Trip To Southern California: April In Southern California 2010 (Part I)

Last week I went to Southern California for a spur of the moment trip to see my father and brothers in Southern California. My company insisted I take some vacation time since I am between projects, so I, "high tailed it" down to Hemet to see Dad, Lew, Paul and anyone else in the family with whom I could spend time. Here's a picture of the three youngest brothers and our 86 year old dad...



It was great to visit with Lew's daughters, Jessica and Chelsea, as well as his son, Brian. Brian is soon to be married to his finance, Angela and I will be officiating his wedding in July. I spent some time discussing the wedding plans with Brian and his planner. While I was visiting, Chelsea had a very successful competition in the discus and javelin in San Diego at the JC where she is attending. She qualified for the California JC State championships in these events and had the San Diego State coaches looking hard at her during the competition. Looks like she just might be attending San Diego State for both athletics and to study Kinesiology. It turns out that San Diego State has a great Kinesiology program and that is just what she wants to study before going on to teach Physical Education. Here is a picture of me, Dad, and Cealsea...



Speaking of Physical Education, Jessica is just about to complete her student teaching and will the be certified to teach Physical Education in the state of California. She is also getting married this summer! I had the pleasure of spending part of a day hiking with Jess at the nearby Wildlife Refuge of Santa Rosa Mesa. Here we are on our hike. This picture also includes Lew's girl friend, Kim, who went on the hike also. She's a great cook, by the way!




During the week I was also able to head down to see my brother Phil in Ramona. I had never seen his place of business, Plastifab, so I stopped in there before we headed over to his house. Here are pictures of his shop where they fabricate plastics for purposes too numerous to list here...


Phil just turned 63 and in the not to0 distant future will be getting his right hip replaced, which has been a sore subject for a lot of years. No pun intended! Ironically, his company fabricates the type of composite plastic used in artificial hips. Here he is with a piece of that plastic which some day might wind up in his hip!




Here are more pictures of Phil in his garage at his home where he keeps his antique car collection. Phil's been buying, restoring, and selling these cars since he was in his twenties. A real treasure and something to be very proud of.



But, the main reason I went to Southern California was to see my dad. For a week I spent the mornings and evenings with him, while during the day I visited others and headed for the hiking trails. He's doing extremely well and I am very proud of him. I hope to head down again soon to spend some time with him once again.