Family, Hills, Beaches, Mountains & Desert
Happy New Year
from Barbara & Stan Levine
& Our Dogs Henry & Ginger
New Year's Eve at our Clubhouse at the Motorcoach Country Club in the desert
Henry, our 6-year-old Boxer, &
Ginger, our 16-year-old Australian cattle dog
2022 was another fun-packed year filled with Family and sporting & social activities in our local Hills & Beaches and at our vacation homes in the Mountains & Desert in California.
The only trip out of state was when Barbara flew to Michigan for her annual Family Reunion.
👨👩👧👦 Family 🏡
Our immediate family consists of two sons and a daughter and five granddaughters (ages 13 to 26). All of them live in the Los Angeles area.
Our Immediate Family
Top left: Barbara & Stan.
Top right: Stan's daughter Tiffany & husband Jason with children Juliet (age 13) & Jessica (age 19).
Lower left: Barbara seated with her son Mike and his daughter Charlotte (age 17). Mike's wife Carrie is behind. Barbara is holding their dog Dash.
Lower right: Stan's son Dave (upper left) holding his dogs Mister Bones and Death Biter. Dave's partner Cassidy is to his right. Dave's twin daughters, Maddie & Sammy (ages 26) are below them.
⛰️ The Hills of Palos Verdes Peninsula 🏋️🥾
Our home is located in Rolling Hills (the blue dot in the lower center of the map below).
Rolling Hills is one of four cities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, which juts out into the Pacific Ocean to the south and west of Los Angeles. We are a 30-minute drive from the Los Angeles Airport.
Map of Palos Verdes Peninsula Showing Its Four Cities
In this real estate map, the four cities of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and their neighborhoods are color coded. It is very confusing to keep track of where each city's boundaries are.
We both keep active when we are at our home base. Our two main activities around our home are (1) working out with our personal trainer Jennifer in our gym in our stable and (2) hiking on the trails through the hills of Palos Verdes Peninsula. Barbara works out with Jennifer three times a week and Stan once a week. We both do weekly hikes with a group called The Wandering Jews on a myriad of trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
Stan plays tennis three times a week with a group at the West End Racquet Club – he has lost too much of his eyesight to hit with his other former players. He also does Tai Chi once a week. He takes our dogs for short hikes on the bridle trail that runs beside our home a couple of times a day, and Barbara joins them occasionally.
Once a week, we also ride our bikes along the beaches of the South Bay or Long Beach – see the next section titled 🚴♂️ Biking Along the Beaches 🌊.
⛰️ Working Out in Our Gym in the Stable
With Our Personal Trainer 🏋️
Top left: Barbara & our personal trainer Jennifer working out with stretch cords.
Top center left: Barbara's favorite exercise is on the rings while hanging over the abyss outside the stable door and enjoying the view of the city and mountains.
Top center right: Henry & Ginger at their favorite spot while awaiting Jennifer's arrival.
Top right: Stan doing his pull-ups and dreading the usual words from Jennifer – Just 3 more!
Lower left: Stan demonstrating the bandaging job that Jennifer did on his sore arm. In addition to being a licensed personal trainer, Jennifer is a orthopedic surgeon from Germany, who is studying for her boards so she can practice in the U.S.
Lower center left: Barbara & Jennifer working out with elastic bands.
Lower center right: Jennifer having a love-in with Henry.
Lower right: Stan doing aerobic steps and kicks while Jennifer holds the dogs out of harm's way.
⛰️ Hiking on the Trails of Palos Verdes Peninsula 🥾🐕
Top left: Barbara & Stan hiking at Bluff Cove with Henry & Ginger.
Top center: Barbara hiking along the cliff at the top of the Peninsula.
Top right: Stan & our dogs hiking on the bridle trail below our property in Rolling Hills.
Center left: Stan and Barbara & the dogs hiking on a trail through a canyon. The sign reads, "DANGER! UNMAINTAINED TRAIL, CLIFF HAZARD AHEAD."
Center right: One of the selfie group photos taken with The Wandering Jews on each hike. Stan is on the left and Barbara is standing in the center front.
Lower left: Stan & our dogs hiking under huge eucalyptus trees.
Lower center: Stan & Barbara hiking with our dogs on a cliff high above the ocean near the Trump Golf Course.
Lower right: Stan & our dogs crossing under a fallen tree.
Some of the Non-Human Creatures We Meet on the Trails
Top left: An inquisitive giant tortoise in a backyard along the trail.
Top right: One of many small rabbits that we see on the trails and on our property.
