I actually made it to the beach too :) (Considering I am 5 minutes away!) It's about time and it was sooooo lovely. Although, I forgot how bad the Pac-O smells. Not at all the sweet-salty smell you get in he Caribbean. More Fishy, but still nice and salty and I can happily say that I didn't have to feel bad for crushing thousands of little hermit crabs under my feet just from walking. The shells are not NEARLY as good as the Caribbean, but I did manage to find a few, along with an almost whole purple sand dollar and a live clam that was stranded from the tide. I threw it home but I would have really loved to have a bucket of seawater to take it home in. I'm such a kid like that. I tried that with the hermit crabs in Curacao, but I forgot them on the counter and their water evaporated and they crawled out of their little shells and died. That was a sad day indeed. Needless to say though, I’m loving California. It's always the perfect temperature, and even when it's 90 outside, it doesn't feel like it. I have been reminded why people pay so much to live here, despite the landslides, earthquakes, wild-fires etc. It's lovely and I have an urge to stay here forever and bump up the Republican ticket by one.
and checked out the Queen Mary and the Scorpion, Russian Submarine. 
Since the last time I was out here about 8-9 years ago, the Queen Mary has opened up considerably and they are also featuring a Titanic Artifact exhibit. When you walk in they hand you this "Boarding g Pass" with information about a real passenger that sailed the Titanic. I was Kate Bourke, a 3rd Class Irish passenger and Nick was Col. John J. Astor IV: The wealthiest man on the ship. Needless to say...(as you might guess), Kate did not survive and the Colonel did. I wasn't supposed to take any pictures, otherwise you'd be seeing some neat artifacts right now, but I did manage to sneak a couple here and there. One I wanted to get was of the "real" ice burgh in one of the rooms and you can put your hand on to freeze it off. Very cool.
y life I saw Saguaro Cacti! I really wanted to get out and take a picture next to one, but that didn't happen. Again, maybe on the way back. I was awesome finally getting to see them though and then watching the sun set behind them. The day before, we spent 
about 3 hours touring the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Now this place was my kind of park. It's like, 116 outside, so you are driving down the road, pull off onto one of the sight-seeing spots, take a picture or two, walk around a few minutes and then get back into your air-conditioned car and drive to the next spot. It's actually designed that way.
Even then, we still managed to get sunburned and dehydrated. It's an amazing thing to think "Who would want to see a bunch of wood turned to rocks?", but believe me, it's a lot. I should have gotten a magnet, doh! I can't believe I forgot about that. I was more intrigued by the big hunks of polished, petrified trees for $50 than anything I guess.
to them. I personally think the "Ring of Fire" should be extended to the middle of NM, because the volcanic and fault formations are just amazing. The closer we got to LA, the bigger the mountains became and it was just range after 
range after range of jagged, sharp peaks. (The pictures in now way do them justice) Also, as a side note, when passing through Flagstaff there was a sign warning us to watch out for elk. I've never actually seen a live elk before other than on TV, so I was hoping I'd get to see one, but hopefully not crunched through the windshield of our truck. Well, not even a quarter-mile further down, there was a HUGE, I mean MASSIVE bull elk dead on the side of the road, antlers and all. That thing was bigger than any cow or steer I've ever seen in my life! Not too later I saw two cow elk, also dead on the sides of the road. I started to think it was inevitable that we'd hit one or see one bounding across the highway, but we didn't. But, dead or alive, they are some of the biggest animals I've ever seen. I still want an elk-ivory ring or earrings some day. Some day....
Well, before our long 2-day trip we stayed at my mom's house for 2 weeks where we did pretty much nothing EXCEPT we went to
my cousin's Graduation Luau, visited an old friend, visited my grandma, went to a Isotope's ball game, took my dad out for Father's Day lunch and a movie (X-Men III), celebrated my husband's birthday, rode the Tram and...drum roll please....brbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbr...I bought a pair of hiking boots, went hiking (mostly in the shade mind-you) and got terribly sunburned,
which has now faded to a lovely golden tan on my top half. Which is why I will be wearing a sweater over my swimsuit in the coming days; as to protect my top half and even out the color on my bottom half. I'm seriously looking forward to getting some sun on my legs for once, even if it's just a little tiny bit, it makes a huge difference for me. I guess we did more than I thought. It was so nice being able to play with the animals every day. They are unconditional in their affection and playfulness and so eager to please and protect.
don't spend the summers there, although I still desperately long for a permanent home. I think we are on our way back there after this, but in a way I'm hoping to spend some more time on the west coast and maybe up in the NW to visit my in-laws and/or visit a few (cooler) state parks while it's still summer.
and it looks like we may just be doing the same thing all over again, except backwards. I'm hoping to at least take a different route. Michigan was very very nice when it wasn't cold; well even then it was nice. I really have nothing to complain about. The people were nice, the surroundings were beautiful and green, shopping was great and so was the coffee! Toasted Marshmallow Latte's from Caribou Coffee can't be beat! Oh, and New York Seltzer!
I haven't had that since I visited California when I was six. Our hotel was right near a small airstrip where we got to see small planes and helicopters land and take off all day and also the Canadian Geese walk around and wait to lay 
their eggs. Did you know baby geese look like mini-ostriches? They do. We also went to Sarnia in Ontario Canada. Not all touristy like we thought it would be, but it was a very crisp cool day, the water was gorgeous and we found a restaurant called "Montana's" where I had the largest beef ribs ever. We even managed to get some mad cow, um, I mean beef ribs back to...um. Never mind. Anyhow, we visited with a friend of mine who moved
up to Ohio too. A couple of times actually. We went to the Toledo Zoo and also The Butterfly Pavilion. I also visited the Detroit Zoo on my own time, though I didn't get to see the whole thing cause I got there a bit later than expected. 
Oh, and we also stopped at the St. Louis Gateway arch on a freezing cold day on our way up to MI. That thing is amazing, kind of like the 8th Wonder of the World. I just look at it and wonder...
Proud Friend of Israel
