Adventures in Wellonsland: A month when we were together more than we weren't

November is always full of USMC balls - at least for Jim that is. I told him I would commit to no more than 3 this year so he needed to pick them wisely. I actually attended a Navy Ball last month, so technically I guess we attended 4 balls. Jim attended 4 more than I did. First up was the I MEF ball at a casino to our north. The Commandant was the guest speaker and it was inspiring to hear his message and catch up with his lovely wife. We also managed to catch up with some former MAWTS-1 people, and anytime I can see one of those ladies I relish the opportunity! As much as I wasn't a fan of the weather in Yuma, the people from our time there were/are AWESOME!

Jim also got to fly out to the visiting Japanese Ship KAGA, which was visiting the US for some F35 testing. It was an incredible opportunity for him to participate, and he really made the most of it.

The following week, while Jim attended yet more USMC Birthday Balls, I drove to LA to meet up with Lilly and Lucy (who caught the train down from UCSB) ... we had a girls weekend to celebrate Lilly's 20th birthday. We hung around Westwood and had dinner and basically I just enjoyed being with both girls and watching them enjoy themselves and each other. It was so nice to not have a jammed pack itinerary.

The next morning we got up early and Lilly took us to a favorite hike of hers in Pacific Palisades which offered great views of the ocean and mountains. Afterwards we went to Lulu's bagels (again) to have yet another incredible breakfast!

As stated earlier, the whole reason I went to LA for the weekend was to celebrate Lilly's 20th birthday! It is hard to believe our first baby is already 20! Where did the time go? We will have our traditional birthday festivities later when we are all together for Thanksgiving but she did humor me with blowing out some candles on a slice of cheesecake.

Before I could even blink, it was time for me to return home. Lucy was spending another night in LA with Lilly and they assured me they could totally get Lucy up at 0500 to catch her early bus back to UCSB. I am glad they have figured out the easiest transportation between the two schools and I hope they take advantage of it!

It was hard to leave them both - I think I cried almost the whole way home.

While the girls and I were having a grand old time, the boys decided to have their own fun. Jim got Ben up on Sunday and they decided to hit up La Jolla for some pancakes and water views of their own.

The following week I was outside and heard a loud buzzing in the front yard. The week prior, I noticed LOTS of bees in our flower borders that have blooming rosemary in them. So I figured it was something similar. Much to my surprise it was a few hundred bees swarming inside my Tanuki statue. I was hoping it was the start of a hive so we could potentially get a bee box and some honey out of it, but sadly the bee experts said these bees were leftover bees from a hive that had moved on and they weren’t going to survive. I had already started crafting a 3dMaw honey logo and everything - dang it!

To make up for the stinging (see what I did there) loss of not having a hive of bees in our yard, Jim took me down to the Japanese ship the Kaga that he had visited last week for an evening reception. It was an awesome event! The food was incredible and the ship is immaculate.

As I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few USMC balls to attend this month - well at least for ~~Jim~~ some of us. The next one I attended was 3rd MAW’s and we had our good friends the McArdles join us! It was a beautiful, although brisk evening and it was so nice to celebrate the USMC’s 249th birthday with all of our friends and neighbors!

The next morning we decided to check out the Point Cabrillos National Monument on Point Loma. I feel like the kids and I checked this out several years ago when we came over from Yuma for a long weekend or something. But Jim had never been so it was cool to see it again. Somehow I forgot to bring tennis shoes for the trip home so Jim let me borrow his. I wore a couple of pairs of socks to keep them on but I felt like I was walking around with clown shoes on 😬.

This will be more than likely the last tower garden update for calendar year 2024. It is my hope that we will start fresh in March. This thing is in DESPERATE need of cleaning and I have 2 gallon sized ziplock full of cherry tomatoes in my freezer and no idea what I am going to do with them.

Since moving to San Diego this summer, several of the spouses have get togethers every month. It is sad that I haven't been able to make ANY of the them. But this month was different! YEAH! We got to go over to MCRD San Diego to watch a Moto run in conjunction with one of the last graduating classes of the "season". We also got a tour of the depot and got to see allll the things and met with the current "Chesty" depot mascot (soooo cute). It was a great day and I learned a lot. Looking forward to the next one.

