San Diego final - signing off for a bit

Our last sunset on the Silver Strand before we head back to Vegas. How could we pass up on the last opportunity for a campfire as well! We couldn’t. The ocean, the sunset, the crackling of the logs on the fire, it was a night made in heaven.

For her birthday, Karen gave the Woman some special packets that when you put them in a campfire, they cause the flames to turn electric colors – lots of bright yellows, blues, greens and purples. We got all the colors of the rainbow in our last fire.

We have to sign off for a bit, until 2019 when we plan to head toward Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. However, we can’t sign off without finding one more new bird to identify. We spotted this lone Western Grebe defending his space on the Silver Strand State Beach, fending off seagulls twice his size!

Talk to you soon – in 2019!

San Diego VII

Well we are bringing our summer travels to a close and heading back to Vegas. However, before we headed out, we needed to try to identify a couple of birds we’ve been seeing. While snooping around in the Tijuana River Preserve near the Mexican border south of Imperial Beach, we spotted these pretty yellow-bellied birds all over the place. Based on a distant blurred siting and a good description of its habitat and behaviors, we are pretty certain that we spotted Orange-Crowned Warblers, another first for us!

We also have seen these before, but just assumed they were some kind of Snipe or Dowitcher, which we have seen in Alaska and along the West Coast. However, based again on a combination of the visual siting along with a detailed description of the kind of habitat it likes, and how it feeds, particularly by the water, we are pretty sure this is a Least Sandpiper, another first identification for us.

Talk to you soon!

San Diego VI

We set out on an adventure to see how folk live and survive in California. We hopped the Coaster, the commuter railroad that brings folk from the coastal cities where they can more afford to live to San Diego where they need to go to get meaningful employment. Just for giggles we headed for Solana Beach, only because we hadn’t been there before.

It was fun to be on a train again, even if only a commuter. We sat in the vista dome car and watched as the coastal views whisked by. We steamed by the horse racing track at Del Mar that Nick and I visited a decade or so ago. It was just a quick out and back, with a nice lunch in the Naked Café beachside at Fletcher Cove.

We strolled a bit in downtown San Diego before and after the Coaster ride. We had forgotten just how many glass curtain wall buildings there are in central San Diego. Everywhere we looked we not only saw sky scrapers, we saw the reflections of other sky scrapers blazoning the sides of each building.

Colectiva is parked between a public marina and a commercial marina. The commercial marina has impressive equipment, and seem to be in the process of removing huge ships used in the summer for dinner cruises, bay cruises or whale watching. We watch daily as the ships being plucked from the water get bigger and bigger. 

We are blessed to get several dog walks along the shore each day. Marina Park is a hopping place and is always crowded with people, enjoying the expanses along the bay. Only in California would you find this. Separate facilities for those with multiple personalities. They are free to belly up here and have a rousing game of chess with themselves!

Talk to you soon!

San Diego V

We’ve been really pleased with all the water birds we stumble on daily. We have been seeing many of the birds we were used to seeing on the Texas gulf coast. We have seen Snowy Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, Curlews, Snowy Plovers and Sandpipers. We may have spotted a few more, but they were far away and we couldn’t be certain. The Woman spotted her favorite bird nearly daily for the last week on the shores of Mission Bay – a beautiful Little Blue Heron.

So, it’s not just the traffic that is horrendous in California. The crowds, the lack of parking, the general congestion, the crowded restaurants – everything is just so busy that it really dampens the nice parts – the water, the weather, the wildlife, the restaurants and the views. However, what might be the worst of all is trying to get diesel fuel in California, especially in the urban areas. You can find diesel fuel pumps, you just can’t find any that will accommodate a 40-foot motorhome towing a car!

This Curlew was outside our motorhome on Silver Strand State Beach pretty much every morning when we went on our beach patrol. Teresa and the Woman would grab a trash bag and pick up general beach trash, which was everywhere. Since I didn’t have any antibacterial gloves, I just checked out the Curlew and the hundreds of Snowy Plovers.

Talk to you soon!

