurant named "Coyote Joe's" which was very fun. The boat ride back involved freezing either inside or outside the boat, and it was dark so we missed the views. An easy drive back down the PCH to the hotel and got to bed around 1a.

Monday (August 6) was a beach day - decided to drive down in the Newport Beach area and found the same beach area where we had visited a few times with the choir over the years on their Southern California trips. This is a really good area because the beach is nice, not terribly crowded, and there are shops and restaurants within easy walking distance. We were on the beach for a few hours, then had a very nice lunch at a restaurant overlooking the bay and ferry to Balboa Island, etc. The clam chowder there was the best thing we ate on the entire trip. Walked the shops awhile and then worked our way back to the hotel. Folks were pretty tired, so we showered, relaxed; everybody ended up at our room where we talked some more, played some cards, looked at photo albums, etc. It was an enjoyable evening. The four of us went out for a late dinner; I got on the wrong road (again) but we ended up at a Houston's and it was just fine.

More to come . . .

Anniversary

This website is now two years old.

Will update on recent trip to California etc. as soon as I can get to it.

EPG #21

Quiet around here for the most part since getting back to AZ from our Iowa trip. And now we'll be heading to California for a few days.

But we did have a fine gathering in honor of Patrick's 21st birthday.

Our friendly photographer captured most of the attendees, as you can see here. It might have been even more fun to have photos from the after-party led by Chris in Scottsdale.

Patricia made a fine dinner and cards; we celebrated on July 29 because she was working on July 30. But that probably was for the best also given that some appetites were iffy on that day.

Fine party for fine son.

Iowa trip (2 of 2)

Now we're up to Saturday of our IA trip (July 7).

Had our usual wonderful breakfast. Got on the phone with Kerry, who was celebrating b'day #24 (as you can see from this post). Later in the morning, key representatives of the Cullen family arrived from Storm Lake (Dolores, Clare, Tom, Kieran). Pork patties for lunch, actually really good.

Then Patricia, Paul Jr. and I drove up to Algona for the Garrigan alumni baseball game, which started at 1p. Eventually, pretty much everyone else showed up (except Grandma). Which was very nice, considering there was no shade the day was really quite hot. So I had a very good fan base, and I considered putting on a show. But it didn't entirely turn out that way.

There was a basic problem with the alumni game: pretty much no alums showed up. There weren't enough of us old guys, so we had to play with the young alums. That wasn't good. I played left field, after a fashion. I observe that the ball moves far, far more quickly than I remembered from my last baseball outing some 33 years ago.

I had a couple adventures during the game but mostly got away with some blunders. For example, I was on third base yakking with the third baseman and paying no attention to the number of outs. So I failed to tag on a flyball, which is considered a pretty bad mistake. But the next batter drove me in, so it turned out ok. The last play of the game was unnecessarily exciting. A single to left bounced slightly up and to my right; of course I'm too slow to react in time. So I chased it down about 10-15 feet and made an acceptable relay to the shortstop (Bob Haag, a classmate of MHG) -- who in turn made an amazing relay to cut down the winning run at home and end the game in a 12-12 tie. Bad, but could have been worse.

I did drill one hit into left center which ended up as a double. That was nice. One other scratchy hit in a total of four trips. So the alumni turnout was disappointing, the crowd support was awesome (except when Patricia called me and the CF "dumb and dumber" in honor of our side-by-side outfield misadventures), my play was about what I would have expected, and it was a good experience.

Picked up groceries and back to the house. Eventually we got to hear the Cullens perform some tunes. Even a bit of audience sing along (per this short video).

Then we switched to other fun things, such as card playing. We worked on teaching euchre to Clare; her brothers already are card sharks. We had a nice dinner together, followed by more cards and general fun. This was a nice visit.

On Sunday morning, we all went to 7:30 mass. It's always nice to be back in St. Joe Church, it really looks good these days. It was our good fortune to be in town for what the parish refers to as "coffee and rolls" -- but this is not accurate, for $2 you get a more than complete breakfast.
We enjoyed, plus had a chance to talk to various folks, including Clarence & Caroline. Turns out that Karl and Susie were visiting from Sibley and we enjoyed catching up with them also.

Back at the house, we watched a bit of Wimbledon; there was a last card game (you can guess who won looking at the photo); Grandma put together a fine bunch of cookies. Then we hit the road for the Twin Cities; smooth trip; met Therese, Cecilia and Steve at Therese's place. We all had dinner together at Axel's. That place does a number of nice things, but the lowly chicken sandwich is among its best. Made our way to the airport, returned our Crown Vic - then got into the air after about a 3-hour delay. I slept most of the way.

