Sunny Southern California ... it's a hotspot!

We have entered our transition period ... transitioning from spending the winter in Twentynine Palms to spending the summer in Kalispell, Montana. 

First stop ... Dockweiler State Beach RV Park ... the ONLY RV park in Los Angeles ... really!  Thankfully, it's right on the beach with full hook-ups (even if it is a bit of a parking lot and you are right under the take-off flight pattern for LAX ... can you say ear plugs?).

Two main reasons we stayed there three weeks ... granddaughters and grief.

Granddaughters:

Our son, Michael, and his wife, Erica, and our two darling granddaughters, Romy and Malin, are also in a transition period.  They are getting ready for the imminent arrival of Brooke Daughter #3 who arrived April 24th (see end of blog for more info on her arrival) and are just about finished with the Ecuador assignment before heading to Nicaragua.  We had an awesome time (but not enough time) with the kids on the beach and we thank Jesus for the GREAT weather we had.  Most mornings were absolutely beautiful with the wind kicking up in the afternoon, but sunny nonetheless.

Grief:

My brother-in-law, David Brown, passed away very quickly (and almost suddenly) from Bulbar ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).  He wasn't officially diagnosed until December 1st and then passed away in his sleep on March 20th.  Bulbar ALS is a very aggressive and rare form of ALS which makes it hard to diagnose.  He had his first symptom 51 weeks before he passed away, and most Bulbar ALS patients never make it past a year.  In memory of David Brown, who was like a brother to me, may you rest in peace in the arms of Jesus.

We had a wonderful stay at Dockweiler and because we kept extending we kept moving from one site to another which meant we had to pull in all the slides, raise the leveling jacks, somewhat batten down the hatches (but not completely), unhook all the utilities, and move about 3-4 spaces.  Then, put out the slides, lower the leveling jacks, put everything back into place, and hook up all the utilities again!  Oh what fun!  But why am I whining?  Our first four months on the road we did that every week and had it down to a science.



I did mention the weather was spectacular, right?  It provided me great walking-on-the-beach opportunities.  The bike path runs right by Dockweiler and on a number of occasions I used it to get in my daily exercise.  You can see the two rows of firepits in the photo below.  Remember this for later!

 I took a photo of an airplane taking off from LAX.



Here are some photos of the beautiful beach mornings.

 

 

 



Springtime was in the air and the colorfully creative beach flora abounded.

 

 

Here's Sadie taking time to stop and sniff the flowers. Even she can act like an amateur botanist.

Here's Gary with Sadie on one of my walks.  I often didn't walk with them because they want to dawdle and I'm like "on a mission" to get some "breaking a sweat" exercise done.  The two are mutually exclusive goals. 

On this walk, however, we did get an opportunity to see this egret.  The only other egret sightings I've had have all been at lagoons or bird preserves.  I think this guy had lost his way!

One morning I was particularly struck by these signs on my walk ...

Don't you wish left was like that too?  First you'd get the "CAUTION!" sign ... your road of life has some speed bumps ahead ... get prepared!  And then when that speed bump in your life hit, you'd know it because the sign would let you know, "Hey, you just hit the speed bump!"  Unfortunately, life isn't like that, is it?  We don't usually get the caution sign and the "here it is" sign!

 

Here are some photos I took at one of our different sites at the RV park.

 

Gary barbecuing dinner.  The sweatshirt means it was a little chilly/breezy!

That's our table and a view from our site ... unobstructed right now so you know it's during the week and not the weekend.  The weekends at Dockweiler are C-R-A-Z-Y!  And I do mean crazy!  To the right of the entrance is the day use beach area that is lined with fire pits and both Friday and Saturday nights every fire pit is active. People start coming into the day use area in the early morning to stake out their pit for the evening.  One time I was trying to get back into the RV park and my car was in the middle of the intersection for three lights because it was backed up so much with people trying to get into the day use area for the evening fire pit parties!

 Gary and Sadie guarding the RV.

We also were witness to some spectacular sunsets.

I mentioned in the beginning that one of the reasons we were there was to see our darling granddaughters. We babysat them one night, we had them to the beach a couple of times (as I mentioned earlier and as the pictures show, the weather was spectacular) ...



and we went to see Romy at her swim lessons at El Segundo Plunge.  She took swimming lessons in Zimbabwe but had few opportunities to swim in Ecuador so she was almost relearning here. 

 

Here she is swimming with her instructor.

 While waiting for instruction, she has spotted Gary and me in the stands so she's very happy that we are here to watch her swim!

 

I didn't take many photos with the girls because I was so focused on having fun with them!  Michael and Erica did take some, but they are now busy with the newest addition to the family, Vera Ellis Brooke, who was born April 24th at 8:00 a.m. weighing 7.56 pounds and 19" long!  Another granddaughter to have loads of fun with!!  And, shock of all shocks, this one does NOT have red hair, but is dark brown!  We thought for sure they would have their third redhead!





 

Psalms 127:3-5

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.