LOOK MA – WE MADE IT TO SAN DIEGO

 

January – February, 2019

Wintering in Southern California should be a warm and inviting experience.  Wintering in San Diego should at least be all that is expected of SoCal.  It’s 15 miles from the Mexican border (more on that later).  It’s 128 miles to Hollywood.  It’s 163 miles to Joshua Tree National Park and the Salton Sea and Slab City (more on that later).  It’s the secondary base for the United States Pacific Fleet.  It is home to one of the world’s finest zoos and safari parks.  It claims to have the greatest fish tacos in the U.S.  And it’s Graham’s and Leigh’s present home.  Wintering in SoCal should be 70 degrees fahrenheit, shorts and t-shirts.

Wintering in San Diego should not be in the 50s during the day and the high 30s – low 40s overnight, with 1 day of rain (driving downpour!) for every 2 days of sunshine.  But this is 2019, and what should not be, well, is. 

Being troopers though we made the best of the worst and had a grand time, even getting caught in the rain a time or 2 along the way.  We had great adventures with Graham and Leigh, and we babysat their cats while they were in Chile on vacation.  We had a swell visit with Barbara’s sister, The Meg, who happens to live in the shadow of the great old time movie and TV studios in Culver City (more on that later).  Barbara reconnected with Kithie, a friend from the 70s, and they spent a wonderful couple of hours reminiscing and catching-up.  Kelley and Tom, friends from PA and crazy Michigan fans, were in town for business and we got to stay connected with a tour of the USS Midway (more on that later) and a fantastic dinner in the Gaslamp District.

Coming into San Diego was an interesting trip.  We left Quartzsite and did a little zig zag generally in a southwest direction across the flat of southeastern California, crossed through the unexpected and impressive Imperial Sand Dunes (more on that later), and eventually ended up westbound on US Highway 8.  Brian figured that it would be a gradual downhill ride into San Diego (elevation 11 – no kidding!), but he didn’t realize that the San Jacinto Mountain Range had to be crossed first!  The San Jacintos rise from  foothills a few hundred feet above sea level to two peaks, some distance apart, of over 4000 feet, before a 6 degree downhill slope into the city.  What’s another quarter tank of gas?

We’ve both been here before.  Brian’s Aunt Paula and her husband lived here post WWII, and a visit or 2 took place along the way.  Brian had been to San Diego for a mid-winter meeting and then the annual conference for a social service trade association of which he had been elected to the Board.  Representing her employer Barbara had attended a conference in the last couple of years.  And Brian and Graham had been to the City on their west coast baseball tour a bunch of years ago.  The typical touristy places had been done.

We loved the Pacific Ocean.  Shorelines were beautiful and busy everyday with walkers, runners, skateboarders, bicyclists, and tourists.   The first “what should we do” was lunch with Graham, and THEN a walk along Sunset Cliffs at Point Loma.

With Graham and Leigh we hiked along the bluffs “bayside” as well as “oceanside” at the Cabrillo Monument, saw the battlements set-up to protect the City during WWII and, oh yeah, watched a nuclear submarine come into port.

 

We rode our bikes on the Mission Bay boardwalk, and along the silver strand on Coronado Island.

We hiked along the La Jolla seaside sidewalks from the Children’s Pool to the Cove and sojourned with seal lions and harbor seals (more on that later).

…and checked out the beauty of tide pools…

 

We spent a glorious day walking along the rocky shore in Torrey Pines State Preserve.

 

We were treated to a wonderful dinner looking across the bay at the brightly illuminated City.

 

But it’s all about the Pacific Ocean, and Barbara was mesmerized  by it’s power, vastness and the unrelenting crash of the waves against the shore.

The Pacific Ocean is simply the bomb!  Add our time with Kithie, The Meg, Tom and Kelly, and most of all Graham and Leigh and this was a great place to spend a month this winter.

Barbara and Brian