We all pretty much felt this was one of, if not the, most fun trips out to Iowa. of course it seems we say that after most of these trips. I will note that we definitely had fun covering lots of ground, seeing lots of folks, doing lots of interesting things. And we may not have had quite as much time as we would have liked just sitting around the house in St Joe, but we didn't feel particularly squeezed for time either - everything had a nice rhythm. And it's fun starting and ending with the Mpls/WI contingent. One heck of a nice way to vacation.

Home at midnight, and back at it since . . .

Iowa Trip (1 of 2)

After all the travel and 4th of July fun, we all slept in late on Thursday (July 5). Except Grandma and Grandpa, who went to 7:30a mass. After we finally stirred, we had v. good breakfast - featuring typically awesome cinnamon rolls and banana bread.

Turns out that Theresa McKibben (Sonny's sister) was selling some of her collected items (she being a beyond-avid collector). Grandma was inspired to organize a trip to Livermore because the items included a statute of the BVM that originally had been donated to St. Joseph parish in memory of Irvin Bormann. After some wrong turns in urban Livermore, our party of seven found the McKibben residence.

The amount of stuff that TM has collected is truly interesting. She has lots of stuff, and lots of categories of stuff. We looked over the stuff in the garage (her less-favorite stuff, which is being put up for sale), and then looked over the stuff in the house. Small tractors, ty animals, cookie jars galore, Roseville pottery, "evening in Paris" cologne (which smelled particularly alluring on Chris) - simply, absolutely amazing. It was fun looking it over and talking with M/M McKibben. Grandpa settled up on the statue and some "Gales" chocolate boxes, then back to the house for dinner (or lunch, if you will).

Grandpa and I next went on a road trip to see some interesting sights: (1) putting up a cattle building at Matt Bormann's place (Altman farm); and (2) some guy operating a bale-eater at Mark Bormann's farm. Drove around the area a bit; I hadn't seen the Geishecker farm in many years, pretty strange to see it basically flattened. A beautiful property.

While we were away, the rest played cards, Chinese checkers (Grandma's continuing specialty), etc. They claimed they had fun. The boys started learning 500.

Time for early supper (dinner, if you will). Drove over to Clarence & Caroline's place at 7p. This ended up being extremely fun, and featured a card-playing marathon. First we all chit-chatted for awhile. And Clarence served beverages, including the traditional 7&7s. I think the pleasures of that beverage somewhat escaped my sons, but they gave it a try.

In round one of the card playing, Patricia and Caroline beat up on Clarence and me in 500, while Grandpa and Paul Jr. pounded on Chris and Patrick in euchre. Pretty resounding poundings all around, so we switched games. Caroline and Patricia proceeded to pound on Chris and Patrick in 500. Clarence and I actually went ahead two games to one against the two Juniors in euchre, then just started getting beat up - pummeled 30-8 over the last three games.

But this was all too much fun. Caroline and Patricia seemed to have an amazing run of good play or affinity or whatever. Chris and Patrick had no luck whatever. Grandpa called Paul Jr. "Chris" a few times, so Paul Jr. called him "Romie." Etc. The time flew by; we had a delicious dessert about 12:30a, finished the last game, hit the road around 1a. The card playing must have gone on for about five hours. My sons were impressed that their grandpa could theorize pretty much nonstop throughout. A fun visit, as always.

On Friday (July 6) we got off to a very slow start. These 80-somethings are wearing us out. So we didn't accomplish much other than eating breakfast and dinner and chatting, looking at Grandpa's pictures, checking out Google Earth sites, etc. Grandma made a rhubarb pie.

Early afternoon we went off on another tour. Drove to Wesley - visited Marguerite Laubenthal and Gary at the farm there. Grandpa threw up an impressive dust screen as he dusted us driving along the gravel road. Gary had a bunch of stuff to show us - he had a neat-o utility vehicle; took a walk down to check out the 22-year-old gelding; tried to get Jodie to be our friend; new-ish pickup; etc. Then we went inside and talked, all very pleasant indeed. We hadn't gotten out there for a few years and it's nice to see the house and farm again. I had forgotten that the kitchen cupboards were a Howard Barton job pretty much identical in style to the house in which I grew up. Enjoyed cookies & lemonade, then hit the road to Mason City.

This turned out to be v. fun. Steve, Liz and entire family were there; also Liz's sister and family up from Kansas City, we enjoyed getting to know them. Sat on the patio quite awhile, it was a gorgeous day. Excellent supper, we liked the grilled stuff, all the sides, strawberry pie (clearly a lot of work). Some picnic bugs visited, which was a novelty for the desert types. Watched Twins game a bit. There was a HORSE game. Very pleasant just chatting and catching up. Drove back to St. Joe and arrived around 11:40p. Grandpa and Grandma had gone a bit earlier.

