Operation California Surprise
I pulled quite the stunt this week - I flew out to CA to surprise several members of my family and they had NO IDEA I was coming! It was so awesome!!
Monday: I left first thing in the morning to drive down to Provo, Utah. It was a balmy 18 degrees when I left Idaho Falls. Yowza!
I made a few stops along the way, including a lovely visit with my neighbor and friend who used to live across the street from us for 13 years, Julia Buell, but has since moved down to Provo. We visited for almost 2 hours, getting all caught up with the goings on of our children and grandchildren.
She gets up suuuper early in the morning to head 30 minutes south to Payson, Utah, where she does her student teaching all day long. Then, on some evenings, she comes home and has an additional online class to attend as well. Add in the fact that she has appointments, errands, homework, and needs time to spend with her husband, and it's no wonder she gets ready for bed around 9 p.m. each night! Poor thing. I know she must be so exhausted all the time, but I'm so proud of her nonetheless. She is amazing!!
They have the absolute cutest apartment!
The flight itself was lovely - very quiet and very scenic. The plane was only about half full and all the middle seats were left empty. I brought along my own antibacterial wipes to clean everything where I sat, even though I had read ahead of time that planes are sprayed and cleaned thoroughly - more than ever before - in between flights. They also have HEPA filters on the flight to provide fresh air that is circulated about every 3 minutes, so that's reassuring. We also wore masks the entire time in the airport and on the flight, of course.
We stopped to visit my brother Ryan, his wife Karen, and their family and to have dinner together before heading up to Ukiah. It was so fun to see them all! We had a good time!
From the left: Karen, Emily (7), Ryan, Lily (5), Blake (3) and me. Ruby and Mari were up at the counter and couldn't fit in this picture. :)
Before we left, we had to ride their playroom roller coaster. Yes, an indoor roller coaster! When Karen heard last summer that the kids would be doing school at home, and that the city parks would be closed, she knew she needed something to entertain the kids. So she looked online and found this gem nearby.
Click to watch the video of Ruby trying it out first - and then, with some encouragement, I followed next.
Wednesday: The surprises BEGAN!!
Here is where she used to play 4-square with her friends.
It was so fun to hear her stories from so long ago and to get out and enjoy some warm sunshine.
From the school, we drove a short distance away, parked the car, and then walked over to the house where she grew up in Redwood Valley, on Bel Arbres Drive.
The weather vane that was still on top of the roof was originally made by my Grandpa Linton Norman, my mom's dad.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WJtYD7nJcKUxDF24A
Their friendly dog, Ducky Mo Mo, is posing perfectly behind me.
Just before 9:00 that night, Mari and I arrived safely in Ukiah at my sister Charmaine's house. I sent a couple of pictures home to Scott to prove that I had actually made it!
When I left Charmaine's house to head over to my AirBnb for the night, I first stopped at Safeway to get a few groceries. As I left and headed down the street toward my lodging, I began having trouble with using my cell phone. First, I couldn't use Google maps or any sort of navigation to know where the house was. I knew where the street was and I knew that it was 211 Norton Street, but decided I would just have to do it the old fashioned way, by using my eyeballs.
I drove up and down Norton Street (it's a very short street) and couldn't find the house. Nobody had their front porch light on, and I had a hard time picking out anyone's house number. Charmaine had also warned me not to be walking around by myself in this neighborhood at night, so I had that in the back of my head. After several super-slow drive-bys up and down the street, and having no success, I pulled over to try to contact the AirBnb host. I couldn't even text or call! Something was definitely wrong with my phone or T-Mobile or something.
I decided to drive back to Safeway, thinking that surely I would have more cell reception and capabilities in a grocery store. Once inside Safeway, I had the same problem. Couldn't send a text, couldn't make a single call. It said I didn't have access to any mobile network and that I was also offline. I ended up asking a store clerk for some assistance, which he happily gave. He pulled up Google maps on his personal cell phone and showed me exactly where 211 Norton Street was.
I drove back down the street and parked in front of the right house, even getting out and using my phone flashlight to verify the house number. I thought it was very rude that the host didn't have her house lit up to welcome a new guest. She knew I was arriving late, too. I kept my flashlight on to hunt down my studio door on the side of the house along the driveway, hoping and praying that someone wouldn't jump out to attack me along the way. The host had also told me that the door was unlocked and that the key would be hanging inside on a hook. While that might be comforting during the daytime, it was not comforting at 10:00 at night in the pitch dark. I checked everywhere in the studio for bad guys and didn't find any, thankfully.
After 3 trips out to my car to get my things, I finally locked the door and started trying to wind down to get to sleep. It took a little while. That was not the best welcome to say the least.
