OUR OWN LITTLE HAPPY CAMP

In the interest of Mary’s privacy, I cropped her address off this picture, but the real evite included it.

As Mary had volunteered to throw the party at her beautiful and spacious home, I took charge of designing and sending out the evites. Together with Tracy, Cathy Nealon, and Mary, we put together a list of over 60 people that we wanted to invite. I was delighted by how much contact info I was able to gather from these ladies as well as a couple of other people. I gathered the information and sent out the evites in early August. I knew I would have to be on top of reminders, but we wanted to give everyone time to plan. The RSVPs started coming back quickly and everyone was excited about seeing each other.

There were people who never responded, and I don’t know if we had the right contact info for them, there were people who couldn’t make it due to previous engagements, and there were a few who said they were coming and didn’t make it, but we ended up with a great group of about 40 people. 

October 1, 2023

 As the day of the party arrived, I tried on 4 or 5 outfits and had Vladi take pictures of me so that I could see which outfit photographed best. I knew there were going to be many pictures taken! For some reason, standing in front of a mirror (even a full length one) doesn’t have the same effect as having a photo. I made my choice and got ready.

Vladi thought he was going to get out of going with me but I made it clear that all the girls were bringing their husbands and no way was I going without him. He was just going to have to miss watching his soccer matches that day!

 

Tracy’s party was SO much fun. It was so good to see so many of the people that I used to work with.  I had not seen many of them in the seven years since I’ve been retired.

 Mary and I were both excited to greet our guests and show them through to the beautiful backyard. Here we are with Tracy (Bower) Whitaker and Mary’s sister Nancy Davenport.                          

I wanted to get a lot of pictures of this event, so I put Vladi on photo detail and as I saw a couple of other people taking pictures, I asked if we could all share whatever we got. I was very happy with the many pictures taken, but it was only after I picked out the best ones to use for this blog that I realized that I didn’t have any pictures of Tracy with her wonderful husband John. And I didn’t get any pictures of me with Vladi! Oh, well! That was an egregious oversight. Please forgive me.

I gave our woman of honor, Tracy C. (the legend), a big hug when she arrived.

She looked so cute with her curls coming back in.

Here is Stacy McNamara and Lisa White, who arrived together. I would say that neither one of them has changed at all since I last saw them. They both looked great.

Across the room from them was the  gift and cake table

This was me greeting Carly and Chris Martinez as they arrived. I had promised we would reserve a parking spot for them close to the house. Carly did great being able to walk in on her own with the help of her cane. She was very happy to be able to come to the party and everyone was excited to see her and give her some love, as she has been battling cancer for a long time.

We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. The temperature was perfect and look at that sky!

Next are pictures of various groups talking and enjoying the atmosphere:

Two of my favorite people, Tracy Whitaker and Tracy Cross along with the back of my head on the left and the back of Stephanie’s head on the right.

Here are Cathy and Ryan Nealon talking to Kim Yeomans. Kim is as gorgeous as ever. And of course, Cathy and Ryan are dear to me. (Christina Joy Fortnoy and her husband, Grant, are in the background.

Here I am with Cathy and Ryan

Tracy with Stephanie Mendel and Jenn Hayes.

Here are Dan Dempsey and Jon Thorpe deep in conversation.

This is Abel, of Guiterrez Catering, who did a fantastic job with the food. He was also great at taking group pictures for us. Very nice guy!

And his food was a big hit.

Here are Mary and Dan Sheridan, my wonderful co-hosts. It was a real pleasure to put this party together with Mary.

Next, I have a selection of pictures of some of the other great married couples who joined us:

The newlyweds Tracy & Robb Whitaker.

Dan and Beth Dempsey looking marvelous.          

Mark & Matty Sackenreuter with their beautiful smiles.   

Monica & Adam Deutscher in fine style  

And Eric & Stephanie Mendel looking great!

This is Debbie and Doug Valentine. Tracy asked us to invite a couple of her lifelong friends that didn’t work at the store. Debbie is one of those friends.

    And the other was this beautiful lady, Cathy Berning. She was the first person to RSVP and enthusiastically offered her help all along the way. She was very appreciative of our efforts to celebrate her best friend.

