Pre-Cruise: a week in California


Never again trusting the weather, air transportation, the threat of a government shutdown, and any
other unforeseen “act of God” (what a ridiculous label), we arranged to land in Los Angeles a full week
prior to the start of the cruise. Fortunately for us, we had various friends and relatives to visit during
that week.

We rented a car in LA and drove 8+ hours on the interior highway (#5) past groves upon groves of nut
and fruit trees then miles upon miles of vineyards with grapes hanging below the vines, ready for
picking. Central CA is mostly desert, but miraculously, there is the invention of irrigation…but the water wars are rampant, expensive, and may last longer than the water itself.
 


Our destination on that all-day drive was seeing Becky Winterboer in Santa Rosa. We met Becky in
Spencer where Jen’s final call to ministry was. While we were there, Becky was starting to play cello and Jerry started to work with her as one of her teachers. Becky had moved to Santa Rosa a couple years earlier, as Covid was beginning to cough less, and where her 90-yr-old beloved professor dad lived. She found an absolutely jaw-dropping home with a pool (and a hot tub) and a completely furnished pool house where we stayed. Besides spoiling us with any cuisine we desired, she secured an opportunity for Jen to ride an Arabian in the sand dunes and along the beach. Her mount had 2000 competitive endurance miles in him (look up endurance racing, or better yet, watch Viggo Mortensen in Hidalgo) and needed to be exercised every week.





Our next stop was to worship with Josh Martyn in Los Altos, about 90 minutes from Santa Rosa.
Somehow, his wife Natalie hadn’t shared that we were coming, so imagine his shock when he looked
out of his office window and saw Jerry first. “No, it can’t be…” he said out loud. Nice hugs and a torrent of trying to catch up prior to worship. His high school senior, Sarah, and his 8 th -grade son Timmy, were a thrill to grill (with questions) over lunch. It will be fun to watch them as their lives open up even further.


Then we headed back south to LA, this time on the scenic coastal highway #1, except that an early spring flood caused hundreds of thousands of tons of debris to cover the highway south of Big Sur, so, oh well, back to enjoying the interior agricultural landscape.


In LA, we connected with Jerry’s cousin, Kim Little, who is now in her 40 th year working with a partner making costumes for the stars (see mutolittlecostumes). Her shop is about a block from Warner
Brothers Studio. Her husband, Jim, works in CGI (computer-generated imagery) which is, as most of you know is special effects generated by computer. They have stories that might fill an entire library shelf. They took us to an Italian restaurant off of Rodeo Drive, and then we walked that lush street in the later evening as it was lit with brilliant fairy lights. Simply magical.


The next morning, Kim generously picked us up at the hotel and delivered us to the cruise terminal.

Our next adventure has begun!!!

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