Nice Place… and Cold

One day last week Joyce and I drove to Balboa Island and walked the main street. It’s hard to describe Balboa Island. It is part of Newport Beach, a man-modified and man-made island in the harbor. Actually it is three islands. It is mostly residences which are mostly small and mostly in the 2 to 3 million dollar range. There is a two block business district with chic shops, a few eateries, and 4 or 5 real estate offices! Go figure. From the island you can ride the 3-car ferry over to Balboa Peninsula. It has a small Fun Zone, boat tours for whale watching, and lots of really up-scale homes.

Anyway, we walked both sides of the business district, ate lunch and took the ferry over to the peninsula ($3.00 for pickup and two adults). Let me emphasize it was a beautiful, sunny day and not very cold.

I copied this picture from Wikipedia. In the foreground is the mainland of Newport Beach. You can see Balboa Island in the center and the peninsula in the background. Notice the pier at the top. I will post some pictures taken from the pier but I’m not sure if they will be in this post or at the top in another post.

The last time we went up to the kid’s house we drove up Highway 1, known at PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). It was about the same distance as going the freeway but of course took a lot longer. It was an interesting trip going thru all the cities – Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach (notice a theme here?). Some of the way we could actually see the beach, but mostly not. We had lunch at an In-N-Out Burger.

Here is an interesting observation and object lesson. Those of you who have driven the freeways in the Los Angeles area can relate to this. Let me paint a word picture for you if I can. When they built the freeways they poured concrete in “lanes” or “strips” about 12 feet wide. Then, next to that they would pour another lane, then another, and so on. Of course there was a seam or crack where the lanes adjoined each other. The direction of these lanes probably followed where the freeway was going to go – back then. But over time the actual driving lanes were often shifted a little to the left or right and sometimes shifted a lot. The driving lanes are designated by white strips and those little buttons that make your tires go “thump-thump-thump.”

If your eyes get focused on the concrete cracks you can easily wander into someone else’s driving lane and get sideswiped. You always see someone almost do that when the white lines and the concrete cracks have been together for a ways and then suddenly shift away from each other. I have to be very diligent to watch the right thing or I hear “thump-thump-thump” and maybe a car horn.

Here’s the lesson. As you go through life you need to keep your focus on the correct thing or you will find yourself getting sideswiped and maybe disaster will result. You can go along for a long time following the white line but if you aren’t careful your focus slowly goes to the crack. Then the crack takes you away from the white line – “thump-thump-thump.” HONK. Be careful where your focus is.

Here is an interesting PS to this. At night the cracks don’t show up as much but the white line and little bumps reflect your car’s headlights. So it is easier to drive at night. Now, you work that into the object lesson.

Friday was Jeyanthi’s second birthday so her big party was Saturday. I mean BIG party. I think it is really an excuse for the family and friends to get together. We had cupcakes, pizza, salad, pop, a jump house, games, presents, and beautiful weather. Jey held up pretty well, loved the attention and learned to blow out her candles. I think there were 19 children and about that many adults at the party. Full house and yard.

We used this picture in Jey’s invitations.

If you live on the west coast you know about the cold weather. It is cold here, too. Just not as cold as up north. It has been getting down to about 40 at night and up to low 60s or high 50s in the daytime. As soon as the sun goes down, the cold creeps in. It is supposed to warm up by the middle of the week.

Did you hear about the robbery and hostage situation at Nordstrom’s Rack in the Howard Hughes Center? That is about 2 miles from Jana’s house. Friday morning we were going to take a shortcut through the center but police had it all blocked off. It is a Taylor “tradition” to go to Johnny Rockets on a person’s birthday. Since Friday was Jey’s, our plan was to go to the one in the Howard Hughes Center. Nope. The place was still shut down Friday evening. So parents, brother, sister, grandma, grandpa, and Jey ended up at the one in Manhattan Beach.

We brought Lilly back to the RV with us Saturday evening. This was her “special” time with grandma and grandpa. Sunday we attended church at Mariners. It is very large – they claim 9,000 members. They have one Saturday evening service and two Sunday morning services plus a Sunday evening service that is different from the others. I’m not good at judging crowds but I would guess there were 2,000+ at the 11:00 worship we attended. It was a very good worship experience.

In the afternoon we drove to Monrovia to have lunch with Korak, Jana, and Korak’s parents at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We used to occasion to give Lilly back to her parents.

This is our last week in Newport Beach. My next post will be from Tucson – hopefully on time. Blessings