Here are Vladi Zaretsky and John Cross. Two great husbands that weren’t photographed with their busy wives.

I’m not sure how I achieved the effect eliminating the background in this picture, but I like how it turned out. Mary, Joseph Mahetsky and I were standing in her kitchen. 

Now for an explanation of the group pictures. I wanted to make sure we got pictures of everyone who came to the party. I hope that in one way or another, everyone that was there is represented. When I was pretty sure that everyone who was going to come was there, I gathered everyone into the spot I thought best for the group picture.

       Our chef, Abel, was ready and willing to take the shot. I am going to show two different shots we settled on because when I checked the first one we did, I realized that some of the people in the back were in the shadow of the umbrella. Also, there is at least one person that came after we took the first shot, who appears in the second one. I will do my best to explain who is who.   Photo # 1 (see enlargements underneath)

Here is an enlargement of the left half of the first picture. The front three people from the left are Dan Sheridan, Chris Martinez, and Cathy Berning.

The three behind them are Beth Dempsey, Stephanie Mendel, and Ryan Nealon.

The four behind them are Dan Dempsey, Monica Deutscher, Stacy Macnamara, and Lisa White.

And the back row is Jon Thorpe, Mark Sackenreuter, Eric Mendel (half his face), Adam Deutscher, Joseph Mahetsky, and Mary Sheridan.

And here is an enlargement of the right half of the first picture.

The six in the front row from the left are: Carly Martinez, Tracy (the Legend) Cross, me (Rita Zaretsky), Matty Sackenreuter, Vladi Zaretsky and John Cross (behind the palm frond.)

The six behind them are Cathy Nealon, Kim Yeomans, Nancy Davenport, Steve Davenport, Doug and Debbie Valentine.

The six in the back row are Bill and Sue Holifield, (and in the shadow of the umbrella) Grant Fortnoy, Christina Fortnoy, Tracy and Robb Whitaker. 

After some reconfiguration, we got this second shot.

Here is an enlargement of the left half of the second shot.

The front two people are Chris Martinez and Cathy Berning.

The five behind them are Yolanda Rodriguez (just arrived), Dan and Beth Dempsey, Stephanie Mendel, and Ryan Nealon.

In the back are Mark Sackenreuter, Jon Thorpe (behind Dan), Eric Mendel (whole face), Monica and Adam Deutscher, Stacy Macnamara, Lisa White (in the hat), and Sue and Bill Holifield

Behind Lisa’s hat are Joseph Mahetsky and Mary Sheridan.

And this is an enlargement of the right half of the second shot.

The front three people are Carly Martinez, Tracy Cross, and me (Rita Zaretsky)

The five in the next row are Cathy Nealon, Kim Yeomans, Matty Sackenreuter, Vladi Zaretsky and John Cross (still behind the palm frond)

In the upper left corner are Christina and Grant Fortnoy and Tracy and Robb Whitaker

Behind Matty is Steve Davenport’s back and Nancy Davenport facing the camera. Doug and Debbie Valentine are behind Vladi and John.

I think the only person who came but did not make it into the group photos was Tracy’s daughter, Tammy.  She came when she got off work and Tracy was really happy she made it.

We took a few final pictures as the party was wrapping up that I wanted to include because I thought they came out really well. 

This one of Tracy and Jon Thorpe is precious. And I have to give Jon credit for the title. He was the one who said "It was like our own little happy camp! Love the thought.

Cathy N., me, Tracy and Mary

Jon, me, Cathy B. and Tracy

In conclusion, I hope I've given you a sense of how much fun we had and how much love and laughter we shared. The party was a blast and I hope that we have something to celebrate in the near future that will bring us all together again, and so that the people who couldn’t make it to this, will get to join us next time!  

Congratulations to our beautiful, wonderful friend, Tracy Cross. Enjoy every minute of your retirement!      

