Friends...

Visiting with friends is always a treat, but when you are fortunate enough to visit not only with one friend in a day, but two...well, that is called a double hot fudge sundae kind of a day!

During our recent (September) visit to Solvang, and our visit to the Reagan Library, we were invited to my life-long friend, Joan (Tommasino) Trent's home to share a bowl of delicious homemade soup, salad and delicious bread.  I have known Joan since before kindergarten...that's a friendship of more than 65 yeas!  We first met when we were 3 years old.  My family had just purchased their first home in California and moved in across the street from Joan and her family.  It didn't take two 3-year-olds long to become BFF.

Good friends, good food and good company combined to put the whipped cream on that "hot fudge sundae" of a perfect day.

Whle we were visiting with Joan and Bruce, I lucked out and found another childhood friend's phone number and, as luck would have it, she was home.  The hour was late, but she insisted that we come by for a visit.  She gave me directions to her house, which was only 15 minutes away.

My friend, Suzanne (Klein) Gallo, lives wth her husband, Lew in a lovely community of town homes.  I haven't seen Suzie for probably more than 30 years, but we do keep in touch with cards and email.  I first met Suzie when I lived on Ashland Avenue in Santa Monica (across the street from Joan).  Her Auntie Ann lived 2 doors up the street from us.  Her cousin, Lanny, was my brother's best friend.  Another Aunt of Suzie's was Auntie Mahri, who was my dance teacher.

One summer, Suzie and her family came to visit Auntie Ann from Ohio.  That is when I met her.  We became fast friends.  She also was a dancer, and her family decided they would move to Santa Monica.  Suzie and I were delighted.  We danced together, we played together and we grew to love each other.

Suzie and I had a wonderful reunion that evening, reminiscing about the good old days in Santa Monica.  She is so beautiful and believe it or not, she still teaches dance.  Auntie Mahri taught dancing well into her 80's.  I find that so amazing.  I didn't want this evening to end.  Seeing Suzie again, was like adding the cherry on top of the hot fudge sundae.

But, like the hot fudge sundae that has satisfied the tummies of these grown-ups, the time to leave came all too soon.

Seeing two friends from my childhood in one evening was the best treat and one that I shall not soon forget.  These are moments to treasure.

A Visit to the Castle in the Sky...

When I was a little gil, I heard fairy tale stories about castles and princesses and magic spells and Prince Charming.  But I never even thought about any of these things beig true.  Castles were filled with fairy dust and sat on top of a hill somewhere in a country made up of flat pages in a book.

Then, I got to travel to Scotland and England and saw up close and pesonal, some amazing ancient castles.  Some of them are still inhabited, but most are either in a stae of ruin or preserved only for tours.  OK, there really are castles, and perhaps some of those fairy tales were based on actual stories, spiced with a little bit of whimsy to entice a small girl to close her eyes tight and try to believe.  But certainly there are no castles in the United States, a very young country compared to any in Europe.  Surely there are no castles here.

Wrong again!  There's a Castle in California that I love.  It is located high atop a hill in the San Simeon region of the California coast.  It is called HEARST CASTLE.  Dean and I visited it last September and I am sill in awe that a man of vision even took on the project of building this castle.  He built it (1) because he could, and (2) because it fulfilled a dream for him...a dream of a vast empire  The story of William Randolph Hearst reads much like "The Great Gatsby."  He was a playboy and a prankster at Harvard, while his father's newspaper, the Examiner, in San Francisco was floundering.

Will seemed to have a knack for writing and publishing and started a magazine in college that began to consume his life.  That was the beginning of his publishing career.  His student days at Harvard were difficult, as he just didn't quite measure up to the Dean's standards for how a serious student who wanted a degree should behave.  He tried other things, but in the end washed up as a student.  He said, "everything worth learning can be learned outside the walls of academe...It takes a good mind to resist education."

His father purchased the land in San Simeon,  Will inherited it, and the rest is history.  William Randolph Hearst, the Newspaper giant of his day, built an empire there.

I first visited the Castle in 1989, on a trip with JerriAnne and Heather.  We were on a journey from San Franisco to Laguna Niguel to stay with Kim for a few days.  We decided to stop and visit the castle.  We were enthralled, though much of it was still a work in progress.  There were many areas of the castle that we could not go into because they weren't finished.

This trip with Dean was amazing.  The State of California has acquired the property and turned it into a wonderland with restoration of much of the unfinished areas.  Still, it is not complete.  Dean and I actually took two tours and spent the better part of the entire day exploring the castle and the grounds.

The grounds are phenominal...a real work of art.  I loved to just walk around and enjoy the beauty of the place.  My favorite part was the huge Greecian pool, which is still used today for certain events at the castle.  It is pristine and amazingly beautiful.

There were also a lot of beautiful flower gardens and, it being September and not the hottest part of the year, they were absolutely gorgeous to behold.

As I was meandering through and around the castle, I couldn't help contemplate the castles that we build for ourselves.  Ours may not be as elegant or built for "show," but they are our castles, none-the-less!  I have had many "castles" in my life, and the family that I have shared them with were the jewels that adorned my crown.  A castle is only a building, consisting of walls and a collection of furniture, but add the family into the mix, and that castle becomes a "home," the greatest place on earth to be.

The Hearst castle is beautiful, yes, but amazingly enough, it did not bring William Randolph Hearst a great deal of happiness.  His family was fractured!

I have to say, though, Dean and I enjoyed our visit to that Castle on the Hill.