Summer Vacation 2013 ~ not the most original title but it works.

Show Low ~July 20: I've been up here on White Mountain, in Overgaard and Showlow since Thursday. I've got the coolest little rental hybrid car made by Ford that befuddled me in the beginning with its push button start and kick under the bumper to release the hatchback; which to an onlooker must look pretty silly.  It's growing on me though.  
I'm staying at my adopted brother's house in Overgaard. John spoils me by having coffee brewed every morning when I wake up. He's one of those early risers.   It's a great house, that looks like a log cabin, with a fantastice front porch with glider and a chair.  You would not believe how cool the temperatures are up here.  I noticed on the bank display when driving from Show Low to OG the temp was 57 degrees last night.  It was so cool today I had to borrow a jacket from Cordy, my adopted sister.  
As far as the adopted stuff goes, we aren't legally adopting one another, it's just that we all get along so well it's as if we are related.  I keep saying we must be, somewhere down the line.  It's uncanny how similar our families are; even though my sister and brothers have never met the Burgess' I know they'd love them as much as I do. 
These relationships all started with mom, Louise Burgess, and her late husband, John, whom I met when married to my late husband.  These are some of the best people on the planet and we've just adopted each other as family.
Mom was diagnosed with congestive heart failure the day I arrived.  Doc prescribed some Lasik to help relieve the water retention and something to help her relax at night.  This amazing woman is almost 96 years old.  She is made of some seriously hardy stock.  She has the sweetest disposition any person could ask for and a heart so full of love for all of us.  That, I know will never fail.  I feel like such a jerk for letting six years slip by without coming to see her.  I bought a cake so I could wish her an early happy birthday since I won't be here August 19th to celebrate with her. But, I'm here now and loving every minute with her and her loving children; my adopted family.
These White Mountains of Arizona are some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever had the priviledge to experience.  We're in monsoon season, so it rains every day.  I joked today that it reminds me of Kauai where it rains every day around 4:30 in the afternoon.  As a result the clouds are billowy white and thick as mammoth cotton boles tossed into the clear, blue heavens.  When it does rain, and you're off on the road like the one where I posted the photograph of the surreal clouds, the lightening show is stunning!  I can see why they love it up here.  Tomorrow's my last day up on the mountain.  I'm going to take advantage of that front porch and drink my coffee out there before heading out for a 3 mile walk with John on his route so I can burn some of those cake calories before they have a chance to stick to my thighs.  :)  Monday, I head back down to the valley, as these mountain folk call it, and visit my lovely friend, Becky for a few days.  ...

Mesa, AZ ~ July 22-24

The drive down the mountain on AZ hwy 60 from Showlow to Mesa is winding and slow in spots but I kid you not, it has to be one of the most spectacularly scenic drives in the world. Everyone should experience it at least once, preferably as a passenger because as a driver, it is dangerously distracting. Someone could make a decent dollar offering photo tour drives up and down that highway; especially during monsoon season like it now, when the clouds are full and photogenic. 
Once again Google maps came through with excellent directions and led me right to Becky's door. 
Her sweet granddaughter, Phoebe, came with Becky to meet me at the car. Her funny grandson, Michael, was "hiding" inside.  Hiding meant lying on the floor begin the sofa covering his face with his hands. I pretended not to care and he came around quickly.  Mike and Phoebe are the cutest, exhausting bundles of energy that make you laugh and equally grateful when their mommy, Lindsay, takes them home.  Brandy, her 14 year old  daughter, whom I've not seen in six years is growing into such a lovely young woman. 
Her husband,Tommy is out if town on business so Becky, Brandy and I have had the place to ourselves relaxed and chattered like magpies catching up on events since her visit to Texas last year. 
Becky and I went to lunch at the coolest little bar and grill in downtown Chandler that used to be called Murphy's Law and had to change their name when they tried to incorporate and start a chain. Turns out Hard Rock owns that name so Murphy's had to change it or pay royalties to Hard Rock. It didn't affect their food because the hand-battered fish and homemade chips were amazing!  After lunch we popped into this little gift shop, Silby's, that sells products made by artisans in Arizona. I won't mention what I bought as it will spoil the surprise for the recipients. :)
I finally made it to Village Inn for the carrot cake that the Burgess clan whet my sweet tooth appetite for.  It was super yummy. The piece was so big I could only eat about a third. My sister, Carolyn, will find that hard to believe because she has seen first hand my voracious appetite for all things sweet, of which I can consume massive quantities. 
Today's schedule has yet to be determined which is exactly how a vacation should be.  
I'm all checked in for my flight to California in the morning. It's going to be another early flight which means a 4 am wake up call. The way I figure it, so what, I can nap on the plane. 

