My Vacation Kicked My Hiney

FabGrandpa and I went on a little trip to Atlanta last week. Our daughter, Becky, gave us tickets to a concert, and two nights in a swanky hotel downtown. We had lots of fun, but I'm tellin  ya, that trip kicked my butt!  

 

We stayed in our hometown of Douglasville for one night before heading to the Big A. While we were in town, we we stayed at Hotel Palomar. It was fun to be pampered for a couple of days.

I got to go to my favorite place in Atlanta, the Dekalb Farmer's Market, and to Whole Foods, where I found the most divine chocolate bar ever, Mo's Bacon Bar. 

Yes, you are seeing correctly--it IS chocolate covered bacon--food for the gods!

The concert was fun, the whole reason for the trip, Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa. Frank Zappa's son playing his father's music. It was a great concert.

 

But now that I am home,  I am having trouble gettting back into the swing of things. I don't know if it is the blood pressure meds the doctor put me on, or the hectic pace of the trip, but I slept for 14 hours the last night of the trip, and have done nothing but veg out since we got home. 

I am hoping this lethargy will leave me alone soon, because I have so much to do!

Becky and The Parents Day 1

We left the North Rim headed for Page, Arizona early enough to have breakfast at Jacob Lake Inn.  We stopped at the scenic overlook of House Rock Valley.  Here is Becky with the Vermillion Cliffs in the background. 

The next stop was at the balancing rocks near Cliff Dwellers in Marble Canyon.  Those rocks are huge! How they don't tumble over is a miracle to me!

 

This is a view of the Colorado River from Navajo Bridge. It is absolutely gorgeous!

 

 

And this is looking across at the other side of the bridge at the very eastern edge of the Grand Canyon.

 

We stopped for lunch at Fiesta Mexicana, where Becky and I both ordered Camarones a la Plancha. Yummo!  

  

After lunch we toured Glen Canyon Dam. It is the second highest dam in the United States. The highest is of course the Hoover Dam.

 

 

This is one of the old turbine rotors. Th original on was placed in service in 1964, and was replaced this year. That is FabGrandpa's backside there in the photo.

 

Lake Powell, so much blue, blue water in the middle of the desert.

 

 

The Colorado River where it comes out of Lake Powell at the Glen Canyon Dam. That bridge is Hwy 89 in Page. 

 

See that water pouring out of the pipe at the bottom? That is what they call seepage, water that seeps through the concrete and rock from behind the dam. 1600 gallons a minute worth of seepage. Amazing! And there is enough moisture for those plants to grow right on the rocks.  

More tomorrow!

Remember Whensday

In the summer of 1985, I had major surgery and was out of work on sick leave for 10 and a half weeks. While I was recuperating, I went on a short trip to visit my brother and his family. I lived west of Atlanta, and he lived in south Georgia, out in the country.

I had a wonderful visit with them, just hanging around the house, doing nothing special at all, but it was one of my favorite trips I ever took. One day while we were there, we visited Okeefeenoke Swamp, and took a boat ride along the murky water, with alligators swimming by. That is my sister-in-law, Jean on the left, my daughter Becca in the back, and me on the right, sitting in Jean's kitchen.

For more Remember Whensday photos, click here.

Remember Wednesday

This was taken in June of 1978, in Panama City Beach, Florida, on the only vacation my first husband and I ever took together.

My kids were so young, and innocent, and sweet then. They loved the ocean, because as one of my daughters said at the time "This water plays with you, Mama!." They played on the beach all day, running and jumping in the water. We took them to Sea World, I think was the name of it. My son was afraid of the parrots, and after much coaxing, very timidly allowed two of them to rest on his shoulders for a picture.

This was also long before the days when mothers were warned about putting their childrens names on their clothing, so my youngest had a hooded sweatshirt with "EMMY" on the back of it. She kept asking me how everyone knew her name. And if this were a better picture, you would be able to see that my oldest daughter, on the left, has a black eye--she got out of the car and walked into the motel room, right into the corner of the dresser on the first day of the trip.

I miss those days, when my children were so carefree, and cute. Now they are all grown up, going on vacations of their own, with their spouses, children, and boyfriends. But would I go back to that time? Not on your life!

