Sunday, March 2, 2025

House Progress and The Getty

 

                             




Feb 24, 2025 - We spent some time today working on the house (instead of playing).  Then we went to the Los Osos Farmers Market, which is held every Monday 2-4:30.  It's a great little market, with only locally grown produce and locally made items.  We then tried the downtown pizza place, Nardonne's.  They had a really nice bar, and we each got a personal pizza and split some wings.  After dinner we walked to the Merrymaker for their weekly post-farmer's market band, from 5:00-7:00 (more our speed, the usual 8:00-10:00 bands are too late for us!)




a little work on the cabinets 







lots of floor dusting to do







nice day for the Farmer's Market







dinner at Nardonne's





had to save the pie we bought at the market for later that evening






nice sunset colors over Hollister Peak





Feb 26, 2025 - Todd's here today, so we're back to the real work.  We're trying to get the framing done on the master bedroom and the fireplace.  My task was to figure out how we were going to match the flooring in the living room.  We left a 5 x 10 foot hole in the living room, after we closed up the stairway.  After talking to a few flooring places, we found we weren't going to be able to match the flooring, so we decided to use the flooring in the master to patch the living room, since it's the same flooring.  Better to only have to put new flooring in the bedroom, than in the huge living room/dining room/kitchen area.




Todd's busy framing the spot for the new gas fireplace





Here's some of the flooring we saved from the master bedroom











the new nook in the master (from where the staircase used to be)





the new closet door is framed and the opening between the closet and bathroom is framed for a new wall







Feb 27, 2025 - More work today with Todd, and then a walk around downtown...a few beers and sunset at Baywood Park.



Kev's wearing Laurie's "bling" ear protection





finalizing the fireplace framing







Todd's on the roof





Kev's headed up next





A mock mantle and TV for the new fireplace





beer and ice cream at High St Deli.  Half price beers every day for happy hour







next we walked over to Beerwood for $8 beers






and then back to High St before their $4 were also $8







Baywood Park






great place for the sunset














I took a "few" sunset pics










Tiny always looks good with a sunset in the background
















pretty blues on the mountains and a line of ducks 





one last stripey sunset pic





Feb 28, 2025 - We're headed to Laguna Beach for the weekend, to help Elaine and Ian pack up their house and move it all to the new house.  On our 5 hour drive down the coast, we decided we'd stop at the Getty Center in LA, since we've never been there.  We would have liked to visit the Getty Villa as well, but it is currently closed because of the LA fires from a few months ago.  To visit the Getty Center you have to sign up for timed tickets (which are free, but it's $25 to park).  The parking is at the bottom and there is a tram that takes you up to the museum)  We got a 10:00AM ticket, which meant we had to leave Los Osos at 6AM.  We spent about 3 hours at the museum and then drove the last hour (which turned into 2 hrs because of the LA traffic) to Laguna.



I love a good sunrise drive










Pretty fog over the fields




nice drive through the Los Padres National Forest





Google took us off the Highway, (because of traffic) through Santa Barbara.





The Getty had a small exhibition on Van Gogh's Irises.  They analyzed what color the Irises were originally and found they were purple, while now, they are more blue








It was a lot of fun just exploring the grounds of the Getty





The views from every corner were amazing





Even the 405 looked good from way up here





nice bench











We did a 45 minute architecture tour that was quite interesting.  Richard Meier is the architect of the Getty Center, which opened in 1997.  It took 5 years and 1 billion dollars to build.  It was built using travertine (16,000 tons of it) imported from Tivoli, Italy.




The Getty is well known for it's beautiful gardens.  These are Crepe Myrtles, that were planted in a row





and when you look at the row from the end you only see one tree trunk





that's a big rainbow





Meier used this framing in many places at the Getty.  This one frames the sky





the main plaza





beautiful day for lunch outside






the azaleas are blooming










The Gustave Caillebotte exhibit had just opened at the Getty.  He is an impressionist that I don't know very much about.  The painting in the background "Paris Street, Rainy Day" is one of the few paintings of Caillebotte that I know.






Hi Kev





Caillebotte mostly painted men, but when he painted women he liked to challenge the perceptions of women.  Here he painted the woman large in the foreground and the man, small, as an afterthought.  He is reading a novel, she is reading the paper.





I liked this collection of hats that were seen in Caillebotte's paintings





lots and lots of views





another "frame"





We took the zig zag trail down into the garden


















the gardens were designed by Robert Irwin


















nice view of the garden and a lot of the Getty Center buildings







more rainbows






happy hour dinner with Elaine & Ian!





Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Montana de Oro State Park and Morro Bay

 

                                



Feb 20, 2025 -  This morning we decided to go for a walk, and what better place to go, than a bakery.  Carlock's Bakery is 1.4 miles from the house so we headed there.  After lunch we tried out the pickleball group at the Los Osos Community Park.  They play every day, and supposedly the morning sessions are better attended.  There were 7 of us there this afternoon, so we only had one court going, but it was a fun, friendly group.  




raspberry/cheese danish





10th St was a nice street to walk on (we're still trying to figure out where we're going in town)





 
dinner was a rotisserie chicken from Ralph's (Thursday special is only $6, can't beat that)





Feb 21, 2025 - Today we thought we'd head to Montana de Oro State Park, for some hiking. This State Park is only 15 minutes from Elaine & Ian's new house and it is going to be a great spot to explore.  It's one of the largest state parks in California, with lots of great hiking trails and a nice campground with about 50 campsites.







We decided to hike the most popular hike, which is the Bluff Trail.  It's 2 miles to the end and then 2 miles back and it is a beautiful hike.  It's a wide trail that allows for hikers and bikers.  This is a view of Spooner Beach.















lots of lots of shear cliffs







of course we have Morro Bay Rock (and the 3 smokestacks) in the distance














and the poppies are out!  We were told that Montana de Oro translates to the golden mountain, and it's called that because in the spring the mountain is covered with California poppies (which is the state flower)









we stopped here to eat our lunch and watched a lone surfer who was wearing a wet suit and a helmet.


















pretty epic views everywhere





that tree looks lonely






more poppies








we rode our bikes downtown for a beer at Merrimakers (which is the bar featured as a "dive bar" in Wikipedia)






Feb 22, 2025 - This morning we walked downtown to Caliwala Bakery (which is only open Sat, Sun and Monday).  We then walked around downtown, and found a wonderful beach just a few blocks from downtown.  We packed a lunch, and took our bikes to Morro Bay for the afternoon.






there are A LOT of free libraries around town, this one is especially cute





really good cinnamon roll and everything croissant





cute little garden





Caliwala Bakery







beautiful day for a walk 





great spot for a coffee






Baywood Park (bench with a view)










Baywood Park Beach









kayakers out in the bay







a great egret







It's only a 15 minute drive to downtown Morro Bay.  We parked downtown and rode our bikes out to the rock for lunch


















Next we rode 3 miles out to Morro Bay Strand SP, where we have camped a few times





It's a parking lot, but is right on the beach and not far from town, so it's a great camping spot





we're headed back to the car







After our bike ride we walked around downtown Morro Bay.  We had a beer at the Siren, which had an afternoon band and then we walked around the Morro Bay Farmers Market.   Perfect day!


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