Storm Stayed in Kamloops (almost)

We are sort of storm stayed in Kamloops.  The weather to the east is still bad so we are sitting it out rather than risk getting into bad road conditions.  Not that we are suffering - cable TV, good wifi, 50 amp service and a quiet park.

So just as we left Mesa on  April 1, the cacti were beginning to bloom.  They were late we were told because of the cold weather in January.

One of the last things we did at Towerpoint before we left was to buy a park model.  It is older and so didn't cost too much.  We decided that it was too much trouble to try to get the motorhome back and forth.  Look what has happened this year!  Several days in Vancouver and now several days here.  So next year we will drive down with just our car.  So we will have painting and things like that to do next year.

One of the other things we did before we left Mesa was to have most of our regular social group over for dinner.  Larry and Linda had already left but he rest of us enjoyed our time together and wished everyone a safe trip home.  Some are leaving around the 15th.  Notice that Dalton is working hard behind the screen!

 

We headed for California because of concerns about the weather directly north.  Also we wanted to do a side trip to Hearst Castle near San Simeon.  We stayed nearby at Pasa Robles which is wine country.  What a coincidence that the Tamneys would stay in a wine region!

Miner George Hearst bought 40,00 acres of California in 1865.  In 1919 his only son William Randolph Hearst inhereited the ranch.  He called it The Ranch at San Simeon but it is now widely know as Hearst Castle. The castle was worked on from 1919 until 1947 under the direction of architect Julia Morgan. The property was the Hearst family ranch from 1865 but the castle itself wa given to the State of California in 1957.  The area around the castle is still a family ranch. W.R. Hearst eventually owned 250,000 acres.

Here is my take on Hearst Castle.  More money than brains is how I would sum it up. (In some periods he was making $50,000 a day.)  He would build a part and then if he didn't like it, he would have it torn down.  He was said to have liked antiques but that didn't stop him from altering them to fit into his rooms.  He got some monks' pews (those are the ones monks used to "cheat" at services when they were supposed to stand the whole time.)  Hearst cut his down to fit the size of  his room.  The antiques and the architecture are quite something to see however - and the gardens are lovely.

You begin at a visitors' centre where there is the usual souvenor store and restaurant.  From there you take a bus up a long and winding road to the castle itself.  You get a tour with a knowledgeable guide and then some time on your own.  As much time as you want.  Buses go up and down all the time.

Hearst Castle  gives you a view into the lives of the rich and famous in the1930s. Charles Lindgerg and Howard Hughes were among the visitros as well as numerous actors and actresses of the time. 

 

The Visitors' Center where you catch the bus.

 

 

 

A view of the castle from the Visitors' Center.

 

A portion of Casa Grande (one of two bell towers)  which is 69,000 square feet, with 115 rooms.

 

 

 

One of the guest houses used by the rich and famous. Each was named for its view:  Casa del Mar (House of the Sea), Casa del Sol (House of the Sun) and Casa del Monte (House of the Mountains).  Casa del Mar was Hearst's house until he moved into Casa Grande in 1928.

 

 

The main terrace which gives views of the Santa Lucia Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

 

 

The Neptune Pool.  It holds 345 gallons (US) of water and is 3-10 feet deep.  It was heated year round until the mid 70s. 

 

One of two similar statues.  I don't recall the details.

 

 

Another view of one of the bell towers.

 

 

The room where Hearst cut down the antique pews to fit the room.

 

 

 

How is the this for a pool room?

This pool is the only part of the gymnasium that was completed.  It is called the Roman Pool. It hp;d 250,000 (US) gallons of heated water.  There are tennis courts above the pool.

The guide said that Hearst did not use fancy table ware but preferred iron stone.  After all, this WAS the ranch!

The flags represent regions is Europe.  At first the originals were hung but as they began to deteriorate, copies were made and hung.

 

 

After our stop at the castle we continued north, heading for Canada.  We stayed in Vancouver for a few days hoping that the weather would improve.  While cooling our heels, we decided to go to Granville Island since my friend Penny had recently said on her blog that it was worth a look.  It had lots of neat little shops and a wonderful market with fruits, veggies, breads and pastries, cheeses, coffe and teas and an assortment of sweets.  We enjoyed a cup of fresh coffee and a pastry from one of the little shops in the food court area.  A busker played and sang while we ate and drank.

 

 

There were wonderful views of the city from the promenade around the eating area.

 

 

 

So now we sit and wait for the weather.  Our son David said Calgary had 5-6 inches of snow yesterday (Saturday, April 13)  but an Alberta Clipper is expected to bring much warmer weather this week.  When that happens we will move on - and maybe tow some good weather home to Saskatoon eventually!

 



Religious Education

Hold onto your hats.  Isobel is blogging two days in a row!!

Today we went to St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery at Florence.  The monastery is named after St. Anthony the Great, a renowned third century ascetic from Egypt. About 40 monks and novices follow a regimen of prayer and work there.

There is a main church and a number of chapels, all done in in the ornate style of their churches.  We women are required to wear a long skirt (ugly ones provided) , head scarves, shoes (no sandals) and long sleeves.  The men just have to have long sleeves. 

The sanctuaries are very ornate with lots of gold and hand carvings and also pictures of the saints.  It is very different from the Protestant churches that I am familiar with.

