PAST MEETS PRESENT

 

During our vacation, my sister-in-law showed us all the photos she'd gotten after The Doctor's  Mother passed away. I had just finished showing her our road trip photos.

 The San Antonio River Walk was on one of our stops. She gave me this one...

 her Mother (my mother-in-law) with an art exhibit on the San Antonio River  Walk in 1947! Even though the photo had Nov 1947 stamped on the top, we're not quit sure when the photo was taken. See that little girl in the playpen? That's the Doc's older sister and seeing as The Doc was born in Jan 1948,he could be in the photo, too. But the even cooler thing about this photo is we have 2 of the pieces of art in our home.

 This is Lulubell, and in the photos she's on the left.

And this one is of a Russian church in northern California. It's pretty much dead center on the bottom. Thank you people of San Antonio for not buying these two pieces.

I know Lulubelle was made in the early 1940's when Lila was in collage at San Jose State. She went on to marry Wes, have 5 children, be a special ed teacher in southern California, be a Grandmother to 9 and Great-Grandmother to 5. She passed away in 2011 a couple of months after her 90th birthday. 

Past meets present, indeed.

WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 115

 

It seems that everything is back to normal after the 3 week vacation. Here's one of the dolls I got on that vacation.

 

I do believe she throwing some shade and is the Queen of Bitch Face!

Would you buy flowers from her? 

ROAD TRIP, WEDDING, ROAD TRIP, PART 3

We went home a different route: Berkeley, Needles, I-20, Shrevesport-to-Lafayette, La, east on I-10

But first the photos that didn't want to be friendly yesterday and the rest of the stuff we bought.

 

 On Saturday I went thrifting with N & E. N and I have been thrifting buddies for over 20 years. E is still not sure she like's it, but it's slowly growing on her (they've only been married a couple of years) This hand painted jug was $1.99, there's no other markings. Any guess where it's from?

 Seen those crazy tassels hanging under placements in the housewares  department. I couldn't pass it up, that would have been rude. It was $4.95.

 I needed something to read in the car. So, now I smoke and speak with a French accent. Not really.

 Here's the stuff we bought on the road at different stops. The skull and little tile are from the Saddle blanket in El Paso, the little rug was free. The metal bird and magnet are from New Mexico. The sparkle amethyst and postcards are from Arizona.

 I love buying postcards, because I could never take photos that good. Sometimes the stores have old ones that are cool. These are from Louisiana, New Mexico, and Arizona.

 The Doctor collects armadillos, these placements are from the saddle blanket and were $1 a piece.

Now , on with the trip......

 You all know that California has a very large dessert? The Mojave  covers most of the southern part of the state. At the roadside rest are these signs.

 The Doctor standing under a joshua tree. Bono tried to photo bomb, but he didn't succeed.

The next day we drove across northern Arizona and it was much cooler. We stopped at Meteor Crater near Winslow. A huge meteor landed there 50,000 years ago. There's a interactive museum and a gift shop. It's where I got the hunk of amethyst.  

 I channeled my inner 12-year old boy and blew up the earth.

The crater is so big
it needs 2 photos.
It's 2 1/2 miles around and deeper
than a 60 story building.


We stayed the night in Gallup, New Mexico and headed for Texas.

 Lunch was at this local place in Santa Rosa, NM. Green chili enchiladas? Yes, please.

North Texas is flat and kind of boring, I didn't take any photos. We stayed the night  in Childress, which had  a lot of junk shops, but they weren't open. Boo Hoo. It pretty much rained the whole day. which cooled the weather off.

 Louisiana Welcome Center. Between Alexandria and Lafayette we drove through a 20 mile long rain storm. The rain was so heavy at times, we couldn't see out the window. We made it to Breaux Bridge without to much trouble.

 This fun store was right next to the hotel, but opened at 11am. Too bad we had an all day drive ahead of us. I want to go back!

 Funky Cajun charm. We had shrimp Po' boys from there for dinner. It's next to the art store.

Only in America? Next to the Po' boy restaurant, Greek and Lebanese! Both places were open, but we were really wanting some Cajun food.

