Jacque Lou's Bittersweet Adventures in Life: Arizona Living.....California Bloodlines.....A Dodger Legend

One of the soundtracks of my life is "California Bloodlines' by John Stewart, who had a haunting charisma small cult following in the Southwest. I did meet him several times, saw him on stage in Southern California, Phoenix, Tucson, The Palomino Club in LA and more. He was a brilliant writer, not so good singer, incredible artist and I thought a great entertainer. His songs always come to my mind during events I do and places I go. Sadly he passed away a few years ago, not far from me, at the Hotel Del in Coronado.

Lyrics:

Had I been born in New York City

A New York City girl I'd know
Workin' in the concrete, not the sunlight
Livin' in the New York rain and snow

Oh, there's California bloodlines in my heart
And a California woman in my song
Oh, there's California bloodlines in my heart
And a California heartbeat in my soul

And just to think I might have never known you
If I had lived my life in Tennessee
But I really could have never let that happen
For you and California are in me

Oh, there's California bloodlines in my heart
And a California woman in my song
Oh, there's California bloodlines in my heart
And a California heartbeat in my soul

Have you wondered where we were before we were born?
Rollin' 'round the heavens like a song
I know it's then I saw the big Sierras
Saw a California sunrise comin' on

Oh, there's California bloodlines in my heart
And a California woman in my song
Oh, there's California bloodlines in my heart
And a California heartbeat in my soul

Oh, there's California bloodlines in my heart
And a California woman in my song
Oh, there's California bloodlines in my heart

So as I crossed the desert last week to see my Arizona born boy and his beautiful wife in their brand new home it was exactly what I found....Arizona Living, but some California Bloodlines.....

Side note: I wish I knew how many times I have crossed the desert from AZ to CA and CA to AZ....it has to be in the hundreds....several times a year since 1976.....wish I would have counted! I think I know every cactus and rock by heart!

So here is how we rolled.....Uncle Adam and Adam Jr (Dylan) scout the seats at the DBacks to pick out the perfect seats.....

Looks like the seats were good ones....each of the boys got a MLB ball from a player during batting practice....Thanks Uncle Adam!

One very happy boy and one proud Uncle....

The boys loved this huge backyard project in process and lots of fun digging in the dirt!

Of course, inside was nice too....loads of new carpet and space to spread out and play on.....

...and boy did we love lounging in this great room.....so relaxing.....

We did manage to break away from the comfy loving home to do some outings. We love to hit up Nordstrom's Last Chance when we go....this time we found a firetruck tie for Brody...he rocked it!

And another fave stop - Cafe Rio.....why oh why don't we have these in SD....

See what you are missing San Diego??????? Fresh, delicious, inexpensive, win, win, win

And back at the Casa - a little tour of those California Bloodlines I was writing about....

A complete and whimsical Mickey Mouse bathroom.....upscale of course with original artwork and perfection in the way everything is placed....

This is out of order but we love playing games and played most of the weekend....here Dylan and I play Battleship, with Aunt Shannie's help.....we also played some fun ones when my brother came over - bummed I did not get pics of that! We are gamers from way back in the day...

What? More signs of California Bloodlines? The office done in Dodger Blue you say?

A place for everything and everything in it's place.......

Loved the wall of champions......Is that because we went to hundreds and hundreds of Dodger Games when he was growing up?....he was at Fernando Valenzula's first game in 1981 and was there for Orel Herishier debut in 1983 and when he finished the season with a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings pitched....and countless other epic baseball events....on the wall is the Artful Dodger, Tommy LaSorda and voice of the Dodgers Vin Scully....and who is that last picture of???

Could it be the greatest of all baseball World Series comeback hitters Kirk Gibson? Truth be told, we were at that incredible World Series game when Kurt hit the home run in the 9th to win the game and he could barely hobble around the field to tag all the bases!...A night Dodger fans will never forget - always ranked as one of the Top 10 Sports Highlights of all time!!!! And the other part of the truth....2 drunk guys in front of us got in a fight and we decided to leave to be safe and as we were in the parking lot Kurt hit it out the there!!! We could not believe it! So as years pass and connections to Phoenix and California bloodlines cross, a loving athlete embraced my son, the loyal Dodger fan, invited him down to Diamondbacks game where he is now a coach, to meet in person and autographed this picture taken that night especially for him..."To Adam, Stay til the End...My Best, Kirk Gibson".

Lessons learned as they say!

I did get a chance to sneak off to old Glendale for some fun shopping!

Love those shops and all the goodies that they hold....

be still my heart....

And what fun to cook in this beautiful kitchen...I am not known for my cooking skills and honestly my kids never beg for anything I make (chicken and rice anyone?) but I do make a pasta that my daughter in law loves so this is my offering especially made for her!

Road Warrior Rocky makes himself at home no matter where he goes!

My Arizona sweeties found this while out shopping and fell in love with it.....

So I tried to surprise them and by it and bring it home....'tried' is the key word here....they saw it on 16th St. and Camelback at Pier One....I tried to get it at 77th and Bell at Pier One....they did not carry said article so cross town driving it was! But worth it to make them happy. It does look perfect where they put it....