San Diego IV

We decided to visit the Tijuana River Preserve, which hugs the US/Mexico border just south of San Diego. We grabbled some caches, and also took in the unique terrain of the Preserve. Of course, being on the border, there is a zone of no-mans-land on the US side, but dense buildings and residential areas running all the way to the border line on the Mexican side – a bit surreal.

On one of the weekends we headed up into the Laguna Mountains to do some hiking with Nick and Valerie. We also planned a visit to the mining town of Julian so that the Woman, Nick and Valerie could get some apple pie with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. It’s a delicacy that Julian is known for, and can be found at pretty much any dining establishment in town. We were surprised by the fall colors that were blanketed all over the Mountain – a pleasant, unexpected reward.

And the Woman was in ecstasy! The Pacific Crest Trail wanders through the Laguna Mountain Park, and many years ago we had hiked a part of it. Along a portion of the PCT we discovered a spontaneous memorial. Some biker’s loved ones brought his ashes to this overlook that was his favorite place to bike to. Other bikers’ loved ones started creating memorials to their families as well. Now there may easily be more than 100 plaques, urns, pictures and other types of memorials for all kinds of bikers.

But we managed to find a stretch of the PCT that the Woman had not been on before. Nick and Valerie were more than willing to hike into the hills, experience a piece of the PCT, and take in the glorious fall colors. All in all, it was a wonderful day with the family!

Talk to you soon!

San Diego III

Nick and Valerie invited us over for dinner and a pumpkin carving party in anticipation of Halloween. It was a BYOP (bring your own pumpkin) event, so we headed to Ralphs and got a spectacular specimen. After enjoying Valerie’s special eggplant, mozzarella and marinara dish, we carved furiously. I think we all did pretty good!

While roaming around Nick and Valerie’s neighborhood we stumbled on the iconic Ann’s Dry Cleaning. Apparently, Ann’s had been a staple in the neighborhood for decades before Ann passed on and the business closed. The new tenant apparently missed Marketing 101 in college, as they decided to keep the identical look and name. The only difference is, as shown on the sign to the left of the door, is that it is now a gelato shop. However, what do I know – they seem to be doing a bang-up business!

Nick and Valerie gave the Woman a very special birthday present – a reservation for a jeep wine tasting tour in Temecula. We strapped into the back of an open-air Wrangler and headed out to visit some of the over 40 mostly family wineries in the Temecula valley. Because of the tour organization we were able to do our tastings while sitting on the patio overlooking the winery. Coupled with a nice lunch, and some drives through and among the actual grape vines, it made the Woman’s birthday experience complete

We have moved to the other side of the bay now, at the Chula Vista RV Resort. But the sun down displays just keep on rolling. Instead of watching the sunset from the Silver Strand, we are now looking across the Strand to watch the sun setting on the Strand itself. However, they are every bit as special and never disappoint. 

Talk to you soon!

San Diego II

We couldn’t help but spend some time in our favorite place of all – Silver Strand State Beach outside of Coronado Island. Lucky for us our BFF’s, Teresa Bell and Ron Ezra, joined us for a couple weeks. We biked a lot, and found several geocaches, ones we hadn’t found in previous visits. There weren’t many that we hadn’t already found, but we got a handful.

While making our way to the Vikings/Rams game on the USC campus, we managed to stumble on the very first Fat Burger shack opened in 1952. While I know it is an iconic part of Americana, I guess I don’t see the need to preserve this. However, the City has determined that it is historical and cannot be removed. A developer is working to incorporate the structure into a housing project!

One would think that we would have explored all there is to explore on Coronado Island, but one would be wrong. Bellezra learned that the home where Frank L. Baum wrote the iconic Wizard of Oz is located in the sleepy residential area of Coronado. Although it is a private residence and not open to visit, we still made our way there, and enjoyed the owners’ efforts to decorate it up a bit.

Ron spotted a Naval vessel in the bay and with his binoculars was able to get the name. He identified it as the USS Bainbridge, which just happened to be one of the Naval destroyers that thwarted the Somali pirates attempt to hijack the ship of Captain Phillips in 2009.

Talk to you soon!

