A belated thank these two wonderful daughter's Aria and Athena and their families for their gift to their dad Mike on his 70th birthday. We have just returned from a wonderful celebratory weekend at Lake Arrowhead where they gifted us with a lovely cabin in the mountains retreat. Thank you both for such a lovely, thoughtful gift.
Our book club resumed today after a long, long hiatus. It was a wonderful day of reunions, lots of catch up talk and multiple birthday celebrations. Thank you to our wonderful host Lynda who provided a lovely brunch and a space where friendship, laughter and lots of love abounds.
Wonderful to see all the book club friends
"The Boys In The Boat" by Daniele James Brown. Set during the depression years this story focuses on the experiences of Joe Rantz and his teammates on the rowing team at the University of Washington and their quest for the Gold medal at the 1935 Berlin Olympics. The story is beautifully scripted with many lessons on determination, resilience, teamwork, courage and trust.
A good contrast to "Boys in the Boat" was "The Hotel Nantucket" a light, funny summer read. In this book we follow Lizbet Keaton as she attempts to revive the Hotel Nantucket back to its glory days of glamor and prosperity. To this end we are introduced to a cast of colorful characters that are staff and guests of the hotel. A fun, quick summer read.
It was a wonderful time to gather together. After so much time in quarantine and being apart. We are managing bit by bit to resume our normal routines. Being together with our wonderful friends on days like today we realize how fortunate we all our. Looking forward to starting our new normal again.
Rocco had just the kind of party he wanted when he turned 2 years old. Since he loves dinosaurs the best thing his parents could do was have a reptile farmer share her pets at Rocco's party.
We had a 10 a.m. check out time for the cabin. Since we are early risers Mike made a fire in the fireplace. He also made me a cup of hot chocolate. We made the most of the early hours and packed leisurely.
It was a memorable, fun weekend getaway.
Happy 70th Birthday Mike and many wishes for a ton of great adventures in the decade ahead.
Today is
The Arrows - Tranquil Mountain Retreat - Cabins for Rent in ...
We woke up leisurely on Saturday morning at the cabin. The morning light in the mountains through the pine trees is beautiful. The air was cool and refreshing. The average daily temperatures are in the mid 70's. The sky is blue.
We spent the morning hours listening to music, relaxing and enjoying the surroundings.
We were told that Lake Arrowhead Village has its' annual Octoberfest during the fall weekends so we drove to the village to see what we could see.
We got our "brats" with grilled onions and sauerkraut and found a shady spot outside the beer garden. We were fine being away from the crowds with a quiet view of the lake.
We had intended on taking a boat tour of the lake. The Queen's Boat tour runs hourly. At 1:30 we went to buy our tickets only to find out the 2:00 boat tour was sold out and the rest of the hourly tours for the day had been cancelled for a private event. Boo I was sad I hadn't planned this better but no one else seemed too disappointed. We window shopped some more and saw some old movie posters of films that had used Lake Arrowhead as the site for their movies long ago.
Later on Mike and I took a walk in the neighborhood. Lots of interesting homes.
Dinner featured a Sicilian eggplant specialty dish called "Pasta alla Norma". Vicente brought all the things to make dinner including his homemade tomato sauce. It was a treat to watch him make this and a bigger treat to have this wonderful meal made especially for Mike's birthday weekend.
After dinner we watched a Netflix movie called "Tender Bar" starring Ben Affleck and directed by George Clooney. We all enjoyed this film based on a true story.
Another fun day comes to a close. Cheers and Buona Notte!
