Rancho Cucomonga, the Nite Owl Quilters and Six Flags Vallejo

I ended the first half of my teaching year with a blast! I visited the Nite Owl Quilters of Rancho Cucamonga and got to visit a new-to-me area of Southern California (SoCal). Rancho Cucamonga is located in the Inland Empire. I thought that only included the hot and flat areas, but Rancho Cucamonga sits just south of the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest in San Bernardino County. I’ve lived in California 19 years and I still have much to learn. When I visited, it was fairly mild and surprisingly lovely!

Everyone was friendly and the city was so clean and pretty, but in a different way from the other parts of SoCal that I’ve visited. I was there to lecture and teach at the Nite Owls guild and I was thrilled with the turnout for for my lecture. Of course I forgot to take photos…

This is the only one I got, after the lecture. I do appreciate it when members come up close to look and take photos. It’s always fun to chat about my quilts.

I had the day off between my lecture and workshop so I asked if anyone would like to hike. I found a number of interesting hikes from my research. Bonnie and Program Chair Jane were game and off we went to the North Etiwanda Preserve, a great choice. Funny little side note: somehow I forgot a top to hike in so I had to borrow one from Jane….and then return it to her all stinky. Ewww! Jane went waaay beyond the typical duties of a Program Chair!

There were so many pretty scenes:

And then we came upon this:

I’m not sure exactly what they were, but they were not fluffy friendly little black and yellow bees. They really seemed angry! We steered clear.

I was intrigued by this guy – some sort of epiphyte it would appear, almost like Spanish Moss.

It started to get hot during the last part of our hike, so I was pooped. We each retreated to our own spaces and later Jane and I enjoyed dinner together at Victory Gardens, a huge open-air mall. It was so pretty and there was a band playing, everyone was in a good mood. Who’d a thunk I’d enjoy a mall?

Everything grows so well there; all the buildings seemed to have lovely plantings. What a beautiful stand of Anigozanthos (Kangaroo Paws)!

We had the guild’s largest class for the year, 17. Janine was a part of my class in Feb in Simi Valley and she made the drive over to join us at Rancho Cucamonga!

She was super proud of herself for arriving early and getting set up with plenty of time to relax before class started. Janine took up the 21-day challenge and encouraged others in the Simi Valley Quilt Guild to join in. The 21-day Challenge really does work!

We had a grand time learning Fills and Frills. Of course, once again I forgot to take photos during class. Alex Anderson sent along some Quilters Select goodies to share: lots of spools of Perfect Cotton Plus and Select Soft Wool batting. They were tickled pink to play with the thread and batting! It was a fabulous trip and I returned home elated.

Once I finished in SoCal, the 40 day clock started: I have (by plan) 40 days off to play and recharge. I started out strong by going to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo with friend, quilter and teacher Colleen Pelfry. We were a perfect match for an amusement park:

Behind us is Medusa – we rode it FOUR TIMES! It is definitely a “thrill ride”. It is described like this: “Face up to the relentless, record-breaking loops and drops of the highest, fastest, and longest rail runner.” We pretty much stuck to the thrill rides. Stats for the day: 7 rides, one show, 29,263 steps, 121 floors, 153 “active” minutes and 2,665 calories. It was a blast.

The park was not crowded at all and the weather was perfect. We sat in the front row of the non-spash section and enjoyed a great view of the dolphin show. What a day! And a good start to my 40 Days.

I’ll be linking up to Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday where I always find good links.