San Diego I

We headed to San Diego so that the Woman could share her birthday with her son Nick, who happens to have the same birthday as her. BFFs Ron and Teresa joined us for a fine evening at Il Fornaio on Coronado Island, with a beautiful view across the bay to downtown San Diego. The view was a bit short-lived as the heavens opened up and it poured, something unusual here but fun nonetheless.

Nick of course said the best part of the night was the presents, of which there were many. However, the big surprise was as we tried to leave the restaurant. There was only one driveway out of the parking lot, and there were stalled cars in the only street we could leave through due to the several feet of moving water. Fortunately, a heavy foot on the accelerator as we hit the deep water managed to power us through!

As always, the sunsets in San Diego are gorgeous. We didn’t see a green flash yet, but we are truly enjoying having a top 10 sunset nearly every night.

Talk to you soon!

Huntington Beach

We made our way to Huntington Beach to position ourselves to attend the Rams/Vikings game in the LA Coliseum. Of course, anywhere in LA is at least 1-2 hours away, even if it is only 20 miles. But we were able to meet Nick and Valerie at an Air BnB that they found just 5 miles from the stadium. We were also able to hook up again with brother Kevin and nephew Will who also had decided to scalp some tickets for the game. Although the Vikes couldn’t quite pull it off, we had a great time.

Before the game we grabbed some of the world’s best fried chicken at Gus’s. We had eaten at Gus’s in Memphis many years ago with Nick and Valerie. Nick had heard rave reviews and wanted to check it out. Later that year the Woman and I hit up Gus’s in Little Rock, and enjoyed it once more. Well, this year, Gus’s decided to open a location in LA that wasn’t too far from the LA Coliseum, so how could we resist!

We biked and walked the beaches and piers in the area. Every now and then we had some déjà vu, feeling like we were back in the Gulf Coast of Texas. This Snowy Egret graced us with a visit on one of our pier walks.

Nick and Valerie took us to Venice Beach where we strolled back and forth along the world-famous boardwalk. There is so much eye candy here. Everywhere you look there is either a live musician, some bawdy tee shirts or panties, and all kinds of interesting folk. My favorite was Muscle Beach.

We got introduced to the latest craze in California, although maybe it has already reached out from here. With all the ride sharing aps, companies have now put out electric scooters on random street corners. You open the ap, scan the bar code on the scooter, and the scooter is unlocked. For 15 cents a minute you can use it for as long as you want, just leave it when you are done and lock it again. The Woman loved it!

And the pooch loved the off-leash dog beaches. Back when Niko was around, he wouldn’t even consider getting wet when we walked the beach. While Kona is far from a swimmer, he has no fear of wading in. However, there might be just a bit of a worried look when the water gets this high.

Talk to you soon!

Brother Kevin

While on the road we learned that Robin’s brother Kevin had settled down in a home in Solvang California, a little north of Santa Barbara. He and his bride Teri had a long enough driveway for us to park Colectiva, which allowed Kona to play daily with Midas and Ivy, two gorgeous Golden Retrievers.

Kevin and Teri showed us around the Santa Barbara area. We climbed the tower in the County Courthouse. We visited El Presidio de Santa Barbara, the oldest surviving structures in the area. These buildings are so old that Padre Junipero Serra himself presided over their dedication on April 21, 1782. Padre Serra founded the majority of the Spanish missions in what would become California.

We took in dinner at historic Cold Spring Tavern. Back in 1868 industrious entrepreneurs established a stage coach line through Marcos Pass to bring eager travelers to the Santa Barbara coast. Cold Spring Tavern was built that year as a stage stop near the highest point on the pass, to wine and dine the customers. Most of the buildings still remain, and the ambience is totally post-Civil War.

In Nome we learned that the town is believed to have been founded by the 3 lucky Swedes (even though none of them were Swedish, 2 of them were American and one was a Norwegian.) Well it turns out that Solvang was founded by the 3 lucky Danes. They didn’t actually carry the “lucky” moniker, but at least in this case, they were all actually Danish.

We ended up getting to connect with all our nephews, Will and Jake, and our niece Hannah (at least using face time to chat with her at school in New York.)

Talk to you soon!

Yosemite 2018

We had been in Yosemite National Park maybe 30 years ago or more. So, since we were reasonably close, we decided it was time to revisit.

