Railroad Cars

Ron, our therapy tech at the gym, filled us in this morning on why the silver, double-decker passenger cars are parked out by Cherry Growers! He said that they were moved out there sometime last fall, and that there was an article in the Record Eagle about it.

The cars had been parked down in the Bay City/Midland area just being stored. They became a target for vandalism - people broke into some of the cars, and spray painted graffiti on some of them. The graffiti is still there - it's really noticeable. The company decided that there would be less of a vandalism problem up here, and so they were moved to the Grawn area.

Cabin Fever Cure

A little bit of cabin fever set in on River Road today so Dick invited me out to lunch. We took along some recycling and some things to mail because almost every trip around here involves some errands!

Driving through the blowing snowfall, we planned to eat in Grandma's Kitchen at Interlochen corners. Gee, I said, I think I heard that it has changed hands. In actuality, it was closed up tight - dark and empty - a definite change.

Next to ex-Grandma's Kitchen is Ric's Food Center - and guess what...across the street is an almost complete, huge new almost finished Tom's Food Market...looks like trouble for Ric's! It's really a lovely store - it carries everything you could possibly want, but it may not be able to compete with Tom's.

Across the highway is Clancy's Kitchen, which seems to be taking up the slack from the closing of Grandma's. Clancy's is relatively new - it features plain American style food which is home made and tastes home made! They seem to have a sweet potato fixation - it may be a tad overdone - sweet potato fries, pie, pancakes, egg rolls, and on and on. We had a great dinner and really enjoyed it, although it wasn't so much fun watching the cars outside dealing with the blowing snow!

After eating we bravely headed out into the storm to go to the Interlochen recycling center. Guess what - it's gone - there's nothing there. Things are really changing over there in Interlochen.

The Interlochen Post Office let us down because they don't have a drive up mail drop. On this blizzardy day it required walking up to the front door of the PO to deposit the letters....well actually Dick was the one who walked up to the mailbox, but still...

We spent a couple of months in warmer climes this winter, and I think we really missed something exciting. On the way to Interlochen, just past Cherry Growers, there are approximately 20-25 railway passenger cars parked on the tracks alongside the highway. The tracks by our house provide the only access to TC and Cherry Growers, and so we missed seeing all of those cars go past! We see a train around once a week when the weather is good. Those trains usually have an engine and a couple of cars - but certainly not 20. We have no idea why those cars are in that particular spot.

H a p p y P r e s i d e n t' s D a y ? ? ? ? ? ?

Good intentions - the car all packed up with trash for the dump, grocery list in hand, check ready to go to the bank, going to the Sprint store to replace lost cell phone - and we were off to run errands. Two out of four is not that bad....

The East Bay Compactor Station is closed because of Pres. Day. The whole back end of the car is loaded with trash - we haven't been to the dump for ages because of traveling since Sept. Looks like we won't go for a couple of more days yet.

Driving through town we turned in at the drive-through bank to deposit the check, and there was no line...it was closed because of ...(see above).

The grocery store was open, and we put our groceries in right next to the trash bags...

The Sprint store was open and it was the bright spot of our errand afternoon. Tina was very helpful, and we now have a replacement phone with the same cell number.

Today on Facebook Adam posted that he and Melanie will be having a baby girl! The pictures were labeled "Isabelle Jean" - what a nice name. Congratulations to the Hardy family :)

Something's Fishy

La Jolla is home to the famous Scripps Institute of Oceanography and the Birch Aquarium. We enjoyed another glorious San Diego treat today, and spent the afternoon at the aquarium. The pictures speak for themselves. I'm beginning to think that Dick is a natural photographer!

The Big Tank


Historic tuna fishermen - three rods for one tuna


A school of sardines in perpetual motion!


The fountain in front of the aquarium


After the aquarium we drove along the seashore and stopped at a sea lion beach to see what we could see. We saw three sea lions in the water, but none on the beach. It was wonderfull just to be able to see the sea!



So far this year, we have been from the Atlantic to the Pacific - from sea to shining sea :)

Super Zoo Day

Not being particularly interested in the Super Bowl this year, we took off for the San Diego Zoo instead. Of course we expected Chip's Steelers to dominate, and they almost did. At least they won the game. We got home in time to see the end of the 4th quarter, and the fabulous catch in the end zone. Go Steelers.

Believe it or not, many people were able to get along without watching the Super Bowl today - I know this because many of them were at the Zoo, too. Tom's friend Brandy and her brother Hunter came with us. It was another perfect San Diego day, and we had a great time. Afterward they asked me what was my favorite part, and I could narrow it down to five things - but I decided that the overall favorite thing was the giraffe exhibit.

A view of the Zoo from the Skyfari ride:


Dick's favorite was the gorilla exhibit - he especially got a kick out of this young gorilla checking the the Big Boss to see if he was doing his gorilla thing correctly.


Big Boss Gorilla


Me with Tom, Brandy and Hunter


Dick got this great picture of the endangered rhino.