MACA

​‘Make California Great Again’. 

What a beautiful place!  And how fortunate I am to see it through the eyes of third generation California women!  

From left to right…Heidi (Michelle’s sister), me 🤓, Cherrie (Heidi’s childhood friend-and-neighbor), and Michelle. All blessed to call bountiful California ‘home’.  

I just finished a book by one of my favorite authors, about the dust bowl and the Great Depression, although there was nothing great about it. But great things DID come OUT of it. 💕 Anyhoo, many of the folks in the dust bowl states, destitute and starving after years of little-to-no rain, made their way to California, a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’, but on THIS side of the Mediterranean 😂.  While California remains rich in an abundance of vegetation, year round harvests, and beautiful landscapes (hello Pacific Ocean💕), the current political administration is slowly destroying the state. The ladies shared only a small portion of their heartache at the California they knew in their childhood, but all have hope that it can one day be restored with a greater degree of election integrity, and the dissolution of ‘sanctuary state’ status.  In spite of all that has been happening, I still see the California I remember as a young fresh-out-of-highschool-girl with big dreams and a heart for adventure💕

Mr. Grapes of Wrath himself lived here!

Most beautiful soon-to-be fall foliage ever! Given the lovely, temperate weather, I forget we are nearly into September. 

The girls just had to bring me here to see the ‘wild west’ of their state. 😂😂 It was a good time to do a ‘loo review, even if only for me. 🤓

Artichoke fritters on a rooftop bar in Carmel-by-the-Sea 💕.  Dreamy!

OCEAN SCAT!👇

Brunch in ‘the Shire’ 🤗…

And friends.  New and fairly new 🤗  

It’s funny (peculiar funny, and not HA-HA funny), but Michelle really didn’t know me very well, as we only had six, full days of new-found friendship during our Prague-Budapest-Vienna trip this past April.  And as I was slowly waking up my first morning in Salinas, I was pondering her level of trust evidenced by her inviting me into her family.  I  can easily recall that first morning of setting out as a group for a tour of the Jewish Ghetto in the heart of Prague.  Michelle forgot to set her alarm, and as our group got settled on the bus, one was missing…Michelle.  Victor, our tour director, went to find her, and within just a few minutes, Michelle appeared, looking frantic, frazzled, and apologizing profusely.  There were some who teased her about her tardiness each day after that, but not I. I knew it could easily have been me. I simply smiled, patted the seat in front of me, and said, “You may have just saved us from something terrible.” And after she had stowed her bag, I added, “Everything happens for a reason, yes?”And ever since that moment, we just clicked.💕 The greatest thing I’ve learned in my 62 years, is ‘Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God, in Christ, forgave you.’ 🥹(Eph 4:23)

And so we are off today to explore more of the Pacific coast! I am so looking forward to dipping my toes in the ocean waves 😆🤗! 

Sunny CA

​Breakfast bowl in a jar and coffee in a CHRISTMAS mug. A perfect start to the weekend! 

Providence Inpatient

​

Missoula has an inpatient treatment clinic for those suffering a mental health crisis. One of our clients ended up there last week, and I am here today to attend a discharge planning meeting. It brings to mind my first experience here as a nursing student. 

In my senior year of nursing school,  I had an instructor that really didn’t seem to like me. It seems every time I answered a question in class, she would ridicule my answer, which was very embarrassing. I wasn’t sure why, because it was the first time I’ve ever had that experience with an instructor.  Even my classmates were aware of it, and commented on it frequently. So fast-forward to our clinical rotation for the  psychiatric nursing class…we were all scheduled to be at Providence for six weeks. On the first morning of our rotation and orientation, I woke up very dizzy. One of the random spells I would get from time to time. Knowing I certainly couldn’t NOT show up for her orientation, I took a Dramamine and proceeded to get ready. Driving into town, I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. But it quelled the vertigo/nausea somewhat.   When I arrived, I joined my class in the conference room before being assigned our patients. Our professor, the one who didn’t like me, asked for a volunteer to go into the intensive care unit of the psych ward. I raised my hand, knowing as the only student over there, I would have little interaction with the professor that day. I was the only one who raised my hand! She seemed mildly intrigued by that, but off I went to the ICU of the psychiatric ward. I’ve never been comfortable with mental health nursing.  Caring for a patient with an illness that I could not see perplexed me. It almost made me wonder if it was some twisted form of manipulation. The patients on ‘the other side’ were so acutely in need of crisis intervention, that there were only three rooms on the entire ward. All exposed by full length/width windows. The patient I had followed me around the entire six hours. She referred to me by name any time she addressed me, which kind of freaked me out, because the tone she spoke with was devoid  of any emotion. Still, it was comforting to only have one patient, and one in no acute physical need (IV’s, cardiac monitoring, etc.). I could give her my full attention, help her bathe with the shampoo delivered in a little paper cup, and serve her lunch in Styrofoam bowls and cups with plastic spoons. No plastic forks or knives on a psych ward! It was a real learning experience, but the best part was having a full week’s rotation with no sign of my professor. I think even she was intimidated somehow by going to the acute care side!😂😂😂 

Somehow, my volunteering to work in the acute care wing  shifted how my professor perceived me. I never had any issues with her after that, and she even complimented me every chance she got. A win-win for me! And somehow, in being back here today, I feel like I’ve come full circle yet again!

Flying the Coop

​Remember these people? 

And this one in particular?

Michelle. My new-found friend I met on the Prague tour 😊. She was born and raised in California, and now lives in the San Francisco Bay area. 

“Why don’t you come to visit me?” she asked, when we had to say our farewell in Budapest.  

Somehow, making a plan to see one another again made the goodbye a little less painful.  So I’ve decided this month would be the perfect time.  I will leave on Friday, and return a few days later. I sent her my itinerary after I booked the flight, and asked if I should look for an Airbnb close to her home. She confidently replied…”I’ve got this!” 

Turns out her sister owns an Airbnb near the coast! So the plan is to spend the long weekend in Monterey/Carmel!  I am so looking forward to spending some time with her. I’d say one of the best outcomes of solo trips is meeting new friends. I wouldn’t have gotten that chance had I been traveling with somebody else.  Stay tuned for blogs from California 💕😊!  

An Easy Return Home

​…but we de-boarded the YYZ ( Toronto)-MSP flight right next to this gate…

Tempting.  Very tempting!😂😂😂 But I proceeded on to my Missoula flight as scheduled. ☺️💕

Last Evening in Downtown Toronto

​A very beautiful and bustling city!

Thai soup. Dinner last night 😊.

Casa Loma

​This one stands alone. Started construction in 1911, with a total end cost of $3.5 million dollars in THAT TIME 😱!  But so, so beautiful! 

The website photo…

And some of mine 🤗. 

Kelly and I both determined we wanted to be the one who was wearing the keys! 😂😂

View from the middle balcony! 👆

I do believe this 👆 is an early version of a bidet 😂😂😂😂!

Wine cellar 👆. Discovered by accident several years after the fact.😱

Stables 👆

A system of tunnels spanning 800 meters, as the city of Toronto would not allow a road (connecting the stables and the casa) to be put across a major thoroughfare, so he went under! 😂😂

We are in the stables here, and off in the distance is the tip of the casa 😂. 

A beautiful home for an eccentric yet philanthropic gentleman and his family, but with a sad end. He eventually lost all due to his enormous debt, and moved out of the casa, leaving it empty for several years. Eventually the city took it over to allow others to experience its uniqueness, and eventually made it into a museum.  And now you and I can experience it as well! 💕