Happy 4th of July!

This July 4th we find ourselves (totally unplanned) in beautiful San Diego. Jim came home yesterday from work about 2:30 when I suggested we cool off in San Diego. We were on the road by 3:30. Arrived at the hotel on Harbor Island at a little after 9:30 after a fairly easy drive (meaning not much traffic).

Here is what greeted us out our balcony when we got to our room - Moon Over The Marina.

This is what the view looks like during the day.

The people in San Diego really like to celebrate the 4th - every park and all of the shorelines along the bay are filled with families and groups setting up tents, getting the BBQs going, the kids playing games and settling in for the fireworks over the bay later tonight. We brought our bikes along and went for a ride this morning after our walk. Rode about 10 miles dodging people all along the way. I've never see so many people around this area. We took a rest at the far end of Shelter Island before heading back to the hotel.

We enjoyed a nice lunch at a deli at the marina by the hotel, then walked down towards the downtown waterfront approx 2.5 miles (one way, we still needed to return). The walk tired us out, so needed to rest while looking at this beautiful scenery.

The marina is sure active today and as the evening wears on, I'm sure a few more parties will be enjoyed on the boats at the docks.

Tomorrow another bike ride and just enjoy this beautiful 79 degree weather.

EEEEKKK!!! THERE'S A SNAKE IN THE DRIVEWAY!!!!

AND IT'S RED!!!

"Get in here Linda and stop taking pictures, daylight's wasting, they are waiting for us at the racetrack!"

Jim's new toy showed up today. He had 427 reasons to enjoy this reptile, which #1 is the sound - it's just "mind blowing". (What men think is important????)

Of course I had to put a picture of the engine because that is all that men look at. 570HP BABY!!! (and only 2600 lbs of car)

This is an early morning cruising car at this time of the year. We'll be on the road by 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning for its maiden cruise. Breakfast anyone?

Cars & Coffee Cruise In

Took the '67 up to show at the Cars & Coffee yesterday morning at La Encantada shopping center. Beautiful morning to hang out with "car" people and look at all the great cars that are here in Tucson. Here's our beautiful '67. It sure makes a nice presence in any car show.

It turned out to be a great show with lots of people and many different types of cars from old classics to new vehicles.

Jim found several guys who knew cobras so he was able to gather more info for his research on his next vehicle he will probably purchase.  Jim's preference is an Indigo Blue with a white stripe, even though the red looks good also.

It was such an enjoyable time, that 3 hours passed by in a blink. Tucked the '67 back in the garage, then headed for the golf course. Ended the day enjoying watching NBA on the patio tasting some vino and grilling hamburgers. How can it get any better?

"Houston we have a problem".

For thouse of you on FB you know that we are in Houston for a Mecum auto auction. Arrived Wed. and drove directly to the Galveston Bay. Had lunch at Bubba Gumps on the boardwalk of Kemah .

From lunch we went to the Johnson Space Center where we went on the tram tour. 

The tour took us to the historical control center.

The last stop was to see Saturn 5.

You walk in the building and your first words are "WOW".

After our tour of Space Center we sought out our hotel. The traffic in Houston is terrible. We were comparing it to Seattle. 

Mecum auction on Thursday thru Sat. Lots of great cars, but nothing for us, but gives us lots of details and info on what we are looking for. 

Can't you see Jim driving one of these?

Gathered useful info on these Cobras.

It's Fri night and we are looking for dinner, we end up at a seafood place that turns out to be great!

We started out with alligator, then gumbo then Cajun halibut and Mahi Mahi. Great dinner - boy am I full.

One more day at Mecum then back to Tucson.

Richard & Jane's Visit

Richard (Jim's younger brother) and Jane came to Tucson to warm up from their cold winter in Green Bay, WI. While staying with Jane's sister Linda, who also lives in Tucson with her husband Chris, Rich escaped each day to play golf.

Richard joined Jim and Greg for golf at Ventana on Wed. & Thurs. afternoons, then on Friday, Greg invited us to play golf at Dorado.

As you can see, it's always tough out on the golf course.

 Then Richard joined Jim and myself for an afternoon of golf back at Ventana. Our back patio became the nineteenth hole after being tortured out on the course. The Group Therapy practiced last evening was a trip through several wine regions along with a little BBQ.

We started out in Columbia Valley, Washington with a Chardonnay then traveled on down to Alexander Valley in Sonoma County, CA for a very smooth Cab. Going on up the West Coast, we stopped in Elkton, Oregon with a Syrah. Then on to the Columbia River Gorge for a Cascade Cliff Cab.   Now that we are really into traveling nobody wanted to end the trip, so back down to Napa Valley, CA for an Old Vine Zinfandel. To end our travels after dinner, we went to the dessert menu by going to Montezuma County, Colorado for a Port enjoyed along with dark chocolate kisses.

All in all everybody enjoyed our trip around the wine regions. It was wonderful having Rich, Jane, Linda and Chris along on this wine tasting tour and look forward to Rich and Jane's next trip to Tucson so we can take another tour to hopefully some new regions and continue our Group Therapy!

Blossoms

Our orange tree is just filled with wonderful fragrant blossoms that promise an abundance of oranges later this year.

It's been several (maybe 3-4) years since we have had a good crop. Last year I believe we only had about 10 oranges at the most. I'm so looking forward to the juicy sweet fruit. All of our citrus trees are doing great this year. Even our grapefruit (that only produced 1 grapefruit this last year) has blossoms galore. And our little Mexican lime tree will be producing more limes than I will know what to do with. Well, more lime pie at the Moon house.

Our backyard is just blooming all around - even the Oleanders look good.

Then our only rose bush is producing its early blossoms before it takes a beating in the heat.

And of course all around Tucson the wildflowers are popping out all over. Just love this time of the year.

Fords on Fourth Car Show - Tucson

We had great fun at our first car show entering our 1967 and 1968 Mustang GT-500's.

The weather turned out beautiful after raining all day Sat. and into Sat. night. The streets were still wet when we drove down to 4th Ave, so had some cleaning to do on the cars after we arrived. 

We had visitors throughout the day from family. Greg showed up bright and early at 9am. He and Jim walked around viewing all the other cars while I manned the post. Michele and Samantha came by to cheer us on. Chuck, Kim and Emily showed up to see the cars displayed and stayed the rest of the afternoon. Brian and Marsha came by and stayed awhile to chat and look at the cars. It was great having the family there. (Thanks Marsha for taking our pictures.)

The attendance was great at the car show. We had a steady stream of lookers and plenty of people to talk with. 

Jim won 3rd place in our class (Mustang Club 1964-1973) in the entrants choice judging.

After Jim accepted his award, off we were to get the cars safely home and in the garage so we could head out to the last home game for UA (which we won against Stanford that gave us the Pac12 Championship.) All-in-all -- a great day!