Finally we are up to Thanksgiving! Our original plan was for Jim, Ben and I to drive up to LA to pick up Lilly before heading up to Santa Barbara to grab Lucy on our way to Pinnacles National Park. Well Lilly found out she could actually come home earlier because all of her classes the week of Thanksgiving were either canceled or remote so we got her on a train and she joined us in San Diego for a few bonus days! Which is going to work in my favor cause I need someone else to help me pack up the car!

I didn't get my balloon picture from earlier this month so I took full advantage - hee see

Since we no longer have to stop by LA to pick up Lilly, we were able to get to Santa Barbara earlier than we expected which is nice because it enabled us to get to Pinnacles before dark! But first we had to grab Lucy. This was Ben's first visit to UCSB so we felt we needed to give him a quick tour and grab some lunch before hitting the road. We also did a quick strike in the book store to pick up more UCSB merch ... what a beautiful campus!

We arrived at Pinnacles with plenty of time to check into our cabin and make a quick visit to the visitor center and store. Next we drove over to our cabin and proceeded to set up for the night. I didn't really know what to expect in terms of a "tent cabin" and there was no other description on the website or in the reviews. Essentially it is a cabin with canvas walls and roof. It comes with a space heater and we brought an additional one, but given the canvas walls and the overnight lows are in the 20's I have a feeling we are going to be CCCOOOOLLLLDDDD!

Jim loves to cook over a campfire, so he was super excited to get down to business. Who was I to spoil his fun. Go Marine Go. The park has "Do not feed the animals" signs posted about every 10 feet. Apparently, the ~~animals~~ raccoons don't know how to read cause within minutes of us breaking out the food 4 of them swarmed our picnic table and made off with our pack of wipes. Lucky for us, I had another pack.

As predicted, we froze over night. Jim and I basically slept inside a single sleeping bag. Despite being human popsicles, the kids were up fairly early and ready to for a long hike!

We drove up as close as we could to the Bear Gulch trail and worked our way up High Peaks and then back down again to our car. All in all it was approximately about 11 miles. Breath taking! We think we saw some California Condors, but without binoculars we weren't 100%

Another night of really cold temperatures and another visit with our friends the raccoons, who brought all of their friends and neighbors for a visit after we finished our dinner.

We got up and on the road and bade goodbye to Pinnacles. If you have the opportunity to visit this park, you should.

We had the whole day ahead of us and made it to Monterey by 10:00am so we decided to go as far south as possible on the Pacific Coast Highway and checked out Big Sur. Really we wanted to eat at Nepenthe, which is a famous restaurant built around a cabin once owned by Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth for about a minute. Jim and I visited it on our very first trip to the area back in 1998 and we were excited to show it to the children. They, unsurprisingly, loved it as much as we did.

After a quick bite, we headed back to Monterey and decided to check out the aquarium. Another thing Jim and I did way back when. It was incredible then, and still amazing. I did want to see the Mola Mola (giant sunfish) but sadly it passed away several years ago. Sigh. Of course there were several other really cool things to see and I think we covered every one.

After our aquarium visit, we walked down the streets of Monterey and had our "Thanksgiving" dinner which we combined with the last celebratory dinner for Lilly's birthday. The perfect end to our month long celebration!

The next day we checked out Point Lobos State Natural Reserve on Lucy's recommendation. We were one of the first cars in the park and spent about 2 hours there. Beautiful! One of my favorite parts of this trip (which was chock full of incredible things) was the time we spend walking on the trails here. Afterwards we headed to Carmel by the Sea and Torrey Pines golf course before turning the car south to head back towards home. Carmel was in full Christmas swing with lots of shopping and cafes and tons and tons of people everywhere.

On our way back towards Santa Barbara, we decided to drive a tiny bit out of our way to take a Christmas themed tour of the Hearst Castle. Jim's sister Sallie had been years before and said it was worth it. Jim's only regret was we couldn't make reservations at the time of sunset. I agree, I would have liked to see the grounds in daylight, but the evening skies didn't diminish the overall opulence of the estate one bit!

After our tour, we drove to Santa Barbara so we could be back in San Diego early enough to be able to reset for the week. It was a tearful goodbye in the parking lot of Lucy's dorm but good news it is really only for about 2 weeks cause Winter break is just around the corner.