My heartfelt thanks to our readers regarding my last
post on my mothers passing. Your kind words and knowing we are not alone in this experience help ease the challenges we face as we move forward without her in our lives.
We're staying in San Diego until mid July, partly helping my dad with this transitional phase and also to house sit for some family members during an upcoming vacation.
One of our tasks is to make my dad's yard more low maintenance. The biggest project was to clear and level the former grass/dirt area in the center of the back yard and install Decomposed Granite. This new surface should prevent weeds for many years and will be a nice place to display some of the antiques my parents acquired during many years of travel.
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| Freshly laid decomposed granite...the job was easier than we expected! |
We managed to do some hiking in our local mountains before a heatwave enveloped the entire South West. Martin, Estella and pup Chelsea joined us on a long loop in the Laguna Mountains where we were surprised to still find lots of wildflowers blooming.
It can be difficult to find good online maps of the trails in the Laguna Mountains. The late, great Jerry Schad's
Afoot and Afield in San Diego County is the go to resource for all hiking around these parts.
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| Estella, Chelsea and Hans enjoy expansive views early in our hike seen from the Noble Canyon Trail. |
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| More fabulous views from the Pine Mountain trail. |
On warmer days we've headed to Coronado for walks along the beach.
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| Bayview Park is a cute little pocket park on the east side of Coronado that offers up wonderful views of downtown San Diego, a perfect spot for lunch! |
We also enjoyed several good surf bands at the
Surfin' Sundays Concert series at the Huntington Beach Pier.
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| Now that's a perfect venue for surf music! |
There was more hiking in the local mountains, this time in
Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. This is another San Diego County hiking area whose trails are poorly represented online. Again,
Afoot and Afield in San Diego County is your best bet for trail info and maps.
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| Lots of flowers in mid June. |
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| These two white horses got away from their rider (the second is a pack horse), and this woman called out to us to grab the reins of the horse in front...our good deed for the day! |
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| Crossing a big meadow on the Dyar Spring trail. |
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| Big views on the Juaquapin trail. |
When the latest heatwave hit the best place to be was the beach, so back we went to Coronado which has always been one of our favorite beaches for strolling and it's a relatively short drive from our current home base at Sweetwater Summit Regional Park.
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| On a steamy hot Monday in June the beach is full of colorful umbrellas, happy folks playing in the 65 degree water with the Hotel del Coronado as a lovely background. |
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| 65 degree water was too cold for us to swim in, but it was perfect for a long walk! |
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| After we walk the beach we take the neighborhood streets back to our truck, admiring the beautiful historical homes and lovely gardens all along the way. Check out this very cool VW trailer... |
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| Sweeeeet! |
And finally a spectacular sunset over our cozy home on wheels at Sweetwater Summit.
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| Sunset from our site at Sweetwater Summit Regional Park. |