 The End

Our Father's Day Adventure 2023

 

 

Vladi and I had a lovely Father's Day on Sunday. We started out with breakfast at Pickles Deli and then we went home to pick up Roscoe so that we could take him with us for a drive. I had asked Vladi earlier in the week to think of something that sounded enjoyable to him and when it came down to it, he decided on a drive down PCH. We have often driven North on PCH, so we decided to take the other direction and go as far as we felt like going. Then we would turn around and head back up to Ventura Harbor for an early dinner. I told Vladi that I wanted to take some pictures throughout our day, but I didn’t really get started until we reached our southernmost point. We had a nice, relaxed drive and I started telling Vladi that I had been thinking a lot about fathers for several days and that I wanted to write about what I had been thinking. That morning, I had been perusing Facebook and saw all the tributes, memories and praises people had been posting to their wonderful fathers. I wanted to say something about my dad and the dad of my 2 children, as well as something about Vladi but I hadn't completed my thoughts yet. I started to tell him some of the things I had been thinking and he suggested that I start writing them on my phone right then so I wouldn't lose my thoughts. It took me a couple of days to be able to get started on writing what I wanted to say—but that’s the subject of another page. I want to get back to our Father’s Day drive…

       We had a great conversation as we drove south. I encouraged Vladi to tell me about his experience as a dad and his experience with his own father. 

       The drive also brought up a lot of memories for me because it’s been a long time since I’ve driven past some of the places along PCH. There were the full-size jet models at the entrance to Mugu Naval Air Base. And the giant Mugu Rock that sits just offshore when you get to the coast. I remembered camping at Sycamore Canyon with the Frosts and a hike that Christy and I did with the girl scouts there. We passed Leo Carrillo Beach where I probably had some of my very earliest camping experiences with Helen and Steve (neighbors from my childhood). As we passed the long stretch of Zuma beach, I was trying to find the numbers on the lifeguard stands. I finally saw one, but the numbers seem to have faded on a lot of them. I remember trips to Zuma when the plan would be to “meet at lifeguard station 11 or 15” or whatever number we designated. We passed Moonshadows restaurant where I’ve had at least one romantic dinner. And then we passed Decker Canyon where my first husband Doug used to love to ride his motorcycle. As we passed all these places, I kept thinking about taking pictures, but I decided to wait until we were on our way back.

       We pulled into one little plaza so that we could stretch our legs and let Roscoe relieve himself. We wanted to see if we could walk to the beach from there so that we could avoid paying the pricy parking fee at the lots along the beach but there was no passage through so we continued on our way.

       We kept hoping that the sun would come out and brighten the day a little, but it stayed pretty gray for the whole time. When we reached Will Rogers State Beach, we pulled in and paid the $15 fee, so that we could get out of the car and get some pictures.

I did a pretty terrible job with my selfie attempts. I was trying to get a shot of the waves crashing on the rocks behind us but I was not successful.

Vladi took some at the same spot that came out much better. I liked this one the best.

        

Then we moved over to where the sign was and got a picture of that.

As we came out of the parking lot, I took a picture to show exactly where we were as we headed back north.

                                     

It was a lot harder to get the pictures I had hoped to catch on the way back. The only ones that came out decently were those of Mugu Rock. I started out shooting it from a distance.

                       

                       Then, got a little closer.

                       

      And finally, this one when we were right up to it.                                                                                                      

The only other shot I got was this one of one of the jets at the Naval Base. Well, you can ALMOST see it…   I tried.

                 

From there, we headed to Ventura Harbor to have an early dinner. We stopped at The Boatyard Pub, which had outdoor tables. Vladi ordered a cup of clam chowder and Roscoe helped him finish it.

When we got the rest of our food, Roscoe rested his chin on the table with great hopes of getting to help some more. Several people that passed by were laughing at his look of longing.

                                

   He eventually gave up and laid down at our feet.

All the while when we were eating, there was a crowd of people at a place next door, waiting to be called for their ice cream orders. We saw people walking by with all different colors of ice cream and different configurations of cups and cones. There was a particular one that intrigued me and after dinner, I was curious enough to go find out what it was. They were called fishzookies.

Three of Vladi’s favorite foods are: 1. soup, 2. fish & chips and, 3. ice cream. So, we had to top off our Father’s Day celebration by ordering these intriguing treats.

Because…                     

And they were DELICIOUS!!!