Time Sure Does Fly

Wow, it’s been nearly a month since our last installment…time flies when you’re having fun. And what fun we’ve had in the last month. Let us tell you a little bit about it.

After we left Clearlake, California, we headed to Lake of the Pines, California. Way back in 2016 after John’s wife Sandy passed away, he decided to go on a trip to Costa Rica. Sandy always wanted to go there and never had the opportunity, so John went in her memory. On that trip he met a bunch of people who promised to keep in touch. But, as with most promises made on trips, not all were kept. Except John and two folks named Diane and Brian. Diane and Brian live in a gated residential community called Lake of the Pines. LOP as it’s known, is located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The community is situated around a man-made reservoir, which is stocked with large and small mouth bass. This isn’t a retirement community but a bustling “town” with elementary, middle, and senior high schools.

John and Nancy visited Diane and Brian to both kindle and renew old friendships but to also check out the housing situation around the lake. The first day they took us around the lake in their pontoon boat. This was a Sunday afternoon and for a few hours each week no one is allowed to go too fast on the lake—it’s a peaceful time on the lake. After seeing the horror show of Clearlake and the algal blooms, we were both impressed by the fact that the management of LOP installed numerous aerators in the lake to keep it moving and healthy.

We told Brian and Diane that we were only looking for a place on the lake so they showed us a few of the places that they knew were coming up for sale. The next day we toured a number of homes with a local realtor. He told us that the ones on the lake that had recently come up for sale were way out of our price range! Foiled again!

Besides having a lake, LOP has lots of activities. Brian and Diane are on a bocce team and one night we went to watch them compete. There are so many teams their league runs matches every night of the week.

Brian and Diane, a deer in their backyard, and Brian laying down a bocce ball.

We spent a couple more nice days with Diane and Brian before moving on.

Our next stop was San Mateo, California where John’s son Brad and daughter-in-law, Joy live with their two children Alexa (age almost eight) and Alden (or Aldino as John calls him, age three.) It’s been almost a year since we’ve seen the kids, except on FaceTime, and they have really grown. We went to Alexa’s karate class one day and a skate park were Alexa showed us her skills on her skate scooter and Aldino his new found skills on his bike. Another day we went on a nice hike at a local state park.

Back at the Zuchero North (Northern California) Alexa got Nancy to play “Hide and Seek” for hours while Alden and YeYe (that’s Chinese for paternal grand father) played with trucks and cars on a track that was John’s son’s from long ago.

Usually the highlight of any Zuchero gathering is around dinner time and this was no exception. Brad and Joy made one of our favorites for Father’s Day, Tuscan ribs. Sorry, no pictures, we were too busy eating and talking.

Our next stop was to see John’s other son Andrew and his wife Samantha and their son Wild. However , while we were at Brad and Joy’s house, one of the Portland agents sent us a link to a newly listed floating home in a marina we really liked. The pictures looked good and so we decided that one of us would fly to Portland from San Francisco, look at the house, then fly to Los Angeles to meet up with the other one. Nancy either won or lost the toss, depending on your point of view, and while John flew to LA, Nancy flew to Portland. Long story short, the place in Portland wasn’t quite as nice in person as it was in pictures. So Nancy flew to LA the same day.

Andrew and Sam have a great property in Topanga Canyon, north of LA (around Malibu). Their property has two houses, the one they live in and one they Airbnb. We stayed in the Airbnb. One day we took a short hike. Another day Andrew, Wild and Grandad went to a park and flew a kite, crawled under a tiny bridge to see where Andrew and Wild had a “Daddy class” during Covid, watched out for rattlesnakes on a hike to see where Andrew and Samantha got married by an old oak tree. Another day we went to see the Pixar flick “Elemental.” John loved it and shed a few tears at the ending—the old softie.

Checking out the status of some tadpoles in a local stream, taking a nature break, dinner under a trellis listening to an Andrew story.

Topanga is an old hippie haunt—1960’s musicians jammed at houses in the canyon. The house next door used to be owned by Joni Mitchell…. the drummer from “The Doors” now lives there.

As with the other Zuchero son, dinner time at Zuchero South (South California) is a treat. When Andrew was in high school, he worked at a café that made unusual pizzas, among other things. Plus, when John lived in Perkiomenville, PA, for Christmas one year, Andrew gave John two books on building a pizza oven and a picture of his hands…the hands suggested that he would help John to build an outdoor oven. John loves to tell this story and say that besides the books and the hands it cost him a few thousand dollars to actually build the oven! But we built it, John, Andrew, with help from Brad.

So homemade pizza is a Zuchero tradition thus….for a house warming present, Nancy, John, Brad, and Joy bought them an Ooni pizza oven. So, one day Andrew made the dough and that night cooked four great pizzas. To make it easier on the chef, Andrew steps through the window in the kitchen to the Ooni to cook his pies.

So after six weeks on the road from Seattle, Washington to Topanga, California via Utah and Nevada, the nomadic wanderers flew back to Philadelphia.

During our periodic returns to Philly, we check in with Nancy’s family. On this trip Nancy got to meet her newest “great niece”, Annabelle Christine and make funny noises with Nancy’s great nephew Colt.

Mom, Dad and Annabelle, Annabelle, brother Colt with new sister Annabelle.

Back “home," we had our meds refilled, saw a doctor (or two), our chiropractor, and our acupuncturist to make sure we’re up to the nomadic experience. All bodily functions checked out satisfactory and so yesterday we flew to Aruba for two months.

Supposedly , Aruba is the same temperature all year, around 87F with a breeze that pretty much never stops. We’ve been here less than 24 hours so we’ll have to report the truth of that later.

For now, stay cool and have a great Fourth of July—we’re gonna miss the fireworks!

Nancy and John