My best memory of that vacation though, is this: We arrived in town late in the afternoon. We were starving, and wanted seafood for dinner, so we found a restaurant just down the beach from our motel. We were all dressed in shorts and flip-flops. After we were seated, I looked around the room, and there were people dressed in formal attire, and a bottle of champagne chilling on their table. When THEY saw us, there was a heavy visible sigh from both of them.

We ordered our food, and all three of my children sat patiently at table, waiting for their meal, not uttering a word. When the food arrived, they put their napkins on their laps, and ate their meals, with very polite family conversation going around the table as usual. They were good as gold sitting there in their booster seats in that fancy restaurant.

When our check arrived, the man in the tuxedo at the table across the room walked over and said, "When you walked in, I just knew my meal was going to be ruined. But your children are the most well behaved I have ever seen" and he paid our bill for us. Little did he know that I threatened their lives out in the parking lot before we went inside, and they knew I meant it. I think it was the proudest moment of my motherhood.

To see more Remember Wednesday photos, click here.

Oh, Mah Holy Hell!, Y'all!!! or Telephone Troubles, The Resolution..

When I hung up the phone from talking to Verizon's customer no service department on Saturday, I was less than happy with the experience. The person I spoke with had offered to credit 50% of the $188.75 roaming charges that were on my bill from my trip to California. That's roaming in MEXICO. When I told her that would be unacceptable, and asked to speak to a supervisor, she said someone would call me on Monday. And I thought, "yeah, sure" but I told her, "Yes, that is what I want."

So, yesterday when was at the laundromat, my cellphone rang, and do you believe it was Verizon? The very same person I spoke with on Saturday told me she had discussed my bill with her supervisor and they had agreed to take off 100% of those pesky roaming charges. Just like that. No further discussion, begging, pleading, or letter writing required. I thanked her very much.

But then, it made me wonder why put those charges on there to start with. I think maybe there are a certain percentage of people who just pay the bill, no questions asked. And there are probably another certain percentage of people who make the call to ask for a credit, and the first line person offers 50% credit, and they are happy with that, and pay it. And Verizon laughs all the way to the bank.

I am not normally so cynical about things like this, but dang it, 50% of that bill would have been almost $95.00. That is a lot of money out of the customer's pocket and into Verizon's, just for using your cellphone service in an unfortunate location. And their TV ads, the "Can you hear me now" ones, as well as the newer ones that tout their "network", what a crock. Those adds make you think you can get service anywhere you go. I was sitting in a deck chair, at the beach, in a well populated town, and couldn't make or receive a call.

And to be honest, I didn't even try to use my cellphone because IT actually told me I was roaming, and I was afraid those charges would accrue. But when I tried to use my internet wireless card, no such message was received. That wireless card was picking up three bars, but when I tried to connect, it was very, very slow--it took me OVER AN HOUR to get to my g-mail account to try to read my email. That was the only time I tried to use it, the rest of the time I went to the coffee shop. So, for ONE HOUR of internet usage, that was incredibly slow, I was charged $188.75.

So, now that my rant is over, the point I would like to make here, is that if you are traveling near the border, either with Mexico or with Canada, and you use your cellphone, pay attention to your next bill. You could be roaming in devious territory.

Oh, Mah Holy Hell!, Y'all!!! or Telephone Troubles, Again...

(Sorry, Hotfessional!, but this situation calls for the use of that bit.)

My vacation to California is coming back to haunt me! Remember how I told you that I couldn't get a signal in our motel room, and I had to go to the coffee shop to get online? I got my Verizon bill today and DANG! they are charging me $188.75 for roaming in Mexico. Even though I never once used my phone in Tijuana, and I certainly didn't take my computer over there and get online. And I just used the wireless card in the room the first night to try to get online but it took just about an hour to get to my g-mail account. Just look at this:


Global Roam - Mexico kilobytes -- 37,750 37,750 188.75
Total Roaming $188.75
Total Usage Charges $188.75

Their customer no service department actually told me that since they could not determine where the usage originated, they could only offer me a 50% credit. And of course I said "That is unacceptable." The supervisor was not in today and will be calling me back on Monday. Then she jabbered on about how I could have set my account to have alerted me to there being roaming charges being accrued. Which I had no idea I could do, since I was not going to a foreign country, I was only going to California. Like she was trying to make it MY fault that I was being charged ridiculous charges for roaming in Calfornia.

