This Is How We Roll...

Part Mini Cooper Convertible, part pickup truck, this is how we travel from Home Depot to our house.  Do we get some funny looks and people honking at us?   Yeah, sometimes.  Do we care?  Not really, we just do what we need to do.  LOL 

Check out our cool garage floor that Jim installed for my car.  Love that man!

Road Trip to Julian

This summer Jim and I were bored so we decided it was time to take a little drive out to Julian in San Diego County.  Julian is known for it's apples, and apple growers.  In fact October and November are perfect times to take a drive out there to pick some.  Well, we went in the heart of the summer and there where no apples to be found, duh, but I had heard it was a cool old town.  And man oh man was it hot there!  

On the way we stopped in old town Ramona which has a lot of great antique shops that we went thru.

And as we got closer to Julian these great little side of the road places started to crop up.  My favorite was this antique store above.  And right next to it was this charming cottage mosaic art studio below.  I could only look in the window though because she was closed.

Then finally after a two and a half hour drive we arrived at our destination, downtown Julian.  I have to be honest, it was a pretty big disappointment.  I had always heard it was an artist's community, but there were no galleries in sight.  It was mostly little store fronts with very commercial apple related merchandise, as well as apple related restaurants   We did get a good piece of apple pie though before we left.  Would I recommend this long drive from Orange or L.A. county?  Only if you want to see the most gorgeous hill country and well kept farms and ranches.  For me, with the price of gas today, it was kind of a bust.  

So as far as I'm concerned, Julian gets a big thumbs down.

Vegas in July 2011

This last summer Jimmy's band was playing at 2 venues in Vegas, so in between gigs, off we went to our favorite place, the site of "Pawn Stars", hoping for a glimpse of Chumley.  But the closest we got to him was seeing all his "I Love Chumley" stuff for sale.

It was so hot outside and the line very long, but we persevered  and made it inside, hoping for a peek at anyone connected with the show.

The closest we got was this guy behind the counter whom I've seen in a couple of the episodes.  The coolest thing we did see was the old man's Caddy in the back fenced in area.  Somebody forgot to lock the gate so we might have slipped inside to take a pix of the old man's 57 Chevy that Rick had restored for his dad's birthday, an episode that we watched on T.V. right before we left for Vegas.  Pretty cool man!

Between the 2 gigs we had band practice, and as you can see Jim likes to ham it up a bit.

The first venue was at McMullan's, an Irish pub across the street from the Orleans Casino and Hotel.  It was really awesome that they put the bands name on the marquee.

Here are The Rockits above with the Hi Lites below.

When the band wasn't playing mostly we hung out at the pool at our hotel.  We stayed at the Hilton off the Strip, a pretty ok hotel, it used to be Elvis' home base when he performed there.

The second venue was more dressy, the Italian American Club with all these old gangster wannabees LOL.  But it was a lot of fun, I got to dress up and hang out...

my very handsome...

incredible man.  :)

Day Trippin' Again

This time Jim and I were off to the cities of La Verne and Claremont to see the craftsman architecture and to visit their old town shops.  These photos are a bit dated, we took this trip in early January 2011 when it was still chilly outside, there was snow on the local mountains, and the air was so clean and clear.

We got off the 57 Freeway going north onto Arrow Hwy and cut thru the town of San Dimas where all the facades on the buildings look like the old west, and walked around a bit and enjoyed the downtown area.

Next we passed thru the city of La Verne, and it's great Victorian homes and tree lined streets, founded in 1887. 

As we were coming into Claremont we passed the sign for the Pomona Colleges.  Many of our Whitney students are alum of these fine schools. 

This is downtown Claremont, one of my favorite towns to visit with delicious bakeries, great music stores, unique clothing shops and great local eateries.  Plus because it's a college town it has a very special ambiance that always makes me feel good when I visit.

The town was founded over a hundred years ago, and is known for it tree lined streets which are gi-normous and gorgeous.

