Trip To Arizona Wine Country

My last post I highlighted my trip to Auberry to see my dad’s new church, the Auberry Nazarene Fellowship and to the USBC Nationals and how I unfortunately had to go it alone as my lovely wife was not able to get away. Last weekend however I was finally able to take some time with my favorite lady on a little weekend getaway of our own. We drove out to Phoenix to see my uncle get married and then to head off to Arizona wine country down in Senoita, AZ for some wine tasting and sightseeing. The goal of course was to sample never before tasted wine from Southern Arizona and to see my old stomping grounds from high school which I hadn’t been back to for at least 10 years… and Flor had never seen.

The trip was definitely a ton of fun and we even got to spend some time with my cousin Eric who I also hadn’t seen in a very long time. He introduced us to his two kids and his long-time girlfriend and we got to see his awesome house which he just picked up off the foreclosure market. Man, if anything would make you want to move to Phoenix this would be it; the price of real estate. :) But then again, it’s nice being a few miles from the ocean so I think we’re doing OK.

The highlight of the trip was of course the nuptials which Flor and I took a few pictures of. My sister was even caught in this awesome dress with ruffles. We all loved it.

Early Sunday morning Flor and I headed out of Phoenix area to go rough it at the Xanadu Hybrid Bed & Breakfast Horse Motel down in Senoita, AZ.

Yeah, I know, the name sounds crazy but seriously the place was fantastic. It was our first experience staying in a B&B and definitely our first experience staying at a horse motel. :) Obviously we had some fun visiting with the horses on the ranch and kicked back for a perfect Monday evening watching the sun go down over a bottle of wine from the Kief-Joshua Vineyards.

Anyway, I am really excited about the vineyards we visited especially since they are all so new. Only a handful of the 10 active vineyards in the area are producing wine from their own fruit yet and only one, the Rancho Rossa Vineyard, is producing it completely from their own fruit. Interestingly enough most of the wines we tasted from Rancho Rosa were our favorites, which is nice because it was the local fruit. They all tasted very earthy.

Rancho Rosa also featured an awesome couple of Basset Hounds that really brought fond memories back of my dog Snick. One of their Bassets was named Shadow and they named their dessert wine after him. Of course we took some pictures.

Anyway; I’m really looking forward to going back and trying out these vineyards again, especially in a few more years when their blends will be packed with more local fruit and the accommodations of the town expand to accommodate more tourists. For now there’s not much in the town but man, it sure is relaxing. I definitely recommend anyone who likes wine or the country to head out to Xanadu Ranch, the best Senoita bed and breakfast that I’ve ever stayed in.

Anyway, we ended up the trip by swinging through Sierra Vista and seeing my old high school and taking a tour through Tombstone, home of many dead cowboys and outlaws, and spending some time Tuesday morning at Lake Pategonia, whicj I didn't even know existed until this past weekend.  Maybe next time we'll jump on a boat and go fishing.  I can't wait, I'm always thinking about the next vacation. :)

A toast: Here’s to vacationing with the wife! It sure beats hitting up Reno by myself.  Enjoy a few more pics.

Photos Of My Dad’s New Church

Please Forgive the Quality I’m Not a Photographer

So October and November have come and gone and I haven’t updated this site in a while. I guess now is an excellent time to do so though because I have great news from the family.

My father who’s been looking to take on another church for a while now was just installed as the new head pastor at the Auberry Church of the Nazarene in Auberry California on Sunday. Flor and I had a great time visiting with her family and my family for Thanksgiving last week and then we were treated with a nice surprise by being able to witness the installation of my dad as the pastor on Sunday.

Mel Rich, the Nazarene central district’s superintendent, and his wife showed up for the occasion and installed my dad during the service. Though I’ve grown up as a pastor’s kid my whole life I cannot for the life of me remember watching this ceremony happen before. Sure there was little pomp and circumstance but the formality was there and it was a nice time.

Seeing as though my old roommate and San Diego photographer Aaron wasn’t able to attend Flor and I were left to our own devices in capturing the event on film.

I remembered to bring my old digital camera to take some photos but unfortunately the camera is starting to suck battery life out of the device while it’s not being used so the following pictures were taken between our respective cell phones. Regardless you should get the idea here about the church.

It’s up in the mountains of the central valley; it’s a small congregation with very friendly people. The building is a little dated but looks nice and the property is huge and beautiful. I look forward to returning once the dust settles and my dad gets things rolling in the new church.

