Wow---How Time Flies!, Art and Tour

It’s hard to believe that it has been over a month since my last post.  I must apologize to all my readers. Since Labor Day there hasn’t been much happening in the park.  Most of the time I have my feet up looking for things to do.  I have to thank Kim , the manager and Eric , the owner for allowing me to stay and I just helped when needed, even when it wasn’t 15 hours. 

(I finally found my new slippers that match my robe)

One of the things that I have been doing is supporting a couple of other artists in the area.

Be low is one of them, Christine, of DEDE Collages.  This was her first Show held in  Isleton where I have some of my paintings displayed.

     

One of the few things that I did after the end of the Season was to create the sign announcing the Sine and Art Faire that was held in the park on two consecutive Saturdays. 

There were quite a few vendors.  One of them was Paulette.  She creates cards.

  

After the Faire was over she came back to my MH for a visit.  We had a great visit, however when I packed up my stuff in the car, I messed up and broke the door latch on the rear doors of my Mini

Later in the week I went to the dealer to find out how much it would cost to fix it.  Can you believe how much things cost at a dealer?  I checked with my son and he advised me to wait until he could take a look of it.  He was able to get the doors open and repair the latch.  Instead of over $700.00 it only cost about $130 for the part in addition to the $175.00 for the cost of the quote. 

One other good thing that happened while I was waiting for the quote, I sold the two paintings below to a woman that was also waiting for her car.  It was kind of neat that a perfect stranger would do that.

  

A couple of weeks later John and I toured the USS Hornet docked in Alameda.  After it was de-commissioned, it was scheduled to be scraped, but was saved to create a museum.  If anyone is interested in our military history, it would be a great thing to support.

The USS Hornet was the Carrier that retrieved the Astronauts from the Apollo 11 and 12.

Below is the capsule and the airstream where they were quarantined.

             

  Does anyone out there remember sitting in a living room similar to this to watch the recovery?

On the lower hanger decks there were many exhibits from that era.  They covered many of the other carriers as well as the women in the Navy.

      

After walking through all of the exhibits on the lower decks, we headed up to the flight deck. I actually walked from one end of the deck to the other while we waited for a docent to lead a tour of the “Island” .The Island is that tall thing, six flights above the flight deck where they actually run the ship. 

                 

Looking out of the window at the top of the Island is San Francisco.

    

It was a great trip and well worth the effort and the walking, even if it took me a day to recover.

I just had to put this picture in of Angel and Bentley ( a neighbor’s dog).  Angel wasn’t very happy that he was on her pillow.  He wanted to play, but she wasn’t having anything to do with him.

She is much happier being by herself and with me.

 

I sure hope the you all are having a wonderful Fall.  It has been beautiful here.  We have moved back to China Camp State Park in San Rafael.

Thanks for visiting

How humiliating!  Mom got me a new Halloween Costume,  I’m supposed to be a Triceratops dinosaur.

Susan and Angel

Art Day in Benicia, Birthday, Wine Train

I usually go into Benicia once a month to check on my art and take advantage of their open studio to paint.  Below is a new installation of lighted art panels by one of the artists/owners.  The lights actually change colors.  The picture just doesn’t do it  justice.

After leaving  Benicia, I headed over to Walnut Creek to meet Ted at the Walnut Creek Yacht Club to celebrate my Birthday.  Thank you Ted.

Then on the weekend I was surprised to discover that Charlotte and her family were camping in the park for the Labor Day Weekend.  They are members of the same church where I belong.

Since this would be the last weekend of the season and the movie would be Dinosaurs”, I got some of the parents to help out with arts and crafts so that I could do face painting.

The kids all love to have their faces painted.

I’m beginning to get “Hitch-Itch” and since I can’t do anything about it until November 1st I have been re-arranging things in the coach.

       

The bed is where the dinette is, the bench is where the bed was and now I will be able to use the chairs in front.  This is all a bit of experimentation.  Someday I hope to downsize and I’m seeing if I can live in a smaller space.  The other reason is that I have to adjust the support for the bed. I made it too big.  Now if I can only figure out how to finance the downsizing, I’m sure that I can live even smaller than I do now.

 

Any one need a paper weight?  Same stones, painting on both sides.

  

A friend that I met in Rio Vista wanted to celebrate my birthday too.  Neither one of us had been on the Napa Valley Wine Train, so that’s where we went  yesterday. 

This is John and me just before we got on the train.  It left Napa at a slow pace heading north to St. Helena.  On the way there we had a complimentary wine to taste and our first glass of wine along with a fruit, cheese and cracker plate.

  

There was a 20 minute wait in St. Helena while they moved the engines from the north end of the train to the south end for the return trip.  We then moved to the dining car for lunch and our second glass of  wine.  We both chose the Salmon which was delicious.

  

There were ten cars plus the engines, one of them was the kitchen and one was a domed car.  The entire trip took about 4 hours.

Both John and I really enjoyed the experience.  Thank you John.

Now that the season is over, I no longer have to do the fishing derby, arts and crafts  or the movie night.     What he (the owner) has me working on is an event ,  Wine and Art Faire.  It will be wine tasting local wines and artists selling their art.  It will be on two consecutive Saturdays, 9/24 and 10/1.  The Sunday in between  we  are having a yard sale throughout the park for long term  campers and workampers.   I will participate in both.

My next move won’t be until the 1st of November, because the camp hosts at China Camp won’t be leaving until then.  So I will be spending the winter at China Camp State Park again.  I will also be working on where I will go next summer.

That’s what has been going on here.   I hope that you all have had a great summer.

Thanks for visiting

  Taking in the sun, watching Mom.

Susan and Angel

Little Bit Of Work, Travel, Painting and Relaxing

 

                                      

                                             Self Portrait in Watercolor

   

                            Road trip with John and Angel to Bodega Bay.

                         

                             Angel at the Pet Parade in Rio Vista

Then at some time I have to work to pay for my space.

  

                            Fishing Derby     and      Crafts with kids and parents

  relaxing in new hammock

The trip to Sausalito and Marin Headlands and marine Mammal Center

   (information in previous post)

Then there was last week:

I needed to go into San Rafael to pickup my renewed Driver’s License and drop off my application for another Passport (mine expired over 10 years ago).  After that I went into Corte Madera to Mini of Marin to get a bracket for my front license plate.

As long as I was in the area I decided to check out Fort Baker on the North East side of the Golden Gate Bridge also in Sausalito.  When John and I were here, we didn’t have time to explore this part of the Marin Headlands Recreation Area.  This time I wanted to take some time and do some painting.

      

Angel was checking out some seagulls.           North side of GGB.

  

There is also a marina                                 and of course, Fort Baker.

   Seagulls

It was quite busy on the water and just a bit hazy , windsurfers, Ferries and sailboats      

 

Here’s the watercolor sketch that I did.  It was too windy and it was getting late.  I wanted to get started before rush hour. As it was it took about two hours to get home.

                               

Finally home.  This is another possible painting of the Water Tower in Isleton about 5 miles away, where I have more artwork in a gallery.

                                 

So that’s what we’ve been doing. How about you?  I hope that you all are enjoying your Summer.

Thanks for visiting

In this extra pic, Mom is scratching just the right spot.  It feels sooooooo good. Then more relaxing!!!!!!

Susan and Angel