Nice day out with Mom

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

Ever since my son Adam started as a pastry chef

at a new restaurant,

my Mom and I wanted to try it out.

Yesterday we took the drive over to Carmel

to check out 7D Steakhouse.

What a lovely place it is!

We could see into the kitchen which was pretty cool.

Every once in awhile we'd see Adam :-)

Mom and I both ordered Lobster and Sweet Corn Bisque to start,

 it was so yummy!

I had Lobster roll. Only thought about taking the picture 

after I took a bite!

 It fell apart,  then it took a knife and fork

to finish most of it.

My Mom had Steak Frites, nice medium rare steak

with french fries and bone marrow on the side.

I had a bite, wow, perfectly cooked and seasoned!

I think she liked it too!

Adam has contributed to the menu,

his specialty is the Espresso Creme Brulee.

Mom ordered that,

and with his suggestion I ordered the

Beignets with Goat Cheese and Yuzu Cream.

Fancy :-)

Of course we both shared, but I forgot to take a picture!

It was a perfect lunch, we both enjoyed it,

and loved seeing Adam in his element.

We were treated like VIP's there,

even getting our dessert and glass of wine

'on the house'.

Next week is our last full week here.

We'll be meeting up with Greg, Connie, and Mom

and going to Phil's once more.

Seems to be a theme in our socializing :-)

No eclipse here!

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

Well the eclipse here was a bust.

Any other morning the fog burns off by about 10 am.

Monday the fog laid in the valley here most of the day :-(

We had the TV on at the office most of the morning

watching as the rest of the country experienced it.

Yesterday we had

more fun with the Claypools :-)

Greg and Connie drove down here this time.

We picked up some munchies at the local grocery store,

including crackers, cheese, fruit, and some salsa and guacamole.

We all headed up to Hahn winery to sit on their deck and enjoy 

some wine, conversation, and the view.

The 'wine' cats Chardonnay and Merlot..

We always have such a good time with them,

and love the staff at Hahn.

A lot of them remember my father

as he worked for one of the wine grape brokers in the valley.

Dang finger got in the way :-)

Today is my day off, while George works.

Getting laundry done, and a bit of reading is in the plan!

Handyman George

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

Yesterday we made the trek up to see our good friends.

George has been helping Greg fix some things on their Vilano,

and I like to sit and laugh and talk with Connie.

Afterwards they so graciously took us out to dinner.

We've never heard of this place..

Maggiano's Little Italy

It's situated in a cool spot in San Jose called Santana Row..

Without reservations we would have had to wait an hour!

However with Greg and George's good looks and charm, 

we scored a nice table outside :-)

We had excellent pasta meals,

and shared a great bottle of Duckhorn wine.

Our time is winding down here for now.

4 weeks left!

Our upcoming plans...

We're leaving here on September 12th,

heading towards Pennsylvania.

We'll stop in Amarillo to take care of my

annual doctor visits first.

We'll also need to get the rig inspected there.

The next stop will be in Tishomingo, MS

at the VanLeigh service center.

George has a punch list of things that 

need to be looked at on the RV.

After that we'll make our way to Pennsylvania

to spend some quality time with George's family,

especially his 3 granddaughters.

Weather permitting we'll stay there the bulk of October into November.

It's been long overdue!

George and I were looking into a winter job in Texas,

or perhaps a gate guarding stint in Oklahoma.

However, we love our job here in Greenfield, CA so much

that we've asked to come back.

Jodi said 'absolutely!' :-)

My son Adam is getting married in August next year,

and it made the most sense to come back here.

On top of that we can spend time with Mom as well.

In the almost 5 full years of full-timing,

this is definitely the longest we've stayed in one spot.

It'll be just about a year (with the short 2 month KOA fiasco),

that we've been in one RV park!

Hopefully the wheels on the RV aren't flat on the bottom!

We found our 'Place in the Sun'

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

Every Friday night in the summer months,

the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk has free concerts.

For the most part it is older groups who are

trying to possibly make a comeback.

We noticed one of the groups playing was Pablo Cruise!

I've been a big fan of this group since seeing them

here locally in the 1980's.

We took half day off yesterday so we can have 

a fun night out.

George and I borrowed Mom's car

 for ease of parking in Santa Cruz.

We parked in the lot across from the boardwalk,

put our chairs in the sand to the side of the stage,

then found a place to grab a bite to eat.

While our early dinner wasn't all that good,

we enjoyed the concert.

Pablo Cruise is actually a band, not a person :-)

From their website they explain their name:

When asked what 'Pablo Cruise' meant, the well-rehearsed answer went something like this: “Pablo”, represents an honest, real, down to earth individual, and “Cruise” depicts his fun loving, easy going attitude towards life: In essence that’s what Pablo Cruise music is all about.

I concur :-)

It wasn't as crowded as we thought it might be..

but, being Santa Cruz and a band from the late 70's..
there were some interesting characters in the crowd..

The boats on the bay were nice..

 The lead singer in the band is Cory Lerios.
He's written a lot of movie and TV theme songs, including Baywatch.

Not all the band members are original, but excellent singers..

This guy is a 'replacement' bass player named Larry Antonino.
For anyone who is a 'That Thing You Do' movie fan...
he's the 'replacement' bass player called the Wolfman.
Great singer and player!

 The drummer is one of the original band members too..

...as well as the lead guitarist..

The sailboats on the bay caught my attention once in awhile..

One thing we thought was really cool..
a guy doing sign language on stage to all the songs..

 The boardwalk was in full swing as we were enjoying the tunes.

A fun afternoon and evening on the sand!

Another outing

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

We've been getting together with our friends Greg & Connie

almost every Wednesday.

That's the most mutually convenient day to have a 'field trip'

as I like to call them.

This trip we drove up to meet them at Coyote RV Resort

where Greg is workamping.

We then hopped into their van

and drove up to Half Moon Bay.

which is about 30 miles south of San Francisco.

I had heard about a cool place called the 

Moss Beach Distillery,

and so we decided to check it out.

It used to be a speakeasy back in the 20's,

and is now an historical landmark.

(These first two pictures from their website).

One of the reasons for going up there was

to see the views, and possible some whale sightings.

As you can see, we were fogged in!

Despite the nice view of fog from our window,

we had a terrific lunch!

Afterwards we drove south on Highway 1,

and were in and out of fog so much,

I didn't bother taking pictures.

It was a fun day as usual!

This week our days off consist of spending some time with Mom,

grocery shopping, laundry, and other chores.

Friday we're taking half day off and going to up to Santa Cruz.

On Fridays during the summer time they have free concerts on the beach.

This Friday is one of my favorite 'beach' bands,

Pablo Cruise!

I'm very excited!

Harvey gets a bath!

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

Yesterday on one of our days off this week,

it was time to get all the dust off of Harvey II.

We are surrounded by fields of produce,

and with the winds that come up every afternoon,

our home gets very dusty!

George got up on the roof with our small pressure washer

to get all that dirt off the top.

Amazing the difference!

He borrowed a ladder from the maintenance shed,
and we got started.
George scrubbed, and I rinsed :-)

It all looked great after a long day of scrubbing.

The water is very hard here, so afterwards
George used a detail spray to make it really shine.

We hope it will last awhile!
Nothing like a nice clean home :-)

Today we're getting together with Greg & Connie for a ride up the coast.
We'll be going to Half Moon Bay to see if can spot whales!