A trip to Calif

 We flew to Calif to attend the celebration of life for Lydia Kinkelaar.  Terry was unable to schedule something until this date.  We flew into Orange County and then drove to Newport Beach and our hotel.  The Camping Squares are staying at Newport Dunes campground and we visited with them on Tuesday afternoon and evening.  We met Terry’s girlfriend, Cathey, and she is very nice and a good fit for him.  I wish them a good life together. 

On Wednesday we spent most of the day with Terry at the service. He arranged a very nice event and it was nice to see many old friends.  Terry had some slide shows set up and we saw pictures of many friends we lost too early. After the service was over we went back to the campground and then out to dinner at Woody’s Wharf.  We had the nightly special, prime rib.  It was very good and we had a great time talking with friends.  Back at the campground we decided to relax in the hot tub. Very nice.  Bill and I headed back to our hotel after that and slept.  The next morning we checked out and headed to north Orange County where we will spend the next couple of days.  We drove by our old house and saw some of our neighbors there for a brief visit.  The neighborhood hasn’t changed much but the houses look older.  We stopped at Flame Broiler for lunch and wish we had one here. 

We checked into our hotel and rested a bit before driving over to visit my Mom. The place she is staying in is very nice. We visited for awhile before returning to the hotel. We were really tired and didn’t feel like driving anywhere so we went downstairs to the restaurant.  The hotel restaurant only had a few things but at least it was food.  We went to bed early as we are still tired.  California is dry, hot and brown. Also crowded.  We don’t have any desire to move back. Traffic is still horrible.  

Friday we didn’t have a lot to do but did visit my favorite shoe store and I got a new pair.  We met my brother, his wife, my niece, her wife, my other niece and her family for dinner.  We had a good time visiting.  I got info on the service for my brother in a couple of weeks.  We talked a bit about the next steps the kids have to take to settle the family estate.  Having just updated our trust we are fairly familiar with all that.  I will help them as much as I can via the internet.  

We flew home on Saturday.  Our layover in Dallas/Fort Worth was short and we had to hoof it to get to the terminal.  We arrived at gate A35 and walked to gate C10. I grabbed a sandwich from the Friday’s cart and sat down. Then I got a notice our gate had changed to A10!  Yep, right back where we been!  And we only had a few minutes to get there.  As we hurried to get there we ran into the pilots for our flight.  They told us all to slow down as the plane wasn’t going anywhere without them!  We had to change terminals again and they showed us how to get the tram so we didn’t have to walk as far.  Thanks guys.  The flight was about 30 minutes late leaving and we got lucky with nobody else in our row so lots of room.  We got home around 10:00 pm.  We unpacked the necessities and then went to bed. We will do everything else tomorrow.  

I have to fly back in two weeks but after that I hope to not fly for a long time.