 

 

 

This chapel had incredible woodwork.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gardens were quite beautiful with fountains and lots of desert plants.





 

 





 



I learned that the cross is like this to show the sign above Jesus' head at the top and the part at the bottom indicates that of the thieves crucified on each side of Jesus, one went to Heaven and one to Hell and the tipped part indicates that.

 

 

 

 

There was a little store by the gate where you could buy religious books and also some of the monastery's produce such as wine and olive oil.  There was also some fresh baking but it wasn't clear if the monks made that as well. (I didn't see any sign of a bakery.) Even the store was run by a monk.  The only woman, other than visitors, that we saw was the one giving out the ugly skirts and scarves - oh and ugly shirts too if you had bare arms. You can see some pictures of women in the above pictures.  I won't tell you which one is me.  Dalton has a wonderful full length picture of me that I definitely won't share. 

 

 

It was an interesting experience of another church culture.

Keeping Active

The spirit has once again moved me to to blog so here is some of the news.

Our daughter and her family were here so we did quite a bit of touring around the area.  After all you have to keep a four year old and her mother active!  The weather was perfect the whole week.  Just over 20C.

We went to the Wildlife World first.  It was lots of fun with a boat ride, a train ride, a chair lift ride - not to mention many  animals to see.  We enjoyed feeding the giraffes.  Who knew Beth loves giraffes?!

And then there were ostriches and meercats:

 

As well as tortoises:

 

 

Next we went to the Children's Museum in Phoenix.  Sarah had a wonderful time doing all the activities.

Then we went to the Renaissance Festival again but with a child-friendly focus.  It was a good day and we found some neat rides for Sarah. 

Most of ther pictures we took had Sarah in them and I don't want to post them here.  If you know Beth, check out her Facebook.

We tried to go to an amusement park but despite its website (open every day!), it turned out to be closed, so we went to the Phoenix Zoo and it turned out that maybe it was a better place to go.  There were tons of neat animals.

 

 

We also went to Arizona Mills which is a huge outlet store mall.  You don't need to see the stores but they did have an aquarium that was enjoyed.

 

 

 

 

 



Since then, I have been to the Arizona quilt Guild Show with Dee from Airdrie.  It was quite large with a few  more vendors than our Saskatoon show but the number of  entrants in the competition wasn't much different.  It was held at the Mesa Convention Center.  We arrived about an hour after it opened in the morning and had to park in an overflow lot some distance away.  Need I say that there were a lot of people there?  We didn't buy much since the fabric was pricier than at our local stores.  We enjoyed seeing what the area quilters were doing though. Here are a few examples:

Today I quilted on the longarm quilt machine for the second time.  Dee recorded the moment.

 

 

We will be leaving here on April 1 and plan to come home up the western states and into the Lower Mainland until the weather gets better.  We hope that is before July!!  Get those hair dryers out and get that snow melted!!!

Festivals Abound

We have been to a few interesting places in the last couple of weeks.  We decided to take a drive to Scottsdale one day and found that they had an Arts Festival on as well as some sort of street festival.  The Arts Festival had lots of artists and artisans showing a variety of wares.  We then wandered on and found that the streets were closed off in parts of Old Scottsdale.  There were stages set up with live entertainment (Is that as opposed to dead entertainement??  I always wonder that when the TV announcer ways filmed in front of a live studio audience.  Do they sometimes film in front of dead people?)

I digress...  There was a classic car street. stage entertonament and some vendors and loads of people.  Since we were walking by, we went into a little adobe church.  It was the Our lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church.  It is the first Catholic church and oldest church in Scottsdale.

It has been restored to its original condition as much as possible.  Although the stained glass windows had been removed, they were found at a window company who had wondered how long it would take for someone to come back for them.

Here are some of the people who were sitting and walking around - and some of their wares:

 

 

 

We have been to Scottsdale a couple of times since then to have dinner with my friend Evelyne and her husband and to have lunch with Dalton's cousin and her husband.  We are getting to know how to get around there.  We like the Old Town with its interesting shops and eating places.

 

 

We have also been to the Renaissance Festival.  It is held on weekends just east of the Mesa area.  There are lots of booths to look at, food to eat, tournaments to attend and entertainers (live ones; no dead!!)  to enjoy.  We especially liked that many of the attendees also dress up in medieval clothes so it is difficult to tell the staff from the visitors.  If you want to participate, you can rent costumes or buy head gear and such.  Most of the visitors who were dressed up, appeared to arrive in costume though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the jousting tournment and our knight won which was a bonus. (Each section was assigned a knight.  We all got to cheer and boo as was appropriate.)

 

 

There are lots of activities for children so we think we will take Beth, Tim and Sarah when they come this week.

The last festival we have been to was right here at Towerpoint.  All the activity groups made displays to show what they have been doing all season.  Of course, our quilting group put on quite a show.  I only put in a couple of small pieces.

 

There were lots of other bigger (and better) ones to see though.

 

 

You get the idea.

Saturday was the third and last day of the Festival and there was a parade.  It had a Woodstock theme so there was lots of peace and love - and not a few pretend joints being smoked.  I think some of these people were at the original Woodstock!!

This is our neighbour's car. 1941.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good time was had by all.  Oh and I forgot to mention that food and wine/beer flowed pretty well for the three days.  No wonder a good time was had.  Peace and love to you all.