Juicing

Dave has finally gotten a lot of sources for free grapefruit!  We have been kind of lacking in the citrus this year.  Today he got his juicing system set up and spend about two hours working.

We use a lot of recycled jugs.  He made about two gallons and it tastes great!

Door before and after

Our front door takes a beating in the summer as the sun just bakes it.  The doorknob looks like a mess and the door has all the varnish on the bottom half gone.  So I manually sanded off all the old varnish.

Here is the door, better but not perfect.  I may add another coat of varnish for more protection.  I could have gotten the look more even if I had the electric sander and really sanded the door.  But at least it feels smooth and not rough like before. 

A view of some of the pickleball courts.  Just a few old men playing.

Book Festival

The Tucson Festival of Books (TFOB) is both Saturday and Sunday.  Our volunteer shift was on Saturday morning.  By noon there are literally thousands of people all over the place.  These photos were taken over an hour before the festival even opened.

We didn't get to go inside this bus, but it looked like it would have been fun!

I liked this booth - Three Amigos and a Lady.  All dressed up in their western clothing.  And they were all authors of western stories.

The volunteers who were author escorts (walking the author from the hospitality lounge to their speaking venue) all met here.  Dave and I were author escorts.  We waited for our authors to come out and then we took them away.

Dave's authors never came because a moderator took them to their venue, so he just went and listened to their talk anyway.  Apparently, I had the "big guns".  My authors were Scott Turow and Greg Iles.  I did get to spend several minutes with them as we were waiting and walking around.  Their "lecture" was very interesting and funny.  Now I have more books I want to read!

Scott is on the left and Greg's head is peaking over the podium.  After their session we went to listen to three other famous authors and that was very crowded, but interesting.  One author kept talking about a character that was supposed to be a MILF.  The old ladies around us kept asking "what's a MILF?"  Pretty funny.

77th Birthday

The strawberries make this cake look a little weird, but it was a good one.  And I had a strawberry cream filling inside.  We also had Tina's favorite ice cream for her at her birthday party last night.

Grandpa Van still is out of it.  He asked me, as he does every time he sees me, "so, how are the kids? How is number one, and number two, and number three?"  Then he asked how number four was.  He can't even remember how many kids I have, let alone names.

Trains at Saddlebrooke

Apparently there is a large Model Railroad club in Tucson.  Some of those enthusiasts are at Saddlebrooke.  Every March they host open houses so the public can come and see their set ups.  We went last year into Tucson to some homes.  This year I visited two of the homes in Saddlebrooke.  Here the owners dedicated their entire backyards to their model trains.

This train owner is building a new "addition" to his village.  You can see the white structure is just the base before he covers it with spray foam and paints it.  Right now it's just a hodge podge of styrofoam and wood nailed together.

San Diego, Day 3

Sunday was our Balboa Park, San Diego Zoo day.  The park is very similar to Central Park.  We spent almost seven hours there and only got to explore the very top of it.  Really a beautiful place.

There are a lot of ravines and hills in S.D. This is a suspension bridge in a neighborhood, designed for people to get across the ravine.  We did this before heading to the zoo.

A nice penguin.

The flamingos were really this orangey color.  There were over 100 of them in this pond.

This is a young bird as you can see he's a little fluffy and still has a lot of grayish feathers.

At the end of our day we took the Skyfari tram to get from one end of the park to the other as we were tired of walking so much!

San Diego, Day 2

Saturday morning we got an early start after our hotel breakfast - an actual hot breakfast this time!

Originally, the town of San Diego was settled at what is now a state historic park.  There were all sorts of buildings that were recreated to simulate life in the 1800s.  Nothing was open but it was still nice to see.

Then we walked up through some neighborhoods to get a viewpoint out to the ocean.  San Diego is very hilly.  It reminded me a lot of San Francisco.  The fanciest homes are always on these hills, too.

This little park, next to the USS Midway has this huge statue based on the famous Life Magazine photo of a sailor kissing a nurse once WW2 ended.  It was a very popular photo spot.

Then we drove to Coronado Island which is a real vacation spot with old, glamorous hotels.

We are standing in front of the Del Coronado - a very famous and supposedly haunted hotel of the rich and famous.  It was built in 1888 and the rich from the east coast would stay here during the winter.  We had a tour of the property then later went into one of the bars for a drink (an old fashioned was $21!).

This light fixture was designed by L. Frank Baum, who wrote the Wizard of Oz books.  He did a sketch and they created the lights.  There are many of these in the Crown Room.

The fake lawn outside the hotel.

We also traveled over to Cabrillo Monument which is at the end of a naval base.  There is a lighthouse there and this is where an explorer, Cabrillo, first landed in 1542 (or so).  These views are looking back into the downtown area of San Diego.

Sailing on the Pacific Ocean.

A restroom overlooking the ocean.