Just testing

Wanted to see if the insane picture handling issue had been resolved.

and it has so maybe I’ll start using this again.

Giving up on Blogger

I just figured out that blogger accounts, by Google’s design, don’t allow proper uploading of images with Windows Live Writer.  The small versions show up in your main blog page but when someone clicks on one to see the larger version they don’t get a URL that can be displayed in a browser.  Instead you get a popup window asking if you want to open the image.  If you use the regular blogger interface it works okay but I use Windows Live Writer and the people at Google apparently don’t want that to work so the hell with it.  I’ll try wordpress for a while.  I've put the last few entries from blooger down below but if you want to go back any further than a couple of weeks ago you'll have to come back here.  Otherwise go to http://arthill.wordpress.com/

Don't know where the week has gone

Pretty busy at work.  Had lunch with the kids today so that automatically makes it a good day. No snow since we got back from California so that's good.

Have posted a few more California pictures to Flickr.

   

Vacation continues

Thursday morning we had a nice buffet breakfast at the Laguna Cliffs and then checked out and headed for La Jolla. We drove out Encinitas Boulevard to look for a camera store. I needed to buy a blower to get some dust off of the camera sensor and was hoping to buy a new eye cup as I had lost mine somehow. We found a Ritz Camera that didn't have a blower for sale but the manager was nice enough to clean my sensor and even printed a picture to make sure it was okay. Next stop was the Pannikin in Encinitas. We were surprised to see that they had torn out the bushes, moved the outdoor tables and were making a concrete patio. It will probably be very nice when it's finished but we were a bit disappointed.We drove by Mom's house and found they have made more changes. Some kind of free standing doorway in the front yard. One thing hasn't changed - that mailbox that Ron and I put in about 35 years ago is still there.

We stopped by Moonlight Beach for a little while as we always do. That place sure has memories for us.

Checked the camera store in the Lumberyard and got lucky. They had a new eye cup for my camera.

Next stop was Meditation Gardens in Encinitas.

We decided to try Las Olas for fish tacos. We had never been there before even though we drove by a thousand times. They were good but not great.

After lunch we headed down to the Grande Colonial in La Jolla to check-in.

To our delight we had been upgraded to a full ocean view room.

We walked around La Jolla a bit

I was even able to get some sunset shots from the room.

After the sunset we went down to the Crab Catcher lounge to take advantage of the great food they offer at 1/2 price for happy hour. We had fish tacos, oyster shooters, clams and stuffed mushrooms.

Friday morning we grabbed breakfast at Cody's and headed for Balboa Park. It was interesting but we were disappointed in the gardens. From there we headed back down to Seaport Village for lunch at the Harbor House.

We then headed over to the USS Midway aircraft carrier and took the self guided tour. It was pretty interesting and we just hadn't allowed enough time.

We went back to our hotel for a bit and then headed for Coronado Island and a nice dinner at Peohe's.

Saturday was cloudy and windy so we ended up just kicking around La Jolla, Del Mar and Encinitas.

Sunday began sunny and warm so we headed over to Brockton Villa for breakfast outside before heading for the airport.

A week in California

We flew out to California a week ago Sunday. It sure was good to get away from the snow and cold for a while. It was raining when we arrived not very hard.  We went over to Seaport Village to get something to eat. We ate outside! That is the ultimate luxury for those of us escaping winter.  We walked around Seaport village for a while and the sun came out. Had a cup of coffee at the Upstart Crow Coffee House and then, after a while, headed on up to Dana Point to check in to the Laguna Cliffs Marriott. As many times as we had been to Dana Point we never saw the Marriott - it overlooks Dana Point Harbor but it's high up on it's own cliff and tucked back so it's not that noticeable. We grabbed a pizza in the hotel lounge and watched the Oscars on a big screen TV.

Monday was our free day before my conference started so we were up and ready to head out pretty early. Just before we headed down to the car it started raining pretty hard so we grabbed some umbrellas and shrugged our shoulders. By the time we had gone a couple of miles up the coast the rain and stopped and the sun had come out.  We had breakfast at the Ruby's Diner in Laguna Beach - it had some cool old cars parked out front.

After breakfast we walked around Laguna Beach for a while and then headed North.  We drove right through Balboa Island to the ferry and took that across. Our next stop was Huntington Beach. They had a long pier that we walked out on and we watched some synchronized kite flyers.

Our next stop was Seal Beach. We had a great lunch at Walt's Wharf. Jill had salmon tacos and I had a calamari steak sandwich. We walked around the town a bit, went out on the pier and watched some surfers.

Next stop was the Queen Mary in Long Beach. We hadn't been for a very very long time.  The ship has been moored there for 40 years! We took the self-guided tour and really enjoyed it.

 

We didn't get back to Dana Point until after 6. Went to dinner at the Beach House right out on the harbor.

The next two days I had to go to meetings all day.  Tuesday we worked through dinner but Wednesday night Jill and I went back up to Laguna Beach for dinner. We stopped for a drink in an old hotel right there in downtown Laguna Beach. It's been there forever but we had never gone in. Saw a sign on the wall advertising room rates in 1950 - $10 per night for an ocean view.