PHX ~ July 25. 
Three hours of sleep is just inadequate. However, after a fun last evening with Becky it was worth it, for me anyway.  We washed my rental car and wouldn't you know it, it rained on me this morning on the way to the airport. It seems there was some hanky panky possibly going on with our waiter and Becky's bank card.  At one point after she paid and signed the receipt he bent over as if to pick up her card off the floor, handed it to her and apologized for dropping it.  this morning after I left she followed an intuitive bunch to check her email. She had received email alerts saying there had been charges made on her card in TEXAS!  She just texted and said she got most if it taken care of and sang BofA's praises.  It's thunder storming now. Hopefully, it will move off before time to board my 9 am flight. Yeah, I'm here way early but that's ok. I'd rAther be here waiting than on the 202 in rush hour during a downpour. 

Sun City, CA ~ July 25-28:
Ah well, where shall I begin?  My flight into Ontario Airport here in sunny SoCal arrived without incident, bags made it and I rented another hybrid; this time a Toyota Prius.  I liked the Ford CMax better, and that's saying something seeing as how I'm a loyal Toyota owner. 
I got a little confused leaving the airport, made a couple of wrong turns and u-turns but I made it to Sun City eventually. Couldn't have had anything to do with staying up until midnight and then getting up at 4 am, could it?  There was a time when that would have had no effect. 
I left my PJs at Becky's in PHX so I stopped at the new super Target here in Sun City to get another set.  I bought purple this time, just to mix it up. Enjoy those pink ones, Beck. 
Linda and her mom, May, had their friend Joanna take them to the nail shop and then Joanna met me at the house to take me to pick Linda and May up.  Joanna warned me that May was in a bad way and to prepare myself.  A little background on May is in order. She is a Scottish born American citizen that has always been a ball of energy. I be been told she's in her upper 80's and up until last week she drove everywhere.  She's knows Southern California like the back of her hand. She's proud and stubborn and as kind and generous a person as you'll ever find. Everyone loves her cheerful spirit, positive attitudes and thick brogue. 
Laying eyes on her for the first time in two years as she sat in that chair at the nail shop, she looked the same. It was only when she confused me for her friend Dee and hasn't the strength to rise up out of her chair to hug me hello, that the first hint of her declining health was evident. This was a woman who up until a year ago was taking dancercise classes at the senior center.  My first night here we went out to Coco's for an early dinner. After a little nap Linda woke me to ask if we could go up to the McDonald's for ice cream. I took her but I has coconut cream pie waiting so unsweetened tea was enough for me.  
May stayed home and rested. 
Today we, May, Linda, Joanna, Robin ( May and Linda's part time caregiver) and I went to the movie, Red 2. It was very thrilling and I was so pleased to see a bunch of middle aged actors getting to play the badass but good guys in the plot, especially Helen Mirren. Afterwards, we went iHop for another early bird dinner.  God, we're old ladies.  :). I have to admit the garden something crepes were really good. 
As it turns out, May is still a trouper, which is code for too proud and stubborn to admit she's as bad off as she is. She became disoriented at dinner and started telling a story about me to me about how long she knew me and how she had known my husband before I met him. She was confusing me with her friend Dee again, only this time, it was a momentary case of mistaken identity. 
That was our cue to get her home quick so she could lie down. 
She allowed me to help her raise her legs up onto her pile of pillows. You see, they are very heavy with water retention and that makes it hard for her to walk and impossible for her to raise them in her own. 
Her once nimble, cowboy boot wearing dancing legs are so swollen with water retention,there is no knee definition and the skin is as taunt as the skin on a drum. I saw how bad it was, and the little water blisters dotting the surface of the skin.  They tell me it's congestive heart failure. I'm not family, and this family is territorial, but I spoke up to Linda on our walk tonight and told her if that was my mother I'd have her in the doctor's office next week. I fear even that might be too late.  I love this lady but I'm at a loss of how to help without overstepping my bounds and thoroughly pissing her off. We talked to Joanna and she's going to suggest to May that she go to the ER on Sunday. Joanna and May are best friends. I feel like a big chicken. We are supposed to go to Palm Springs tomorrow. I'm torn and worried. I'm also comforted by what May told me about Palm Springs. That's her favorite place.  If she had the money she would buy a house there. Unless she had more money, then she'd buy a house in Hawaii. :) that made me laugh. Ive never been to Palm Springs and she is so excited about showing me the statue of Marilyn Monroe and Lucille Ball, and rhe old theatre and Liberace's house and some church. She said I must see Palm Springs.   So, if she's not long for this world, and that's the word from Robin and Joanna, and if my taking her to Palm Springs gives her some happiness in her last days, then that's a good thing. Right? 

