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SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | APRIL 2018 11 By Theresa Rossetti, Resident We've seen great articles and photos from many of our residents of their Bucket List trips to China, Central America, Europe, and other exotic places. My husband and I have smaller ambitions when it comes to travel. For most of our adult life, we spent vacations up and down the East Coast, primarily on driving trips. One year we even drove, with two pre-teens in a two-door hatchback, from New York to Orlando to see Mickey. I do not recommend this if you want to stay sane. If anyone needs ideas for visiting most of the states on the Eastern seaboard, and where to get New York Pizza, we're available for consultation. Our younger son and his wife live in LA, so we visit them every couple of months to complain about the traffic and check out one of the trendy restaurants that seem to pop up like fungus in and around downtown. We have a lot of family in New York, so we go "back home" at least once a year. That eats up a good chunk of time and money on travel. For our other trips we've decided to focus on the West Coast of the U.S., with maybe a foray every once in a while, to some of the places in the U.S. that we've flown over but never visited. Our first thimble day trip, one month after we moved here, was to Idyllwild. We two, raised at SEA LEVEL, are still recovering from the drive up there on the twisty, windy roads where everyone else is going 60 miles an hour! Cute place but we're only returning if someone else is driving and we are blindfolded. After three years, we've pretty much visited all of the towns (and some of the restaurants) surrounding SDV, from San Diego up to Oak Glen and from Carlsbad over to Palm Desert. Last year we did our first drive to Vegas, catching Rod Stewart's performance and wandering around in 106 degrees. So, what's next on our Thimble List? A trip to Laughlin, NV to see The Lovin' Spoonful, dipping our toes into Arizona, then a short trip to Solvang, returning through Santa Barbara to see where the beautiful people live. I've still got my heart set on a return trip to Hawaii. I think it's changed enough in the 40 some-odd years since I was last there to justify a return visit. I guess that's a "pail" list, bigger than a thimble, but not as big as a bucket. Then there's the City by the Bay, and Seattle, and Sedona and Portland and San Antonio and Santa Fe and, since I can't get through an article without a song reference, "Do you Know the Way to San Jose?" For all you life-long or long-time Californians, got any suggestions for us on other West Coast places for our Thimble List? Why Not A "Thimble" List?

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