With a sunrise like this, it is no surprise that we decided to stay here at Seal Beach rather than head home. We have often said, “We do not have to follow a schedule.”, but we have seldom acted on it. This time we will. The office is closed today, but tomorrow Bob will ask for three more days.

We took the Smartcar and headed down Seal Beach Boulevard to find a little restaurant I spotted yesterday while we were out touring the town. It caught my eye because it was called Chicago Hot Dog and since Bob and I love a good hot dog, we simply had to go back at noon today for a hot dog. My intuition that this was going to be a great place was right on. The hot dogs were the best I have had outside of our trip to Chicago a couple of years ago.

Since we made the decision to stay a little longer, I did laundry this afternoon. The laundry room here is large, bright, and FREE! which is a first in our RV experience.

This is a bird watcher’s paradise. We are on the edge of a Wildlife marsh area and I wish I had brought along my bird guide and binoculars. Geese and ducks call loudly overhead, while small shore birds can be seen in the distance. The egrets and ospreys particularly fascinate me as well as, Lucky and LuAnn who if they had their way would become fierce chasers of the big birds. Hard to convince my little guys that they are not hunters.

Dinner time and then a quick walk with dogs before I curl up with a good book or TV progam. Ahhhh this is the life.

It was enough to make us hopeful about staying another day or two and gave us the incentive to take the Smartcar out. We wanted to look over the RV park at the Los Alimotos Reserve Base which is only about eight miles from Seal Beach. So we headed down the road to find it. We had heard that it was small (15 spaces) but we were not prepared for its primitive style. It had a chain link fence around it, dirt RV spots with antiquated hook-ups. More than anything, it resembled an RV storage area in the midst of a military vehicles storage area. Ugh! Not much of chance that we will ever stay there. Still it was a good idea to check it out before we committed ourselves to a week or two there next year.

While out, we treated ourselves to lunch before heading back to Seabreeze and the pets. The dogs were all asleep, but when Bob turned the key in the RV door, they woke and joyfully barked knowing a walk was in the offing.

Our plan to put the birds in their cages out on the table for a change of environment was thwarted as the clouds began to roll in and the temperature dropped to something a little too cool for African Grays. So we fixed their favorite treat of popcorn and of course we couldn’t let them have it all so we had a treat as well.

Our dinner tonight was Chili, Cheddar Cheese and crackers, and we washed it down with a glass of wine.

Now a little TV and it will be time to head to bed. If the sunshines tomorrow, we will plan to stay a day or so more.

Hard to believe but we are still socked in and the gloomy day has a way of keeping everyone inside. However when there are two dogs just barely into their second year of life and not really out of the puppy stage, it means long and frequent walks in the damp, cool, and foggy weather designed to make them take naps on returning to the RV. Sammi, bless her heart is content with short walks and lots of sleep time.

I used the non-walking time to edit photos, read, and watch TV. Then it was time to get dressed and meet friends before dinner and the installation of Officers of the nearby CalMOAA chapter. This of course was the primary reason for our being in Seal Beach and both Bob and I looked forward to the break in our camping routine.

The dinner was excellent. The company delightful and the evening passed much too quickly. Bob did his usual outstanding installation and delivered an excellent talk on the progress of the CalMOAA website. I am very proud of him and his accomplishments as the Webmaster of this site.

So leaving you with two more snapshots, I am heading to bed. Three dogs await me on the couch and the warmth of the down sleeping bag beckons. A line or two from a song from ANNIE runs through my head. . . Tomorrow, tomorrow. The sun comes out tomorrow! Who knows? It just might happen.
or something similar. I am optimistic !

About all I have done today is to play house in the RV and finish reading Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. An excellent book for a Book Club selection with all its twists, intrigues, and the artful manner in which Russo develops his characters.

I took a long morning walk with Lucky and LuAnn and a shorter afternoon walk with Bob and all three dogs. We ran into very few people or dogs, but Lucky and LuAnn wanted to bark at everyone and everything, including an Osprey that was enjoying lunch on the baseball field.

I have to remind myself that they are only a year old and it takes time to learn manners and I would hate to think how awful they would be without the training that they have had during their first year. Sadly, the lesson on barking has not sunk in yet.

I found an old Scrabble game on my laptop so have spent the early evening hours playing a few games. Ho-Hum I just heard on the news that tomorrow Seal Beach will have dense fog again. Well, we will just have another day of walks and I did bring Jodie Picault’s new novel, Change of Heart, with me so it will be a good chance to read a few chapters. Really no reason to complain.

in the post of our first day here, I talked about friendly villagers. Well, the friendly villagers are pretty much staying indoors like us.