Just as information, I walked into the Verizon store in National City, California while we were at Best Buy, which was right next door, and talked to one of their people. He told me not to worry, that if I got roaming charges on my bill they would take them off. But, he didn't note my account that I asked the question. So, I guess Verizon thinks I am lying about not using my service in Mexico--at least that is what they implied. There WILL be follow-up.

Vacation IV: The Last Day

On the last day of our vacation, we headed over to the Tijuana Estuary National Wildlife Refuge. It is the slough, or wetlands, formed where the Tijuana River flows into the Pacific Ocean. The Tijuana River is the border between California and Mexico.


When FabGrandpa was a kid, he and his brothers and friends would go there hunting for bait for fishing off the pier. It wasn't a park then. He said they learned where they could gently step their feet up and down, to make shrimp like creatures come up out of the mud. Those things, according to him, were the best bait around. They would also swim across the river to the Mexico side to body surf because the waves were better there.



Now there is a fence there, so you can't get to the other side. At the refuge, there are trails, and picnic area. The place is run by a co-operative of the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and California State Parks department. We couldn't go very far on the day we were there because there had been some damage to the roads and trails from a storm, but we did enjoy some fabulous views from the visitor center area.


All the flowers growing here are native to the area. The little white ones smelled sooo good!



Because of the variable wetness of the area due to the tides and scarce rain, there is quite a mix of vegetation.


After we left the estuary, we decided to drive over to Mission Valley to go to Best Buy. FabGrandpa has been wanting to buy the game Left for Dead, and they didn't have it at the National City store. They told us there were 20 copies of it at the other store. I wish I had taken some pictures of that area! Where I-8 goes through Mission Valley, the bridges are awesome! They are so high off the ground it is amazing. But, I am not a very good passenger when we are going fast in lots of traffic. I was so busy watching the traffic that I didn't have time to get the photos.


Since we were already on I-8, when we left the store, we kept going west on I-8 until we got to the end, and wound up driving through downtown San Diego. It is really a very lovely city. I did get a shot of one of the highway bridges there. I guess I am just weird that I like bridges.



Here is a shot of the downtown San Diego skyline as seen across the harbor. I love the contrast of all the boats against the tall buildings.



We saw Border Patrol EVERYWHERE! They seemed to be more of them than San Diego police cars. When we were on California 94, we passed one almost every mile.



Another picture of downtown San Diego. I just love this one because of the palm trees.


Every time we come to San Diego, we have to drive over the Coronado Bridge.

It is one of the longest, tallest bridges I have ever been on. This next picture is the view from the top of the bridge:

Looking back:

Looking ahead:

We drove through Coronado and past the Silver Strand State Park, and back into Imperial Beach. We ate a late lunch at El Tapatio, where I had shrimp that was stuffed with crab, wrapped with bacon, and baked. Very good!


This was the last sunset of the vacation. I hope we get to go back next year.

Vacation III: Uncle Jr., Mexico and The Pier

The first order of business on Wednesday was to drive through the streets of Imperial Beach, going past the places where FabGrandpa lived and played. This picture shows the entrance to the trailer park where he lived for several years with his parents and brothers. If you look closely, you may see The Wing sticking up there on the hill. The official name for it is the John J. Montgomery Memorial Park.

We went by Mar Vista High School, Emory Elementary School, the drive-in theater that has a flea market during the day. The water tank where there used to be a grove of eucalyptus trees, and past the place where he used to hide in a fig tree and eat until he was sticky all over. It was great to see him so happy that he could see this place again, and that so many of the places were still recognizable to him.


We also went by to visit Uncle Junior, as he is called by everyone in the family. He has lived here since 1979. His wife, Terry, died last year so he is living there alone now. He told us he is trying to get things in order so he can sell the house and move back to Georgia. He's looking pretty good for 82 years old. We had a nice visit with him, then left on our way to Mexico, less than 10 miles away.


We parked at a lot on the U.S. side of the border, and walked across the bridge to Tijuana. It was a pretty long walk compared to other places where I have crossed into Mexico. There were lots of people walking over that day. In the picture below are cars at the border stop going into Mexico:


After we crossed the bridge, and went through that revolving gate, we stopped to take my picture with this cow statue. Just because I thought it was pretty. There was also an information booth here where we were able to find directions to the places we wanted to go.


