Monday, November 11, 2013

Monday

When I got on the computer today, I realized it was Veterans Day. I want to say Thank you to the Veterans who have given up so much so I may sit here in my pajamas and blog. Without the sacrifice of their families and their lives my life would be so different.

After a very crazy week last week. It is hard to know where to start. So much happened. Illness, hospital visit and a vacation. All in one week. I will try and hit just the vacation part.

The boys who still live at home had a convention to go to down in Anaheim California, which is the home of Disneyland. It used to take a little over two hours to get down there. This time because of all of the road construction it took us three and a half hours. It was grueling.

It is beautiful though. I loved this walk and how all of the date palms grow like this and all of the banana trees. We were late getting down there so the boys left immediately after we checked in to wait in line to get their badges and loot. The convention they went to see had sold 35 thousand tickets so they had a while.
 Friday morning they left a little after six A.M. To wait in line just to get in before 11:00 when opening ceremonies took place.
Which meant that Ron and I had a nice breakfast and then we decided to go explore. The first place we drove too was called the House of Bonsai. It was in Lakewood California.

 We got out of the car and this was our first sight, there was five acres of nothing but Bonsai. It was so amazing to just walk and look just look to our hearts content.

There were five acres of all kinds of trees used in Bonsai and then I think there were about 10 hoop houses filled with baby trees. There were men working doing nothing but cutting and training little trees. These trees this size were 120 dollars each.

Here is some of the trees that they had that weren't for sale. Or if they were it would have been thousands of dollars.

After we spent a few hours here and the next place opened at noon, we decided to go visit The Huntington Gardens. It is located in San Marino California. What a mind blowing experience. It has about 120 acres of gardens and Ron and I tried to see them all. The Japanese Garden was our favorite and the Bonsai specimens were breath taking. I won't show you the oodles of photographs I took but I will show you some.
This is a cork oak and we both love cork oak so much and a couple of years ago we went to our park down down and gathered acorns now we have all of these little cork oak trees that will someday be lovely Bonsai specimens like this. Here is a picture of the bark.

I just love the way it looks and it is such an old tree.

They had a awesome Zen Garden.

It was too hot out there to enjoy it very much. Ron was in a hurry to see it all so I just snapped this photo.

This was the coolest bamboo walkway. There was water running and a Koi pond with such amazing huge fish. They came to the top when I stood on the bridge and looked down and made the kissing sounds thinking I would feed them. I of course stood there like a loon and talked to them. I was glad there was no one around to hear me.

This was the jungle garden, see the vines hanging down? Don't you just expect to see Tarzan swinging through? That was incredible there were Elephant ears that the leaves were almost as big as me. I have a gillion pictures so I won't bore you. The Australian garden was incredible but the desert garden was just as amazing. I thought it was full of Dr. Seuss Trees.  I still have more to show you but I will stop here.

 This is only part of the things I saw and did. When  I was at Weight Watchers all of the time, the number one reason women wanted to get in shape was to be able to keep up with kids and grand kids. I found out on this trip, I need to get in shape to keep up with my husband. He has more energy than anyone I have ever seen. That is for another day though.

Have a awesome day, I have mountains of laundry to do today.

~Kim~

21 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

the gardens and bonsai trees are awesome! glad you had some time to enjoy them. i sure hope the illness and hospital visits were MINOR! eek! although a hospital never sounds minor.

Kathy ... aka Nana said...

Those pictures - breathtaking! Thanks for sharing them with us. I too hope that the illness and hospital visit were minor!!

Julia said...

Wow, it looks like you had quite the week too. Illness, hospital and vacation all rolled into one.

I'd love to see MORE pictures as a picture is worth a thousand words. Wowsie, that's a lot of bonsai trees. It sounds like a wonderful get away even if it took you longer than usual to get there.

It was a long wait for the boys to wait in line to get in and buy their tickets. The convention must have been very worth while to them.

It's Remembrance Day here in honor of our war veterans and all those brave soldiers who fought for our freedom. I too am thankful to them for their supreme sacrifices.

Hugs,
JB

Alica said...

Your vacation sounds fun...all those Bonsai trees! I would have enjoyed that bamboo walkway and the fish pond too. I'm sure they enjoyed your singing! :) You don't say anything about the hospital visit, but I hope all is well!

camp and cottage living said...

You sure covered a lot of ground on your trip!
The Bonsai are amazing. I've never seen an oak cork
Bonsai before, it does look like cork!
Hope all are well there, Kim.

Miss Debbie said...

Sounds like you had fun.Love the pic of the bamboo walk...beautiful!

Beth said...

I am hoping that the illness and hospital visit was a minor thing.

The photos are beautiufl!

simply bev said...

I've never seen or even heard of cork oak. I've learned something new! Thanks for posting!

Christine said...

I sure hope your vacation time outweighed the time at the hospital.
The bonsai gardens were beautiful and I can hardly believe it was so hot as we've been having heavy frosts.
Hope you get the laundry sorted! Mine is never ending!

Empty Nester said...

Wait a second, now. You can't mention illness and hospital visit and not tell us about it? Who/what/when/where????? You know the drill.

Pom Pom said...

Hi Kim! Wow! That looks like tree-heaven for you and Ron! I know what you mean about having an energetic husband. Bill's always more motivated than I am.
Hospital? I'm curious!

Meg said...

Wow, those are gorgeous pictures! It sounds like you had a ton of fun. I'm so glad you got to go run around with dad and look at plants. But now you have to explain... Hospital Visit?!?! Are you sick again???

Debbie said...

How fun to find a bonsai garden for the bonsai loving hubs!! Very pretty images!!

Nellie said...

What amazing gardens! It's neat that you found a Bonsai garden! Yes, that laundry definitely puts a cap on the week-end fun, doesn't it?:-) xo Nellie

Anonymous said...

Thank you for remembering and honoring our veterans today.

GretchenJoanna said...

Your mention of the Huntington Gardens reminds me that I want to go there someday. We always avoid going to southern CA ;-) but next time we are forced to will be our opportunity to see places like that. You made the most of your day!

annie said...

sounds like a great trip!

Susan Kane said...

All those bonsai! Represents so much labor and attention to detail. Great photos.

Dog Trot Farm said...

Illness and hospital? I pray you both are okay...I don't think I have ever seen so many Bonsai trees, all very interesting, did Ron come home with any new additions to his collection?...The new header photo is just beautiful, thank you for taking us along on this lovely field trip...hugs and well wishes from Maine...

Cathy G. said...

Hi Kim,
I sure hope you and your family are okay! Love your photos of the bonsai and the gardens.... we have nothing like that around here. It's dropped down to 20 degrees tonight.... there is more than frost on the punkins... they have frozen pretty much solid! LOL!
What a gorgeous header photo... I could live around all those flowers and greenery with ease! Take care of yourself Kim!!
Hugs!!
Cathy G

Debbie said...

Good morning! Don't know how I missed this yesterday....you were down in my neck of the woods....I haven't been to the gardens in years but isn't it spectacular? LOVE it there. You ,may have inspired me to take another look. Yes, this has been a warm nov so far. We are suppose to get into the upper eighties these next couple of days, but then drop into the sixties on Sat. Hope we stay there, or at least OUT of the eighties, lol Enjoy your day!