OLA: Being Dad and Grandpa All Over Again!

the Colborns at the road side viewing the Shrine Circus Parade

Now it is Bill’s turn to be Dad and Grandpa! We gladly left the sweltering heat of Phoenix and stopped for a night at Verde Valley TT Resort in Cottonwood, Arizona which, at 3,300 ft. elevation, was 10 degrees cooler. We stored the RV there until the middle of August when we complete all our visits to our kids. Then we stay at this campground for a month before we start our 6 month settling period at Viewpoint RV and Golf Resort in a kinder and cooler Phoenix.

a natural rest stop at the Navajo Nation

The next day we started early. The entire drive from Cottonwood to Boise, Idaho where Bill’s eldest child, and only son, Jim lives with his family is 14.5 hours, 908 miles, taking us through the scenic Navajo Nation. The drive to Provo, Utah where we stopped for the night was 9 hours which gave us a more leisurely second day to arrive in Boise in better spirits! This lifestyle of ours would not at all be possible if Bill does not like to drive for long periods of time. But I really do not subject him to that frequently, anyway. I am a truly a kinder soul!

Madeline's leg got a scratch playing ball
...and the boo boo bling got immediate use!  

The entire family, Bill’s son Jim and wife Ana, children Madeline, 9 and Ben, 6 were all waiting at the door. Oh have they both grown so much taller! Bill saw them in January but my last time with them was September last year. After chatting some we gave the two little ones their pasalubongs: for Madeline, the Boo Boo Blings we got from the Palm Springs Follies’ Show and for Ben a magic Arizona glass ball. Then Jim proceeded with grilling skewered pork while Ana whipped up cucumber and Waldorf salads and seedless sweet watermelons.

the Mountain View Professional Building

@ Ben and Jerry's

After dinner we all trooped to the Mountain View Professional Building which Jim’s real estate firm had received as payment for a case they had won. Last January Bill left me for a month to help in the initial refurbishing of the portion of the 14,500 sq. ft. building they will use as their own space. Then we all HAD to go to Ben and Jerry’s where I had my favorite chocolate therapy which I had sorely missed at the last three groceries. Everybody had his own favorite, of course!

@ the Boise Coop Happening

The following day we woke up to a Texas French toast breakfast with sweet grapes and strawberries too. Then we hurried on to the parade of the Shrine Circus and the busy Saturday Farmer’s Market. Bill and I postponed buying anything until the time we pass through again going back to our RV. Back home we had leftovers for lunch and then we proceeded to the Anniversary Happenings at the Boise Coop. At night we had Jim’s wonderful pizzas, assisted of course by Ben and Madeline. Sadly, I napped during the movie of the night, Oz, the Great and Powerful! Sigh. 

...riding with the elephant

Pancakes and bacon and a variety of fruits waked me up the next day. Leftover pizzas were finished in a jiffy at lunch after which we went to the Shrine Circus. It had been a while since we had all gone to see one. So flying trapeze, contortionists, motorcycle stunts, tight rope walkers, chair stacking act, hula hoop and rope artists, tigers, dogs, and elephant acts and, of course, the clowns thrilled us all. But, aside from the popcorn and the cotton candy, what the kids liked best was the elephant ride. And I dared the snake photo!!! Too bad at the entrance of the stadium was an ongoing protest of inhumane animal treatment.

Carol with the snake!!!

Bill and I heard mass at St. John’s Cathedral and when we came back, ground beef curry, steamed rice, and veggies and fruits were laid out on the table! After a tight game of Nab-it which Madeline won, we all trooped to Aspen Leaf which carries the current self-serve frozen yoghurt craze! Of course, I had Rocky Mountain chocolate, chocolate chip cookie, coffee, and hot fudge!!! Good, but not as chocolaty as chocolate therapy of Ben and Jerry’s!   Okay, I concede…but it is healthier!!!

@ Aspen Leaf Frozen Yoghurt Center

Jim went to work on Monday and the remainder of the gang played Words with Friends, Bananagrams and Nab-it for a while until Ben had to go to his swimming lessons. It reminded me of the time my own three daughters were playing word games with me and now I can no longer win against them anymore. It’s really always time well spent…good training and bonding time. 

the dinner at Mai Thai for the girls!

Lunch was leftovers but in the evening we took the Bunch to Mai Thai in downtown Boise. The girls had Thai spring rolls, shrimp and scallop pot stickers, chow mein, and Asian lettuce wraps. It is so interesting that the boys had totally different choices: firehouse rolls, skewered sirloin, raw ahi tuna, oxtail pot stickers and beer and sake. But we all agreed on dessert: chocolate tower and lava cake with vanilla ice cream!

the dinner at Mai Thai for the boys!

