Mosaic project

We were driving recently to San Pedro this past weekend and spotted some people along a wall.  They were working on some mosaic.  We have noticed some activity along here a couple of weekends ago as well and so on the way home last Saturday, we decided to stop and ask what was going on. Well, it's a beautification project along 25th street, east of Patton.  We were suppose to go to a strawberry farm to pick strawberries on Sunday but due to the heat, the tours were canceled! :-(

So we decided to go work on the mosaic project instead:

The lady in charge gives us a template for a ship and a bag of tiles:

Just like a puzzle she says!

All done so we get the lady-in-charge.  There are already some other random ships on the wall as well:

Time to get it on the wall and the lady-in-charge shows us how:

She also later explained to us that this ship is called the "Absaroka".  Never heard of it before, so it was a great history lesson too!

Thumbs-up from Charlie!

Graham sorts of wanders off....

Momma is plowing through.  Crazy enough, I was sore the next 2 days after doing this just from squatting and bending over for those 2+ hours!

Magically, it is done!!!  I hope we fixed up those tiles properly with that mortar and nothing falls off!

Here is the close-up of the USS Absaroka ship:

I think we were pretty close.  Nice job Pridgen family! :-)

The USS Absaroka was originally a steamer in the service of the US Navy - named after the Absaroka Range of mountains in Montana and Wyoming (which I am just learning is named after the Absaroka Indians).  The ship was built in 1917 and between Oct 1918 - Feb 1919, the Absaroka made two transatlantic voyages carrying Army cargo to ports in France, England, and the Netherlands. During this 2nd trip, the ship rescued the captain and crew of the disabled British steamer "War Marvel" and landed them safely back in England.  Woohoo..!!!

On Feb 12, 1919, the Absaroka arrived in New York City and was drydocked for overhaul. It was later decommissioned that March and returned the United States Shipping Board. At the beginning of WWII, the ship was owned by the McCormick Steamship Company as a lumber carrier.  The Absaroka was torpedoed and damaged by the I-19 Japanese torpedo off Point Fermin, and beached off Fort MacArthur.  Point Fermin is only about 8 miles away from our apartment!  We will need to go check it out one day.

"Whale of a Day"

The "Whale of a Day" event was postponed due to rain last month but it was back on this past weekend.  We decided to walk to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center as we weren't sure what the parking situation was going to be like.  Views around here are just spectacular!  Oh, and we are LA Dodger fans now :-P

It took us a while so by the time we got there, we only have about 40 minutes left of the day's event.  Didn't take us long to "shop".  Charlie was especially happy with his bag of popcorn! :-)

We walk around the informative booths and almost every other booth, random people admired the boys' new rings:

Thankfully the money was for charity, otherwise I would have said no to the rings! But these rings have "special powers"??!

The bouncy house was deflated right at 4pm so the boys opted to play with their new frisbee instead.  So glad it didn't fly beyond the fence (a.k.a cliff!!!) but it does get stuck on the tree:

We get ready to go home and spot this poster.  Might be something interesting to do this weekend!  I have spotted the goats around the area recently. What a clever idea!  I think some golf courses use sheep???

On the way home, family photo op! Charlie is such a ham!!!

Yet to play on this par 3-course at the resort next door.  So pretty!

Recent library trip

I went to return some library books for the boys last week.  I can't remember now why I didn't take the boys.  Hmmm... anyhow, there was a book sale and I was so tempted to buy so many booksets!  Like Charles Dickens:

I probably spent 45 minutes in the basement where the book sale was and spent a few dollars. The books that I bought were no more than $1 each! I have yet to go through "How to Grip a golf club" in that Golf book with Graham and Charlie :-D

I spotted some Charlie Brown comic books for only 50 cents each!  These were published in the 1960s. Older than me and Bobby!!!

The librarian later was very proud to show me the dumbwaiter that still works in this library.  Seems like not many work/exist in other library these days:

He said I can tell Graham and Charlie about it when we visit the library again.  I am not sure about that.  The boys might not leave it alone!!!

I am definitely never buying new books at full price again.  We love Malaga Cove library!  Oh, by the way - although I didn't see any but I could also hear peacocks all of that morning I was there.  Too cool!!!

Random bits of Spring Break

Spring break was spent in Phoenix - March 31 till April 7.  Graham and Charlie got to spend some time with their cousins:

Bob and I got to play some golf with my sister and her hubby.  They were visiting from Minnesota:

The boys got to enjoy some time in the backyard:

That tricycle is so old and small, it's amazing how Graham is still able to ride on it!

The roses are blooming nicely.  Here is the other one:

We spot jack-rabbits beyond the fence and also a coyote one afternoon!  The gecko is quite the normal sight too:

Looks like there are 2 nests up in the trees.  The birds are so noisy especially in the mornings!

It's a losing battle with this tree and all the leaves that are falling.  This was the second time that week that I had swept up the leaves.  And now I guess we can't get rid of the tree because of the nests??!!?

At least "Bob" the cactus (from my college days) is making a comeback.  I spot 3 new baby off-springs/arms.  Yay!!!

I was so close to throwing out our golfer wind-spinner.  It was getting really squeaky and thankfully some WD-40 did the trick.  It really does need a new paint job. Next time:

We did add this airplane spinner to our yard collection.  There is a small solar panel in the front so the propeller/spinner lights up at night:

 We never miss our chance to go to Lowe's and ride the mowers:

We now send Graham to return our DVD rentals :-D

Amazing how a steering wheel cover can make up so much time in the backseat for Graham and Charlie:

Only 0.6 miles more to go before we get off US Route 91 on the way back to Cali.  Grrrr... I do not like this freeway!!!

We were making such good time until we encountered this.  Thankfully, the boys were busy watching "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and things started moving along after the police were able to clear up the accident ahead.
Hopefully it won't be too hot the next time we are back in Phoenix. It was already in the low to mid 90s this past Spring break!

"Let's go D-backs!"

The boys' first baseball game!  We went to the AZ Diamondback's game during our time in Phoenix (Spring Break - April 4).  Here's the ballpark in the city.  It took us about 45 min to get to it from the house:

Wow, AZ Diamondbacks is already celebrating it's 20th anniversary!

I am glad to see that this ball maze thing is still operational! I think my last time here was probably back in 1999???  And Graham and Charlie could have been here for hours!

A quick photo op with Graham and Charlie's cousins visiting from Minnesota.  Caden turned 7 years old in February (in red, far right) and Michael is 10 years old.  Look how much taller Caden is compared to Graham!

Found our seats and thanks to our HVAC service guy, we found out that these were available for $9.87 in support of the radio station 98.7FM.  What a deal!

The things I love about this ballpark/stadium is the roof is closed today.  It is in the mid 90s this afternoon and it is nice and cool in here with the A/C blasting.  Not sweat watching this baseball game today :-)

Charlie is slowly "studying" the name and faces of the players:

I definitely remember Randy Johnson - one of Dbacks' best pitcher back in the day.  Can't believe how much baseball I used to actually watch before vs. now.  I have no idea who this other guy is on the front page. Guess I need to "study" as well :-)

All day Charlie has been wanting an Icee!!!  That and we also had some churros.  There was a particular guy that would call out:
"Churrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrros!".
No joke.  He could really rrrrrrrrrrroll his R's!!!!

We got past the 7th inning stretch.  Graham is starting to lose interest...!

There weren't a lot of hits going on:

It did get a little bit exciting at the 9th inning but it was a SWEEP by the D-backs!!!

As if the baseball game was not enough, I decided to take the Bobby and the boys to hike Squaw Peak.  Oops... maybe not such a good idea?

There is Squaw Peak in the backdrop. Actually it was renamed in 2008 to "Piestewa Peak" in honor of Lori Piestewa who died serving in the Iraq conflict.

Wakie wakie!!! Off we go! The trail goes up 1,208 ft in 1.2 miles.  Definitely a good workout!  I used to hike this quite a bit when I was living/working in Phoenix (1999-2004):

Time to take for a break:

And another break.  The boys managed to find some shade:

It is quite the view and we are not even halfway up yet:

Graham and Daddy has abandoned me and Charlie.  We hike for another 10 minutes to perhaps the halfway point.  Charlie is SO pretending to be super tired in this photo! Quite convincing!!!

Okay, okay... we head down.  On the way down, I notice the same guy that had gone down just not too long ago going back up!  And also notice a mom carrying a baby on her back going up! Totally impressed!!!

Once we are all piled up in the car again, we head out to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner by the Biltmore.  Nothing better but to end the day with some yummy food and desserts :-D