I don’t have too much else to say but I wanted to publish these photos for the few people out there desperately looking for them. :) Don’t you all go and jam the servers OK. :) The following photo slideshow includes pictures of the church, inside and out, the pastoral installation ceremony, and the grounds including parsonage. Enjoy!

And next time you’re heading up to Shaver Lake, stop by Auberry and worship with everyone there at the Mountain Gathering Place, Church of the Nazarene.

Auberry Nazarene Church Photographs

Click to Play

Not into the slideshow thing: Check out the individual Auberry Church of the Nazarene pictures.

Disneyland Family Pictures

A couple months back Flor and I met the rest of my family for an old fashioned family trip to Disneyland. We had a great time and the family outing reminded me of being a kid again. Ohh the good old days. Anyway, Kathleen made it abundantly clear a few weeks back that she was disappointed that I hadn't posted pictures from our trip so this post is for her. For related reading this is my previous post on our time at Disneyland.

Atlantic and Pacific Blue Tangs

Today, Flor and I finally ridded ourselves of our "starter fish" and upgraded to some more interesting fish. This whole process began last weekend when we were unfortunate enough to think that we could introduce a Tang into our small saltwater tank with our four Damselfishes. This did not work out as the Damselfishes decided to torment the Tang to death.

After days of trying to rid our tank of the Damselfishes we finally caught them and returned them to the store. These little buggers were incredibly difficult right up until then end as we were not able to catch them until we pulled all of our live rock from the tank.

Anyway, after the ordeal was over, and after the fish store exchange today, we now have two new fish who are non-aggressive herbivores. We picked up two small Tang's, an Atlantic Blue Tang and a Pacific Blue Tang. The Atlantic Tang is yellow while still young and will eventually turn blue as they get bigger and older. We'll look forward to that happening as our family grows up. For visual stimulation please enjoy these stock photos of our two Tangs:

The Atlantic Blue Tang (blue is old yellow is young.)


The Pacific Blue Tang


Next time you stop by the house make sure to say hi to our newest additions!

The Palm Pre Is A Beautiful Thing

The Palm Pre Is A Beautiful Thing

Check out Flor on her new toy.

Flor On Her New Palm Pre!

Flor On Her New Palm Pre!

Shipwrecked In Disneyland

Last weekend on Saturday after Flor finished up with her 2nd year of med school, we had the pleasure of heading up to LA to meet my family for a rousing day at Disneyland. We had a fantastic time taking in all the sights and riding all the rides while enjoying short lines on a Memorial Day weekend. In fact I can't even remember the last time that my family got together for something like this... maybe last Fall when we hit up the Charger's Chiefs football game but that just seems somewhat different in my opinion. The last family vacation like this was probably back before I moved out of the house if you take weddings and the like out of the equation. Anyway, Jim was there to join us as was my sister Kathleen. For around three years now the family outings have been lacking Kathleen because she was living in Boston so it's been great to have her around again.

Anyway, I'm not going to say too much about Disneyland because we all know about the place but I will say that while we were there we were treated to an exceptionally long ride on the Pirate Ship. It's not really a pirate ship though, it's actually a replica of the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe. The replica now circles the pond/river there at Disneyland every day while guests take rides like they would a roller coaster. Well, we were no different than any other group of riders except that on our ride the motor on our boat went out and we were stranded about 15 feet from the shoreline for about an hour and half on this boat. We ended up having to be rescued one by one down a ladder onto the Mark Twain River Raft. Keep in mind this ship supposedly circumnavigated the globe... I guess they worked better before they threw motors into them. Apparently the Disneyland model doesn't have sails.

Eventually of course we got off and they treated us to some fine bottled waters on the house as well as some complimentary front of the line passes for our troubles. Lets just say I'm glad none of us had to go to the bathroom while we were on the boat; that would have been some significant trouble. It's hard to complain though because we got to do pretty much everything we wanted to do on the day despite the lost 90 minutes. I will also say I had so much fun spending time with my dad on roller coasters; I honestly can't remember riding a roller coaster with him for some reason. It makes me smile thinking of it.




I took a lot of pictures during the day and I thought I'd share a few of them here. Note the awesome picture of my uncle Jim squealing like a five year old girl at the fake elephant behind him on the Jungle Cruise. Hehe, I love it!



On a side note, Flor and I hit up Loma Linda the following day and saw Carolyn Sharpe and her family on Sunday. She just graduated Medical School and is now a doctor! Congratulations Carolyn!