La Jolla ~ July 28-31
I arrived yesterday, Sunday July 28, after delivering Linda to the Kaiser Moreno Valley Hospital. We never made it to Palm Springs on Saturday; didn't even try.   I followed my conscience and  made the offer to take May to the ER on Saturday morning when I walked into the kitchen to her stooped over the counter eating a juicy plum. I guess my words the night before made an impression on her because Ms. May looked at the redness on her shins and decided a trip to the ER might just be the right thing to do.  We were both right.  They did a complete cardiac work up that found fluid around her heart so they admitted her saying in order to drain it properly and safely she would have to stay two or three days.  That could have been quite an ordeal for Linda, as she has her own medical issues that prevent her from driving, make staying alone precarious at best, and potentially risky. Linda took it upon herself to inquire with the ER staff about the possibility of the hospital allowing her to stay in her mother's room. They agreed. It was a perfect solution. So, after mass on Sunday morning, followed by a lovely breakfast at Coco's in Sun City with Joanna, I drove Linda to the hospital to be with her mum. 
I sighed with relief all the way to San Diego. The drive was easy, even with I-15 closed at the Hwy 56 west exit because that was exactly where I needed to exit. Navigating Torrey Pines Rd and La Jolla Blvd is a tad trippy but I took it slow and thankfully it wasn't too congested, thus preventing me from frustrating the local drivers. 
The house I'm renting a room in is an old wood sided bungalow that in Texas would be considered a little run down, something you'd see in perhaps an unrestored section of Fairmount in Fort Worth. But, here, it's probably valued near a million bucks. You might balk at that from your easy chair in hotter-than-hell Texas or Arizona, but darlin' if you were sittin' where I'm sitting at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, OUTSIDE, in late July with nary a drop of sweat even daring to poke through your skin and a breeze so cool you have to slip on a lightweight shirt to keep away the shivers, you'd pay hundreds of thousands to live where, as soon as I finish writing this, I will walk two blocks and go lie in the warm sun and watch the surfers skip across the waves. In other words, it's gorgeous here.  It always is. I wonder if the local high school needs a life skills teacher. That statement is a complete 180 from the ones I was making two years ago as i suffered such excruciating pain that I quipped about walking off into the Pacific Ocean when I was out here with an ex, who I antagonistically refer to as the "dipshit."  Another story, another time, or, just wipe it like a formatted hard drive. 
This time, I'm contentedly alone, doing what I want, when I want and right now, I want to go listen to the Pacific. 

Ontario Airport, California, not Canada ~ Aug 1st

I just wrote a full entry and somehow it disappeared.  So, I'll give it another shot.

I've never been particularly impressed with California.  I've been out here, and up along the West Coast numerous times since my parents brought us out to Riverside in 1970 to visit my Aunt Albina, so it's not as though I'm experiencing it for the first time and falling in love capriously, like I did with Kauai.  But, there was something different this time; La Jolla; even that I visited two or three years ago, so it's not new to me.  Then I was with someone else, and experiencing excruitating nerve pain more severe than a human ought to have to endure.  This time I was alone, which, I believe, left me free to absorb the energy of the place unencumbered.  It is an amazing little village where the locals rarely use a car, choosing instead to walk, ride the #30 bus that runs up and down the coastal road, or occasionally rent a car if their errands require any significant distance to accomplish.

Yesterday I was scheming to try and figure out how I could move there, work there; live there.  Today, on my drive in to the airport, I made a decision.   I don't want to work in La Jolla.  I want to retire there.  To work there would ruin the romance of it; much like getting a degree in music did for my passion to sing, and the reasons I've never taken formal training classes in photography.  I want to hang on to the soul of it.  
I have 10 years to figure out how I'm going to manage it.  In the meantime, yearly vacations there will acquaint me with the area enough to perhaps work that out.  What's the worst that could happen?  I have great vacations every year in one of the most beautiful places in America.

Speaking of beautiful places, this trip has afforded me with some of the most stunning vistas in this country.  The weather was agreeable every place I went, Show Low, Mesa, Sun City and most definitely, La Jolla.  The locals told me it's pretty much the same all year round.  Sounds like the closest thing to Hawaiian weather on the mainland, to me, anyway.

Travel was cooperative, Google maps' GPS led me by the nose wherever I chose to go, the hybrid rental cars saved me tons of money on gas and had far more power than I expected.

I have reconnected with friends whom I love and consider to be some of the best people who inhabit this Earth.  The only downside was the health issues my lovely friends, Louise Burgess and May McCue, are experiencing.  These women are two of the most resourceful, hilarious, loving and generous people that this woman has ever known.  They set the bar high for standards by which a woman should conduct herself.  They remind me so much of my Aunt Nita, my favorite aunt, and a helluva woman.

All these things I mention, including the Pacific Ocean, have soothed my soul in ways I'd hoped and ways I hadn't expected.   This as been as perfect a vacation as anyone could ever have.