CARLSBAD, CA May 2011

This time of the year, the 21st week, is our annual visit to our timeshare at the Carlsbad Inn, Carlsbad, CA. We only had one day to get ready after our stay in Flagstaff, AZ. We bought this unit in 1998 and have only missed coming here one time the first time my mom fell and broke her left hip the day before we were to leave for Carlsbad. Our friends, Bill and Elaine Cavagnaro, were able to use the week. We park our RV at their house when we are not on the road. For this trip my mom will stay at Todd and Jeannette’s in Long Beach, CA. Our unit is on the 3rd floor at the far end from the elevator.

Sunday May 22

We hadn’t planned an early start. We didn’t want to get to Todd’s too early. His family went camping at Malibu State Park and we didn’t want to get there long before they got home. The drive down was uneventful, with our usual stop at the Costco in Victorville, CA for fuel and PR.

We got to Long Beach around 3:30 PM. After some visiting, we left them planning to have Chinese Food delivered and we went on to Carlsbad. We arrived and were checked in by 6:30. Getting checked in and settled in the room is a lot quicker if you arrive later in the day, no rush for luggage carts. We did notice at least 15 luggage carts, more than any time in the past. 15 carts mean a ratio of one for three rooms. Our unit is in what they call the Elm units and consists of 60 rooms. It’s called Elm because the street that passes that side of the resort used to be Elm, now it is Carlsbad Village Drive. The other units on the Oak Street side check in Saturday, so unless someone is checking in really late from those 60 units, there is no competition for carts from that end.

The weather is typical for this time of year, May Gray.

Tomorrow is our 40th wedding anniversary, so we started celebrating early by having supper at Norte. Norte used to be Fidel’s Del Norte, the name was changed a few years ago. The restaurant is one of our favorites in the area and is on the same property as the Carlsbad Inn.

Some time on the computer rounded out the evening.

Monday May 23

May Gray continues. This turned into pretty much of a down day for us. I ventured out to get a newspaper and grab the closest five geocaches. The North County times is a small paper but has three crossword puzzles (I breezed through all three including the New York Times one) and two pages of comics and the comics are printed large enough to read without squinting. The paper is head and shoulders above the Review Journal for local news and letters to the editors. I don’t know if buying the paper from a machine eliminates getting the four pounds of advertisement that we get with home delivery of the RJ, but it’s nice to get a newspaper sans all ads. They ought to pay us for letting them in our home instead of charging us for the volume of paper that is only fit for the recycling bin. Of course later we get the same volume of basically the same ads in our mail box. It’s nice to have home delivery of mail, but it would be even nicer not to have to sort through the junk to get to it. Some of my fondest memories from childhood are the ¾ mile walks with my grandfather to the local Post Office. Our post office in Riverview, WV was a converted carriage house and was run by the elderly lady who owned the property. Over half the distance and most of the time to walk it was spent visiting neighbors along the way. I don’t advocate going back to the 40s, but all change isn’t improvement.

By late afternoon the sun came out, but it was still cool.

Supper was leftovers from our supper on Saturday with Curtis’ family at the Olive Garden in Las Vegas. I don’t fully understand people who won’t eat leftovers; some food (especially most Italian food) gets better as leftovers. The flavor is soaked in and then you have the memory of the first meal with family or friends

Tuesday May 24

With today’s North County times I found out that that my breezing through the crossword puzzles yesterday was a fluke.

The May Gray ended before noon and it turned into a beautiful day.

Our only plan today is to visit with cousins Bill and Arleen Leedy in Dana point and to have dinner later. After visiting and appetizers, we went to a new to us restaurant, Luciana’s in Dana Point. Great Italian food.

Wednesday May 25

Each day the crossword puzzles get harder. But, the May Gray is gone.

This year we plan to take another extended north and east in the motor home. Next year our plan is to spend a lot of time in southern California, especially along the beach. A friend of ours goes to an RV park in San Diego every year and speaks very highly of the Campland on the Bay on Mission bay. The gate guard let us in to check it out; he also gave us a brochure with prices and information. We also checked out another park on the bay that we had stayed at in the 70’s. At that time it was called De Anza Bay RV Park, it’s now called Mission Bay RV Resort. It was slightly cheaper than Campland, but seemed nicer kept. We also checked out a park in Oceanside which was very nice with a walkway to the beach about 250yards away. This park was $105 a night with full hookups, compared Campland on the Bay at about $80.00 and Mission Bay Resort at about $70.00 a day. The result of our looking around and all things considered we will probably spend our time along the coast at the San Clemente State Beach.