That was our big adventure. Now back to real life. Hope you enjoy the photos. Come visit America, there's lot to see outside the big cities.

ROAD TRIP, WEDDING, ROAD TRIP, PART 2

 

Calabasas, Will Rodger's State Park, I-5, and Berkeley

Ready for more vacation photos? Of course you are.

The wedding took place on Aug 31 at The Ahmanson Ranch House in the Santa  Monica mountains. Calabasas is about 10 minutes away.

 

 Here's a close up of the beautiful fountain. Nobody in the wedding party lives here, it was the closest hotel.

Can you see the house?

 It wouldn't be a So Cal wedding without a beach trip!

 The Doctor with way too much sunscreen on his face

 The Bride (Lina) and Groom (Joe). They were joking about the wedding being at the beach, ala Pam Anderson and Tommy Lee.

Saturday night was event #2. a meet and greet for all the quests. Some of us came a long way: New York, Florida and Brazil

 My friend's daughter, Rachel.

 Me and The Doc. All that sunscreen worked.

Some of our side of the guests: The Doc's sister (Karen), AKA Mother of the Groom, Sister-in-law (Misty)and The Doc's little Bro (Gary)

 The Bride and her collage girlfriends. She's wearing the dress Mother of the Groom wore at her wedding. It's vintage Gunny Sack.

 The Groom and his childhood friends (Yanni and Justin). The Groom learned a new word: bespoke. He's wearing a custom made wedding suit. He and I have a joke: when he was going to his medical school interviews, he asked me to come with him to pick out a suit. He said "The only suit I'll ever wear".

 Sunday was the big day. Here's one of the views from the site. It really needs to rain in California.

 The wedding photos were taken by some of the other guests.

Here comes the groom! With his Mom and Dad. (Karen and Mike)

 Getting hitched under an old olive tree.

Almost kissing the Bride!

Hang on! Neither of them fell off the folding chairs.

Karen holding are great niece, Annadelle. She's nine months old.

 Sister of the Groom, old family friend and the Groom.

 My niece and her husband (Christie and Ray). Happy 2nd to you guys!

Mr. Cool

 Monday morning in the hotel lobby. Off on their min-moon. The real honeymoon is next summer after the Groom finishes he's residence. They plan on a 2-3 month European trip, them there's an emergency room spot for the Groom in New Zealand! Hmm, maybe a trip across water is in my future.  


Monday was spent driving up I-5 to Berkeley to spend the week at the Groom parents house.

We had to stop and have soup and take these silly photos.

The Doc all centered

Me, off centered

 Ran into these two, again. N and E, long time friends at Saul's. We had to get coffee afterwards and ran into the Queen!

 Window display at a jewelry store.

No trip is complete without hitting a few thrift stores. Or 5.

 Mother of the Groom and I love this place! Not a thrift store but a salvage yard. They have everything, including vintage clothes, books, the kitchen sink(or100's). Here's what I found:

 The cigar box, little plates and cloth dolls were from Urban Ore. The jewelery box and 4 weird dolls (you'll see them later) are from a small chazza. The, real, fox stole($2.99) and vintage gloves are from Savers and the Minnesota Buckskins jacket was $1 from Out of the Closet.

 How could I pass these up? I was on vacation after all.

 While the women folk were thrifting, the men folk went to the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond. A lot of battleships were built in Richmond during WWII.

They bought us presents! I got a tote bag, earrings and a Christmas ornament.

I seem to be having a problem with the last three photo. I'll save them for next time. Hope this isn't getting too boring.

Until next time

WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 114

 

And his hat is bigger than he is.

What's up with the shoulder thingys?  The sword is a nice touch.

I've only posted one weird doll because I was on vacation for 3 weeks. And I didn't want to drag my laptop across the country.  Part 113 was posted (a saved post)  from my brother-in-law's computer. As he does a lot of work from home, I didn't want to hog the only computer in the house. Everything will be back to normal now. 

Stay tuned for more vacation/wedding adventures.