And then Tuesday morning, after Jim left for work, we also left, but not too sad because we knew we were coming back in a month and a half!  

OLA: Being Ma and Grandma All Over Again!

April, my bunso, and Yeye, my granddaughter and her goddaughter in Sedona

at the Countryside RV Fitness Center

We left Las Vegas already feeling the coming onslaught of the summer heat and, just like that, it hit us in Bullhead City, just like a 15-minute sauna, except that this time it was a 24-hour punishment! We really should have been going up to Calgary for my daughter Claudine’s second baby but April had another global project team meeting in Cincinnati and had a chance to visit us and a BFF in Phoenix. So there we were, in the sweltering heat of the desert sun, for me to have the chance to be a mother and a grandma all over again(we had sent a ticket to Yeye, my second granddaughter and April’s goddaughter )!

taking time to get up from their sofa bed

The four days with them consisted of 5 neat activities: exercising, chillaxing, eating, sight-seeing, and shopping. We exercised on Saturday and Sunday at the Resort’s Fitness Center and April and Yeye swam at the Resort Pool on the morning and evening, respectively. The two also chillaxed every morning while waiting for the breakfast to be ready, once by Bill, once by me. The other one was just ensaymada con chocolate which did not need any time. I made the Filipino breakfast which April absolutely loved: daing na bangus with red eggs and tomatoes, over-easy eggs, and garlic fried rice. Bill granted their request for  blueberry pancakes with bacon and over-easy eggs! 

Inn and Out Burgers, April's treat!!!

Fat Willy;s at Viewpoint RV and Golf Resort, our treat!!!

April treated us to our first lunch at Inn-n-Out which she has sorely missed but she was sorely disappointed, the memory was better than reality! The next day we showed them Viewpoint RV and Golf Resort where we will be for winter and treated them to lunch at the Resort’s Fat Willys’ Bar and Grille. We all loved the Fat Willys’ and Southwest Samplers for appetizers and the surf and turf for entrees, leaving absolutely no more room for dessert. The following day Yeye treated us to a wonderful Mexican lunch at Arriba Mexican Bar and Grille for some pozole, chili Colorado, machaco tamales, and taco zaragozas. At our RV, we had 2 dinners of chicken inasal and salad greens one night and baked tilapia and cucumber salad another night.

going Mexican at Arriba, Yeye's treat!!!

Arnie and Itchan and the 3 of us at Starbucks!

Arnie, April’s friend, with her husband Itchan, picked her and Yeye up Saturday afternoon from a Starbucks café and took them to the picturesque Red Rocks of Sedona and the Slide Rock State Park. Unfortunately, as they were about to go home, their car broke down. Happily, the adventure did not at all turn stress-laden because it afforded all youngsters lots of food and laughter all the way home. Tired Bill picked them up and they got home at 1 am while I was sound asleep.

the ring!!!

But the biggest activity of all on both Saturday and Sunday was April’s first round of trying on wedding gowns. Right before her trip to the US this time, Clint Pijuan, her boyfriend of two years, put a beautiful diamond engagement ring on her finger with the fabulous Scottish Highlands as the backdrop. The ring looks absolutely gorgeous and they have scheduled the wedding for June of 2014 at an old Scottish castle. She looked radiant in the top 2 choices both of which are princess cut at the top with a mermaid bottom for one and trumpet for the other. So she has her work cut out for her for maybe the next half-year. I am so glad I was able to be there to help her get started!

Yeye and Bill, voting for each  wedding dress April tried on

One of the other places we went to had wedding gowns at rock bottom prices but none made the grade. Last Chance is a third outlet of Nordstrom. Apparel and shoes that don’t get bought at Nordstrom get sent to Nordstrom Rack and those that don’t get bought at Nordstrom Rack get sent to Nordstrom’s Last Chance. Fides Alviar gave us the hint! But it was Yeye, not April, who got crazy there. She got the most out of her shopping dollars for all of three hours! Little did she know of what was in store for her later. 

the girls packing

Her Alaska Airlines flight back to Seattle was at 5:35 pm. At 2:12 pm a Southwest flight that left LA bound for Austin, Texas (a 3-hour flight) was reported to have a bomb on board and was diverted to Phoenix instead. Both entrances to the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport were blocked by the time we got there. When one opened, there was a huge logjam. We were able to get to Terminal 4 in time for April’s 7:25 pm British Airways flight back to the UK but, sadly, we did not make it to Yeye’s.

