4:10 to Yuma

Tuesday, 11am, we left the great state of California heading towards Yuma and hit up In n’ Out Burger for the last time. Not even one hour east of San Diego we ran into border patrol, the friendly version. I was bummed that I forgot to thank the man for his service to our country as his job has become very difficult in the last few years. I'd like to thank my cousin Ryan for his service down here. We were told stories about immigrant workers who don't cross the border into their own country now to visit their family as it is too dangerous due to the gang violence. Next panoramic view: Mountains of rocks. It literally just looked like someone had placed huge boulders on top of each other.

After about an hour or two of this type of landscape with great anticipation I got my first glimpse of the bounder wall which is surrounded by such sand dunes.

I could only take a shot from the freeway as there were no rest areas or turn outs when the wall was visible, intentional, I’m sure. In addition to the wall in the distance the freeway was lined with a fence and a steal barricade to control vehicle access. I hope through resolution this site will become a memory of complacency I share with my grandchildren and not a reality for their future.

As we drew near to Yuma I became very excited that we would arrive almost exactly at 3:10pm, I know it's corny but it's the only thing I know about the area besides the fact that we have grandparents living here. As we entered the city at about 3:07pm I spotted the train station on the right hand side of the freeway and my mind raced on the photo opportunity that awaited us. In the next moment I glanced down at my cell phone which read 4:10pm! I hadn't accounted for the time change. The other land mark that perked our interest was the Colorado River, small and winding its way into the Baja Sea. We would be crossing this river almost at its source in the Rocky Mountains over the course of the next 10 days.

We arrived to some very excited and welcoming grandparents in Yuma. They have a great home with daughter Marsha and all the Family were great hosts. We met Marsha’s adopted daughter Robin and Marsha’s granddaughter Ally as well. In Yuma irrigation is an interesting is a part of farm life. The plot of land Marsha bought used to grow citrus trees. The city sends water down the irrigation tracks once a week so the yard is in a constant flex between flood and drought.

So sorry we do not have any pictures of our family, we just got distracted in conversation and our time with them was too short. Grandpa is so full of puns and jokes that our sides were sore from laughing.

Grandma Pilar shared with us some of her growing up experiences, (thanks’ Grandma for letting us drill you!) and I fell in love with her falling in love story:

Grandma Pilar was 12 years when she first encountered Grandpa George. The Werner family lost their father in a tragic car accident along with Nate's aunt Pilar in 1979. They saw each other and at that point Pilar told her Aunt Tia that she would marry that boy and Aunt Tia quickly replied that she was too young to be thinking about marriage. George and Pilar grew up in the same neighborhood their whole life and would not exchange another word until college. At 20 Grandpa George was quite the catch, it's in the genes, and Pilar would watch him flirt with all the girls and pity herself for not being the most beautiful girl in town. Obviously this was not true as Pilar had her own set of admirers she was attempting to avoid. She can remember a time when one such suitor would not leave her alone and she stood at a window watching George in the reflection with another girl only to be caught by George. Grandma was so embarrassed but her affections were returned when Grandpa George offered to walk her home from college. This was a little awkward as well because Pilar's father would wait at the neighborhood corner to walk Pilar home every night. One such walk it was raining and Grandpa George asked Pilar to hold the one umbrella for them to share. And while Pilar's hands were occupied Grandpa George stole a long kiss... right in front of grandma's Pilar's father. They married soon after. Its stories like these from over 50 years ago that shape who we are and make life so enchanting and draw us together across generations.

San Diego Weekend!

The weekend in San Diego was packed with beach and park walking from the north to downtown, Mexican food in old town and American dining in down town, and best of all, Family.

Hands down the Werner's clans favorite beach, La Jolla.  

All these sea kayaks are surrounding the Sea Lion.

Pelicans with the Sea Lions.  One word, stinky.

I love the beach.

Can you find the third critter featured in this photo?

It's spring time at the beach.

Rare photo of the photographer.

Nate and I got a little too close.

I can certainly see the family resemblance. 

Nate strayed a little too far for comfort, it's great to have back up support.  Notice Susan is almost as far out as Nate, I wonder where he gets his love for the sea from?

Los Padres, very happy in their new beach side living.

I lost my glasses so Susan loaned me her back up pair.

This kid is getting in "trouble" for wondering off.

My first Mission Tour.  California has so much older European history compared to Washington.

Beautiful grounds at the Mission.