4th of July

We had a v. good 4th of July. Patricia, Chris, Patrick, Paul Jr. and I took a road trip - flew to Minneapolis on July 3; landed around 6p after a short delay. But the flight was easy. Patricia did some work on her Grand Canyon photos; I slept a bunch; Patrick had some trouble finding a new friend to yak with.

Picked up our car and headed up to New Brighton. The House family proved to be excellent hosts per usual. Last visit, we enjoyed their new deck; now we looked out from the deck over the new landscaping project. Fantastic weather, at least for our purposes - dry so no (or at least few) mosquitoes; warm; very fun to sit out there and eat and drink. Margaret took the boys out for some local fun later in the evening.

Next morning was a bit of a delightful repeat - drank coffee on the deck. Then switched to lunch on the deck - 4th of July type picnic. Paul & Lois stopped by; also Dan, Barb, Emily & Allison Haag; Nick Gales; Therese Gales; so this was a legitimate 4th party. Dan's dad had put together some kind of PVC pipe outfit along with golf balls on a string; this entertained us mightily. Except Patrick had some difficulty with launching these things onto the cable lines. Emily Haag knows how to hit a wiffle ball.

That sounds like fun, but our day was just getting going. The five of us hit the road for Iowa and the Capesius seed corn shed for their annual 4th of July party. Saw too many folks to try to name here; good food and drink (the pork patties were great, typical baked goods etc.) Also watched the Algona fireworks from there. It's a nice event, especially as it gives us a chance to catch up with a lot of people in one place. Caught up on info regarding the new Gales Law Office in Algona; Spud was entertaining; Capesius folks are great hosts; etc., etc.

Then down to my parents' house in St. Joe. More fun to come. Happy 4th.

Lucky Day

Lots of talk about 07 07 07 being a lucky day. In our house we have proof - it's Kerry's b'day! Top photo shows mother & daughter shortly after arrival (07 07 83). Daughter appears quite interested in whatever mother is saying.

Photo 2 shows Kerry with birthday cake (3d birthday, as the cake decoration scheme communicates so clearly). You can do the math on her current age.

KHG = excellent daughter.

Unusual sight

I really enjoy hiking Squaw Peak. The only problem is that the place is short on parking most of the time. However they measure these things, it's one of (if not the) most highly used hiking trails in the country. Which no doubt has something to do with being located in the middle of a huge urban area with year-round hiking weather.

Anyway, here's the parking area at 6p last Saturday. I've never seen it so empty. No waiting around to park (usually there's a short line of waiting vehicles, certainly no empty spaces). Deathly quiet, very few folks on the trail. Which was a nice change of pace.

Oddly, there is a ringtail cat that has been hanging around the summit lately. Or maybe that's not odd, given that folks are often snacking up there and it's probably a good spot for scavenging. And in any event the cat could enjoy a great view. Here's a recent photo looking east toward Camelback Mountain.

In the future I will use the correct name for this mountain (Piestewa Peak, renaming described here).

Father's Day pattern . . .

"Back when I was a kid," our Father's Days had a pretty well established pattern. Go to Mass at St. Joe church. (I don't remember when they started the Saturday evening stuff but I'm sure in these days it was all Sunday, all the time). I'm guessing now, but think we probably ate the noon meal (aka dinner) at our house.

Then it was onto Algona and a gathering of the relatives in honor of Grandpa (Mike) Bormann. This involved lots of yakking among the adults. As little kids, we amused ourselves down in the basement playing cards or board games and somehow shooting baskets at a hoop hung from the basement rafters. I'm remembering that line drive shots were rewarded and any shot having anything resembling a normal arc was a failure. There always was some good food involved. Sometimes we'd go for a walk around the block, or play catch on the south side of the house.

Then back to St. Joe (farm on the hill) for a gathering of the relatives in honor of Grandpa (Ernest J.) Gales. Lots of daylight hours that time of year. Lots of talking among the group (normally at a bit higher intensity level than the earlier party). Cards. Food. Kids played outside and then moved it inside. No school the next day, so no particular curfew issues.

The scan from my 1969 diary summarizes a pretty typical Father's Day from that era. These were pretty excellent days. And the two grandpas and one father were pretty excellent father-role-model types. But I'll have more to say about that.

I'm sure we must have paid some attention to our own dad, but the day definitely was focused on Grandpas Gales and Bormann. (Photos are from 1970, I believe. Grandpa Bormann (top) turned 80 that year, and Grandpa Gales turned 70.)

(The diary entry ends with some whining about one of my front teeth, which had been busted up the previous day when I carelessly looked over the back of a truck box just when Francis Kenne lifted the endgate. That led to one of those now-obsolete and then-unattractive metal caps for a few years.)

I wonder what this is