When my son Zach was a little boy I used to bring him to this Folk Music Center, one of his favorite destinations and always a special treat for him, located on the main drag in Claremont.

So many instruments from all over the world, and all shoppers are invited to try them out.

Only the little one I had with me that day was not so little LOL.  Jim spent at least an hour trying out many of the guitars, banjos and bass pieces.  Above he is playing a homemade washtub bass.  When Jim was a teenager he started his own boy band, and taught his friends to play a variety of homemade instruments such as the one above, as well as the spoons, jugs and washboards.  They called themselves the Even Dozen Jug Band, and played in many a hootenanny.  Hootenanny, how old are you anyways?  Those were the good old days, right?    

You can see he's having way too much fun!

A Short Road Trip

A couple of Sundays ago Jim had some business to do in Pasadena so I tagged along for the scenery. And was so glad I did. What a gorgeous day for a ride. The 57 Freeway was barely crowded...

there was tons of snow on the local mountains...

and the sky was crazy wild with thunderclouds.

I had forgotten how close Pasadena is to the mountains, and what a great downtown area they have for eating and shopping.

And since I was focusing on finding my muse for my sketchbook class, I just had to snap a shot of this cool grouping of rocks. Maybe I could use it to practice my sketching with.

I had also forgotten how interesting the architecture is in this older community.

But my favorite sight of the day was this sculpture, so monumental in scale, fabulous! For EXTRA CREDIT in my Beginning 2-D class only, on a piece of brown paper cut into the shape of a book, put the Chapter number from Art Talk on the back side of the book, the one that dealt with size, scale and proportions. On the front side put your name and period. A clue, it was one of the last Chapters I tested you on. :) Good Luck!

Road Trip to Vegas for New Year's Eve

How I love my road trips with Jim. We have so much fun getting away together. So when his band was asked to perform in Vegas for New Years Eve, I was one happy girl. Because of all the rain we had in December our local mountains were covered in snow. This is a shot from the 15 Freeway going north while passing thru Norco.

This is the same mountain range looking at it from the other side, still on the 15 but driving thru Devore, right by the Mountain High exit for the local skiers.

We are now in the high desert that stretches out forever. Pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but the hills are amazing. We finally reach the half way point in Baker and get off to grab a bit to eat at the infamous Mad Greek (saw this place showcased on the Food Channel), and it was delicious. We met up with 2 other band members, and a couple others who were traveling with them, and we found the biggest table in the place to eat our feast at. LOL

This is snow at 80 mph along the side of the road as we get closer to Vegas, and it's really getting cold outside, with the winds blowing like CRAZY! Finally approaching the Stateline below.

And then Las Vegas.

We had a beautiful view from our 13th floor window at the Hilton off the Strip looking out towards the original downtown area. This was only my 2nd time in Vegas as an adult, my first time to finally try gambling. Didn't like it at all, stopped after about 2 mins. and got all my money back. I work way to hard for my money to throw it away like that!

Did I mention it was cold there? Like in the low 30's with a very nasty wind chill. We got there a day early so the band could get in one practice before the big night. Practice was at the home of Donna and Richie, the two lead members of the group The Highlites. They usually drive into Orange County to sing with Jim's band The Rockits, but now it was their turn to host us.

Here we are New Years Eve at the venue right before the band started to play. It was held at an Irish Pub right across the street from the Orleans Hotel and Casino, playing to this octogenarian below. LOL

Here are The Highlites, Bobby, Richie, Donna and Rita with Jim in the back on bass guitar. Doesn't Jim look sooooo handsome? :) And there's Kelli singing and looking stunning in her black frock. Kelli is Richie and Donna's very talented daughter. She sings like an angel.

And lastly, we have Jim and Little Richie (Donna and Richie's son) doing their thing on guitar at the end of the night. Happy New Year everyone!

I know this post was a bit tardy, but better late then never :)