This is our room at Avila Lighthouse Suites. It was "sweet," and the most expensive room either one of us has ever stayed in. The hotel was just built and it opened in Dec. of 2005 and it still had the new smell in it.

You can check out Lisa's blog for pics of San Francisco. The shoots we have of the streets do not do them justice in showing how steep they are. Here are some pics of the beach area around our hotel in Avila Beach.

This is the picture of the harbor view from our room in Fort Bragg, CA.

Speaking of big trees, here is one we drove through.
We took a picture through our sunroof while we were stopped to see up the tree.

Here's some more. The "Immortal Tree" is supposed to be over 900 years old (so it's inappropriately named Immortal). The part of the tree that Lisa is in is the top of the Immortal tree. It is amazing to see how big it is.

I could only publish a few pics in the previouse post so I am adding a few more here. These are ones from our drive through the Redwood forest. WOW, what an experience to see this.

Here are some pics from our stay at Crescent City. It was a GREAT motel. The first is a view from our room. The others are pics of the beach or lighthouse.

This is the view we have from our motel window here in Crescent City, CA.

l am surprised by our Sprint cell phone service. We've had trouble with our reception in Omaha and Phoenix, but there we were driving through the mountains in Oregon, about 100 miles south of Eugene, Lisa gets a phone call from her Mom. Now we have a mountain rising high above us on either side of our road and she's got a clear enough signal to talk on the phone. How can that signal bounce down into the bottom of that valley and bring reception when it doesn't give a clear signal in our house? Come on Sprint, I'm sure you have to have some kind of answer to that question.

It was a beautiful drive as we went through the mountains from just north of Redding all the way into Oregon. We are now in Portland and we have had a great time so far.

The view from our motel room in Redding, CA. We are facing the mountains to the west of us. On our trip down from Seattle we'll be going on the other side of them--right along the coast. We plan on taking Hwy 101 and Hwy 1. I am looking forward to crossing the Golden Gate Bridge as well as seeing the Redwoods and enjoying the view as we drive along the coast.
(I know this photo isn't the most beautiful scene, but Redding is a very nice city)

My two grandsons (a couple of good looking kids) and my daughter Susannah. Dennis, my son-in-law, must be the photographer because he's obviously not in the picture. I'll have to find one of him and post it later.

I have another grandchild expected in October. My son Ben and my wonderful daughter-in-law Terri are expecting their first, but they don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet. We are looking forward to the new arrival either way.

Here is a picture of my beautiful wife Lisa.

This is a picture of me on our new patio.

I'm posting a Haiku that I wrote many years ago, but decided to put on this site to finally have something published somewhere.

Man’s hard labor here
Does not mirror the brevity
Of his life so dear

© L Richard Gray, 4/2006

Here are a couple of pictures of our apartment complex in Glendale.

Well, here I am sitting in a motel room starting my first blog. I hadn't planned on blogging--I just slipped and fell into it. I just wanted to make a comment on my wife's blog and I had to register. The next thing I knew I had my own blog and now I feel this responsibility to put something on it. WOW, life can have some unexpected turns.

We are on our way to Seattle and for the first time in my life I think I'm looking forward to getting back home. We have just moved to Glendale, AZ and I LOVE it. I am looking forward to getting settled in, finding a job, a house and making some friends. The church we are going to has some great people. I think each person is like a present God gives us. As we begin to get to know them--not their mask, but their real self--it is like unwrapping the present and getting to see what God has placed there.

Got to go. Need to try to make a phone connection and talk where I can get some instant responses. If you are reading this I just want to say thanks--and, man how did you find me with all the other millions of blogs in the cyber world? I hope you have a great day--and a great life which is much harder to do these days.