The Journey Home

The trip home was blissfully uneventful. We had a bedroom on The Southwest Chief which included a shower and a toilet. There was a place for everything.



I did my best to avoid sitting directly across from the mirror. Want to lose weight? Put a full length mirror opposite your sofa.



We even had a little closet. Where's Joanna?



There she is!



We even got her to take a nap.



Surprisingly all trains arrived on time, even the Lake Shore Limited.

It's good to be home.

Happy New Year

On January 2nd we went up to Pasadena to see the parade floats. After the parade they park them along the street so you can go and get a close view. They really are quite impressive.

This was Joanna's favorite.

There were some really clever touches, like the GPS on this float.

Joanna decided that she and Anna Spotnik had walked enough. This worked well for her but not so much for Rick when he stepped into a pot hole while carrying her.

Some dress codes never die.

More from California

While we were in Southern California we rented a car and drove to Sacramento. Rick wanted to visit a client and it turned out that the Northern California contingent of my family was going to be in Sacramento that day.

We all met up and went to the train museum. They had some big trains.



They had some little trains.



They had old fancy trains.



They had some new not-so-fancy trains.



There were a lot of trains you could walk through. Each one had someone in appropriate attire explaining how that particular car worked. I think my favorite was the mail car. Joanna liked the toys.

One the way back south I had Rick pull into my favorite restroom stop, Fort Tejon. It is right at the top of the Tejon Pass, not a lot of people and very clean restrooms. I didn't know he would take our picture.



Just for fun we decided to take Joanna to play mini golf. Rick tried to teach her a proper swing.



He also gave her a little help with putting.

Holiday Recap

After we finally arrived in California (you can read all about that lovely experience at http://mushmomgreen.livejournal.com/22140.html) we settled into the usual holiday stuff.

We had planned to go to some local attractions while in Sothern California. With Joanna breaking her coller bone these attracting turned out to be the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Sea World since we didn't think rides would be a good idea. She enjoyed both but I think Sea World was her favorite. As soon as I find the disk with the pictures I will post some.

We also did the usual Christmas stuff.

We spent Christmas eve at my cousin Gil's house with his family and my cousin Gary's family. Joanna enjoyed hanging out with cousin Brooke.

She also enjoyed help people open gifts. I guess she thought Grandma Janette might not be able to manage it on her own.

Cousin Cade got to play Santa.

Once everything was open there was some serious playing to be done.

One of my cousins brought out his "pet" to share.

Joanna decided to be brave and hold it too.

On Christmas morning Joanna was exicited to find two dogs in her stocking.

Grandma Janette still needed help opening gifts.

Uncle Rob needed some help too.

Of course she had some gifts of her own to open as well.