Lower left: A great blue heron strutting near the cliff above the ocean.
Lower right: A horse with a decorative face mask in a backyard corral by the trail. The mask is worn to protect the horse's eyes from insects and the sun.
🎾 More Activities & Photos from the Rolling Hills Area 🥋
Top left: Stan playing tennis during one of his three weekly matches.
Top right: Stan, third from the right, at his weekly Tai Chi session on the lawn by the Rolling Hills Community Association.
Center left: View of the mountains & Los Angeles from our new jacuzzi on the deck outside our bedroom.
Center right: Barbara, on the left, at a dinner party in Rolling Hills.
Lower left: View of our lower property below our house and stable. Stan is beside the stone fireplace he built in his "Retreat," as he calls this lower area that he carved out of the hillside over 3 years using his tractor.
Lower right: A zoomed-in view of downtown Los Angeles from our front patio.
🚴♂️ Biking Along the Beaches 🌊
We try to do a bike ride each week that we are home, usually on the bike path along the beaches of the South Bay from the foot of Palos Verdes Peninsula to the north end of Manhattan Beach – 16 miles round trip with Barbara's detours to look at murals and statues.
We sometimes bike along the water in Long Beach where we take the dogs to Rosie's Dog Beach so they can run free without a leash for a mile.
🚴♂️ Biking Along the Strand in the South Bay 🌊
Top left: Stan riding down to the beach below where we park at Torrance Beach at the foot of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
Top center left: Stan at the start of our ride at Torrance Beach.
Top center right: Early morning surfers at Torrance Beach.
Top right: Stan on the Redondo Beach Pier.
Lower left: Stan on the Redondo Beach Pier with fishermen and a black-crowned night-heron.
Lower center: Stan on the Redondo Beach Pier with a California gull.
Lower right: The Tim Kelly surf statue by the Hermosa Beach Pier. Tim Kelly was a Los Angeles County lifeguard and surfer who was killed in a car crash in the mid-sixties when he was hit by a drunk driver.
🚴♂️ More Biking Along the South Bay Beaches & Long Beach 🐕
Top left: Barbara on her Trike on the Strand in Manhattan Beach.
Top center: Stan in front of the Beach Volleyball mural in Hermosa Beach. The Surf-and-Sand Club 3-D mural can be seen in the distance on the right.
Center: The Surf-and-Sand Club 3-D mural depicting the former Biltmore Hotel in the 1920s. The inscription on the sand reads, "You should have been here yesterday."
Top right: Stan posing in front of a mural near the Hermosa Beach Pier.
Lower left: Stan in Redondo Beach next to the bronze life-size sculpture of Bill & Bob Meistrell, Barbara's scuba diving instructors in 1974 who founded the Dive N' Surf shop just up the street .
Lower right: Stan & Barbara on the Strand in Manhattan Beach.
Lower center: Stan and our two dogs on Rosie's Dog Beach in Long Beach, where dogs can run free for a mile.
🏔️ Skiing & Biking in the Mountains ⛷️🚴♂️
We go on 5-6 ski trips a year to Mammoth Mountain in the Sierras, where we have a condo. Barbara hasn't been able to ski since 2008 after her many body replacements, but Stan has found two different groups to ski with. Each December, he starts the season with a 5-day Ski/Board/Race Camp where he skis with a small group and an instructor for the week. Then for 5 days each month from January-April, he skis with the On the Hill Gang Los Angeles (OHGLA).
We also usually do a ski trip on our own in May, where Stan skis in the mornings and we bike in the afternoons. In the summer months, we like to go up once or twice for a week of biking.
🏔️ Skiing in the Winter at Mammoth Mountain ⛷️
Top left: On our drive up to Mammoth in December, Barbara is with our dogs Henry & Ginger at the Tesla Supercharger in Lone Pine. Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet, is the highest small peak above Ginger's head.
Top center: Outside our condo in Mammoth Lakes in January.
Top right: View of Mammoth Mountain from inside our condo in December after the big blizzard that dumped 5-9 feet of snow in 2 days.
Center left: Barbara in her usual seat on the couch in our condo with Ginger & Henry while Stan is skiing all day.
Center right: Stan, second from the left, with his instructor and classmates in December during his Ski/Ride/Race Camp.
Lower left: Stan, in the center, in January with two fellow skiers from the On the Hill Gang Los Angeles (OHGLA).
Lower center: Barbara's view from the couch in our condo in January. It was like living in a tunnel for the week.
