Sunday, August 7, 2016

A great many things and August

Been slacking as usual, so here's some catch up.

As always I shall point to Andy's Instagram & LuAnn's Instagram as sources of somewhat more frequent updates. Here are some highlights since our last post.

     We took a trip to California! This is a travel blog right? I mean, sorta... after an uneventful flight to LAX, met up with the chilluns, Austen & Alexa, and her cool boyfriend Evan.


     We spent a some time driving around sightseeing and went up to Griffith Observatory:



    We headed up to Malibu where we stayed in the hills at a cool place with a hot tub, occasionally coming down to hit the beach and such. We climbed Sandstone Peak, the highest point in the Santa Monica mountains, at 3111 feet. Holy hell, it was tough!





     We left the kids in LA, got a JUCY camper and lit out up the coast to Santa Barbara where we checked out the beach, the amazing gardens, and especially Ganna Walska's amazing Lotusland.



     The next day we headed up to Morro Rock, & saw San Simeon, also known as Hearst Castle. Then we went up to Big Sur, stopping to see the sea lions on the beach and had lunch at Treebones Resort, which was delish, and offered an amazing view of the rocky coast. We did not stay in a yurt there, more's the pity. They were booked.



Sea Lions!


                                      The Pacific Coast Highway was pretty amazing!




     Then we headed back to LA, took a ride on the ferris wheel at Santa Monica Pier and flew home the next morning. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip and we missed a lot of things we wanted to see but what can you do? One thing we've learned in our travels is that you can't see everything in one trip anywhere!


     I have to say I'm spoiled by Florida. I really like it hot and the California coast was amazingly cold for July. It got hot during the day, especially in the hills but they were still having what they call the "June gloom". As for the traffic, don't get me started. One of the best parts of traveling is it makes you appreciate home more and now that I live where it's warm all the time? Yeah. That. Yay! Home, Sweet Home!


     After arriving back in Florida I immediately got some sort of flu that lasted about a week, then LuAnn got it. Ugh. Summer flu; the worst. On the good side I got hired full time at the company I've been consulting for. That's sort of fortuitous timing because we are actually buying a house!


     I know, I did not see that coming either. We both really like it here in Jacksonville though and the theory is we can rent it out and use the incoming to do some more traveling after a few years. The rental market where we are is a hell of a lot better than it was in NJ and in the meantime we need somewhere to live anyway, so the timing just seemed right. We has a pool!


     So the job is going well, LuAnn also got promoted so she is doing some work travel down to Boca Raton periodically. The bands are going well, especially Back Alley Cadillac, and I think I will soon be able to get my hot rod biz www.JacksonvilleHotRods.com off the ground. In all Team We Trot About is still going strong and we hope to have many more fun and fantastic adventures so stay with us! Big Love! -Andy & LuAnn