The tour of parks!

A lettuce field at Indio
The shields Date farm guy - were we learned about dates and had our first date shake!

The thousands palms Oasis! Colin watching the bubbling water from the fault line and the tiny fish in it.

Thousand Palms oasis with Lorrie and Shelby!

The Thousand Palm Oasis! in the middle of the desert on the fault line.

Shields date factory!

The Zoo!



Sea world, feeding the seals and SHAMU!


After the last few days it is our opinion that they should put a napping place in the parks somewhere so the adults can nap! We are exhausted after our days in the parks and marvel and the children who not only keep up with everything but do laps around the adults . . . dancing non the less!!! the energy is truly amazing . . .sigh . . . remember those days!

Anyway over the last few days we have been taking in all the parks, Universal studios, Disney Land, California adventure, San Diego Zoo . . . and Sea World tomorrow. I imagine that after tomorrow we will be parked out . Not much has changed at Disney since I was there 14 years ago, except some of the paint has faded and it seems MUCH smaller now. But still lots of fun! Universal studios was excellent - my favorite 14years ago was the studio tour and it was my favorite this time as well - I even saw Wisteria lane. They were filming so I just saw the entrance to the street - but could recognize the houses etc!!!

We have also been to Indio (palm springs) to visit some family Friends from home. We went to the thousand palm oasis; an oasis in the desert that grows cuz its on the San Andreas Fault line. the water from the Fault line bubbles up to the surface and then palm trees grow - wolla!!!!!!
We also many crops of veggies and fruit and watched them harvest lettuce. Did you know that dates grow on Palm trees??? They do and it is a very labour intensive crop - we obviously toured an date farm which was very interesting.

So we sit in San Diego enjoying a quiet evening desperately trying to stay awake past 9pm it is only 8 now and we are fading fast!!

Sorry guys - internet today will not allow me to upload pics - will try later!

Hollywood and just hanging out!

Being silly in the gift shop - they suit me don't you think!

The entrance to the Oscars!

Kodak theater . . . with the workers taking down the decorations.

Hollywood walk of fame!

The El Capitan - where we watched a movie, its directly across the street from the Kodak theatre!

The SIGN!

The hummingbirds!

The sunset over Malibu!!

Toasting to a wonderful day!!

Well hello everybody, after last nights Oscar excitement we slept in - we are not used to going to bed after 1:30 am! so we had a lovely breakfast watched the dolphins and headed back out to Hollywood. While there we hit the Kodak theater (official site of the Oscars), Hollywood walk of fame, El Capitan theatre (were we watched a movie) and came back to enjoy champagne in the sunset!!!!

Apparently we are staying in the R.V. resort where Pamela Anderson and Matthew McConaughey has stayed. We also met on of the painters for the set of the t.v. show "medium"!!!

I am telling you all Malibu is the most beautiful and amazing place - I don't ever want to leave! I am unsure if I have ever been so impressed by a city before!

The Zimmers hit the Oscars!!!!!

picture of the crowd at the vanity fair party - we would be standing here in moments!

Sunset strip

The Vanity Fair Party - can you see the blue lights say vanity fair!

Sunset blvd

Our site at malibu beach r.v. park

Malibu beach r.v. resort (off season rate = $30/night)

The Dophins

Well we have started our trek home, we headed to L.A. to do a few tourist things that we had planned on doing in April. We are staying in Malibu at a stunning R.V. resort with an amazing view. Everything is in bloom right now and the air is soooo sweet smelling - hummingbirds everywhere.

We were trying to decide what to do last night once we arrived and were watching T.V.. That's right - watching the Oscars - then realized they were going on only about 40 mins away (okay it may have crossed my mind earlier). So what is a girl to do stuck in Malibu on Oscar night . . . get dressed up and head to Sunset blvd Hollywood OF COURSE! So that's what we did - IT WAS AMAZING!!! We were originally heading to the Kodak theater for a glimpse of the action but a general public person could not get anywhere near the action. Police were everywhere blocking off all the roads. So we drove around for a while soaking up the excitement! THEN . . . we spotted the Vanity Fair after Oscar party!! So we found parking only 5 blocks away and headed in that direction. We got an amazing view point right up front against the barricades holding the public back. To be honest with you I did not think I would see much BUT . . . . we were there approx 4hrs and here is the list of celebrities I not only saw but got to talk to and shake hands with some of them. We got to see most of these stars at least twice, they got out of there cars/limos walked the red carpet went into the party and then again while they left and got back into there cars. The worst part is my camera's battery pack died about 30min into it all - can you believe it?