Lower right: The nightly gathering in February of the On the Hill Gang Los Angeles (OHGLA) at the rec room in the Sierra Lodge. Stan is standing 2nd from the left and Barbara is seated 3rd from the left.
⛷️ Skiing & Biking in the Summer at Mammoth Mountain 🚴♂️
Top left: Mammoth Mountain ski area on May 30. Stan skied every morning for several days.
Top center: Stan at the end of one of his ski runs on May 31.
Top right: Barbara on a bike ride on October 31 with Mammoth Mountain in the distance behind her.
Center left: Stan is riding ahead on the bike path along Old Mammoth Road opposite the Trolley Car bus in October. Crystal Crag is in the center background.
Center right: Stan is standing with friends Gian & Gail at the edge of the huge Mammoth Skatepark, which we rode around on our bike ride in June.
Lower left: Gian watching a deer beside our bike path in June.
Lower center: Barbara and Stan on the bike path in Mammoth in June that runs through a forest.
Lower right: Stan, Gian and Barbara on a bike ride in Mammoth in June with Mammoth Mountain in the background.
🌵🚴♂️ The Desert in Southern California 🏋️🛶🚤
We keep our motorcoach on a waterfront lot that we own at the Motorcoach Country Club (MCC) in Indio, which has 400 RV lots. On our lot, we have built a casita and a shade structure (with 1 solid wall and large shades on the other 3 sides). We use the RV primarily as a bedroom, and we haven't had it on a roadtrip for five years.
The MCC has two miles of navigable waterways with two small lakes around a nine-hole golf course.
🌵 Our Place in the Desert 🚤
Top left: View of our lot from the water with our 18' electric boat at our dock. Stan is standing outside of our shade structure. Our RV is to the right of it.
Top right: View from our main patio of the water and mountains.
Center left: Stan and our 2 dogs inside the shade structure.
Center right: The fireplace in the shade structure.
Lower left: Stan at the dining/chess table that he built in the kitchen area of the shade structure. We play 2-3 games of chess with every meal wherever we are.
Lower right: Sunset view from our patio.
There is a large Clubhouse built above the resort which contains a nice restaurant as well as a gym & spa beside an Olympic-size pool. The resort also has three tennis courts and two other swimming pools.
🌵 More Photos of Our Place in the Desert 🚐
Top left: The waterfall at the entrance to the resort with the Clubhouse above it.
Top right: Stan with Ginger and Henry on the water side of the Clubhouse.
Center left: View of the main Olympic-size swimming pool and the mountains from the Clubhouse restaurant.
Center right: Stan & our dogs in our golf cart in front of our Casita on the street side of our lot. The shade structure is beyond the Casita and our RV is on the left.
Lower left: View of our waterways, golf course and the mountains from a bridge at the opposite end of the resort.
Lower right: Our dogs Ginger and Henry mingling with other canine guests in our on-site dog park.
We have more sports activities in the desert available to us than at home or in the mountains. In addition to biking, tennis, swimming and our gym training, we also have boating and kayaking.
Barbara was so happy to once again fit into her whitewater kayak after shedding 60+ pounds, and to paddle the four miles roundtrip on our waterways. Stan was even able to pull her in her kayak up onto our lawn so she could exit gracefully.
🌵🚤 Some Recent Activities at Our Place in the Desert 🏋️🛶🚴♂️
Top left: Barbara is usually the skipper on our boat rides around our waterways. Henry & Ginger love the rides as much as we do. We have never seen another female skipper on our waterways.
Top center & right: Barbara & Stan on a recent three-hour bike ride including a three-mile uphill section through the Fred Wolff Bear Creek Nature Preserve & Trail bordering the mountains by La Quinta.
Center left: Stan has just cleaned up our two whitewater kayaks which we will launch from our lawn.
Center right: Barbara paddling in her whitewater kayak in front of our lot.
Lower left: Barbara working out in our gym in the Clubhouse.
Lower center: Stan lifting weights in our gym.
Lower right: Stan and Henry enjoy being passengers on our boat rides.
Stan's son Dave has a business called RAT Sound (RAT = Reliable Audio Technology) which supplies sound equipment and audio mixing technicians for large venues throughout Southern California and elsewhere.
In April, Dave supplied most of the venues at the annual Stagecoach Country Music Festival at the polo grounds in Indio. Dave got us tickets to the 3-day festival, and we went one day by ourselves. On the last day, Dave and his girlfriend Cassidy picked us up at the entrance in the golf cart supplied by the festival. They drove us around all evening to listen to the performers up-close and personal at each venue.
