Goodbye California

Lately I have been reflecting on our time in California since it is coming to an end. It is important to reflect on the events and people in our lives from time to time. It is a good way to appreciate all the amazing things that happen in our time on Earth and help us to move forward to be the best person we can be.

Prior to finding out our assignment to California, I never thought I would live in the state. To be honest, I was most afraid of experiencing an earthquake. Luckily, we have not had one near us.

My favorite part of our time on the West Coast was all the friendships I made. At our last base, I felt alone many times because I had a hard time making friends. I was determined not to repeat that this time. I joined a book club (and eventually ran it), I joined the Officers' Spouses' Club, and was heavily involved in our squadron spouse group. I put myself out there more than I usually do and it ended up being a big blessing. I am thankful for the ladies I have come to know and I hope our paths cross again (many times).

I have also valued our travels while living here. We have visited the Bay area several times, Lake Tahoe, Eureka, the Avenue of the Giants, L.A., Anaheim, Monterey, Yosemite, Ventura, Apple Hill, Reno, Stockton, Oregon and Hawaii. Hawaii is one of my favorite places we have ever visited.

I am so thankful for our time on the West coast, but excited to be home during our next assignment. I hope to take the things I have experienced and learned here and use that knowledge throughout the rest of Charles' Air Force career.

Travel: Yosemite

One of Charles' big bucket list items for our time in California was to visit Yosemite. Of course, we waited until almost the last minute to take a trip there. We visited on October 1st which happened to be the anniversary of the park. We totally did not plan that.

I do have to preface this next part by saying I don't think it was the ideal time of year to visit Yosemite. I've heard it is better to go around April when the waterfalls are flowing. In October, the water was definitely not flowing. With that said, I did not love Yosemite as much as some of the other places we have visited on the west coast. I have several friends who love, love, love Yosemite and I just wasn't feeling it. But it was worth visiting, especially because we had free admission (thank you military discount)!

On the way back to our hotel in Jamestown, I was feeling carsick. The roads are quite curvy and after hiking I am especially susceptible to car sickness. We stopped for dinner at one of the towns outside of Yosemite. A BLT was just what I needed to cure my upset tummy. I just need to suck it up in the future and buy those special bracelets and anything else I can get my hands on to prevent motion sickness. I had forgotten my Tummy Rub essential oil blend. It would have been the perfect time to try it out.

Doesn't this look like a green screen background? We thought so, but it's totally a real life background.

Easy Scrapbooking: Apple picking

Charles and I visited Apple Hill and picked a bunch of apples. It was so much fun to decide what apples to pick. We left with a big box full of apples and lots of ideas of what to make with them.

The page is simple, of course. It took me some time to decide what to do for the "title." I finally ended up with the list of types of apples. It is appropriate for our apple picking excursion because we came across many of these varieties. You wouldn't believe how many different types there are! During apple season we always find a new variety when we visit the grocery store.

Lavender and Blueberries

Not too far from us is a place called Apple Hill. During apple season it is a happenin' place where you can pick your own apples and enjoy lots of fall favorites. Throughout the year they have other events and festivals. I saw they were having a lavender festival at Bluestone Meadow, so we decided to drive over for the afternoon.

After waiting around awhile for a pair of sheers and a basket, we picked our own lavender. It was a lot of fun seeing all the different varieties up close. They smell similar, but when you have them bunched together you can find the small subtleties between them. The lavender farm also had llamas and alpacas. I can never remember how you tell the difference between the two, but they are both really cute!

After lavender picking, we drove down the road a bit to a blueberry farm called Pine O'Mine where they had pick-your-own blueberries. I hadn't picked blueberries since I was a little kid visiting my grandparents in Maine. Picking blueberries was so relaxing! We came away with a bag full.

It is always fun to support local companies and farms and enjoying locally grown fruits. I encourage you to find places like this where you live!

