February 2016 - Everyday thoughts - Family, San Diego, El Centro & Yuma

February 2016

February 2nd, 2016

Bryan took some supplies and food over to Christina today as she wasn't well and had been suffering for a few days.
This dove came to visit us today.

February 5th, 2016 - Please see the following link for today's blogs. It was a busy day!!!

Balboa Park - Day 1

February 6th, 2016

LeeAnn has been working with her lamb, Bunco, since last year and earlier this week the day finally arrived for her to show him in the livestock show.  She placed 3rd.

Here LeeAnn is telling the judge to pick her friend.  Her friend ended up Grand Champion.

This was a HUGE achievement for her and she has worked extremely hard over the last months.  Today was the day when Bunco went to auction and she sold him.  We are so proud of her dedication and hard work with this project. Well Done LeeAnn.

Bryan & I went to dinner at Chilis with Ryan, Christina & Trystan.

Look at him holding on to mommy

Where's my food mommy??

Something made them laugh so hard.

February 7th, 2016

Ryan, Christina and Trystan came to visit us.

Trystan obviously got bored

Here's a picture of them taken on USS Decatur during family day.

February 8th, 2016

Aimee ready for a school board meeting.  She is the school postmistress.

February 9th, 2016 -  Please see the following link for today's blogs. It was another busy day!!!
Look for the individual blogs for each museum/attraction that are linked on that page.
Balboa Park - Day Two

Trystan got his daddy doll for when daddy deploys.  He seems to like it.

February 12th, 2016

Ryan, Christina and Trystan surprised us by bringing breakfast donuts to us, which were amazing and gave us energy to work our last Friday!!!

February 15th, 2016

We went to say our goodbyes to Ryan, Tinnie & Trystan as we will be leaving tomorrow.  Trystan was having fun playing with his new train book.  The train actually goes around a track in the book.  How cute is that!!!!  Nearly as cute as Trystan himself!!!

February 16th, 2016

We left Santee Lakes, our home for the last 5 months and headed toward El Centro, where we will spend the next month.  On the way we stopped at Wayne Miller's Mobile Tires in Santee to get a new tire to replace the one that we had a blow out with in Florida.  We put the spare back as a spare!!!  Recommend this place, they were quick and had a fair price.  Although these tires are not cheap!!!

On the way we saw smoke ahead. We found out it was a controlled burn, which was good news.

We arrived at NAF El Centro with no mishaps and got settled in.  This base and campground are very close to the Mexican and Arizona border.

February 18th, 2016

Bryan is enjoying plane spotting as the planes take off and land.  This is also the Blue Angels winter training base and they train almost daily.  Free air shows for us, yay!!!  The first air show of the season is March 12th here and we will still be here.

It was quite windy

There are some nice sunsets here as well.

February 20th, 2016

Today is Mom's 76th birthday.  Happy, Happy Birthday Mom.  We love you.

Also, thinking of our friend Ros, in the UK, as we remember our dear friend Stuart, who is having his first birthday in heaven.

February 23rd, 2016

Happy Happy Birthday to our son-in-law John in Texas.  He is looking a different person these days and has achieved a lot this last year to be proud of.

Trystan is sitting up!!!

February 24th, 2016

We took a road trip to Yuma, Arizona.  A lot of full time rv'ers, like us, stay here for the winter as it is warm and they go over the border to Mexico for dental and optical services that are a LOT cheaper than the USA.  We still use the USA for all of our dental and optical work but we may go over the border at some time just to take a look around.

Arizona State Parks have done a good job of renovating and preserving the Historic Riverfront District and there are riverfront parks and trails to use and historic attractions to visit.

Here are the links for our blogs about our visits today.
1. Quartermaster Depot BLOG
2.Yuma Territorial Prison BLOG

On the way home from Yuma we drove past these sand dunes.  It is fascinating how the winds have created these smooth patterns in the sand.

When we got back to the base Bryan took a couple of pictures of the Blue Angels on the ground.

February 26th, 2016

Bryan took some pictures of the moon tonight.

February 27th, 2016

Bailey got certificates for swimming.  He passed the first two stages at his first lesson.  Well done Bailey.

Some pictures of the Blue Angels practicing, taken through the motorhome window!!!

February 29th, 2016

We went to the local mall here today and had a look around.  We didn't buy anything, yay!!

That's another month gone by.  At least we moved this month!!!

Yuma Territorial Prison

February 24th, 2016

After lunch, we drove to the Yuma Territorial Prison.

In contrast to the Quartermaster Museum, there were no retired military discounts or free entrance here.  You had to be an Arizona resident or active duty to get a discount.  Fair enough, but I'm not sure why there are different policies for different places in the same town of the same state. We were grateful though that at least one of the places we were able to get our discount.

 Sally Port - This is one of the last remaining original adobe structures of the 1876 Yuma Territorial Prison.  This was the checkpoint through which the prisoners entered and left the prison.  It has been restored.

 The Museum entrance

There are recordings with information of each inmate, male and female. It was very interesting seeing the various crimes and punishments and whether they were paroled or not. PBS did a documentary on the prison.  Here is a transcript of part of it.

 Pearl Hart's gun.  She was one of the only female stagecoach robbers in the American West.  She was imprisoned here but paroled.

This clock was rescued from an old saloon.  The numbers were reversed so that patrons of the bar could see a reflection of it in a mirror above the bar.  It saved them from turning around on their stools to see the time and risk falling off!!!

The prison cells

There were six prisoners to a cell.

The Exercise yard

Original door to the exercise yard

The Dark Cell, which has featured on Ghost Adventures.  It was the equivalent of solitary confinement.

 Bryan coming out of the Dark Cell.  Just before this picture was taken, there were two young teen boys looking into this corridor from outside when all of a sudden Bryan walked across the walkway at the back.  They both jumped back quickly startled for a moment.  It was very funny to see and I had a chuckle as they had been misbehaving and being a general nuisance up until that moment.

The prisoners built the prison.  This was the doctor/dentist office.

A separate cell for women was built.

More cells

 Prison Bell

The prisoners made lace which they could then sell.  It was beautiful.

Replica Gatling Gun

The Guard Tower sits on top of the prison's original water supply.  It is a reconstruction of one of the many towers which overlooked the prison and guarded against escapes.

The view from the tower.

The prison cemetery

 After our self guided tour of the prison we decided to head home.