On the Road

Welcome to Willow's Cottage Friday Fave Five.  This is the On the Road June 2104 edition, issue one.  As usual, I am linking Friday Fave Fives to Susanne's blog.  Here are Willow's five points of thankfulness:

1.  One positive result of having your home tented and fumigated for termites (besides being rid of the termites) is spending two nights away with friends.  One night last week we stayed at our neighbors' beach house. (Those termites were why we were out at Hollywood Beach.) The next day we drove to the Beach Cities of Los Angeles and slept at another friend's home.  We had been planning to meet up with the mommy and daddy of our favorite pit bull buddy, but it just never worked out.  So instead of fussing about being evicted from our house for two nights, we found the blessing--time with friends.

2.  Walks on the beach in LA--we loved the beaches in LA when we lived there.  It's always great to stroll along spots where we have made so many memories.

3.  BYOD evening with our BFFs.  A few months ago, we set up BYOD--Bring Your Own Dinner get togethers with our friends.  Our busy lives sometimes keep us from inviting friends over for dinner.  You have to clean. You have to cook.  Enter BYOD.  It's so easy, and no one has to work hard to make a meal which accommodates every one's choices.  Everyone is relaxed.  We sat down at the table, and three hours later we had not moved to the living room or even to the patio.  Perfect!

4.  Now we're gone from the Cottage again--off on another adventure, an expotition.  We had intended to simply leave the house empty.  It's not an issue in our community.  Neighbors look in on each other and we always tell our close neighbors when we'll be gone.  But when another friend asked if she could house sit, we took her up on her offer.  Win for her, win for us.

5.  That adventure?  YES! Another road trip!  We were on a bit of a tight schedule because the work on the house cut significantly into our prep time, but we made it on to Interstate 10 heading east  and blew through metro LA with a minimum of traffic problems which is a significant issue any time you drive around Southern California.  Now we're in Arizona hanging out with The Chaplain and his wife for a few days.  Be prepared for more photos like this--cactus, sand, beautifully sculpted mountains, and wide open blue sky.

And here are bonus jacaranda photos--
By the time I return from points east, the purple splendor of those towering trees will be a distant memory.

A street lined with jacarandas~