December 20, 2009
California Christmas Boat Parades have been fun to watch since we have been in Southern California. They are all up and down the coast however. Last night we had dinner at the Crab Pot and watched the Naples Christmas Boat Parade. Naples is a neighborhood of Long Beach, CA. The Naples Boat Parade has been fun to watch for several years because it is right in our neighborhood. We have seen the Huntington Beach, Newport and Oxnard Boat Parades through the years as well. All sorts of little and large boats get all decked out with lights and other decorations and parade up and down the waterways. This link has a list of dates and locations of boat parades in California. The Long Beach Press-Telegram hard-copy said it had photos online, but I couldn’t find anything with yesterday or today’s date about the parade online. If I do later, I might link it here.
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Places to Explore | Tagged: boat parade, California Christmas Boat Parade, child, children, family, fun, grandchild, grandchildren, granddaughter, grandma, grandpa, grandparent, grandson, kids, Long Beach, Naples, Naples Christmas Boat Parade, Places to Go | 
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Posted by mygrandmasue
December 19, 2009
A park naturalist at the El Dorado Nature Center will be guiding a post-holiday trail walk on December 26 from 10 am until noon. The cost is $3/person and you must register in advance. Call 562-570-1745. Walk off some of those Christmas Dinner calories! 🙂
The El Dorado Nature Center is located at 7550 E. Spring St in Long Beach. Here are some Yelp reviews.
The Center is across the street from the El Dorado Regional Park, which has picnic areas, archery range, stocked lakes, pedal boats, physical fitness course, radio controlled model sailboat and model airplane areas, Caboose Corners train ride and other activities.
Junior Olympic Archery Development (JOAD) holds free archery instruction with their equipment or your own. There is a one hour safety/orientation class held regularly. For more information, to confirm class schedule or to schedule groups, call Aletha Donathan, Head Archery Instructor at (562) 688-9666.
For more interesting info, check out my website at https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com
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Posted by mygrandmasue
December 18, 2009
Some of my favorite memories are making Christmas cookies with grandma over the years. The grandparents.com site has a great page for various recipes to try with children in the kitchen! Gluten-Free Recipes, Cookies, Oatmeal Cookies, Marshmallows, Snacks! Check it out here! Tips for who should do what are here. Have fun!
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Posted by mygrandmasue
December 13, 2009
We did not make it out of town today after all. We woke up to a totally white wonderland. The fir trees and evergreens were bending with snow on all their branches. The bare trees were all magically white from the pogonip if not a few inches of clinging snow. Even the weather station was covered in snow. There wasn’t any wind!
Grandpa Ron used the snow blower one more time to get another 9 inches off the driveway! The roads were slushy or icy. All of the roads to get back to LA were requiring chains, snow tires and/or 4 wheel drive. After checking the various weather forecasts, we decided to stay one more night here instead of chancing it on the road as we’ve done before. I think our close call last January made both of us more willing to stay.
So we got the suitcase back out of the car and settled back in. We’ll get out early tomorrow.
Here are four pictures from the gazillion I took. One is from last night (guess which one, ha!) and three from this morning.
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December 12, 2009
We certainly are getting lots of snow! Grandpa Ron and I got outside and cleared the drive around noon but we can’t even see the house across the street at times because of the heavy snowfall! Lots of giant fluffy flakes! I guess we’ll be doing it again tonight or maybe we’ll wait till morning. Now the prediction is 3-7 inches more tonight. Grandpa Ron thinks we will still head back to LA tomorrow going out on the desert. Right now the NV DOT map shows snow tires or chains required there, too! I think we will be having another adventure!
Here is a photo of all the snow:
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Posted by mygrandmasue
December 11, 2009
For those of you followiing yesterday’s adventure, we made it safely to Reno last night. We needed to get through the mountains by 9 pm. Armed with maps and printed weather.com and NOAA forecasts for the various touchpoints (towns) along our route, we got out of Los Angeles in record time.
After we passed two cars in lanes 2 and 3 going 55 mph along side each other (creating a long backup of traffic behind them like a police traffic break), we sailed on the highway. The 14 was no problem. At the fork in the road in Bishop (continue on 395 or break to the desert on 6), I called my daughter to check the latest weather reports. Everything still looked good to continue on 395 through the mountains.
We didn’t make our usual stop at the Indian casino in Bishop to save time. Highway 395 was spotless although signs were up to watch for ice and bumpers of snow lined the mountain roads. We drove through the entrance of our home development at 8 pm and then met our driveway of 8″ of snow.
Even with 4 wheel drive we couldn’t get over the first incline part of the driveway. So after several futile tries, we left the car at the street and walked up to the house. We got our snow shovels and made two tracks in the powdery snow down to the car. Then the car had no problem!
Grandpa Ron is out there snowblowing the rest as I write this. …and it is snowing once again! Can’t see beyond the houses across the street. It is supposed to snow all weekend!
Current forecast is 1-3″ today, 1-3″ tonight, 3-7″ tomorrow and the second storm arriving Saturday night with 100% chance of snow with no mention of how much. NOAA radio is saying LOTS! We just might not make it back to LA on Sunday! We’ll have to check out going back on the desert again via 95.
Hopefully we will get down the hill to check our mail because I’d love to pick up our expected package containing the logger piece of our weather station so we can go live on the internet! Then we’ll have really local conditions to check up on!
Stay warm!!
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Posted by mygrandmasue
December 10, 2009
This morning I have been trying to find out how much snow is already on the ground around Bishop, Mammoth, Bridgeport and Walker, CA. Another storm is supposedly moving in today but we are trying to anticipate whether we can romp through the region with a 4-wheel drive or if we should take the desert route of 95 to get to Reno. Anyone have any details for us?
Ah, BIGstLittleCity on Twitter helped me out with the forecast out of the Reno Gazette-Journal! And then I found super info on the NOAA site. You just click on the map and it gives you the 7 day forecast! Awesome!! Here is Mammoth, CA! Grab the map with the hand to pull in various directions along the route! 🙂
Here is the site to check CA Road Conditions (CA DOT).
Here is the site to check NV Road Conditions (NV DOT).
Here is SafeTravelUSA.com which is awesome for showing NV road conditions on a map – Here is the index for getting to other states as well. Looks like the various state departments of transportation map road conditions a variety of very different ways! This site is very useful for checking any travel conditions – well worth saving as a bookmark or favorite!
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1 Comment | Places to Explore | Tagged: Bishop, Bridgeport, CA DOT, CA Road Conditions, Highway 395, Mammoth, Mammoth Lake, NOAA, NV DOT, NV Road Conditions, Reno, Road Conditions, SafeTravelUSA.com Road Condition Maps, snow, Walker, weather, Weather Report | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
December 9, 2009
This year’s Seal Beach Holiday Parade was just as much fun as it has been in the past. Fifteen reading therapy dogs from Beach Animals Reading with Kids (BARK) participated in the parade for the first time and handed out books to children along the parade route on the beautifully decorated Main Street of Seal Beach, CA. The Orange County Register reported that approximately 8,000 people watched the parade. It was a brisk night as reported in another article in the OCR so people cuddled up to stay warm. It still had lots of fun and enjoyment as the floats, dogs, cars and almost 100 groups participated – along with Santa at the end – in the 29th annual event! See OCR photos by clicking the photo tab here.
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Posted by mygrandmasue
MyGrandmaSue 