We all learned that Yellowstone National Park is the first US National Park established. But we learned that Yosemite was actually the first attempt at a National Park. Without the federal mechanism to make it happen, on June 30 1864, Abraham Lincoln gave the federally owned Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Big Tree Grove to the State of California “upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort and recreation.” It wasn’t until 1872 that the federal laws were in place to allow for a National Park to be established.

We headed to the Mariposa Big Tree Grove, that we don’t believe we have visited before. The Grove is a spectacular arrangement of giant Sequoias, which we didn’t expect here inside Yosemite. The naturalist John Muir was a particular fan of this part of Yosemite.

We stumbled on Lee Stetson, who has done an hour conversation with John Muir at the visitor center for the last 35 years. Tonight was a conversation around his love of the Hetch Hetchy Valley, which in 1913 as a result of the Raker Act, the US Congress and President Woodrow Wilson granted the city of San Francisco the power to turn the valley into a “water tank” in the words of Muir. We visited the O’Shaughnessy Dam and gazed out at what was left of the Hetch Hetchy Valley above the 400 or so feet of water, and shared our sentiments with President Wilson and the 1913 Congress.

Luck would have it that the Pacific Crest Trail actually passes through Yosemite near the Eastern entrance. We headed there and knocked off another 5 or so miles, which again was also following the John Muir Trail through the Park. No bears, no foxes, but a really nice stroll along the PCT that made the Woman smile.

The scenery was awesome in the Yosemite Valley, gazing at El Capitan, and Half Dome. We managed to take in all of the Valley including the Glamping they offered in the shadow of Half Dome. Tents with hard wood floors and all the amenities you need, all within the boundaries of the National Park.

BTW, this is what a pine cone fr

om a giant Sequoia looks like.

Talk to you soon!

The road to Yosemite

On the way to Yosemite we stopped in Lone Pine on the advice of our son, Nick. He recommended the Lone Pine Film Museum, which documents and displays memorabilia from the hundreds of films that were made in the nearby Alabama Hills. Hollywood long believed this area to be an iconic image of the wild west, and given its physical proximity, it was easy to film here.

In addition to early westerns staring John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Randolph Scott, Gene Autry, Gary Cooper and a host of others, we found here the actual dentist wagon prop from Django Unchained starring Jamie Foxx. We also found the wall that the director Quentin Tarantino and the cast signed when they visited the exhibit.

Near Lone Pine is the Manzanar National Historic Site. In 1942, nearly 110,000 men, women and children were forced to leave their homes and be detained in this military style camp. The vast majority of the detainees were US citizens.

This visitor center actually occupies what was the gymnasium built in the early 1940’s to serve the detainees in the camp, and is the only building that remains from that time. Some barracks have been recreated to show what life was like in Manzanar for these citizens whose rights were ignored.

While no buildings other than the visitor center exist, the eerie remains of what the detainees built to add a bit of “home” to their prison brings a lump to your throat. The residents built koi ponds and Japanese gardens to take away some of the sting of their situation. While the koi are long dead, as are the plants that graced these areas, you can still clearly see the detail that was put into these spaces.

Another National Historic Site falls off the list.

Talk to you soon!

Back to Mammoth

Having successfully mended Colectiva, we headed back to Mammoth. This time, however, we did it via Bakersfield and the 395 – more miles, but less white knuckles. We headed up to where the Pacific Crest Trail runs nearby Mammoth, and the Woman was in ecstasy! Through much of this area of California the John Muir Trail merges with the PCT, and so we managed to knock off about 5 miles of both the PCT and the JMT!

We got to check another lifer off the list. Just past Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort is Devil’s Postpile National Monument. We had actually seen this phenomenon when we were driving the Rink of Kerry in Ireland two years ago.  At the Giant’s Causeway we learned how volcanic basalt cooling in calderas tends to form an octagonal column. The result is stunning.

While the formations we saw in Ireland were far more expansive, they looked almost identical in shape and form to what we found at Devil’s Postpile. We couldn’t help but feel like we were back in Ireland, at least for a moment.

Now, on to Yosemite – yippeeeeee!

Talk to you soon!