On Memorial Day 2010, Grandma and Grandpa Sappington, Kendi and Taisley left St. George for Southern California with one goal in mind . . . to use our free Disney theme park passes. However, we accomplished a whole lot more in one week and 1500 miles. In Corona, we had expected to go to the cemetery to visit my Dad, but Grandma Doris - at nearly 2 in the afternoon - was still not ready to get dressed. Instead she wanted us to watch her square dance tapes. We accommodated her for a couple of hours - until hunger pangs overcame us and she treated us to dinner at Carrow's, her favorite restaurant.
On Tuesday, we woke early so we could be to the Magic Kingdom before the rest of the world got there. With the new park-and-shuttle system Disney has added since we were there last year, our time from car to ticket booth took less than an hour of our precious ride-the-rides time at Disneyland! After getting in free with our hard earned "Give A Day, Get a Disney Day" passes (see "I HATE THAT MOUSE" below), the four of us had a great time together - riding everything except the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups and the Matterhorn, before we called it 12 hours and headed back to Grandma Doris’ house.
On Wednesday, we headed up the California coast taking a quick detour through Thousand Oaks to see how well our first home at 1606 Fordham Avenue was holding up after 36 years. Surprising well we discovered! We also stopped along the seashore to enjoy the ocean waves and the sand in our toes before heading to Solvang, a village founded in 1911 by Danish settlers trying to escape the harsh winters of the American mid-west. We found windmills, bakeries (Danish, of course) and the world famous Andersen Split Pea Soup Restaurant much to our liking and took lots of pictures of windmills and cottages while we roamed the quaint streets.
On Thursday, we took Tour #1 at Hearst Castle, a magnificent mansion designed by Julia Morgan for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst at a cost of about 9 months of his income!!! The list of the rich and famous who were wined and dined by Hearst at La Cuesta Encantada (his "Enchanted Hill") includes Winston Churchill, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, US Presidents Calvin Coolidge and FDR, James Stewart, Joan Crawford, any or all of the Marx Brothers, Irving Berlin, Charlie Chaplin, and many other of the (then) Hollywood and political elite. The house has 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, a "modest" outdoor swimming pool, three guest houses, but the house was never finished. Kendi really enjoyed the tour and is looking forward to writing a paper about it during her first year in high school.On Thursday afternoon we arrived at Kris’ new address in Sonoma to find my brother Larry, Adam and Tai Christensen and their two girls Kelsey and Maya. We enjoyed a raucous night of chit-chat, finally bedding down on nearly every square inch of carpet and couch - with the youngest of the family sleeping in a tent set up in the backyard.
Tylre’s graduation from Sonoma Valley High School went off without a hitch - and, to her surprise she graduated with honors. On Saturday, Tylre’s friends and family gathered at Kris’s good friend Cary Ammann’s home to eat, chit chat and celebrate her accomplishment - while enjoying Cary’s backyard swimming pool. We are so proud of our smart and beautiful granddaughter! Tylre will begin college at Santa Rosa Community College in the fall. Her career goal is to become an RN.
We also enjoyed time spent with Zachary. He is a "hoot and a half" while at the same time polite and affectionate. Erin - at almost 8 years old - is also a cutie. We are sorry we have missed so much of her growing up years. Both commented on how much they have missed Cuz’N Camp and how much they hope Grandma will do it again some day.From Kris-e-ola’s home, we traveled to Coarsegold, California to spend the day with Charlene, Tiffany and Bob (and their three boys 14-year-old Ben, and 11-year-old twins Joshua and Phillip) and Tyson and Mandy and their three kids (5-year-old Kylie and their identical twin 3-year-old sons Bryce and Brendon). We enjoyed this opportunity to get reacquainted with Ed’s brother Bob’s kids - all who mentioned how much they missed having Kris, Kaytee and Stacy with us (the only downside of our weeklong vacation in California).
The trip from Charlene’s to home was long but pleasantly uneventful - though the temperature at home was more than 20 degrees higher than when we left!!! Kendi and Taisley were WONDERFUL travelers and we look forward to more trips with them in the future.
