1/29/11

Family Visit

We're still in Hemet as I write this, but we'll be moving on soon.  Today we visited with Mike's sister, Meredith, who lives in Fullerton, California.  We get a chance to visit with her when we come to Hemet, and she and Mike stay in touch by phone when we're not.

While she was here, we took the opportunity to pay a visit to Diamond Valley Lake.  The lake is a man-made reservoir--really sort of a catch basin--where water from the Colorado River Aquaduct flows in to provide water for the valley.

It's really a pretty place.  The basin was a natural formation


that was dammed on three sides like this on the west side,



and if you look waaaaaaay off in the distance, to the narrow part of the lake, you can just barely see where it's dammed on the east side.


There's a nice lookout on top with a compass so you can tell what direction you're looking


and you can get a good view of the valley too.  Everything is so green because of the abundance of rain in Southern California this year.  It's so nice to see everything looking so vibrant!



We also came across some wild sage growing on the hillside.  It smelled divine!



We had lunch and dinner together.  Mike barbecued some chicken, and I made some cottage fried potatoes and a cucumber salad that I learned to make from Mike and Meredith's grandmother.  It's made from sliced English cucumber and thinly sliced red onion.  Then you make a dressing from one cup of sour cream, two tablespoons sugar, two tablespoons cider vinegar (or whatever you have), and two tablespoons lemon juice.  You mix the dressing together and pour it over the cucumber and onion slices, then let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.  Yum! 

After dinner we went to see True Grit, which we enjoyed very much.  And after the movie, we had lemon meringue pie from Marie Callendar's.  After telling you about how my Aunt Joan used to have lemon meringue pie for me when I came to visit, I got a yen for it.  Gracie found a new lap to sit on when she got over being timid.


All in all, it was a nice day.  I'm always glad when Mike and Meredith get a chance to visit.

1 comment:

quiltzyx said...

Sounds like a lovely reunion day. And how blue is that lake!! Soooo nice to look at.