St. Patrick's Day Outing 2011

3-14-11
The Convair Camping Club has their annual Saint Patrick’s Day outing at the Guajome County Park in Oceanside.
Chappy, Dottie, Doreen and I are the wagonmasters. This evening we had heavy hors d’oeuvres for dinner.























After dinner we sat around the camp fire.
Doreen decided to go in our motorhome. After a while somebody told me that Doreen is calling me.
I walked around the motorhome and there she was, on the floor. She had fallen backwards from the step.
I called 911 right away and in a short while the ambulance arrived and the medics carefully moved her on a board like contraption.
I followed the ambulance to Tri City Hospital. There they performed a cat-scan and some other tests.
A second cat scan was needed, but because Doreen is on blood thinner, it could only performed later.
At 1:00 AM she was told that Kaiser, our HMO, decided to transfer her to the Trauma Center at Palomar Hospital in Escondido.
I went back to the motorhome and tried to get some sleep.

3-15 11
I managed to get four hours of sleep.
At 6:15 AM I got up and prepared the coffee and muffins for the group.
Then I drove to Palomar Hospital to see Doreen. She was still waiting for the results from the last cat-scan . She was told it would be either an operation or a brace.
When Sandra, Doreen’s daughter, arrived I went back to the park to prepare for the evening meal.
I had cooked already the corned beef and only had to slice it and heat it up.
Denise and Dottie had peeled ten pounds of potatoes and some carrots. At 3:00 PM I started to cook the carrots and potatoes.
We had two broilers for keeping the food warm. The meat was in one and the potatoes, onions and carrots in the second one. Later, when the cabbage was cooked, I added it.
26 happy campers enjoyed the food. There were plenty of desserts to.













3-16-11
Doreen had good news. She did not need an operation and she was able to go home today.
I picked her up and brought her home. First we had to look for her cell phone. It must have gone with the bed linens to the laundry room.
On the way out we visited our friend Jean Sinclair, who is in a room two floors below where Doreen was.
Jean is not doing well and she needs hospice pretty soon.
After I dropped off Doreen at the house I went back to the park where we had corned beef sandwiches with salads and a lot of desserts.
After dinner I went home and slept there. Doreen is doing fine. She has a lot of pain and can’t move much.

3-17-11
In the morning I picked up the motorhome. In the afternoon Dottie and Chappy came by. They brought some flowers and some chocolate.
They are on their way to Temecula for the Bluegrass Festival. We were going too, but with Doreen’s fall we have to stay home.
The doctor told Doreen that she is very lucky.

Gemological Institute of America

3-1-11
I am preparing a post about Carlsbad, California, for my blog.
While going through my pictures I noticed that I had none of the Gemological Institute of America.
The Institute is only a mile from where we live.
It is their world headquarters and they have a beautiful campus, overlooking the Carlsbad Flower Fields and the Pacific Ocean.
Students from all over the world study here to learn about diamonds and other precious stones.
I called yesterday and they had two openings for today’s tour of the facility.
This is the second time Doreen and I visited the GIA. We always learn something and the displays of those beautiful stones are fascinating.

In the tower is a giant diamond made of glass. Unfortunately the sun did not shine much and the colors are not visible. It is a fantastic sight with sun.
























The figures on this chess board are made from solid gold.












This machine has four pistons and heating elements to compress and heat carbon to high temperatures.
It was used for making synthetic diamonds.











These pictures are magnifications of precious stones. One cannot see the colors and shapes with the naked eye.












This is a diamond magnified.












These are the flags of the nations the GIA has campuses or offices.











Posters, explaining the composition of valuable gem stones, are on the walls of the hall ways.
















Those items were recovered by Mel Fisher from the Spanish Galleon Alocha.











Posters taken by GIA photographers are displayed throughout the buildings.













This coffee table is using a giant geode as support. It is a beautiful piece of furniture.











Doreen and some large crystals which are on display in the GIA museum.











This post is too large to incorporate it in my Carlsbad post, so I keep it separate.

San Diego Zoo Safari Park

2-22-11
We went today to the Wild Animal Park, which is now the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
The park is located near Escondido.
Since we had rain the last few days, it was a joy to walk around in sunny weather.
We are spoiled, in the Midwest they are shoveling snow and we complain about a little rain.
Since Doreen still has problems walking, we decided to take the tram.

Jamul 2011

2-13-11
The motorhome is in the driveway and ready to go.
I started loading yesterday. This morning Doreen had pain in her hip and informed me that she can not go.
We went to Kaiser Urgent Care and she saw a doctor. They took X rays and it is not the bone, which is good news. The ligaments are the problem.
This is still the result from falling down the stairs a few months ago.
By evening Doreen felt better and we will be going to a RV Park near Jamul, California.

2-14-11
We left Carlsbad at 11:00 AM and arrived at the RV Park at 12:45 PM.
After setting up the motorhome we visited with our friends.
Happy hour was at 4:30 PM and we ate dinner at 6:00 PM. Denise and Dick, the wagon masters, had prepared Cordon Bleu.(chicken, ham & cheese coated with bread crumbs) It was a very good meal.The room was decorated with hearts and other Valentine's items.We were a bunch of happy, old people.
After dinner Janice played popular tunes on the piano and almost everybody sang along.























2-15-11
In the morning we sat in the recreation room and talked with people of the group.
I took some pictures of the motorhomes and the park.






















At 10:00 AM we left for the Simpson Nursery to see the old Ford cars. Unfortunately the nursery is closed on Tuesdays.
We had Denise and Dick with us and wanted to show them all the old cars and equipment on display.
Our next stop was the Pacific Southwest Railroad Museum, which was closed too. The drive along highway 94 was scenic and we enjoyed it very much.
On the way home we stopped at the Barrett Junction Café and had a fantastic fish dinner. The meal was served family style and one could eat as much one wanted. The restaurant is very large and there are a lot of antiques on display.
The visit was an experience, the food was good, so was the atmosphere. I highly recommend this restaurant.























For dinner everybody cooked their own steaks or hamburgers on the grill. Some people brought their potato bakers and cooked in them their potatoes. Doreen and I were not hungry and had only some salad.











Some of the women worked on the large puzzle.











2-16-11
During the night it started to rain. In the morning we drove to Simpson Nursery. They were open, but the large barns were closed, because of the mud.
I wanted to show our friends the old cars in the barns. We have to do it next year
It rained off and on during the day. The women finished the large puzzle,and played Mexican Train.











Some of us men watched a man from a window repair shop replace the broken side window in Linda and Jon’s motorhome.
He took the whole window frame out and found out that he measured wrong and the glass was too large to fit the frame. They covered the window with a sheet of plastic and tomorrow, with a bit of luck, they get their window fixed. It does not take much to entertain us.
For dinner we had Mexican food. Everybody brought a dish.

2-17-11
We left for home at 9:30 AM. Doreen had a lunch date with her women's group at the Grossmont Center Shopping Mall. We stopped there and I watched television while Doreen did her thing.
Today we had blue skies again. This was a wonderful outing, even with one rainy day.
We arrived at home at 2:00 PM.