She had to spend another night at the RV and do her homework. We bought a pint of Starbucks Java chip frapuccino ice cream for her sole delight! Next morning Bill took her to the airport for her new flight at 6:20 am (while I slept and snored) and she arrived in Seattle around 9 am. She went straight to school, missing her first three classes, one of which had a final exam! Her Dad Deejay wrote an excuse letter for her and all’s well that ends well. The two are back home, safe and sound.

ABCD Family Quartet

The best souvenir of our weekend together is not the stress we all felt during that dreadful trip to the airport but four red plastic cups we all left behind at the RV: A for April, B for Bill, C for Carol and D for Daniela (Yeye)! We are a definite Family Quartet! Now I am eagerly waiting for the next time when in July, in Calgary, I will again be a doting Mom to Claudine anda spoiling Grandma to Enzo and a brand new baby boy, my fifth and Bill’s and my 10th! I will be Mom and Grandma all over again!!!

the girls at the Desert Botanical Garden

OLA: Discovering Little Vegas, Little London, and the Little Wild West!

at the Lake Havasu City Visitor Center

Laughlin's Riverside, where it all started

We left Las Vegas rather sad but our journey to Phoenix had to begin. We were to meet my daughter April and store the RV for the drive up to Calgary there. But first we had a stop at Bullhead City at RPI's Ridgeview Resort. The city has a port on the Colorado River, roughly 90 miles south of Las Vegas with a population of almost 40,000. The latest figures indicate that over 115,000 people flew into the Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport on casino-sponsored chartered flights in 2010, projected to increase steadily in the coming years.

Aquarius at Little Vegas

Tropicana Express at Little Vegas

Little Vegas is the unincorporated but census-designated city of Laughlin, Nevada, directly across Bullhead on the Colorado River, with a population of a little more than 7,000. Its name comes from Don Laughlin, an Owatonna, Minnesota native who purchased the southern tip of Nevada in 1964. He opened the Riverside Resort, offering all-you-can-eat chicken dinners for a dollar, 12 slot machines, two live gaming tables, and eight motel rooms. It is now the third most visited casino and resort destination in the state (behind Las Vegas and Reno). Casino resorts now dot the river bank, emphasizing not only indoor but also outdoor and family activities.

Golden Nugget at Little Vegas

Little London at the English Village in Lake Havasu City

Little London is in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, less than 30 minutes from Bullhead. It is reported to be the second most visited attraction of Arizona behind the Grand Canyon. The London Bridge that spanned the Thames River from 1831 to 1967 now crosses a 930 ft. long man-made canal that leads from Lake Havasu (on the Colorado River) to Thompson Bay. Robert McCollough, who had built a planned community at Lake Havasu, bought the exterior granite blocks from the original concrete structure for US $2.5 million from the City of London when the bridge was replaced in 1968. The bridge was disassembled, the marked stones shipped to Lake Havasu City, and the bridge reassembled for another US $7 million. It was completed in 1971. A little English Village is at the eastern foot of the bridge.

 

the reassenbled original London Bridge at Lake Havasu City

the wild chollas on the road to Oatman

The Wild, Wild West is in Oatman, Arizona, a former mining town in the Black Mountains between Bullhead and Lake Havasu cities. The roads were poorly paved but the wild chollas dotted the foothills and reminded us of Joshua Tree National Park where they were also aplenty. The access roads were old and poorly paved  and the town just reduced its taxes! Its current population is down to 128 from 3,500 during the mining heydays in 1915. At that small rural town, I found a colorful cowgirl tank top for only $15 and a little leather purse with 7 pockets for only $20! I always find something in small towns. But its claim to fame is the wild burros, white, grey, brown, or spotted, that walk around town. One even blocked a store’s door, to the consternation of the owner who sprayed him with water to free her door for us. They usually gather at storefronts where people feed them with little bits of alfalfa you can buy from any store.

a spotted wild burto wanting to shop, like me!

a white wild burro with Bill on the middle of the lone Patman street

So the sad departure from Las Vegas was cushioned by Little Las Vegas, the vision of the UK where my bunso (youngest child), who is soon to arrive, lives was awakened by Little London, and the Oatman burros’ and my shopping diverted our attention from the sweltering heat of the summer onslaught. When we arrived at the TT Countryside RV Resort in Apache Junction, we immediately went on a late spring cleaning spree of the RV and hurriedly shopped for groceries in anticipation of April’s and Yeye’s (my second grandchild, second daughter to my eldest Trisha and Deejay) arrival the following day. That’s when I can be a Mom and Grandma all over again!

Little Las Vegas at dusk

OLA: Leaving Las Vegas 2

Wendell and Angie and Tony and Bernie finally met at the Annual Fiesta
of the National Federation of Filipino Associations in Las Vegas!