At the end of the evening, Dave asked us if we felt unsafe? When I said only because of his fast driving, he said that he felt unsafe, and took us to a Safety Meeting where we were served with strong libations.
🌵🤠 Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio 👢🪕🎸
Top left: Dave and Cassidy at the Safety Meeting.
Top center: We finished the night at the main venue held on the Mane Stage. Carrie Underwood was the featured performer for Stagecoach and she performed for 3 hours at the end of the evening. We watched the performance on the raised platform where Dave's sound monitoring crew worked in front of the stage.
Top right: At another venue, Dave took us to an area to the side of the stage next to the performers.
Lower left: We were seated with the sound monitors in front of the Mane Stage when confetti was released which showered on top of us.
Lower center: Barbara & Stan with the libations manager at the Safety Meeting.
Lower right: Stan about to enter the RAT Sound trailer on the outskirts of the performance venues.
💃🕺Social Activities 👩🦳👨🏼🦳
We enjoy many social activities at friends' homes and at other gatherings in our neighborhood, including those sponsored by several Rolling Hills organizations – the Women's Community Association, the Tennis Club, the 50+ Club, and the Caballeros Club (horse fans).
We also attend performances at our local theater and interesting talks at the Western Museum of Flight at our local airport. We attended several charity events including those sponsored by the Peninsula Symphony and Torrance Memorial Hospital.
Stan has 'Breakfast with the Boys' every Saturday morning at a local restaurant. Barbara often joins a group of girls in El Segundo called the Pandemic Pod, who have been meeting outdoors in a driveway under a canopy for the past two years for safety's sake.
At a holiday party in Rolling Hills in December.
A Few of the Social Activities We Attended This Past Year
Top left: Barbara & Stan on the left below a British Hawker Siddeley Harrier AV-8A V/STOL ground attack and reconnaissance fighter at the Western Museum of Flight at Zamperini Field in Torrance. The lecture we attended was on the James Webb Space Telescope, which was held in the hangar where the plane is stored.
Top center: Barbara on the right with the hostess of a Peninsula Symphony Charity Brunch in Rolling Hills.
Top right: Stan on the left at a 50+ Club Dinner-On-the-Green on the Rolling Hills Community Association lawn.
Center left: Barbara & Stan on the left at the Caballeros BBQ at the main Riding Ring in Rolling Hills.
Center right: Barbara on the right at the Women's Community Club annual Tea Party in Rolling Hills.
Lower left: Barbara on the right at a charity event at the Norris Theater Pavilion in Rolling Hills Estates.
Lower center: Stan, 3rd from the left, at a 'Staff Meeting' at a pub in Redondo Beach called by the Air Force Colonel, 2nd from the left, who was in charge of the program that Stan managed for TRW.
Lower right: Stan, second from the right, at his weekly 'Breakfast with the Boys' gathering at a restaurant on the Peninsula. This day he took his granddaughter Jessica along (second from the left).
👨👩👧👦👩🦳👨🏼🦳 Barbara's Family Reunion in Michigan 🚤🚙
The only trip out of state in 2022 was when Barbara flew to Michigan for her annual family reunion near Traverse City in June. She took her friend Marlene along as usual while Stan enjoyed a peaceful week at home with the dogs. Barbara & Marlene stayed with Barbara's sister Leone in her home on beautiful Silver Lake.
Barbara is the eldest of eleven children and nine were able to attend this year. Every day was packed with family gatherings and activities. One day Leone, Marlene and Barbara drove to Mackinac Island, 100 miles north of Traverse City.
Marlene, Leone & Barbara beside an old cannon below the fort on Mackinac Island
Barbara & Her Siblings in Age Order
Barbara & her ten siblings. To help keep track of who is who, they each have a number after their name indicating their birth order. Since Barbara is the eldest, she likes to say she is #1. Liz #8 and Dean #10 were not present for the reunion this year.
You can read all about Barbara's Family Reunion in her missive on her website at www.barbaras-missives-wix.net/post/family-reunion-in-michigan-june-2022.
👨👩👧👦⛰️🏋️🥾🎾 In Closing 🏔️⛷️🚴♂️🌵🚤🥋
We had a fun-packed year filled with many sports and social activities. We are both fortunate to be healthy and fit octogenarians – Stan is 85 and Barbara is 81.
We closed out the year with a festive dinner with entertainment on New Year's Eve at our Clubhouse at the Motorcoach Country Club in the desert.
We wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year in 2023!
👨👩👧👦⛰️🌊🏋️🥾🎾🐕🥋🚴♂️⛷️🚤🚣🏻♀️🚐🌵🏔️
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