We ate supper at the time share, spaghetti with sauce that Gerri brought from home.

Thursday May 26

All sunshine today.

Did I say the crossword puzzles were getting more difficult? Today I couldn’t finish the New York Times puzzle even with help from the On Across web site.

Today we went for a showing of the newly remodeled units, very nice. The units in our building will be remodeled before we get back next year.

We walked to a pottery shop across the street to check out wall hangers for our block wall. Nothing struck our fancy.

Later in the evening we walked a block north to try a new to us Mexican restaurant, Las Ollas. It was good food. We did find it odd that they had no ala carte menu.

Friday May 27

A little afternoon our friend Jane Knowles came over for a visit and lunch at Norte. She lives in Escondido. I don’t remember at Norte before, they have lunch specials that are good portions and reasonably priced. Jane had been here at the Carlsbad Inn earlier in the year and won a free one night stay. After lunch we went to the lobby for her to check on limitations. Jane had seen a sign about foreclosures on sale. She found a unit that faces the beach to the south, the same week as ours (week 21) that was reasonably priced. She made an offer on it and should know later if offer is accepted or there is a counter offer.

There was entertainment on the green, so we sat and talked while listening to the music. Much of the green had been changed. There is now concrete area with gas two fire pits in addition to the large lawn.

There was another couple sitting across the fire pit from us about five feet away. After some time the lady there asked Jane if her name was Jane. Turns out she has been a friend of Jane’s daughter for nearly 30 years. What a small world.

Jane left for home at about 6 PM, another great day.

I bought the paper late today. Two of the crossword puzzles were fairly easy. I didn’t even try the New York Times puzzle.

Saturday May 28

It was a little overcast this morning but it was bright out.

Gerri planned to go to a large Verizon store in Vista to see what upgrades were available for her Droid which she has had trouble with, but she woke up with a sore throat.

I went to Fry’s in San Marcos and picked up some things. A new bean bag mount for the Garmin 7200, a slide digitizer and a couple of programs that were on sale.

After I got back to the Carlsbad Inn we had sandwiches and the headed for the Verizon store with the intention of replacing Gerri’s Droid. We ended up with a lot more! I don’t know if all the workers at this store are the same, but we lucked out and were taken in hand by the most helpful, communicative and knowledgeable Verizon retail sales rep we have every experienced. If you are every in the Vista area and need help with a Verizon device contact Nam V. Phan.

I was originally intending to get me a basic new phone with no camera. The one without a camera also didn’t have Blue Tooth capability. Considering the new Nevada nanny state laws, I thought I should have that capability.

We ended up replacing Gerri’s phone, my phone and transferring our home phone to Verizon. Nam transferred all our contacts and pictures to the new phones. He also synced them with the Blue Tooth in Gerri’s car.

Sunday May 29

It was really windy today with whitecaps on the ocean as far as I could see.

Our plan for today is to drive to Todd’s house in Long Beach and spend the night.

Yesterday we made arrangements to check out at noon instead of 11 o’clock. Most places we stay have a 10 AM checkout. The extra two hours made for a leisurely time of packing up and loading the car.

Friday when Jane made an offer on a unit, the salesperson gave us a gift certificate for $25.00 at Norte. We had a nice lunch for $24.09, not counting the tip.

By one o’clock were on the way to Long Beach. We met Todd and family at Stearn’s Championship Park. The congregation of the church they attend was having a picnic.

After getting home we decided to go out to dinner at the California Fish Grill in Cypress. Good food and plenty of it, but you have to order your food at the counter and when ready they deliver it to the table.

After Emma and Wyatt were in bed we visited for awhile before turning in. Todd’s family all go to bed early and get up very early.

Monday May 30

Todd and Jeannette had decided to take advantage of our being there to go for a bike ride together. They usually go separately while the other stays with the kids.

Emma and Wyatt were very considerate in letting us sleep in after they got up.

After Todd and Jeannette got home they had breakfast. We got things back into the car and were on the road around 11 AM and were home at about 4:30 PM. Traffic was heavy going the other direction but wasn’t bad going to Las Vegas.

Glenna didn’t seem any worse for wear after being around two very active great grand children.