Easy Scrapbooking: Race Day Page

I love scrapbooking! I enjoy looking back through all my scrapbooks and remembering all the fun times and people I have chosen to include. But I think scrapbooking is intimidating to a lot of people. First you have to sort through all your photos, figure out which ones to have printed and then have all the right supplies. Once you get all those things sorted out, scrapbooking can be very easy and relaxing. I have a simple approach when it comes to immortalizing my memories. I do not include a lot of embellishments; I like my pages to focus on the photos.

The first page I would like to share with you is a race day page. It's probably one of my more modest layouts. I love the patterned paper on this page. It's a colorful chevron print. I used the same paper for the running man and title. I do not even remember where I bought it. I love Hobby Lobby and Michael's, but I like local scrapbook stores even better. There was an amazing one in Dayton, but I only discovered it right before we moved. I haven't found one near me in California.

To make both the running man and title, I used my Silhouette. I love, love, love it! Even though I've had it for many years now, I am still figuring it out. I finally learned how to take any image found on Google and make it into a Silhouette shape. This is saving me a lot of money because I am not limited to the shapes in the Silhouette Design Store that cost about $1 each. Thank goodness for Pinterest!

Memorial Day Weekend Travel: Part 2

Part of our Memorial Day Weekend trip was to check out Santa Barbara. All my knowledge of Santa Barbara comes from watching Psych. Suffice it to say, that gave me very little real information to work with.

Santa Barbara was a neat town. We started off by visiting Mac's Fish & Chip Shop. It was featured on Triple D and sounded delicious. I had the steak and potato savory pie. Charles had shepherd's pie. I enjoyed mine immensely. The place was charming and the food was so tasty! If I lived in Santa Barbara I would want to eat there often.

The restaurant was on State Street. Santa Barbara's State Street was a fun area to walk around. There were so many restaurants and shops to explore. You could have almost any type of cuisine you could imagine on State Street. People watching would also be good here.

After walking up and down State Street, we headed over to the Old Mission Santa Barbara. It was a happenin' place! We decided to visit during their annual sidewalk chalk festival and there were tons of people there.

The mission was beautiful, but it was missing the gorgeous garden that the mission in Ventura had. This one was larger, though.

Memorial Day Weekend Travel

For our (I should say Charles') long weekend, we drove down to Ventura, CA. The main reason for the visit was for Charles to have a second shot at qualifying for the Boston Marathon at the Mountains to Beach Marathon. We used the opportunity to see what Ventura and Santa Barbara had to offer.

On our first day in Ventura we visited Pete's Breakfast House for brunch. It was delicious! I had the waffle sundae and it was the perfect combination of slightly crunchy but still soft waffle, ice cream, chocolate sauce, fruit and crunchy granola.

One thing we had not done while living in California is visit any of the many missions. Missions, according to Wikipedia, comprise a series of 21 religious outposts; established by Catholic priests of the Franciscan order between 1769 and 1833, to expand Christianity among the Native Americans northwards into what is today the U.S. state of California.

The Old Mission San Buenaventura is a small one, but has a beautiful courtyard garden and a lovely church. 

Lavender Ranch

My good friend, Emily, and I visited the Lavender Ranch yesterday. It was recommend by a mutual friend and was located about an hour from us. It was a lovely drive and the ranch was gorgeous. We had a walking tour through the fields. Our tour guide gave us a lot of interesting information about the ranch and the different plants they grow. There are so many great uses for lavender. One thing I learned was that you can put lavender essential oil on grease burns to prevent blisters. It is also a natural pest repellent. I loved that their ranch was all organic!

As our tour was ending, a group from Texas, Georgia and other southern places were coming up for their own tour. It was nice chatting with the older ladies about the south, especially my hometown.

The gift shop had some amazing products! I ended up leaving with a peppermint & rosemary body wash and some lavender spray deodorant. The body wash smelled so amazing! Peppermint is one of my favorite essential oils.

The old silos were a beautiful background for pictures. I wish I had brought my real camera instead of just my cell phone.

 

Some of the pickings from our tour. They grow three types of lavender and several other types of plants