Peace ~ Love ~ Grandma Dona

What a Spring Break!

7 days . . . over 3200 miles . . . 6 states (twice) . . . snow . . . rain . . . wind . . . fun stops along the way . . . junk food . . . some good food . . . 

. . . and my mom now lives in California.

Life changes . . . so you may as well enjoy the change and have some fun!

Mission San Juan Bautista

One more stop on our way home.

Mission San Juan Bautista

I have only visited a handful of the California missions.  One day I would like to see them all.  

We hadn't planned on stopping and only decided to at the last minute.  I am so glad we did. 

 I am wishing now that I had taken time to snap a few more pictures.

road trips are fun . . . .

more wandering . . .

I was having trouble working with Blogger on my iPad . . . Not sure what I was doing wrong, but I can finally post with a little less trouble.  I love taking pictures . . . and I love taking pictures when we are out of town even more.  We haven't been to Monterey in quite some time . . . so we simply parked and then wandered . . . and had a great time on Cannery Row.  I do believe Zoltar predicted it is going to be a good trip.  

On the road . . .

Just a few pictures on the road . . . this one only because this sort of traffic always just makes me glad that I don't live in a large city.  I love what a large city has to offer . . . but there is no way I could live day to day in a city where 7 lanes of traffic all merge together. 

A couple of shot of the Richmond Bridge.  I actually snapped pictures all the way over the bridge and they look sort of cool when you run them all together . . . but way too many bridge pictures for one post.

The rest of my time on the road was spent stuffing Shabby Charlotte bodies and making pompoms.  :)  Over the years I have made Richard crazy on road trips.  It is hard for me to be in the car for miles and miles with nothing to do.  There was a cross country trip of reading trivial pursuit cards . . . he still gets a funny look on his face when we get that game out. 

I've gotten better at keeping my self busy.  We listened to some great old Classic Rock - and I kept myself busy working on doll bodies.  I still like driving him crazy every few miles . . . I don't let him completely off the hook.   :)

Mission Santa Clara

I was wondering where to start with my pictures from this past weekend.  Since Halloween is approaching (my favorite holiday), I will go with the words of a witch . . . Glinda -  the good witch of the North  . . . "It is always best to start at the beginning."

Saint Clara

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Our first stop of the weekend was University of Santa Clara - Mission Santa Clara.  Richard went to school here and always loves stopping.  We stopped at the bookstore and bought a couple of things (it was a weekend for t-shirts - that is for sure).  Then we walked around a bit . . . just long enough to snap a few pictures.
As we walked through campus you couldn't help but notice the change as we entered the grounds around the mission . . . the noise and energy of the campus faded into the background and you felt the peacefulness of the mission take over.  It is a beautiful place . . . and I love it more very time we stop.  The rose pictured above has to be the largest rose I have ever seen.
 I have only been to a few of the missions in California.  I think I may have to make an effort to visit them all.  Mission Santa Clara . . . named after Saint Clara of course is going to be special to me . . .

Just a short visit . . . a few photos . . . a crane dropped . . . a couple of new t-shirts, a coffee mug, and a new hat . . . and we were off. 

great weekend . . .

We went to Petaluma for the weekend and had such a great time that I really don't even know what to post about first.  I have so many pictures to go through . . . this wonderful bed and breakfast we stayed at . . . the "Halloween & Vine" art/craft show . . . Lagunita's Brewery . . . Volpi's Italian restaurant . . . We went to "Halloween & Vine" last year - so this year we knew more of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. 

It was a wonderful weekend.  We wish now that we had planned on spending another day.  So hopefully I will get through some of the pictures tonight . . . it will be a week of everything Petaluma.

Road Trip!