• Sara Jesica PArker
• Will smith and Jada pinkett smith
• Chevy Chase (got to talk to him, shake his hand and he introduced me to his daughter!)
• Jennifer Anniston and John Mayer
• Nicole Kidman & husband (nicole is more pretty in person than on t.v.)
• Robert Denier
• Mylie Cyrus
• Borat
• Kate beckansale
• Lesli mann & Judd Apatow
• Jason segel (colin brushed sholders with him)
• John Cleese
• Mary Heart (ET host)
• Jessica Alba
• Tyler perry
• Christina Appelgate
• Penelopee Cruz
• Semla Hayek
• Jessica Biele (no justin timberlake)
• John Voit (got to shake hands and speak with him)
• Ben Stiller & wife
• Seth Rogan
• Amy Adams
• Mickey Rourke
• Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal
• Diana Krall
• Anthony Hopkins
• Ron howard
• Vin diesel
• Cheryle Tieggs
• Kate Winslet with her oscar
• cast of high school musical
• Ann hathaway
• Gwen Stephanie & Gavin Rosdale
• Smokey robinson
• Debra messing
• Meryl streep
• Robert downey Jr
• Adriane Brody
• Martin Short
• John Legend
• Christopher walkins
• Heidi Klum & Seal
• Tilda Swinton
• Russel Simons
• Justin Long
• Bill Maher
• Tina Faye

So that about sums up our star sightings. We also saw many many directors, etc all with there oscars. I luckily had a pen and the back of an old reciept to write on in my purse as the star passed us or i never would have remebered them all. It was AMAZING! so much FUN!!

So this morning we woke made some coffee and whent for a walk, we have a perfect view of the ocean - complete with dolphins and even a whale swimming by in a pod!!!! I could not hardle believe my eyes!! After all th time I have spent on or near the damn ocean I FINALLY saw some sea life - and it was free!!!!!!

Home from Cancun

Hello, we are home from Cancun and burned/tanned, exhausted - but had a BLAST. will blog more about it with pics tomorrow - after some sleep. We had a long day of flying today with connections both in Mexico City and Guadalajara.
I guess most everybody knows by now (stupid facebook - sometimes I really hate it) My contract was cancelled last Monday. After over a month worth of work I was "cancelled without cause" . It is all because of the economy the hospital companies are all in dept and can not afford the travellers as we cost the hospital companies about $90/hr. We don't get that in wage but our recruitment agencies do. so they cancelled a huge umber of us - I only know of 2 or 3 left in the hospital I was at. Also just so all future travellers are aware - perhaps Clinical One will not be your agency of choice as they are leaving me high and dry. No compensation no travel expenses nothing - just sorry, good by.

Anyway we will be returning home earlier than expected although we don't know when yet. We are taking this time to finish up all the travelling we wanted to do before we head home, could be several weeks yet.

We are happy and healthy and still enjoying our time. Hope all is well with everyone at home. Thanks for all your comments - I love them.

Off to Cancun!

Just wanting to let you all know that I ended up with some extra time off so we are off to Cancun for 10 days. Hope to blog about our adventures while we are there - if not will fill you in when we return. See ya!!

Our holiday with Jackie - over - LOTS of fun!

This post is just tidbits from Jackie's visit - funny signs etc!!!

Read the sign from The golden Gate Bridge! (you may have to click on the picture to blow it up)

A sign on the beach in San Fran!

We decided this sign was to remind hikers that gravity works here!

Our last evening with Jackie - drinking champaine in the hot tub!

The art of wine tasting! (or trying to be creative with a lot of wine on board)

Jackie being the best tourist of all - taking pictures from the sun roof at a stop light!!!!

Not the best video - but you get the drift!

February 2nd - 4th, off to Yosemite National Park

Now it was my turn to vacation with Colin and Jackie as we packed up the trailer and headed towards Yosemite National Park for 3days http://www.yosemitepark.com/ . Yosemite is a mountainous park region that is very beautiful, lots of places to hike, waterfalls, good views, and big trees. And that is pretty much what we did. Wednesday was our only full day at Yosemite and we did pretty good. I think we hiked about 18 - 20 km mostly straight up - we ad sore muscles that we were not even aware could be sore but it was all worth it as the waterfalls and views and nature were stunning. It was to bad that a lot of there attractions were closed for the season - even some of the trails but as you may have noticed in the pictures the trail closed sign did not stop us. Turns out being total rebels and ignoring the signs pays off - because we had the best views of some waterfalls we otherwise would not have been able to really see up close. Unfortunately we did have to stop eventually because the mist from the waterfalls was freezing on the trail steps and we deemed it best to turn around before someone got hurt and we had to get help to come to the closed trails to get us!

As the day came to a close we started the final 7km (about 3.5km each way) of our hike at 5pm with the sun setting on us (we are not so bright). We were desperate to see the sequoia grove - a forest of really old and giant sequoia trees. some of the trees are 2,500 to 3,000 years old, measure up to 35 ft (11 m) in diameter, and tower to heights of 250 to 300 ft (76 m to 91 m) above the ground. Single sequoia limbs may be larger than record-size trees of other species. There seem to be no limits on the trees' growth. Sequoias typically do not die of old age: they usually die by toppling. Unfortunately we only made it to the trail head and it was dark - best not to venture another 2miles into the forest at night. So we snapped a few pics of a pretty big tree at the trail head and headed back the 3.5km to the truck in the dark.

We left Yosemite sore but really satisfied with what we had seen with still more to see we have another excuse to go back!!!