What I Missed in San Diego

Posted on January 29, 2014January 29, 2014 by Dusty Roads

There was so much I wanted to see in San Diego. But at least I know for the future that there won’t be any sight – seeing time on the annual meeting trip. I’ll need to “Tack-on” vacation either before or after. Could be worth it as the flight will be paid for by the company.

So what did I miss and why should I plan a trip back.

One big reason is Sea World. It’s in the Mission Bay part of San Diego so it would have been easy to get to from the resort or the Hyatt. Everyone knows that Sea World is home to Shamu or a succession of Shamu’s as all the performimg Orca’s are named Shamu at Sea World. But Sea World has more to it than that. There are indoor exhibits too besides the shows and in recent years a child’s water play area was added.

And while we are thinking about sea life, why not stop off at the Birch Aquarium. Birch Aquarium is north of San Diego in La Jolla. It’s not as big as some of the other aquariums in California or as flashy as the big sea-themed park down the road, but instead just right, filled with interesting exhibits and home to leafy sea dragons like the one above, creatures so improbable they look more like something from a children’s book than from the ocean.

At the Birch Aquarium, you can watch the creatures being fed, touch some in an outdoor tide pool and get mesmerized gazing into a 70,000-gallon kelp forest. But our favorites are the sea horses. And their cousins the sea dragons.

Still focused more on the kids we can’t skip Lego Land. I saw some of this in Orlando and hear one is opening in the northeast. It’s certainly someplace to visit at least once. Legoland theme park takes its inspiration from Lego toys, those cute little bricks that snap together to build all kinds of fun things. It’s one of several Legolands worldwide.

You’ll find life-sized traffic cops, dinosaurs and a dizzying collection of other creations made from Lego blocks all over the place, but they’re just the decoration that surrounds the park’s rides. At Legoland, little ones will find rides just for them, with age limits that keep the bigger kids from running all over them – and the adults get a kick out of all the great big Lego creations.

The adjoining Sea Life Aquarium is nice, but if you’re visiting Sea World or the Birch Aquarium during your trip, you don’t need to see this one, too. (Of course I probably would want to. )

Legoland is north of San Diego and the most practical way to get there is by driving.

Let’s see what else I missed….to be continued

Dreaming the Hawaiian Life

Posted on January 23, 2014January 23, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Since my 2 vacations in Hawaii the idea of living there is never far from my mind. Lately I’ve been missing Hawaii even more because there’s a great show about Hawaiian Real Estate on HGTV.

Hawaii is known to be an expensive place to live. As an island everything has to be brought in from the mainland. One of the largest and oldest cattle ranches in the United States is located on the Big Island. Known as the Parker Ranch is was founded in 1847, almost 30 years before most of the southwestern ranches on the mainland.

The ranch is a working cattle ranch even today and is now run by a charitable trust. The Ranch owns approximately 26,000 head of cattle, mostly Angus and Charolais breeds, with 17,000 pastured on the Ranch at any given time. The rest are in pasture or feedlots on the mainland. With about 300 breeding bulls, the cowherd is divided into two breeding seasons, winter and summer, with about 50% of the herd in each season.

When we visited the Big Island we drove past sections of the Parker Ranch but we didn’t take time for the tours.

One night we stopped at a local grocery and bought a steak to grill. Since we were on vacation I didn’t hesitate to buy it but I did notice it was expensive. It surprised me since we’d just heard about how big the Parker Ranch was and how much cattle was raised there.

Never being shy, we asked about the high price of beef and milk and were told that the Parker Ranch sends just about all of it’s beef cattle to the mainland for slaughter and then the butchered meat is shipped back. That extra step is the added cost but I will tell you it was one of the best steaks I have had in a long time. Well worth the extra money.

Back to the show, Hawaii Life, I was surprised that they show case many affordable homes less than $500,000. It looks like the real estate market is comparable to the Boston market. Of course , there are the million dollar homes too. 🙂

Anyway, in our meeting yesterday at work, our manager said the company is planning to expand into Hawaii. Of course that is on the drawing board and no one knows how soon it will actually happen, but maybe my dream of living there isn’t so far fetched after all!

Photo of the Week~ Week 3

Posted on January 20, 2014January 20, 2014 by Dusty Roads

The tally was incredibly close once again. If this keeps up sooner or later we’re bound to get a tie. Only 5 points separated them! Runner up is Rocky Sleeps

The score is made up of the total of the number of hits, the number of blogger likes, the number of comments and the number of shares. The picture which gets the most when they are all added together is the winner for the week. It’s a lot more fair than counting on me to be objective. After all, I picked the subjects and have my favorites too. 🙂

The number #1 Photo this Week is Snow Again!

