Preparing for a trip to Stateline to visit my money. We are headed for Stateline on Saturday for an overnight stay. We planned to ride but when we found the temperature in Jean will be 108 and Baker will be 118, we decided that discretion is the better part of valor, and we opted for the truck and A/C. The usual suspects will be there, Barb, Leon, Kelly and Jeff. Anne decided to stay home as she is not a gambler and there are no shows to see this weekend. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Stateline, it is the border between California and Nevada on I15. That makes it the first place to gamble (non-Indian) as you head toward Las Vegas from Los Angeles.

2010 4th of July

We had a quiet 4th, we stayed home and looked after a couple of extra dogs for a friend who was obliged to attend a wedding. (Well at least it wasn't his own)
Here we are Angels and Dodger fans, lots of dogs, and, who would believe it Newcastle Brown Ale ads in Sunset Beach!
For you non-Geordies NBA is called DOG in the north east of England, so I guess it was a very DOGGY day.

John Deere

Boy would this be a trip or what?
Maybe I better watch the auction and see what it goes for.

Check the link.

http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-0626-auction-20100625,0,2530443.story

The weather is normal for this time of year, June Gloom. At the beach it is overcast and cool until about noon time, then you get a couple of hours of sunshine and then back to the gloom again.
Last weekend we went to a Dodger game with John Shultz and family; even though we are not "TRUE BLUE" Dodger fans we had a great time. There is even a picture of Anne eating a HOT DOG. WOW!
The Think Cure sign relates to the co-operation the Dodgers franchise has with the Think Cure organisation, a non-profit group who raise funds for cancer research.


http://www.thinkcure.org

Look out for more posts during the summer and as we prepare for our 40th anniversary trip.

Following our trip to Europe with Barb and Leon where we saw a lot of great sights, Anne and I have decided that we should spend more time seeing the wonderful places which are available in our own backyard. Today we visited the Nixon library and museum in Yorba Linda, a mere 35 minute ride on the bike. It is a beautiful and tranquil place, where history truly does come alive. Nixon, was, in my opinion one of the most erudite and statesmanlike presidents of modern times. He was an educated and urbane man with the ability to switch from international policy to baseball without missing a beat.
Of the many keys to cities with which he was presented, one was the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin, just for you Jeff.

Friends

This is a little aside from the normal stuff about what we did and where we went.
This is a thank you for all of the friends and family who went out of their way to make this trip so special.
So to all of you a great big thank you from the tour group, Leon, Barb, Anne, and Norm.
In no special order:
Elizabeth and Jimmy Cairns.
Janet and Michael Docherty.
Marianne Smet and Erik De Wilde.
Marjorie and Michael Nightingale.
Rainer and Trixi Dango.
Eileen and Neil Matthews.
John and Liv Charlton.
Michael and Mary Irwin.
Maria and Tim Kelly.
Susan and Barry McCall.
Jackie and Jon Dolby.
Diane and Jose Garcia Miralles.
Ralph and Betty Sanderson.
Frank and Claire Allison (hope everything goes well for Claire)
Jamie and Jenn Orton.
Girvan and Fiona.

If I have missed out anyone, it is not an insult, it's just that I am suffering from CRS.


And last but not least Orville and Wilbur Wright without whom none of this would have been possible.

Due to very slow or no connections at all the blog has not been updated as I had hoped would it would be. So, here are pictures from our visit to Beamish museum, the Lumley Castle banquet and the trip to Amsterdam. At the banquet in Lumley Castle, The Baron and Baroness were Sir Leon Baldhog and his good lady wife Barbara. We also were honored to meet the Archduke of Siegen Westphalen with his good lady wife Trixi.
In Amsterdam Anne and Leon visited the Anne Frank house whilst Barbara and I sat by the canal having a beer and watching the world go by.

Scotland

Yesterday we went up to the Scottish border region through Hawick and Langholm. We returned past Hadrians wall at Vindolanda.
Whilst in Scotland, Leon thought that he should have a wee dram. There is a picture of him enjoying it with his lunch.

We have crammed a lot in to the last few days, we visited Bamburgh Castle and Holy Island yesterday followed by a trip to Anne's brother Mikes house for a barbecue.
We have visited the north eastern artist Robert Olley, Barb and Leon were presented with one of his prints which Marjorie Nightingale, another friend of ours had bought for them. There are also a couple of pictures from the Marsden Grotto which is a pub built into a cliff.

Getting there.

The flights were right on time and had no problems with turbulence or any other kind of disturbance. There was a kid travelling alone who had a severe nut allergy and consequently frequent reminders were made asking passengers not to open nut products. Can you imagine a 10 hour flight with no airline peanuts to sustain you?
We had the complete irony of not being able to get bottles of Bud in LAX and having to drink Heineken; whereas in Amsterdam we were able to get bottles of Bud.
We were met at the airport by our friends Marjorie and Michael who had roses for Anne and Barb. When we checked in at the hotel, we found a bottle of very good champagne and bottles of Bud on ice waiting for us from my cousin Elizabeth and her husband Jim. A big thank you to all.