Down memory lane...

This past week we had food safety classes in Santa Maria California. This is the area that we lived in off and on for about five years when I was younger. We originally moved to Oceano in my 5th grade year. We lived just a block from the beach, which I loved. We moved to Nevada and then back again in my 6th grade year, again to Oceano for awhile.

We then moved to Lompoc for my 7th, 8th, 9th and most of my 10th grade years. During that time we lived in 5 different houses. One of which burned down, but that's another story. While living in that home, about 5 miles from town, I met my best friend, Gloria Valla. We were total opposites but totally clicked with each other! She was beautiful, cared about her looks, and much more mature. I was such a tomboy who really didn't care about boys or what my hair looked like! We had so much fun together exploring the hills and goofing off. This past week I was finally able to see her once again and once again, we clicked! We hadn't seen each other for close to 40 years! Yes, we have both aged... Her husband, Steve Bridge, was a really nice guy and just smiled as we traveled down memory lane. Gloria had an album of old pictures of us which were pretty hilarious.

The place where we lived is now a golf course. I did find one house on South M street we lived in but didn't have my camera! So sad. I found my junior high school and the elementary school in Oceano. I also found the church I attended in Lompoc after I was baptized.

While we were in California we traveled to Solvang, a Danish settlement, visited Fess Parker's (Daniel Boone tv series actor) and the Firestone (Firestone tire guy) wineries, the La Purisima Mission(we lived across from it but the house is no longer there), and stayed in a hotel on Pismo Beach. All places from my memories (expect the wineries).

Unfortunately, the two days we were at Pismo were foggy and chilly. But, we did see some dolphins swimming and walked around old downtown a lot. I was so disappointed that we couldn't go swimming. There were many brave surfers out but they were wearing their wet suits.

Throughout the days we spent, I had a hard time because I kept thinking about my mom and wanting to ask her questions or to tell her something I had seen or remembered. We also toured many different fruit and vegetable farms and generally just had a wonderful time.