Mission City Travelers

Mission City Travelers is travelin' again!  

Here we're camped out at a lake ... 

the Swilley's brought their dune buggy - 

it sure was a fun thing to drive!!    

You can see it was a cold and windy campout 

as we strung sheets or blankets to block some of the wind!  

It might have been cold, but we were having too much fun to notice! 

"Oh,it was so cold. In the dune buggy is 

Oliver, Linda, David , Lori and even Buffy! 

Of course Lee is driving with neighbor Joe Sturgil riding shot gun. 

I think it could have been Lake Berryessa" says Dorothy Danielson

Christmas 1976

Hello again, Christmas!  Mom's town on the TV, 

must be the 70s with those gold curtains!

Mom had a terrarium, it's hour glass shaped on the side table.

That's quite a mountain of gifts, Mom! 

Lori passes out the gifts, 

you can just see Buffy at my feet.

And the biggest gift ever... an orange stuffed elephant! 

(goodness, where will I put this!!)

When all is said and done, there's Grandma Pape, 

helping with the cleanup .... or starting her own project??

Another Camping Trip

Here we are, at some scenic place, it's a beautiful waterfall,

but I can't remember where we were! 

Seems this is Columbia, CA - Gold Country! 

That's me, long hair, wearing my favorite pair of pants.

This was back when it was fashionable to have 

extra large bell bottomed pants! 

A beautiful lake, with a wonderful bridge ..... 

An old fashioned town, and perhaps a stagecoach ride.... 

One of my pet peeves has always been unmarked photos.

And now that we're in the technological age, this same

pet peeve is about photos posted without words.

Sometimes the story behind the photo is more important 

than the photo itself! And generations from now,

someone will want to know the where's and why's.

December ... Again!

Here's Dad's truck without the shell, it must be brand new!

Time to head up to the mountains for our annual trek ...

Our goal:  Find the perfect Christmas Tree! 

Every year, we trudged up mountains and down into valleys

searching for just the right tree!

Looks like our after-tree stop was at Santa's Village.

We always tried to stop and see something else besides

Christmas trees.  Sometimes it was Marianne's Ice Cream

in Santa Cruz, home of the double cone! 

That 70s Summer

And the project begins!  

We're starting to build the family room on the back patio.  

(Peeking into the far background, we still have flamingos!)

And even though this is a little blurry ... there's a bench around

the base of the mulberry tree in the backyard.

Linda's Confirmation at St. John's, 8th grade, loved this dress Mom made.

I remember I wore white patent leather platform shoes with this dress.

Other things to note:  there are ashtrays on the end table

the green couch:  ouch!  what a color!  And the print

on those pillows screams 1970s!

And does Mom still have the "harvest colors" afghan?

And in other news, during confirmation, it was very hot that Sunday.

We were kneeling, one of the boys fainted

and I felt myself ready to faint as well!

What a day that was!

Minnesota Vacation 1974

Another trip to Minnesota -  Summer 1974

If I remember, it was the Centennial Celebration  

Mom and I climbed up to look at this piece of farm machinery!

An old tractor ..... I think this celebration may have sparked

the beginnings of Heritage Days in EGF

I remember hearing many discussions trying to discern which is better:

John Deere or Massey Ferguson?

Clara looking lovely in her bonnet ... 

can't you almost hear the Sons of the Pioneers

crooning out the old tune "Put on your old grey bonnet,

with the blue ribbons on it".... 

Holiday Time Again!

"Autumn paints in colors that summer has never seen."

Don't you just love the magic of fall?

Sno-Cones anyone?

The rough idea for the machine was invented by Hasbro 

(then known as Hassenfeld Brothers) in the early 1960s. 

The Frosty Sno-Man Sno-Cone Machine spit out chunks of ice 

through Frosty’s gaping belly.

After kids stuffed cubes into the top of his head and turned the 

hand crank on the back, they could fill up a (small) cup and 

flavor it with the included sweetener.

Christmas bounty!  Great smile, David!

And our tree .... with plenty of tinsel, of course!

Pumpkins!

Kind of blurry, but this is the house across the street.

When I was growing up it was the Jones' house.

(Weird that no matter how old I get, that's how I think of it....)

Lori, Donna Martin, David, don't recall the girl in pink

Seven pumpkins all in a row .....

sounds like the start of a nursery rhyme!

Lori, David and Buffy

I wonder why we had seven pumpkins?

Was this the year David came home with a "bean seed" from school

and we got pumpkins???

More Manteca

 Here's Lori, we're back at the Manteca Waterslides

one last camping trip in the fall before it's too cold to slide.

You can see that in just a few months' time,

it became really popular!  There was some kind of contest.... but I don't recall. 

Participation flags??

Time to go tubin'

You can see where the waterslide lands in the lake in the distance.

Oakwood Lake

Let the Summer Begin!!

Here's our new tent trailer -- a better alternative

to actually sleeping on the ground in a tent!

Note Buffy's backside as she snoops!!

After a few trips out, we had it down to a science to set up

and break down camp - we all had our jobs, which made it so simple!

Our "inaugural trip" was to Manteca Waterslides!  

Also known as Oakwood Lake, it opened in 1974.

Backwards or forwards, oh what fun to slide in the water!

Oh the many hours we spent sliding,

or just floating on an innertube in the lake.

We enjoyed this place a lot!

(As you'll see from more and more photos.... lol)

Holidays!

Mom, David, Lori and me in front of the Winnebago.

Clara and Bob Pape with Dorothy. 

Got a bike for Christmas!  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Lori and her new bike, too!

Hearst Castle

William Randolph Hearst started to build a fabulous estate on his 

ranchland overlooking the village of San Simeon in 1919. 

He called the estate "La Cuesta Encantada" - Spanish for The Enchanted Hill. 

The Neptune pool was empty, but it's quite amazing.

It holds 345,000 gallons and the indoor pool holds 290,000.

(I remember seeing the indoor pool, it was opulent!)

It took 15 years to build:

115 rooms in the main building, 46 in the guest houses

The Grandparents Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Pape's Winnebago.

They came for the holidays and we took a trip to

Hearst Castle and the beach!

This is Hearst Castle in the distance.