The Chapel, restored in the 1930s.

Nate drawing.

The next day we went to a cactus garden.

These flowers are on road sides all over San Diego, they are so beautiful.

We came at a great time to see the cacti flowering.

This is a very large tree, it reminds my of flowering magnolia trees.

New growth is so colorful.

We loved the cacti and succulents because they are so strange and completely different from vegetation back home.

Dragon tree.

In the garden people gratified the plants, sad.

Most of these pictures were taken by Kurt with his amazing camera.

A little evergreen color was a comforting sight.

Nothing in there but spiders, decided against my first inclination to climb in.

They grow big here.

We are at Balboa Park.

Another rare photo of the photographer. 

We would need a full week to see the whole park, there were many museums, art galleries, science center and zoo at the Balboa Park. We will be back here.

Sunday afternoon we walked along the pier in San Diego and visited the Mid-Way.

This is at the convention center in San Diego.

San Diego, the first half...

So Cal!!!!!

Our original plan of spending more time camping along the coast was rained out so we spent a few extra days with our parents in San Diego. Warmth, long walks on the beach, relaxing dinners with our family and some exciting adventures just begin to describe the 10 amazing days we spent in San Diego.  I was always a firm believe that family and community, not place, creates the feeling of coming home.  We brought a crazy rain storm in with us when we arrived in San Diego, much to our parent’s dismay; they tried to shake the Washington weather off us.  Kurt and Susan have been living in San Diego for the past four months and loving their new home.  They have quite the set up; I really enjoyed their patio, pool and hot tub.  I’m working on getting some color but the tan is very patchy as Nate has us on all kinds of adventures everyday and I’ve only laid out in the sun twice in the five weeks of our trip. 

Arriving on a Saturday night we had the opportunity to go to a San Diego Vineyard church on Sunday morning with a beach walk immediately following.  

We also arrive just in time for Andrew and Emily’s combined Star Wars themed gymnastics birthday party.  I wish I had a picture of Kim and Andrew but I was really distracted with getting to meet some of Kim’s lovely east coast family and all the kid activities.

Susan took us to some of her favorite beaches during the earlier part of the week.  

Nate took us up to see a Greene and Greene house.  For you that are unfamiliar, these Architects were brothers who were some of the last designers of the Arts and Crafts movement  formed as a critic of the industrial revolution when building materials became standardized with manufacturing factories. Architecture students spend tons of time studying these Architects and Nate and I appreciate their work.

Notice the address of the home is four and when you pass the home at night you would know what address is the building.

The year of construction is the entrance tile.

Greene brothers were influenced by Japanese art and many of the architectural elements reveal this influence; for example cloud lift patterns, a symmetric style and stain glass themes.

Here stands Nate, tired an depressed after several attempts on my part to get a picture of him in mid air.  I have so much more respect for all you out there that take those kinds of pictures.

We also had the opportunity to visit another amazing design of concrete at the Salk Institute in San Diego by Architect Louis Kahn.

Nate's Winter Quarter project really came together for me when I went to see the concrete work at this site.

Nate has always told me that I haven’t really experienced a good entertainment park so he wanted to take me to Great America, Six flags or Disney land.  It turned out that Susan had a coupon for Knott’s Berry Farm and so we went and we had a blast.  No lines, not too hot and an amazing chicken dinner to top off my best day in a theme park to date.  I worked really hard to ignore the rides and the meaning of the names of the rides so I could be even more shocked and thrilled by them.  

An Oldie but the Goody... we loved the wooden roller coaster for it's overall thrill.

Snoopy is the coolest.

We rode all of them at least twice but we wonder if our exploration into a little shack in the middle of the park was even more thrilling than the rides. Sue hosted a petting zoo of sorts in the middle of Knott’s Berry farm.  First she wanted us to hold the hissing cockroaches.  I am deathly afraid of them and refused.  Nate was a good sport. Then Sue wanted to put a scorpion on our clothes for a picture and at this point Nate had reached his bravery limit.  She was very persistent, Nate backed up, she followed, Nate moved to the other end of the small room, Sue literally chased Nate around the small shake.  I felt so sorry for him that I sacrificed myself, knowing that surely my love for him would get me through this terrifying experience. 

Walking Sticks

Sue was a riot, here she is kissing the frog.

On another night we got to visit with a co-worker from BC&J Architects, Csilla Elliott.  It was a great evening getting caught up with her about life in San Diego.  She swears she will never move again.