No, no, no…there’s no sequel to the Nicolas Cage movie! This is my second post about leaving Las Vegas (please see the first one on http://rvcruisinglifestyle.blogspot.com/2011/09/ola-leaving-la-vegas.html ). The first time was when I spent a few days with my gal pals, Ann and Jingjing. This time around Bill and I spent almost 5 weeks in this Entertainment Capital of the World. And so it was harder to leave. I thoroughly enjoyed all the eating, the playing, and loving! On this last week we decided to see the new Star Trek movie in 3 D since we had thoroughly enjoyed the Iron Man 3 in 3 D on our first week (please see http://rvcruisinglifestyle.blogspot.com/2013/05/ola-eating-playing-and-loving-in-las.html ).

I found Bill enjoying a book at Boulder Station Hotel and Casino
 when I came back from played slots! 

We should have left earlier but I won a free one-night stay at Boulder Station Hotel and Casino with our Boarding Pass. We also got a free lunch buffet so we only had to pay for one! I had 5 plates: Asian, Italian, Mexican, American, and desert. I even played slots for all of $2 and the free $3 slot play that I won. I ended up taking home$4.56 and having fun for almost 4 hours at Dangerous Beauty! We also won a one-hour free bingo play but we did not win any prize there nor at the cash raffles held every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Camping World in South Las Vegas

We added 2 days to our stay at Boulder Station to give Camping World enough time to make some small repair jobs on the RV: the microwave alignment, the electric element for the hot water heater, a plumbing issue, and the trim on the slide-out flooring. So instead of May 30, we left Las Vegas on June 2 after buying some of my supplies (ensaymada, red eggs, pan de sal, hopia, bihon, and gulaman) the previous day from Seafood City, a grocery chain catering to Filipinos in major urban centers with huge Filipino population. 

 

Wendell and Angie having tea with us after dinner at our RV

Tony, the chef, with the kitchen mural he painted as background

And, if we had bienvenidas, we also had despedidas! Angie and Wendell had chicken barbeque, fresh lumpia, and buko pandan at our RV. We spent almost 7 hours bonding beautifully with all our stories, Angie and I in Tagalog and Bill and Wendell in English! And we had another 7-hour marathon at Tony and Bernie’s lovely 4,500 sq. ft. home in North Las Vegas. Tony was both the master chef dishing out endless trays of bratwurst, bruschetta, glazed ham, liver pate, brie and blue cheeses and barista, too, serving us with overflowing glasses of champagne, red wine, white zinfandel, beer, and single malt whisky.

the grand entrance to Tony and Bernie's lovely home

Angie and Carol in front of the Philippine Consular Outreach
at the Annual Fiesta in Boulevard Mall

The day before we left the two couples finally met each other at the Annual Fiesta of the National Federation of Filipino Associations at the Boulevard Mall. Angie had an appointment with her orthodontist so we had our final goodbye with her and Wendell, then we had our final goodbye with Tony and Bernie at Chinatown where we had Vietnamese cuisine. The huge statue at the middle of the Plaza told the fictional novel about the Journey to the West. And, as usual, a large Chinese Pagoda heralded the entry to the Las VegaS Chinatown.

a nice despedida at a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown

The Journey to the West Monument
with the Pagoda at the background

Leaving Las Vegas was sad for me! The 4 ½ weeks we spent there had been full of merry-making, of superb food, amazing shows, fun casino plays, box-office 3 D movies, gorgeous nature escapes, and relaxing hotel stays. But, most of all, the visits with Angie and Wendell and Tony and Bernie were heartwarming and unforgettable. By the way, although Bill does not eat them, we passed by Ate Tesing’s home before picking up the RV at Camping World. She had a fresh batch of ‘tulingan’ for me!

Oasis Las Vegas Resort

a luxurious campsite at Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort

As a closing note, let me just say that we haven’t closed our eyes to the possibility that emerged during this trip: that Las Vegas could be a place where we could settle. As a matter of fact we visited two awesome RV resorts that may be candidates: Oasis Las Vegas Resort and Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort. Oasis had a man-made beach/pool area and LVM had cabanas and entertainment areas built on each site! Both had Texas Hold Em tourneys twice a week and karaoke sessions, too!

the refreshing backyard pool of Tony and Bernie

But we did not cancel our reservation at Phoenix’s Viewpoint RV Resort. Although entertainment and friends are pluses for Vegas, Phoenix ranks as 5^th best in the country in terms of health care. Also, winter temperatures are warmer by 10 degrees! It is happy to know, however, that we will always be able to visit Vegas on the way to and from our visits to our children and grandchildren from Phoenix! In this sense, we are not really leaving Las Vegas! It will always be a temporary home! Never will it be Last Vegas!