Because of my cellphone issues, I had reverted to emailing back and forth with Charmaine now that I had wi-fi in my AirBnb. We set up our plan to surprise Dad at lunch time. He drove down from north of Willits, picking up lunch for the 2 of them along the way. Charmaine had indicated that one of her co-workers needed a soup and sandwich and that she would pay him back. In actuality, the soup and sandwich was for ME!
In Mendocino County, most restaurants don't have any dine-in options, so when the weather is good, they have areas set up outside for their customers to eat. But Wednesday was a cold and rainy day, so Charmaine knew they would most likely just be eating lunch in Dad's car. She works out in Hopland at Fetzer Vineyards, just south of Ukiah. Dad drove over to pick her up, and they found somewhere scenic to park and began to eat.
Meanwhile, I was waiting at the gas station in Hopland. And I even saw him drive past my secret location at 11:52 a.m.
Charmaine, shortly into their lunch, asked if Dad could run her over to the gas station so she could get a coffee. He happily obliged, and had no idea that I was patiently waiting in the parking lot. While waiting for them, at one point I had to go to the bathroom really bad, so I ran inside the convenience store as fast as I could. As I came out a couple minutes later, I saw his car over in a corner of the parking lot.
Thank goodness for mask-wearing mandates right now, ha ha!! I scurried over to my car and grabbed a box out of the back seat, then once I got my video recording capability up and running on my phone, I started walking over through the rain to Dad's car. (I had ordered some LED lanterns for him to help during their next power outage, so having a box to "deliver" was a perfect setup!)
Here's what happened next.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/pV4fiGGBtoHWSn166
She couldn't believe I was actually standing in the aisle right in front of her! She thought she was hallucinating or something! We hugged a few times, which she greatly appreciated. After visiting for some time in the store, I volunteered to take Mari on the rest of her errands so that my mom could attend to other things for the afternoon. And even though she was grateful that I offered, she admitted it was hard to just walk away and leave. :) I promised that I would come spend a chunk of the following day with her.
Thursday: The fun continued with a surprise visit to my dear friend, Jenn Caudle. When I pulled up to her apartment building, once again I was grateful for mask-wearing to hide some of my identity. I also had sunglasses on. But apparently, with the eyes of a hawk, she saw me get out of my car and start walking toward her building out front. She said to her kids, "That looks a lot like Michele. But that's impossible! She's in Idaho! And that car has a Nevada plate on it. So it can't be her!"
We had lunch together and then drove over to surprise my 99 year old Grandma Doris! She's staying in an assisted living home with just a handful of residents. They allow visitors to come and talk to her through the screened window, so that's just what we did.
After my mom did a little prepping, here's what happened next. (I apologize for the lack of a clear visual of Grandma on this video - it was hard to capture her through the screen and with the sun shining)
She looks so good for 99 years old! Her centennial birthday is in June, so we are all crossing our fingers that she will be healthy and that we can all celebrate it with her!
She showed me where she used to play basketball and tetherball.
He was so in shock, ha ha. It was just perfect. :)
They ended up hopping into my car where we ate our lunch together and talked and laughed for a good long while, until Charmaine had to get back to work!
I dropped her off at work, and then drove over to her house to coordinate with Mari on the next surprise! While we waited for my Mom to finish up a doctor appointment with Grandma Doris, I called T-Mobile to figure out what was happening with my phone. Turned out that the ONE T-Mobile tower in the area was under repair and would soon be fixed in another 1-2 days. In the meantime, as long as I had someone's wi-fi then I could function.
When we got word that Mom was heading over to pick Mari up so they could run some errands, I took off in order to be part of the grand scheme.
Mari's first stop (after the bank) was at the craft store, Michaels. I was already there, carefully browsing out of sight within the store.
Here's what happened next.
While Mari and I ran a few more errands, the rain cleared up just enough to offer a nice DOUBLE rainbow over the entire Ukiah valley. It was beautiful!!
But next thing you know, I'm knocking on her door.
Here's what happened next.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rJVPA1TxSmWznY6t5
She thought I was very, very sneaky to pull this whole thing off.
Mission Accomplished!!
From there, after a brief visit, I went back over to my mom's house for the afternoon.
Suffice it to say, she was quite happily surprised!
Mom and I had a little extra time to spare before I had plans to drive up to Dad's for dinner. So we drove out to Redwood Valley and walked around her childhood elementary school.
I took a short video while I drove down part of the long dirt road toward the house.
Click here:
I got there in good time, with no incidents to speak of, and had a lovely evening!! We ate pizza, talked, played Scrabble (where I lost in an embarrassing sort of way), and helped to entertain the missionaries for an hour with a lively discussion.
Friday: First thing in the morning, I called Kylie in Italy. I hadn't talked to her in a while. So while I finished my makeup and fixed my hair, we chatted.
