The Snoopy Museum

These are photos I took in Santa Rosa (California) when I was down visiting in February. If you have followed my blog for anytime you know that I am a big fan of Snoopy and Charles Schulz. Good O'l Charlie Brown has a couple of tickets to get into the Museum.

I had intended to visit the Charles M. Schulz museum while down there but I waited until my last day to go. It was closed and I had plans lined up for the day and wasn't able to get into the building. Santa Rosa has various status around town in honor of Charles M. Schulz just like these two outside of the museum. I have been inside the museum before and next time I will make it a priority and go early in the trip so I have another chance to view all the wonderful things inside.

Even though I had a chance to talk to Charles Schulz, or Sparky as he was known by people who knew him, I always wanted to talk to him about drawing. The little conversation I had with him outside of a bookstore for twenty minutes one time mostly consisted of me telling him that he was my hero. His response was "Me? I've never done anything." So I listed off all the things he had done for me in my life. That was certainly a highlight memory in my book of life and I thank God often for providing me the opportunity. The museum offers cartoon workshop. Now that would be another dream come true for me.

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

Shopping in San Francisco

A picture of San Francisco Chinatown between the rain drops. The background photo on my desktop is a photo similar to this one.

I'm in California for a little trip and so I went shopping in San Francisco. San Francisco is one of my favorite places. It was a beautiful rainy day on President's Day (Monday, February 16th) in San Francisco. My friend April and I got a little wet. It didn't bother me one bit. April was such a sport. We walked all over Chinatown. I was looking for a clock with the Chinese numbers on the face. I couldn't find one so I will probably make my own.

I was also looking for a movie I haven't been able to get on Netfilx or Blockbuster. The movie is "Unforgettable Regret." It has my favorite Hong Kong actress Sammi Cheng http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammi_Cheng (she is also a big pop star.) My usual DVD/CD store had closed down in Chinatown so I had to find a new one. The girls working in the new shop hadn't heard of the movie. I tried explaining as much as I could about the movie. Times like this I wish I knew how to speak Chinese. Of course they probably speak Cantonese and I'm learning Mandarin. Anyway, after 30 minutes of looking for the movie with some pop music blaring that I wasn't that fond of I told April we should probably go....and then there it was... one little copy of the movie hidden behind some other movies. Of course the girls were "Oh, that movie!" The girls were great though and after I found the movie they were so chatty but of course I could only understand half of what they said. I'll probably watch the movie sometime this week. Sammi is known as the Lucille Ball of Hong Kong cinema. This is not one of her comedies but I'm sure I will love it. There are many actors I really like in the movie.

Poster of the Cherry Blossom Festival. I wish I could get the poster for my friend Kris. She loves Hello Kitty.


One of the biggest highlights of yesterday was bento shopping in Japan town of San Francisco. I went nuts inside of Ichiban Kan store. I found all the information about shopping on the Lunch-in-box website http://lunchinabox.net/. This was posted on the website as the $1.50 type store of Japan town and indeed most everything was around $1.50. I got a shopping bag filled with accessories for bento boxes and a few bento boxes. It was so much fun. I can't wait to go shopping there again. I must have been in the store at least an hour. I'll share my shopping loot with you on another post.




Until Next Time. . . . .



Kathleen

Sonoma County California

I'm going South tomorrow morning to Santa Rosa California to visit my friends and family. I haven't been back for 2-1/2 years and it is a vacation long over due. I'm going to stay with my friend April and hang out with her two daughters. I've got many other people I'm planning to see and lots of shopping - and I mean lots of shopping.

This is my favorite place along River Road heading towards the coast. The mustard grass grows in every year in Spring. This is a scan I did off of a card I bought years ago. The photographer is is Robert Janover taken in 1993. He calls it "Before the Vines."

This is a view from the house I use to live in before moving to Oregon. The fog rolls in every night and cools things off in the Summer. This is a picture of the fog in the morning before it burned off. This is a Western view looking towards Guerneville and Jenner.

This is a picture after the fog burned off. You are looking at the Korbel valley. Their vineyards are below all through the valley.

Another view looking further to the South West. Lots of Douglas Fir, some Oaks, Redwoods and many other varieties of trees. I do miss the smell of the trees but I don't miss the poison oak I had for 9 months out of the year.

I'm not sure if I will be able to post until I get back on Monday. I'll take my camera with me and who knows maybe I will be able to share the adventure with you.

Until Next Time

Kathleen

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This was taken around the Giant's Causeway not far from Dunluce Castle in Northern Ireland.

This is Dunluce Castle in Northern Ireland. Portrush is on the little finger of land jetting out in the back ground.

Damian and a Horse he befriended along the walk to Dunluce Castle

The town of Bandon is name after Bandon Ireland which is located not by the sea but a bit inland on the South East side of the Republic of Ireland. Yes, I have the habit of calling it the Republic of Ireland because of my visit to Ireland in 1981. I was very fortunate to visit Ireland with my husband (at the time he was my boyfriend) and his sister Hilary. We stayed two weeks in Northern Ireland in the town of Portrush where my in-laws were raised. It was the month of July and it was the coldest month of July I have ever known. We also stayed in Dublin for two weeks before we headed back to England. In all we spent three months in the British Isles. A month each in Scotland, Ireland and England. It was during this trip that I fell in love with traveling. I have very fond memories of that trip. I can't tell you how many times I had the song "I'll take you home again, Kathleen" sung to me. My father named me after that song so I thought it was pretty exciting. Also, everyone told me that Ireland the country is referred to my its people as "Kathleen." I know I will return again to Ireland someday. It was such a beautiful country. There was a train strike on at the time of our visit so we didn't get to see as much as of the country as we would have liked. Next time I will add Bandon Ireland to my list of "must see" places.

Until Next Time

Kathleen