Today is Wednesday, the day we are leaving my parents home in San Diego to return home to Corona Del Mar after an extended stay with them.  I love my mom and dad dearly and didn't really want to leave them and return...their home was a good intermediate place to go to help get re-adjusted to the faster pace of life here in Southern California after 2 months on the road.
Who am I kidding...there isn't a way to get re-adjusted to this place we call home...you just have to throw yourself in and try to keep your head above water until the pace comes back to you!
So, it is with great excitement and with great tepidation that Ruby and I head home... 

I took these pictures of Ruby initially because I thought that they were cute, never intending to use them here, but last night when I was reviewing these photo's it struck me why she looked so comfortable and was able to sleep in what seem to be very uncomfortable positions...these 2 sleeping positions are the same ones that she adapted over the last 2 months sleeping in the backseat of the car.  Poor baby!
This dog is amazingly adaptive...she will do anything and be happy and enthusiastic about doing it.
I'm learning a lot from Ruby!

All of the photos that follow (except one) are of sights that I have taken for granted and have become a bit jaded to over the many years that I've lived here.
When traveling home I became a tourist again seeing many of these sights as if I was seeing them for the 1st time.  Maybe it was because over the last 2 months my eye has become trained to look for the unusal or maybe because I was hoping to make this last phase home more interesting for you (still going to do the Pacific Northwest, but I have to write about these 2 months now...who knows maybe somebody will publish it and the 2nd half of the trip will be a sequel!)
This is Camp Pendelton with manuevers going on...normally I glance at them...say a silent prayer for their safety and continue blowing (down/up) the 5 at whatever speed the CHP are allowing that day...rushing to where I'm going with a blind eye to the beauty that surrounds us here.  Camp Pendelton should be a national treasure with its stunning ocean views to one side and the majestic foothills on the other.
I know that it's an old and maybe outdated saying, but shouldn't we all take some time out of our busy days and take the time to "smell the roses"?

I think that most people from out of state are dumfounded when they go through our immigration checkpoint on the north side of Pendelton.  Why would U.S. Officers be stopping traffic this far from the border?...I don't have the answer for that, hopefully one of you does...I know that whenever I'm traveling north and the checkpoint is open with traffic backed up for miles, I get a little testy..maybe I should relax and go with the flow...after all these men and women are just trying to do their jobs. 

A bad shot of the San Onofe nuclear power plant...made famous in what I think was one of the Naked Gun movies..if you haven't seen the movie use your imagination as to the plants shape and hopefully you'll get the idea of how these were used in the movie...this plant is currently shut down...something to do with a radiation leak I believe.
I know that many of the photos I have taken are and have been not framed well, out of focus or not straight...many shots used over the trip have been shot out of a car window or holding the camera with my right hand while my 60 pound torpedo pulls on the leash in my left hand trying to find the source of some new and interesting scent that she has picked up!
I've tried! 

Not a big deal but an interesting part of the brief history of Orange County...this is Cotton Point...it was on this bluff that Nixon's western White House existed and his California home almost to the time of his death.
Nixon's place sat on what is one of the premier pieces of Orange County beachfront property, with views up to Palos Verde and down the coast to Point Loma (on a clear day).  After his death his family sold the compound and land to a developer who did what all developers do, built more houses...in addition it has always possessed one of the premier surf breaks in the world!
Since it is a big time surfing area there are a lot of surfers here...story goes that Nixon in the middle of the Watergate affair ditched his security people and sought some solitude on the beach.  There he ran into a group of surfers that recognized him, talked to him and ultimatley felt sorry for this lonely and dejected man...there are many good and loving people here...and those are the people that I love dearly!

San Clemente is the 1st town that you enter as you leave San Diego County.  It is also the home of my children (just doesn't seem right to call them children when after all, they are adults...is there a better phrase?) son in law and granddaughter.
I love them all dearly!

Continuing north you arrive in Dana Point...never really got the Dana Point thing...there are better beaches, better surfing, better harbors, better restaurants a little north or back down in San Clemente.
The Ritz Carleton and the St. Regis are here...but come on, for the most part these hotels are more tuned to tourists.  In my opinion the Montage (about 5 miles north) is a far superior hotel.
So much for Dana Point

I'm sure that they exist in other parts of the country but I have really missed the outside flower stands...if you have been reading this blog for awhile you know how I feel about flowers!
Ever since we got to San Clemente, Ruby had her head stuck out of the window, sniffing madly and wagging her tail!
I'm sure she knew that we were almost home!

If I didn't live in Corona Del Mar, my 1st choice would be Laguna...with it's stunning ocean views from homes built on the surrounding hills to the secluded beaches to the amazing restaurants, shopping and quaintness of this beautiful  little town. If you have never seen the Pageant Of The Masters do yourself and your loved ones and go this summer.  In a word "how do they do that?"....I know more than one word....I can't help myself!

The famous Laguna Beach Lifeguard Stand at Main Beach...I didn't realize what an amazing piece of history this is!
Notice the fact the Stand was built in 1929...and they say California doesn't have any history...wrong I say..wrong!
I'm still trying to figure out how this Stand compares historically to St. Augustine (founded in the late 1500's) or Jamestown...but it's ours and we are proud of it!
BTW...look at the pic closely...looks like the Lifeguard Stand hasn't been painted since 1929!

This is where Courtney and Mike met...while they both worked here...I'm glad and thankful that they met and together gave me my beautiful granddaughter!

I vowed to myself that I wasn't going to eat sushi after leaving on the trip until I returned home to the west coast.
This is my favorite sushi restaurant in Orange County!  I still haven't gone but I will in the very near future.
It's also in the same shopping complex where Courtney and Mike met.

Almost home and I have butterflys in my stomach...
In CDM the streets are in alphabetical order incorporating flower names...Starting with Avacado and ending at Poppy...north to south, they apparently ran out of streets before flowers!   I live on Goldenrod....so by doing the alphabet, we are almost home...joy or sadness that this phase of our journey is over?
Whenever in doubt I choose joy!
I couldn't help but to realize the irony of this street name within blocks of my home...the flower name is lifted from Greek mythology and the god who's name became synominas (sp) with a common pschological term that applies to a number of people here.  I'll let you figure that out!

Ruby and I were blessed to return home safetly all in one piece (other than Ruby's stomach contents in Illinois)...no speeding tickets, no fender benders, no injuries other than Ruby's ticks in Maine or the mosquito bites I endured in the midwest...indeed my angel was watching over us these last 2 months.  I bought this statue right before we left...I rubbed her head as we were walking out the door to leave and rubbed her head upon our return.
It was a glorious trip, one that I'll never forget and thankful that all of the stars in my life lined up to make this possible!
I would like to thank my mom and dad, my kids, all my loved ones and countless friends for their support, love and belief in me...
THANK YOU!
"To love for the sake of being loved is human,
but to love for the sake of loving is angelic."
(Alphonse De Lamartini)
French poet

Additional updates to follow...stay tuned