She's doing pretty well over there. She had plans to go to the beach with her friend on Saturday, which I was glad to hear. I'm so glad she has a couple of girlfriends. I've often reflected back on the guilt I felt when I was first married and thought that my husband was somehow supposed to be my absolute everything. I felt guilty if I just wanted to go shopping or call one of my friends to talk and laugh and cry together. But now, looking back, I realize that it is very healthy to have friends outside of your marriage. It doesn't (or at least it shouldn't) take away from a loving and happy marriage. It just fulfills me in another way. And quite frankly, it can take some of the pressure off my husband so that he doesn't feel like he has to be my shopping buddy, and talk for hours about unimportant but entertaining girly sorts of things. :)
It was so good to hear Kylie's voice. I miss that girl a lot.
Then I went over to see my friend, Jenn, again. She wanted to learn how to do her family history. So we spent a few hours together, talking and then digging in on our computers. She knew next to nothing about her father and grandfather, as well as the rest of that side of her family. In a matter of about 2 hours, we built her a family tree on Ancestry that goes all the way back to her 3rd great grandparents, with plenty of sources to back it all up. It was incredible! We found a lot of stories and information that were a mixture of shocking, cool, and sad.
I think I have infected her with the family history bug now. Ha ha. But that's not necessarily a bad thing! I also took her whole family out for lunch, which we ate at the park. It was a beautiful sunshiny day and the fresh air was lovely!
From the left: Me, Jenn, and her twins Landon and Layla - who ended up being super interested in learning how to do family history/detective work too!
We made Portuguese Chocolate Truffles
**We doubled the dark chocolate called for. Absolutely NO regrets there.
We also made Portuguese Orange Tarts, using orange zest and freshly squeezed orange juice. (From my mother's orange tree!!) They were sooo good!!
I apparently didn't get a picture of them . . .
Ana helped set the table with a few decorations, such as these cute flags from Portugal. I just happened to find them at the Scottish Import store in Salt Lake City! Go figure.
Recipe here:
Ana made a little Tik Tok video of our food prep and getting the table ready.
You can watch it here:
It was a wonderful night with the girls and Charmaine, celebrating their DNA heritage. I think they really enjoyed the whole thing and the experience of relating to their ancestors that came from Portugal. I hope they do it again soon with another country of their choosing!
Saturday: It was time to do some relaxing over at the coast. So off we went around noon, driving up and over to Boonville first, and then north through the Redwoods and along the coastline until we arrived in Fort Bragg for lunch.
Here is an idyllic scene of sheepies and baby sheepies over in Boonville, another home to some of our ancestors, including our Grandma Zoe Rawles Snider, who was born there.
Just as my tummy was starting to get a little queasy from the curvy roads, Charmaine suggested we hop out and enjoy the Redwoods for a few minutes. Yes please!!
Charmaine took this picture of me on top of the arch . . .
My own view while standing on top of the arch
Next stop: LUNCH. We drove down to the Wharf in Fort Bragg and stopped at Princess Seafood. I had never eaten here before, but it was Mari's favorite place to eat.
(Read the fine print)
We parked the car and started the approximate 1/2 mile hike, across the meadows and among the cows grazing, walking up and down some hills along the way. Mari has a bad back (scoliosis) and was starting to feel some discomfort as we approached the final and steepest hill. Not one minute later, a guy named Jonathan showed up on a 4-wheeler from The Inn at Newport Ranch, checking to make sure we weren't trespassers on the land. After I explained that we have family buried up in the little cemetery on the hill and that we had been up here before, he offered to take us up in style.
Click here to watch;
Then he happily agreed to take our picture.
And after we were done enjoying the view, he drove us all the way back down to our car. What a great guy!
Next, I NEEDED to get some mushroom flavored ice cream from Cowlick's in Fort Bragg. It's tradition!! (It tastes like maple nut ice cream)
Sunday: I joined my mom to watch Sacrament meeting via Zoom at her house. There are good people all over the world, and Ukiah is no exception. I enjoyed hearing all the speakers and the uplifting messages that they shared.
We also went to visit her younger brother (step-brother) Tim, who has been in the ICU in Ukiah for several days. He has a variety of health issues, including a bowel blockage and severe malnutrition, among many additional contributing factors. He is waiting for the Dr to find a qualified surgeon who can repair his insides, and then he will be transported for surgery somewhere down south as soon as they can set it up.
In the meantime, he isn't doing well at all. He looked horrible. He was incoherent, struggled to communicate over the phone with us, and had a very blank stare. It's horrible what malnutrition can do to your brain!
We were able to visit outside his hospital room through the window. It was so sad to see him like that. But I'm glad we were able to see him and try to encourage him.
Jacob made a cool game of Jeopardy, family style. It was a riot!
I ended up squeaking out the win - barely beating Amber by a few points. I would love to play that again! Jake is so cool.
Tomorrow, Monday, is my last full day in CA. I head out before the sun comes up on Tuesday morning to start making my way back home. It's been great here. Especially surprising everyone! We'll be talking about this trip for a long time. :)
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