NEWPORT BEACH ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON

After Labor Day and the start of a new school year, things usually simmer down in resort towns across the Country. Not so in Newport Beach California. This is a year round resort town...probably more so in the winter months. More in the way of cash spending, not diaper changing tourists.

On my way down to the Newport Peninsula, I stopped at Hoag Hospital, which is on a cliff overlooking Newport Bay. I love this view. I have memories of looking over the bay after giving birth, and when I lost a loved one....several years apart, same view.

Then headed on down to the Newport Pier, parking in front of Charlie's Chili, right at the foot of the Newport Beach Pier, where you have parking meters that give you three minutes for a dime. My family has a rich history with Charlie's, through two generations of working there, marriages, divorces and lifelong friendships going back over forty years. This is a legendary place to go for great food for ridiculous prices...ridiculous as in low. John Wayne used to order their chili by the gallons for parties. But...I was on a mission...for chests, bare chests, and this was probably the best location to find them in the time alloted on the parking meter....30 minutes.

Also at the foot of the pier is the historic, still functioning home to the infamous Dory Fishermen of Newport Beach. What a site to see at the crack of dawn when the fisherman beach their boats and drag them up the sand to be filet and sold to the multitudes waiting. Well, not really multitudes, but close. Local restaurants relish in this open fish market...by eight in the morning, the place closes down, waiting for another day.

Now I wander up the pier to get a better view of the beach. Oh my, there will always be a bird feeder until the sea gulls gets ticked and peck this guy mercifully.

This guy had no problem letting me inch my way closer along the rail on the pier.

He seemed very content.

So was Lucky...yep Lucky's mom is a beautician! Who wudda guessed? She said she changes the color of Lucky's coif every so often for variety's sake. If Lucky were a girl, I think JJ would go bananas. Yes, that's Lucky's real hair.

Now Jessie didn't have a problem letting me take his picture....are you sitting down dear friend?

He asked me to take another!

These folks are tourists.

At first glance you would think they were related to Lucky!

There is nothing like stopping for a double double at In n Out Burgers on the way home.

VINTAGE THINGIE THURSDAY

BIG BROTHER UPDATE...it's over! Dan is the winner! I think this is the only time my favorite houseguest won. I think it's the only time the final two remained best buddies..probably for life. Renny was amazing, and I hope some one nabs her for a sitcom because she's hilarious. Keesha will probably model for Playboy, and have a lucrative career. I can't wait for the next BB. Hopefully this Winter.

I'm still on vacation. As you read this, I should be in sunny Southern California, romping on the beach....drinking strawberry margaritas, and eating real honest to goodness Mexican food. But I didn't forget you.

It's time again for Vintage Thingie Thursday!

Head on over to Confessions of an Apron Queen and sign up to participate. If you like vintage stuff, you will find a whole plethora of amazing websites that are participating with great stuff. I love that word plethora...I love it so much I should have named my first born Plethora!




This is my paternal grandmother, Margaret Mary Spellman (maiden name), at the age of 89, in 1972. She departed from Queenstown, County Cork, Ireland on June 6,1900 aboard the Oceanic.

Just a teenager, from a large family, with very little...which was the norm at the turn of the century, she set out alone across the Atlantic to Ellis Island, New York. Her mother had passed away years before, but her aunt gave her a momento that belonged to her mother, Nora Daley (maiden name).




It was this simple cameo pin, which is over two inches in length. The details on the cameo are very fine. The onyx is chipped, and the pin on the back is very crude and rusty.



It wasn't "fine" jewelry, but it is truly vintage, and very heavy. Since I could never wear it due to the rust and weight, I had it professionaly framed, set on soft blue velvet.


The frame is deep and sealed in the back, so I can't show you the back of the pin without tearing the back off. I love that I can display this on a wall like a piece of art.

A GROUP VACATION...
That was all about ME.

I spent a good portion of the holiday weekend booking flights for an Alaskan cruise I'm going on in early September. I wanted to wait to book the air travel until a good fair popped up, maybe in July or August. But with the uncertainty of fuel prices and the airlines adding charges for checked luggage and an actual seat that's not on a toilet other things like food and headsets, I decided to just book it and be done with it.

I'll be meeting up with eight friends in Seattle, then we'll rent a few cars and drive up to Vancouver, BC together. The ship departs the next day, late in the afternoon, so we'll have time to party all night see a bit of Vancouver. The cruise ends in Anchorage, Alaska, and I'll be flying home from there.

So, this isn't a round trip ticket I'm trying to book, it's a multi-destination ticket. Of course, I'm flying out of that small little regional airport that goes nowhere outside of Texas. Because really? Why would you want to go anywhere else? I am flying to Seattle, then I have to change planes in Dallas, worry about my luggage going to the same destination at the same time. I will be on the first plane out of the small regional airport at 5:30 a.m. to arrive in Seattle by 11:30 a.m. to meet up with my friends. Don't forget the two hour time difference, making my not so simple trip from Texas to Washington eight hours.

Getting back home is the fun part. We dock in Anchorage at 12:30 a.m., then have a 2-3 hour ride to the airport. The first flight I can get on back to Dallas is too late to catch the last flight to the small regional airport near home that day! I decide not to go home, but stay and become an Eskimo fly from Anchorage to Orange County CA...and start my next vacation. See? Kill two birds with eight stones.

All these details and time-lines were giving me a headache. The airlines aren't as user friendly as they used to be. In fact, I called the airlines to see if they could help me coordinate my flights, and they told me there is a fee for that service. Huh? In the past couple of years I haven't had a trip that didn't have a cancelled or late connecting flight, making me miss my flight. American Airlines has had to put me up in a hotel three times in two years. Not good.

I was reminded of a group trip I took in the eighties. When the airlines cared about their image and your travel experience. My vacation tale is one I should keep to myself, but because you guys are all close personal friends, I can tell you...and you won't be judgemental, and realize what a selfish, self-centered person I am was.

I loved skiing, and wanted to experience good skiing, not in the crowded expensive slopes of Southern California. Spending more time in traffic and long lift lines, than actual skiing had lost it's appeal to me.

The local community college had a ski class with a trip to Banff, Alberta, Canada for the final exam...dirt cheap. The class met two nights a week on the grassy slope backing up to the football stadium. For the purpose of the class, it was covered with AstroTurf,then sprayed with WD-40 to make it slick and fast. Hey, don't laugh, this is surf country, sometimes you have to fake it.

The morning we departed for our Canadian ski trip, I was supposed to meet my instructor and forty classmates on campus, then travel to LAX on a bus. Well, I over slept, and missed the bus. I took my own car to the airport and met the class in time to board the plane. The instructor was a bit ticked at me, but hey, these things happen.

So, now we're all on the plane, finally settled in for the flight. Not so fast, readers! The flight attendant makes an announcement that the flight is way over booked, they want volunteers to give up their seats.

After much back and forth offers, yep, I give up my seat for $200 and a seat on the next flight to Calgary. SWEEEEET! Of course my instructor was ticked...AGAIN. No one told me that once we landed we still had to travel about 90 miles to the Banff Springs Hotel.
So there they were, waiting for me, for four hours, to take the charter bus to Banff because we were supposed to travel as a group.

So, I have to say, the airline was very accommodating. Not only did they pay me $200 to take a later flight, they sent me a voucher for my inconvenience. Air travel sure has changed, hasn't it? Or maybe bad Karma finally caught up with me.

Oh, and the instructor gave me a failing grade.