FUN TIMES OUT WEST (and why I should probably never fly again)....

Did you think I was gone forever?

For some reason, it felt like it, and it's taken me most of the past 3 days to get caught up around here, back in my Upstate NY home.

Not that Wink didn't do an OUTSTANDING job of keeping things running smoothly (which pretty much meant cleaning out the cat box a trillion times, sweeping up cat litter and dog treat crumbs and, oh yea, arranging for the house to be shown 3 times by realtors, which just cracks me up, as I don't think it's been shown more than twice in the past year! That'll teach me to leave town!).

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So, this is how it all went down:

Caught a few Southwest flights to the San Francisco Bay Area with our Little Miss Thing (she's headed back to Berkeley for her senior year)...

Was picked up by my husband's wonderful parents, and shuttled to their gorgeous, hillside home in Mill Valley (Marin Country, north of the Golden Gate Bridge)....check out their morning view from their living room!.........

Abbie's grandparents treated us to a wonderful dinner at Tyler Florence's/Sammy Hagar's new restaurant in downtown Mill Valley, El Paseo. Gorgeous, gorgeous atmosphere AND food!

The next morning, we headed over to Berkeley, where we moved all of Abbie's stuff into her new housing, then had lunch with my favorite Uncle Joe....such a funny guy!...

Next, we headed up to my parent's home in the central Sierra Mountains (almost 4,000 feet elevation), and were greeted by their funny dogs.

One dog, beloved Buck, is a gorgeous Golden Retriever...beautiful, but normal looking, by any dog-lover's standards...

And then there's JAKE...you've probably never seen anything like Jake...he's a Chinese Crested, which means he's almost hairless...super freaky looking, but super sweet...my nickname for him is sometimes "Mosquito", and sometimes "Gnat".......

(My mom has to actually put sunscreen on him, daily, when he's not wearing a t-shirt!)

Just want to show you some photos I took from around my parent's home...my dad is a most excellent gardener.....

amazing flowers on his decks.......

Berries, grapes, pears and tomatoes, everywhere...



My folks live on a small lake, and lucky them...they have Canada Geese there, too!...

The path around the lake...very peaceful and green....

But believe it or not, the real reason we were there was not just to take photos of the flora and fauna....we were there to CELEBRATE my parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary!

So fun to get all dressed up....here's the original Nelson familia....

(yes, I do in fact own shoes, and that's my brother Andrew to my right)

All of the "elders", messing around--those are my husband's parents, Al and Marilyn, on the right....(pretty crappy photo of the four of them, but that's alls I gots, people!)

My baby brother and my baby girl (who borrowed my Old and Everlasting dress for the evening)....

NOTE: I don't know what my problem was on this trip, but I have NO photos from the celebration itself at a very swanky restaurant, NO photos of my visits with my beloved cousin Joe, NONE of my fun breakfast with BFF Lisa, and NO photos of my stay with my Aunt Jan.

BUT, I do have this amazing photo I snapped while driving across the Golden Gate Bridge one morning....please don't tell my husband that I did this!....

Yup, that famed San Francisco summertime fog is for real!

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I wish that I could blame my lack of photography on just having TOO good of a time, but instead I fear it was because I just wasn't feeling too well a lot of the time.

And losing my entire bag of medications for 3 days didn't help matters any.

I also acquired a horrid e-mail virus, which basically locked me out of my e-mail account, before I left for California, which added to my off-kilter feeling.

And if you want to know why I should probably never fly again...WELL. I would just suggest you never, ever take a trip with me, because for some reason I am jinxed. The past four cross-country excursions I've taken have ended messily, with cancelled flights upon cancelled flights, the spending of nights in some strange hotel in some strange city, and then being told to be back at some strange airport at 5 a.m.. for a flight that is, surpise!........cancelled!

Did I mention that I'm not a great sleeper, even in my OWN bed? Or a great flier?

Why am I not on Xanax?

Regardless, I really had a great time on this trip...maybe next time Wink can actually come, too! (he had to work...I mean, somebody has to!)......

I think I'll be doing some Pinterest recipe baking over the next few days for some very special, deserving  people...and I'll be sure to share!

till then,

Leslie

XXX000

OOPS! One more little thing...please check out my newest Autumn creations in my itsy bitsy little Etsy store, located in the top right hand margin of this blog...sales have been terrific, so thank you, dear customers!