Road trip to California

I took my new car on its first road trip last week -- to visit my mom in Oceanside and then up the coast to spend a few days with my friend Carol. She's renting a condo on Balboa Island, which is across a little bridge from Newport Beach.

My big bag of peanut M&Ms kept me company on the road, plus I found a wonderful cafe in Yuma, Daybreakers Cafe, where I stopped for lunch both ways. It has this sign by its bake case:

Mom has settled into a routine at her assisted living place, where she reads her daily paper with a second cup of coffee every morning. The rest of the day she works on crossword puzzles. Her broken hip has healed, but she has to use a walker and is still doing PT to strengthen her legs. She's 94 and had never needed a cane or walker before she broke the hip.

Then I drove up the coast to visit Carol. I'd never been to Balboa Island and didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be a mixture of quaint old cottages and huge modern houses, all standing shoulder to shoulder, plus lots of tourist shops, restaurants and beautiful flowers everywhere. As you can tell by how we're dressed, the weather was sunny and perfect.

This is the view from a little ferry that we took. It only held three cars plus bicyclists and walkers.

We did a lot of walking on paved paths that go around the island. Here's the Grand Canal.

We caught this beautiful sunset on my first night there.

That's me among the crowd waiting to get a seat at Wilma's Patio, where we had brunch my last morning. Excellent French toast!

Color, color, color!!!

The blue house is the exact color of the sky. The house below is crammed with Teddy bears in all the windows and they're changed to fit the season and holiday. This time they were decked out for Valentine's Day. Someone taking pictures said there are more than 6,000 Teddy bears inside!

More color, color, color from the flowers! Some of these are on the island and some are at the Sherman Library & Gardens in nearby Corona del Mar.

No, we didn't go on a dolphin siting boat. This is a mural at Wilma's!

And now for a mystery. We found these two knitted objects in the condo and can't figure out what they are. We think they look like mermaid getups but we don't know what to do with the open part at the top. Any ideas? The colors are luscious.

Have a colorful day