Where did the time go?

   I was looking at a folder with some pictures in it and noticed how much we had changed over time. Now that is not the most earth shattering revelation that I have ever come up with but, what the heck, this is my blog and I will call notice to what ever I want!  Notice how the pictures tell the story of two people and the journey that take together.  Notice also how many lives are impacted by their lives.

Vera and Jack et. al.

   Starting with their wedding.  There stand her girlhood friends and his school and football buddies.  One might imagine that they would all be friends forever.  Sadly, only Vicky keeps in touch and Arnie
died and Charlie and Tom have faded into the woodwork.

1st house in Glendora

   Soon after the wedding, we started started a family and had to look for a bigger home.  The one bedroom studio was just not big enough for what was to come
   We were cozy in our little apartment with it's bite sized rooms.  A kitchenette, a "twin sized" bedroom, and bath and a living room that was home to so many fellow students that attended Azusa Pacific University, just down the road.  But, when the babies started to come there was no stopping them and we had to move.  We expected to have to start in a small two bedroom "Levitz" type house with the flat roof and stark surroundings, but through a miracle and a great real estate agent we were able to into a house that had been placed in probate.  The house was wonderful!  Two bedrooms, a huge domed living room with a fireplace decorated with real Batchelder tiles.  There was a real dining room, a large kitchen a laundry room, and a detached garage that enclosed a backyard just made for children to play in.  We were astounded to find out later that one of the doors that we thought let to a closet was really the door to a stairway up to a modified upstairs area that could be used for an additional two bedrooms and a den.  WOW!

Lft to Rt. Brian, Marc and Adam

Lft to Rt. Brian, Adam and Marc

 Our joy increased as our family grew.  Three wonderful boys, like the arrows in a hunters quiver, ready to grow strong and make their ways into the world.  What a great mom Vera was.  A new home, a crazy, driven husband who insisted on working two jobs, playing college football and completing his first degree in Psychology.  She loved all of her four children then as she does now,  Marcus, Brian, Adam and me.
 

Travels With Cactus

Kauai:  August 2016

  Finally, it's time to get away.  We are the poster children for "cabin fever" and Kauai is one of our favorite "get aways."   Starting with the local foods like Loco Moco (Beef patty over rice with gravy)

to Bubba Burgers.  We stay at the beautiful Courtyard at Coconut Beach.  Not you common Courtyard however, This one is more on the lines of a fine "smaller" hotel, with all the amenities and a view that is outstanding.  It sits on a shoreline that juts out slightly into the sea on the windward side of the island.  This means you get to see the sun come up and the Trade winds blow all the rain into the central part of the "Garden" island.
   We were upgraded to an ocean view, over sized room that was to die for.  The people at the hotel  are wonderful.  They serve Mai Tais every afternoon and the music is very Hawaiian. We visited a local potter who uses a different technique and who has gotten very little notice in the ceramic world.  I posted his pictures om my Facebook page and there were many potters who saw them and liked them.
    I used to be a "Hawaii snob".  I felt that people who go to Hawaii just thought they were better than the rest of us, who went tent camping.  One day we won a free trip to the Big Island and from the time I left the door of the aircraft and smelled the flowers I was hooked.  We actually got so relaxed that we forgot to check out of our hotel and had to be given an extension.  We have been coming back to the islands for the last 15 years, at least!  I guess you could call us "Kamaina"  by now.

 We have visited the Islands of Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and of course, Hawaii, "da big island"  We love the Sun,  the foods, the music, the rain (that isn't rain), the sound of the surf,  the flowers that scent the air and mostly the ocean.  The ocean is the life of the islands.  Without the sea, there would not be the moisture in the air that is caught up in the clouds, that drop it our as rain on the top of the

volcanic mountains, that pours down as waterfalls and make the islands green.

Aloha