11/19/2019 More Family Time in Kalifornia

I know, it’s been a while since my last post. So, for all of you non-family member readers, this is about to be one of the all-time boring-est blog posts you could imagine (hint/warning: many photos of grandkids to follow). We had the last of our big appointments in Redding, CA for some minor repairs on Rosie the Bus. We made the reservations with Martin Hveem Restoration & Coaches after seeing a recommendation by Bob Tiffin himself. So into Redding we went, splitting time between Win-River Casino RV lot and Jeanne’s brothers Dwayne & David (another big thanks to both for their hospitality and patience). As far as the repair work getting done, they did an OK job on most tasks. The only problem – we needed two of four of our slide toppers to be replaced and they completed that, except they replaced the wrong side, rear topper. But I have to say, Hveem made good on the error by refunding the cost of the back topper, basically giving us an unneeded slide topper replacement for free. I’m still smh… We had a good visit with Dave and Dwayne and their families and we actually got a little sightseeing in with Dave. We took him up to Castle Lake near Lake Siskiyou, then stopped off at Dunsmuir Brewery Works for lunch in the big megalopolis of Dunsmuir. The MH repairs, a few good BBQ’s, a night at the local FFA fundraising auction, a little cash donation action at the casino, and in no time almost 4 weeks gone in a flash.

We then continued southbound to the land of grandkids and our first stop, the Sonoma County Fairgrounds RV lot in Santa Rosa, stomping grounds for 7 y.o. grandson Maximus. School interferes a bit with quality grandchild time, we were pretty much limited to weekend time only. So we made the best of it, hitting the local batting cages for some batting practice. Max got to do a little rock painting & hiding at the RV lot, then we hit the fairgrounds for a traveling event called “Pumpkin Nights”. Max got to dress up in his Halloween garb and join the rest of the little ones attending the event. We got a very limited visit with Max this time, but we will see him & his family again at the end of November for T-Giving & his 8th B-Day celebrations when they meet us at Cousin Hailey & Ellie’s house in Atascadero.

Speaking of Atascadero (segue…), there we went. Next stop we landed back at the Atascadero Elk’s Lodge. We were ecstatic to find they increased their stay limits at the RV lot to 2-weeks per month. With our plans to include staying in the area until the end of the month, we jumped between 3 facilities – the Elk’s, a short stint at Cava Robles RV Resort, and the Paso Robles RV Ranch, all places we have stayed many times before.

Our stay here included a whole lotta playground time for 3 y.o. granddaughter Haily and 1 y.o. granddaughter Ellie. We hit a neighborhood park, the playground at Cava Robles, including some pool time, and a couple of private playground businesses, Hop’s Bounce House and Mighty Munchkins Play Zone. The girls did their level best to try and wear out Oma & Opa…

Since we were here during Halloween, Hailey helped me carve up a Jack-o’-Lantern for their porch. The town of Atascadero does a nice Halloween night event by closing off Entrada Av. to traffic and the local businesses set up trick-or-treat venues (their actual shop or a booth) for the kids to do trick-or-treating. We accompanied Hailey & Ellie (oh yeah, mommy & daddy too) as they did the deed and scored buckets full of treats.

So a while back Chad got us hooked into a beer app called “Untappd” (sic). It keeps track of your favorite beers, lets you rate beers, compare your ratings to a global average, in other words all things beer. Chad informed us of a possible gold mine for craft beers called “The Backroom” in Solvang, CA. On one of our “non-grandchild” days we loaded Woodrow Wilson up and did a roadtrip to Solvang to find The Backroom. It is just a little hole-in-the-wall, small beer store up front, a home brewers equipment store downstairs, and the taproom in the back, behind a painted fake bookcase used as the door. We scored a couple of craft brews to take home and sample with Chad, had a nice pizza lunch from Solvang Brewery Co., and tasted a couple of offerings from The Backroom. A visit to Solvang would be incomplete without a short walk around the scenic Danish themed town.

Chad has a particular favorite brewery in Monterey, “Alvarado St. Brewing”, that he had been meaning to check out. We made it happen in a mini-adventure for Hailey and her dad. We loaded both of them up and drove Rosie down to stay at the Moss Landing KOA. While there we visited several of the local craft breweries, including Alvarado St., and spent some top-quality time at the beach chasing waves and seal-watching for Hailey. Included in this fun package was a couple of hours at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Hailey was in hog-heaven.

So that catches you up to date. Time to start getting ready for Thanksgiving, hope you all have some good quality family time and pleasant gastric experiences! Until next post…