Lunch with Wine, then Wine, and More Wine

Today's fun -- an excellent dinner, followed by wineries!

Four couples from Jojoba -- John and I, Carole and Dick, Pat and Dennis, and Ann and Peter (who were visiting) met at the County Line BBQ Cafe for their Mother's Day Dinner. The restaurant looks like a dump or a yard sale gone bad, but looks ARE deceiving in this case!


Most of us started with a glass of house cabernet -- it was yummy! Then the dinner special -- mahi mahi, grilled shrimp, and filet mignon all on one plate. Everything was cooked and sauced to perfection and was so good! These days, when we eat out I almost always have left-overs to take home, but not today. My complements to the chef, who did it all on his outdoor grill:


From left to right: Dennis, Peter, Ann, Pat, Zoe, Carole, Dick and John
Then on to the first stop at Hawk Watch, a winery perched on the hills overlooking Temecula Valley. Outside the tasting room, white wooden chairs face the hills and are perfect for sipping a glass or two of delicious wine while gazing at the valley -- and maybe seeing some of those namesake hawks flying "lazy circles in the sky."



Our final stop of the day was at Shadow Mountain winery, where the tasting room opened on an eclectically-decorated garden and seating area. Old vines, put in the ground in the 1940s, provide excellent grapes for this winery. We did the regular tasting plus the paired special of strawberry soup and champagne, and then headed home. By then, it didn't seem strange that a claw tooth bathtub was part of the ambiance!



Thanks, everyone -- it was a fun afternoon!

Dastardly Ducky Dilemmas

Or
A Story of Cheeps and Quackers


Here at Jojoba Hills (the Escapee Co-op park in Aguanga, CA), wildlife abounds, much of it attracted by several ponds that interconnect through the park and provide a home for frogs, fish, and birds. Ducks, in particular, enjoy the park's aquatic areas so much that "Irritape" (shiny, flashy, strips of metallic tape) had to be installed over the swimming pool to keep them from calling it home (ever try to do a lap around a duck?).



In addition to the ponds there is also a lovely waterfall, built by retirees and charmingly named "Viagra Falls." This is what it looked like a bit ago:



As John and I were walking today, we saw a Momma and Daddy Duck lead several duckings across the road towards the falls, where they were, apparently, used to spending some quality time basking in the sun and splashing in the cascading water. But today the falls were temporarily turned off, probably for cleaning. Not a big deal for us, but it turned out to be a serious problem for this family of ducks.

When we got to the foot of the falls, Daddy Duck was guarding the base of the falls and Momma and the ducklings were swimming in a very small pool of remaining water at the base of the now-dry falls. As they usually did, they had jumped in with no problem, but the water level was so low that getting out was another matter.



The ducklings were too young to fly, and there was no way they could step up far enough to get out. Momma Duck kept trying to step out herself, to show the ducklings how to do it, but the sides were too high even for her. Desperate as she was, she would not fly off and leave her babies.





We contemplated trying to lift the babies out, but as I know, waterfowl can be vicious. So we got some help from the office (update: Dwayne and John). While one guy got Momma out with a broom and then held her at bay while she frantically quacked, the other lifted each duckling out of the water (not so easy to do -- with Momma gone, they all hid under overhanging rocks) and set them one-by-one safely on the rocks.



Thanks to everyone, soon Momma and the kids were all safely out of the water and reunited. As she waddled away up the hill, I thought I heard her say, "Let's get the flock outta here!"

I quack me up.

The Colorado River and The 24-hour Laundry

We recently spent some time in an RV park along the Colorado River near Parker, Arizona. Many RV sites are right on the river, and the beach is a great place to interact with the ever-present water birds and party boaters:



Sunsets were gorgeous on the river -- sometimes the sky would be blood red with streaks of gold, and at other times the blue of the sky reflected off the water:





Wild burros wandered in the surrounding mountains, and one day we came upon a herd that were grazing near the road:



The waters were filled with all sorts of waterfowl, mostly ducks and coots. Coots are odd ducks (not the last pun, so look out!). They are actually a part of the rail family, and they have white beaks, red eyes, and toes that are individually webbed instead of between-toe webs like ducks and geese:



And what do you call the place where a big flock of coots live? Why, Petticoot Junction in Cooterville, of course! (Excuse me while I "duck" to avoid thrown objects!)(I quack me up!)(I warned you!)

Coots are really dumb birds, as we found out when we were feeding bread to a flock of ducks and coots. I almost never feed wildlife, but these guys were obviously already well fed by humans and I succumbed.

The coots couldn't even catch a small piece of bread. They watched as the bread came towards them, landed on their forehead, and bounced off. As they tried to figure out where it went, it disappeared into the belly of a duck. The coots just looked perplexed and reproachful.

I guess that's why John decided to hold his "Lectures Most Fowl" when the coots were not around:


But now we come to the laundry. Plainly marked, this building housed a dozen or so washers and dryers, and was a pretty typical laundry facility. Inside there was a sign that said the building was locked promptly at ten, but there was a 24-hour laundry on the south side of the park, presumably for all your graveyard-shift laundry needs.



John and I had gone for walks in the park, and neither of us remembered seeing another laundry building. So one day we decided to find it. We were walking on the south side of the park, but the only building there was the showers/restrooms. As we walked from the men's side to the women's side, I did a double-take. For there it was, and we understood completely why it was open around the clock. It had no choice:



Complete with a bulletin board, a folding table, a wheeled cart, and a plastic bag filled with old magazines, the washers and dryers were totally outside. I'd really like to hear the explanation for why they ended up next to the women's restroom, wouldn't you?

Better Out Than In

No comment from me!