The stats are from the companion blog, www.dustyroadsphotos.com so be sure to head there for your likes and hits to be counted. And remember, making comments and sharing to your facebook feed count too.

A “Clowder” of Purrr-sonalities~6

Posted on January 19, 2014January 19, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Well that theme kind of got away from me.

I’ve read that when a novelist starts writing they don’t know where the story will end up. They start with an outline and change it as the characters evolve. I think that’s what happened in this series.

When I started A “Clowder” of Purrr-sonalities” I was only going to write one short post mainly featuring Buddy and how much he has grown and changed in the year he’s been here. What prompted it was what happened after my shower that morning.

Buddy came in the bathroom right after I got out of the shower. He sat on the towel at my feet and watched me with the hair dryer. I took a minute to give him his morning “blow dry” . Then he did something that concerned me. He hopped in the tub, which was still wet from my shower and started licking the bottom of the tub.

He didn’t seem to care that his butt was getting wet and there wasn’t all that much water if he was thirsty. I was afraid there might be some soap residue so I ran to the kitchen for a trusty plastic bowl, filled it from the sink and set that in the tub.

Buddy checked it out, looked at me and proceeded to take a long drink.

Cats can be territorial and recently I read that they don’t like to have their water right next to their food. Rocky will drink from the pet fountain but Smokey and Buddy do not.

Smokey and Buddy prefer the green plastic bowl in the living room. Even Rocky occasionally drinks there.

So maybe Buddy is being pushed aside when it comes to water. I hadn’t noticed it but then I don’t sit and stare at them either. So now my tub now has a plastic bowl of water in it too.

See how short that was? Kind of hard to believe it evolved into a mini book! I think I’ll give you and the cats a rest for a little while. Let them do something special before I make them a subject again.

A “Clowder” of Purrr-sonalities~5

Posted on January 18, 2014January 18, 2014 by Dusty Roads

I do believe cats mourn. After Little Joe left us Rocky wandered around the apartment like he was searching for something. The most bizarre thing he did was climb up to a picture of Little Joe , paw at it and meow. Even Smokey was subdued.

Eventually life went on and I moved. Unfortunately I moved from a 2 bedroom apartment to a one bedroom condo. Rocky and Smokey would have to adjust to sharing a little smaller territory. I was concerned about that so I filled the condo with cat trees and perches where they could look outside.

Kitty toys are piled in baskets that they plow through and drag out at their leisure. Cat races from bedroom to living room and back to the bedroom are common and Rocky loves playing hide and seek in the cat tunnel.

Rocky is still the hardest one to entertain. He still gets into everything. I opened the linen closet doors to find him perched there.

I have learned to block the trifold doors or Rocky will open those and get himself locked in closets.

Smokey is my lap cat.

He visits my lap for a little while every night and still purrs loudly. Life seemed to be settling back into a routine again when along came Buddy.

I believe when it comes to cats, they find you. I didn’t want another cat when Rocky came along. I accepted Smokey to be a companion to Rocky and to give Little Joe some relief. Then I tried to re-home Buddy …twice but he was a boomerang cat. He just kept coming back.

Buddy, another boy! Poor Buddy! Once again, Rocky was the one to accept the newcomer first. He’d follow Smokey’s lead and hiss but if Smokey wasn’t around he wanted to make friends.

Buddy joined us just about a year ago for the first time. I have chronicled his journey here before so I won’t spend too much time. I’ll just update you that he has come a long way. He’s my “Bud” joining me for primping in the morning, lounging on a cat tree and just staring or playing with Rocky and even Smokey when Mr. Cranky Pants is willing.

Buddy may have a touch of pica too. He likes to lick the emulsion from photo paper. He can dismantle my printer completely, even pulling the trays out, to get to that paper. Then he carries it around with him everywhere. At least he doesn’t eat the paper.

Today, Rocky remains the most active, Buddy and Rocky together are a great team of escape artists who also enjoy a good wrestling match.

Smokey seems to be moving into his twilight years, he gets disoriented, he doesn’t see as well but he seems happy. So for now, life will continue on. They are all so different. But one thing is the same, they are all bundles of love and joy. My little furr-by family.