Laguna Beach

J&L Repair is finally able to get started on the repair work. We left Big Bear on Tuesday, making a stop at the shop to go over what work is being done. We had to pick out new tile and carpeting We are also having some other things done on our dime while we have the coach in the shop, including having tile backsplashes in the kitchen area and over the bathroom sink. We headed to Laguna. Laguna Beach is a beautiful town and a well known art colony.

There are many art galleries all along Pacific Coast Hwy and several other streets, as well as many other shops. Summers are a busy tourist time, but there are always a number of people walking around the streets and on the beaches Each summer the Pageant of the Masters is held. This event shows recreations of artwork with people posing in a set that looks like the original art. Also held during the summer are festivals such as the Sawdust Art Festival, Festival of Arts, and Art-A-Fair. The Sawdust Art Festival began in 1965. There is also a winter Sawdust Festival which starts on Friday and goes for several weekends. Agreat place for Christmas shopping. There are also a number of great restaurants here. We are staying at the Tides Inn. It has been around for years but looks like it might have been recently upgraded. Each room is different and they are nicely decorated.It is pet friendly as are a number of the hotels in the area. hey have a nice saltwater pool and an outdoor fireplace with lots of comfortable seating.  It is within walking distance of Heisler Park, which I think is one of the most beautiful city parks around. Paths run parallel to the ocean with several walkways down to the beach. The park itself has many art pieces which are fitting for this town.

     One day we took an early walk down to one of the beach coves and let Savannah off her lease as no one was around. She had a ball She is a real beach girl. During the summer, dogs are only allow on the beaches in early morning and late afternoon and evening. However, off season they are welcome any time There are a lot of dogs being walked through the park and on the beaches by locals and tourists alike.

We love having this park close enough to walk to everyday. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Change in Plans leads to trip to Mountains

We got to J & L 's early in the morning. Within about 3 hours the slide was fixed and we thought we were on the way to Parker. But no, what looked like a small fix of the leak turned out to be a major problem. The slide that hadn't been working had been kept in since we had first taken it in to J & L last week as we were worried we wouldn't be able to get it back in. Therefore, we didn't know that the carpet was totally soaked. Also some tiles had cracked due to water under them We thought the water was only going outside and some in the bays underneath, not inside the coach. Yikes. We stayed at the shop for a few days waiting for the inspector from the insurance company to come out and look at it. Thursday he finally came out and we decided to find a place in Big Bear to stay as we can't stay in the coach while it is being worked on. We didn't want to wait for the approval as it is a three day weekend and we were worried we wouldn't be able to find a place. We have to find a place that takes pets and that narrows the field. I thought of Big Bear as they have a lot of reasonably priced cabins. We found one in the Sugarloaf area that takes pets, has one bedroom, with living room and kitchen, so we can cook and save money by not having to go out for all our meals.  Also we need to take all the food from the refrig in the coach

                                                         Our cabin for a week

We were surprised in how much snow there was even thought we knew they had some storms earlier this month. We should have brought our skis They did just open the resorts but with recent snow making in addition to the storms, they had pretty good overall coverage  We got a little more snow the first night but most of it melted quickly as it warmed up a little.

         The cabin is very cute. Loved the use of skis in the lighting and also on one of the walls. check out the lamp in the bedroom with the fishing pole, hat and lures.

We took a lot of walks in the neighborhood. There are a lot of cabins for sale. We really like this area. We have been coming here for years, skiing in the winter, and camping and kayaking on the lake in the summer. We use to camp and four wheel drive back when our kids were young and have camped at Serrano since we have had our various trailers and motor homes. This is a place we could entertain the idea of buying a place if we wanted to settle down in So Cal. Not at this point  though. We still have more places to checkout. We went into the village and walked around and had some lunch at one of the restaurants there. Had lunch another day at a place that looked like was a favorite of the locals. Getting approvals from insurance company so the repair shop can get started is taking longer than we thought. We are also having the outside work done here instead of Mesa, where we got the first estimate That had never really been approved yet even though it has been a month. Easier to get this all done in Fontana. Monday, the 14th, we finally got approval for J & L to start the job on the inside.
Tuesday we left Big Bear as we decided to spend the rest of the time in Orange County near the beach somewhere. More nice scenery on our drive down the mountain. Pretty as there is still some Fall colors along with the early snow fall.

                                                          

                                                                                                                              

So Cal Update

I obviously haven't been blogging while we have been staying at the Newport Dunes this last month. We have been visiting with family and friends, going to doctors and dentists, and taking care of some motorhome maintenance and repair work. We went to our niece's wedding on October 15th. It was held at the Hilton in Huntington Beach, which is right across from the beach. Wedding was outside followed by the reception in one of their event rooms. Heather was just beautiful and Ryan very handsome. Great looking couple. There was appetizers at the reception and a sit down dinner. Bonnie and Kaylee, from the Tangled Vine, and our friends, did the flowers and Kaylee did the photography. Hopefully I will get some of the pictures emailed to me so I can add to the blog. We went to a play at the South Coast Rep, in Costa Mesa. We had season tickets there for many years and it was nice to get to see a play again after several years of not going We also visited our friends, Bob and Carol Flach, who live in Arcadia They have been friends for over 30 years but hadn't seen them for several years and it was good to get together with them again. I also got together with Jonella, a friend from my old job. Epicor Software, where we worked, was sold earlier this year and she gave me all the details of what happen. Someone bought Epicor and another company and combined them and so lots of people are losing their job, some due to the fact that headquarters are going to be in Austin, Texas and most of the departments going there. Pretty sad but typical of big business these days.
We got together with our kids several times, going out to dinner one night and to a hockey game another.We also spend some time working on my parents house with my sister and brother in law and other family members. We did most of the demo work to save some money as the house is over 40 years old and needed a lot of work. New windows have been put in and all electrical work done. Kitchen and bathrooms will be totally redone, new carpets, paint, etc. Should look great when done. Kori, our other niece, is going to rent it for awhile and is looking into trying to get a loan to buy it if she can. We took our motorhome to Fontana over a week ago to get our slide fixed. It was suppose to be fixed last year, but after spending a lot of money out of our pocket, it was never really fixed correctly and has gotten worse. We are taking it to J & L, who has worked on it before and fixed a lot of problems that the dealer never could do in the first year we had it. We also got a leak in one of the lines to the ice maker a few days before we took it to J & L and they are going to fix that as well.