We didn't stay very long--we only wanted to go and get my prescription for metformin ($6.00 for 100 tablets, for my diabetes type II), some amoxicillian ($7.00 for 100 capsules, we like to keep some on hand) and a couple of Z-packs($6.00 each). I know when I get an ear infection that is the only thing that will knock it out. We also got a 5th of Herra Dura Reposado Tequila. It was $32 in Mexico, and unaffordable here. That 5th will last me 2 years.

Then we walked back over the bridge, showed our passport cards, and went home. Easy peasy, and no gunshots were heard. All the cars in the picture below are people entering the United States through Tijuana. There are armed border agents down there inspecting the cars and checking passports and other documents. It looked like a pretty long wait.


We got back to the inn just around lunch time. FabGrandpa was wanting to walk over to the pier, which was good news to me because he hadn't wanted to do anything until that day. So we walked over there, and went to the Tin Fish Restaurant at the end of the pier for lunch.


He had a fried fish and shrimp combo, I ordered grilled shrimp. I could eat shrimp every day, and I did while I was on vacation. It was really good, and the atmosphere on the pier was excellent.


Yep, here I am in my signature orange traveling shirt. It is not the same one I usually wear, I have three, but still, it IS orange.


These guys were out there surfing every day, from morning til sunset. Mostly they just sat on their surfboards waiting for 'the wave', but when they did get a good wave they rode it all the way in.


This picture shows just how close to Mexico we were. If you click on the picture to make it larger, you will see that the top arrow is pointing to the bullring in Tijuana, and bottom one is pointing to the end of Seacoast Boulevard in Imperial Beach.


After lunch we walked back over to the inn, and just relaxed on the deck for the afternoon. This sea bird just sat there posing for me.



More of the beautiful flowers. These were actually growing on the sand dune below the deck of the inn, and climbed over the railing.


Another one by the pool. I don't know the names of these but they are gorgeous.



And again, the sun sets on the Pacific Ocean, bringing us the end of another day.



The lights on the pier seen from the deck outside our room:

Vacation II: The First and Second Days

As I said before, FabGrandpa was sick for the first 24 hours of our vacation. I tried to get him to let me change our reservation because he was sick before we left home, but he was ready to go. So, for the first day there, he was in the bed, and I was on my own. I did a lot of this:




Yeah, sitting around with my feet propped up, but the scenery was gorgeous! This is the back of the inn:



This is the stair way to the beach:



There is a swimming pool and a hot tub, but it was a little too cool for me to get in the water. And there were beautiful flowers growing everywhere:


The carpet was old and stained, but that bed was soooo comfortable. That was a good thing as FabGrandpa spent so much time there. There was a clock radio, a TV with cable, a dresser, and a sofa in there. Those drapes open all the way up so you have a fabulous view of the Pacific.


The kitchen is fully furnished, with a microwave, coffe maker, pots and pans, dishes, a stove and refrigerator. The only thing this place does not have in the kitchenette suite is a bathtub. But the shower was great.


The only thing I cooked in here, though, was the chicken noodle soup for FabGrandpa, and the coffee in the mornings. The rest of the time, we ate at one of the many restaurants in the area. The day that he was sick, I was buying him a bowl of chicken noodle soup from the Wave Restaurant across the street every three hours, but I was on my own for the rest of the time. I went to the Wave Restaurant for breakfast, then to Aroma Thai for a lunch of Shrimp Fried Rice. Later, for dinner, I walked to the end of the pier to the Tin Fish, and ordered take out of grilled fish and shrimp for my dinner. It included grilled salmon, haddock, scallops, and shrimp with red and green bell peppers and onions. It was soooo good!


This is also at the back of the inn, looking up to the "penthouse suite". It is a three bedroom unit that sleeps 12 people on the third floor. I wish they weren't going to tear this place down, and if for any reason they don't, we are going there again next year.


The first day there were no clouds in the sky all day, so when it was time for sunset, it was just blue sky and big red sun. But the second day, there were enough clouds to give the sunset some awesome color:


I love this little bird on the beach, all by himself:

And just because I like this picture, I am sharing it with you. I took so many, I can't share them all but sometimes I just have to put in just one more: