Broken collarbone and Rocket launch (Nov 23)

So, two very "exciting" things happened tonight.  I put "exciting" in quote because the first event that occurred caused someone some pain (and also some pain in the pocketbook!).  If you saw my previous post, well - Graham broke his collarbone! Oops!  

Here's the X-Ray:

Funny enough, this was the same bone he broke when he was 5 years old! Here's the copy of the X-Ray from that time:

And here's the blog post/link to almost exactly 6 years ago.  How uncanny!

https://cindyontour.blogspot.com/2015/12/grahams-broken-collar-bone.html

Graham fell when he was being chased by Charlie.  I wondered if it was perhaps his shoes.  I know he has slipped sometimes in those. But then he said it was probably the bicycle helmet he was wearing, where he was top-heavy. So well, there you go. 

Even a broken bone did not stop us from the next exciting event for the night though... a rocket launch! Yup, you heard right.  This was mainly the whole reason about coming up this way.  NASA is launching a DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) rocket which is its first planetary defense mission to destroy an asteroid.  Talk about WOW and AMAZING! It was scheduled to launch at 10:20pm and there I was, all worried about what we would do in between to kill some time.  Well, that broken collar bone and visit to the Urgent Care definitely kept the boys awake for a bit.  Ha ha!

Okay, road trip! It's so dark out here and there's nothing around us:

We went to one location but it was closed for a private NASA viewing. Boo!! So we drove up a hill and parked along side the cliff. Glad no one fell over!  One broken collarbone was plenty enough for one night :-P

The rocket launch was amazing!  The photos just does not do it justice:

Here's my quick video of it:

And here's the video that Charlie took from a camera: https://youtu.be/A70ZgslPgZM

Charlie was a bit shaky and there wasn't much to see towards the end in the video.  Ha ha! But the color commentary was kinda funny.  And if you're wondering that same thought - how long will it take for DART to hit that moonlet Dimorphos? Supposedly not until next year!  It will be interesting to see if it does. That's a whole lot of calculations to get that right.  Sheesh!

It's too bad you couldn't hear the ROAR that the rocket made after its launch. That was so cool! And you can't quite see the rocket in the photos either. It's only appearing as a blob of light:

Here's a photo I got off the internet so you can see what the rocket looks like from up close, just before launch:

Well, that was that!  Pretty exciting night so say the least.  Time to drive back to the RV park in the dark and fog:

Bobby just mentioned there's another rocket launch right before the New Year.  Maybe we'll do a day trip??!  :-D

Flying Flag (Day 3 - Nov 24)

I'm not sure why it's taking me this long to post, I'm really not sure what I've been doing lately! I have not been working on the outdoor patio ceiling for quite a while now. It's been cold outside.  I knew I should have done this over the summer holidays. Ha!  If anything, we did finally put up the Christmas tree last night.  The boys will decorate it with ornaments today.

So here's the continuation of our Flying Flags trip.  Day 3 was a busy one! And then, there was also a little "excitement" at the end of the day.  But first, early start to the day and ready to scoot over to the Airstream where Daddy and Graham are sleeping.  By the way, I survived another night in my sleeping bag/without heat in the tent!

Graham and Charlie love being able to ride their scooter and Ripstick in this RV park.  Charlie in his fancy sunglasses.  Too funny!

And they are off!

Big pumpkin along the way... 

Now this is the RV that I would want - the one to the right, where the back drops down and serves as a back porch. And it even has sliding doors! Although we're probably more likely to get something like the one on the left, where the sleeping quarters jut out.  Ha ha!

So glad there aren't too many cars during the middle of the week:

After breakfast, we are off to see a Mission.  Yes, this seems to be our thing now.  We've seen quite a few now!  It's so serene out here:

The Visitor Center is closed so we try and find our way around:

Oh boy, Poison oak in the area!  Let's try and stay away from that:

Awww... piggy!!!  I think this might be the first time the boys have seen a real live pig.  And it's big!

This place is massive!  By the way, this mission is called La Purisima Mission State Historic Park.  It's one of the most completely restored mission in California: 

I think that cow hide has been drying out here for quite a while now.  It looks crispy! 

OMG... so many gophers!  They obviously scattered back into their holes when they heard us coming, except for this one.  Ha ha!

Family we-fie!

So many birds nest along the eaves of the roof:

Cool looking door knob.  It's amazing how everything is handmade here:

There's a lot of furniture and belongings that were used as if it were back in the 1820s (although this mission was founded in 1787:

I have to say this place did start to give me the heebie-jeebies.  I'm not sure what it was, but it just seemed more real - being able to see how people lived here and worked at this mission.  I don't think the boys are were bothered by it but Bobby felt the same way too when I asked him later on when we got back to the car:

I thought this was such an ingenious way to hold a pot!  I need to make one of these built-in pot holders.  And perhaps the pot too :-)

This is the biggest spinning wheel I have ever seen!

Weaving was a big part of this community.  Here's Graham trying to figure out the name of this machine.  I don't think we actually did figure it out.  I told him it was just the "weaving machine" but supposedly there's a specific name?

I wonder if that's the "everything" bell - meal time and prayer time bell:

I love how this door was carved:

Simple study desk and chair.  And love the shutters on the window.  Again, all handmade!

This is how the structure of the building looks like before it was actually completed.  Pretty rough texture:

Real candle chandeliers!

This is probably the longest walkway that I've seen at any of the missions:

Such details even on the ground:

Not sure if you can see it but there's lots of moss hanging off the tree.  Reminded me a bit of the south like in Lousiana:

Here's a pool for bathing and washing not too far from the buildings.  Although there was a dead rat in it.  Yuck:

Poison oak!!!

The architecture is just amazing here, with all these beams:

Okay, time for lunch!  We have a golf tee-time to make.  Looks like Charlie is not sharing his milkshake:

Little stinker!

It's a big lunch.  I might need a nap after this:

We  made our tee time and you can't really tell, but it is windy!

Here's Bobby giving Graham a fist pump.  Graham was able to get over the water with no issues!  We definitely need to boost up their confidence:

Charlie didn't quite hit the perfect shot but he was still also able to get over the water.

Here's a quick peek at their swings.  Here is Graham:

And this one is Charlie's swing:

Not too shabby considering they haven't been playing very much.

Deer!!!

Too bad we didn't have our bows and arrows.  Just kidding ;-P

It's beautiful here:

Only playing 9-holes today, so family we-fie by the 9th green:

Our boys... growing up fast!

Oh, you can actually rent these motorcycles instead of the golf cart.  There's a special spot to put your golf bag.  Maybe next time :-D

On the way home, we stopped by a restaurant to perhaps pick up some meats for a cookout.  But unfortunately, it didn't have anything!  So we ordered some shepherd's pie and some other things to eat (don't remember what now).  I wish they gave us a bigger portion of shepherd's pie!

We ended up going to the supermarket to pick up some food to BBQ.  In the meantime, Charlie is starting with dessert - a chocolate covered marshmallow. Yummmm.... and only while on vacation is dessert happening before mealtime.  Although, we did just let the boys have s'mores the other day before dinnertime.  Ha!

And oops... looks like we are on our own for a bit.  Bobby is taking Graham to the Urgent Care after a bad fall on the street:

Oh boy, broken collarbone.  Again!

Yup, Graham broke this same collarbone when he was 5 years old (6 years ago).  X-rays to follow in the next post!