On the Road again....

We hit the road again to make the trek north and did 1800 miles in 5 days. But that is not the whole story...in 5 days we ate at McD's 5 times, filled the gas tank 5 times, supped at Quizzno's and Pizza Hut, hit the casino in Laughlin, Nevada and power shopped at the outlet mall in Oregon so paid no tax!

We saw weird rock formations, rolling hills, hundreds of windmills in California, acres and acres of vineyards, solar collector 'farms', cows, horses, sheep, llamas and one dead deer. The quietest part of the drive was cutting over from the 99 to I5 in California going through farm land and Wasco. The busiest part of the drive was driving with all the lunatics through Seattle and that was at 10:30 am....god forbid what it must be like during rush hour!

We had one special dinner out in Redding, Calif at 'Rivers' on the Sacramento River to celebrate Doug's birthday.

In direct contrast, the next night we had 'happy hour' in the Super 8 with dindin at Quizzno's after our power shop at the Woodburn Outlet mall. We sure know how to mix it up.

'Home' safe and sound in BC now where we will be busy with appointments, unpacking, repacking before hopping on a plane to Amsterdam on Sat.....so much for 'Life in the SLOW lane'!

Wild Kingdom

'Working hard at taking it easy' is my mantra here in 'Life in the Slow Lane'. And boy, have I been busy.

Friends were down here visiting from the Great Frozen North aka BC during a heat wave at the beginning of March. One place we visited with them was Boyce Thompson Arboretum to walk through the wild flowers...and giant carpenter bees, geckos and wild turkeys.

The tour included being told all the proper names and nicknames for the flora and I took many pictures. And no, I did NOT take a picture of the 'Blue Dick'.

THIS is an African Daisy.>>>>>>>>

We took a trip to Palm Springs to celebrate my birthday and I got to try out my golf game. As you will recall, I have had 3...count 'em....3 golf lessons hitting a whiffle ball. I thought I did rather well as I didn't hit any water hazards, sand traps, windows or buildings.

I did however hit one duck and one sister-in-law. .......

Both survived.

Both declined to have their pictures published here.

And finally, this week we joined a group of friends for a massive crab feast.

Now you just know that when you mix sunshine, friends, wine, appies, comfy chairs, wine, lots and lots of crab and....more wine that a good time was had by all. Well, all except the crabs!!!!!

And yes, a ham sandwich would've been quicker but it was well worth all the work of getting those teeny tiny morsels of crab meat out of the crab. I'm still full.

Land of the Suns

Another first for 'Life in the Slow Lane'.....I went to see a live NBA game with the Phoenix Suns playing the Toronto Raptors. I was most interested in seeing Steve Nash, the boy from Victoria, and the towering Shaq O'Neill. However, Steve was out with an injured ankle but I did spy him sitting on the bench all dressed up in a suit.

The game was great but it was the added bonus of all the entertainment that is provided down here in the Excited States of America.

Scantily clad cheerleaders shaking their pompoms, 'dancers' who shook their booties and flopped their long tresses a lot, men dressed in gorilla suits as mascots trampolining up and dunking baskets at half time and some punk rock band at center court in a break.
The game almost got in the way of the entertainment!

But the highlight was a fan from Seattle picked out from the crowd who had the opportunity to sink a basket for cash. He could choose how close to the basket he shot from with the caveat that the farther away he stood, the more money he could win.
He choose the farthest point which was on the center line of the court...wayyyyyy farther than a 3 pointer. He lined up at the line, bent down and did a girly free throw from between his legs. It appeared that it was going to fall far short of the basket but oh no, we were wrong! It swooshed through the basket without even touching the rim!

He won $77,777 from Arizona Casino and boy, was he excited. He ran around the court hopping and skipping and yahooooing, hugging mascots, cheerleaders but no, not Shaq.

Shaq is one big man at 7'1" 350+ lbs. When he stands under the net, he stands under the net....no one can move the man/mountain. Seemed like a fun guy as after a Raptor player accidentally ran into the courtside seats chasing a ball, the very next play, Shaq threw himself into the sideline seats landing on top of some fans who appeared, through my binoculars, to be laughing....don't know that I would be alive to laugh after 350 lbs catapulted into my lap!

The other highlight was when one cheerleader had a 'wardrobe malfunction' and more than her pompoms were shakin'! Luckily she had big shiny pompoms to cover up with and they all bounced off the court to find a safety pin I'm guessing.

Shaq scored 45 points and the Suns won 133-113 but it was great fun.