Reminiscing on the Past

As I've been diligently working on cleaning up my blog and website over the past week or so I've actually gone back and re-read virtually every post I made on the topic of bowling. I've also started going back through many of my oldest posts on all other topics (mostly my personal journaling from my old Live Journal blog which has since been transferred over to this site) and I've been cleaning up a lot of these posts to fit a little nicer with the format of my newer entries. I like the look of justified margins and none of my old posts were aligned this way. Also, back in 2004 and 2005 I apparently didn't know how to utilize the spell check nor does it seem like I ever proof read my posts for grammar problems. A lot of these errors are finally getting fixed thanks to my recent ambition.

All of this reading however has really got me reminiscing on all the old friends that I have but don't see anymore and all of the fun times that I had back in my undergrad days. I know I didn't start blogging until after I had graduated but many of the people I spent time with were my friends from college and many of them were still there in '04 and '05. We had good times together back then and I miss them.

Beyond the sentimental, I also found myself looking back at a few old pictures and smiling wholeheartedly at them. I guess everybody does this from time to time so this is not earth-shattering but I have enjoyed reviewing some of the memories. I'm not going to elaborate any more but I will share a few of those good times below. Enjoy!

2001 - Venice with Doug Downing & Kevin Parker


2002 - Madrigal Dinner with Matt Sconce


2003 - SD Gulls Game with Erin Westgate and Klingons


2004 - Impromptu Dinner Party at Hotel Del with Friends


2005 - With Evan at a Schmidt's Place


2006 - Hanging with Chris and Brad


2007 - Rob being Rob with my Girl


2008 - Rich and Flor | 80's Party


Fun times... and don't we all miss this fantastic facial hair:

Shave and a Haircut

Last week was a fine week of vacation for me and my lovely wife. We both enjoyed a much needed time of relaxation and care-free leisure. Of course I’ve already blogged a bit about the first day of our trip in Vegas and my bowling exploits but before I finish that epic up I thought I’d offer a little tidbit from the beginning of the trip (my dramatic haircut) and a tidbit from the middle of the trip (my dramatic shave).

Those that know me could probably remember the days when my hair wasn’t so long. A few years back my hair was quite short and then one day this girl told me she liked guys with long hair. Needless to say the past three years my hair has been long… but at least I got the girl. :) Not so anymore as on Friday the 13th I decided finally to hack it back to what it was a few years back: Proper. Ohh, and it feels so good too.

Flor of course was very supportive of the move (despite her liking men with hair) and later in the week she decided that I needed to complement the new do with a fine shave. She purchased me a wonderful facial, shave, and scalp massage while on our cruise this past weekend. Now, I’ve been shaved before but not by someone else. It was so weird having someone else holding a blade to my neck. Anyway, I thought I’d share my post-haircut / pre-shave picture followed by my post-shave pic. Then feel free to check out my fantastic commentary on the shave last Friday evening the 20th.

We're home at last

I finally brought my wife back home... She looks so happy and it makes me feel good.

Mom and daughter, reunited at last.

Mom and daughter, reunited at last.

In Vegas we stayed at The Orleans Hotel

In Vegas we stayed at The Orleans, the only hotel I've stayed at twice. We had a great time hitting up the pool, casino, and the fine dining. It's too bad the trip is coming to an end so soon.

The Hoover Dam was a nice stop along the

The Hoover Dam was a nice stop along the route to Las Vegas. It's always fun taking Flor to new places.

So pretty.

So pretty.

The Great Continental Divide

Yeah, the water runs to the East or to the West here at the Continental Divide. Kinda abstract if you ask me but still cool.

Cruisin' Through Cadillac Cemetery on Route 66

The History of The Cadillac Cemetery

The Cadillac Cemetery, also known as Cadillac Stonehenge and The Cadillac Graveyard, is located just west of Amarillo, Texas, on famous Route 66. The cemetery is basically ten vintage automobiles all vertically half-buried into ground. The site can be seen from the highway. There is no parking lot but there is typically a number of travelers who have parked on the side of the road and walked out to see the cars up close. When Route 66 was replaced by I-40 a number of eye catching gimmicks, such as the Cadillac Cemetery, sprouted up to get the random traveler to stop and spend a few bucks. The owner of this land planted these Cadillacs, now covered with G-rated graffiti, but decided not to charge admission.

Seeing as though this is such an interesting stopping point and admission is free to the public, Flor, Kathleen and myself decided to stop on our way by and get a few pics up close. Enjoy! Flor enjoyed it especially.

Pictures of the Caillac Graveyard

Just Cruisin' through Cadillac Cemetery...

...also of note: this post is part of my Experimenting with SEO series of posts. If interested please take a look at my first attempt to optimize for search engines and then see my followup in part two.