San Diego Happenings

We've been busy here in San Diego since I last posted a week and a half ago. Here are some random shots of this beautiful city and some tidbits of what we've been up to...

Always lots of gorgeous birds on Mission Bay.

This clam digger had quite the entourage.

San Diego has some beautiful turn-of-the-century homes.

Sun bathing at the Balboa Park Lilly Pond.

As mentioned in my last post, Hans' band The Sand Devils played a gig at the Merrow on January 10th. After a 10 month hiatus while we traveled the West, the guys practiced a few times then put on a great show:

The Sand Devils!

My daughter and son in law, Chantal and James, are spending a week in San Diego. Though Chantal grew up in San Diego, she hadn't visited since 2006; and James has never been here so we've been having fun showing them around town.

I want to give a thumbs up for a restaurant in Ocean Beach: Wonderland. AMAZING views and excellent fish tacos!

Lunch at the excellent Wonderland in Ocean Beach.
From left: Lisa, James, Chantal, Hans, Lisa's parents: Phyllis and Ron.

Selfie at the beach!

The giant Dole banana boat with its huge onboard cranes docked in front of the Coronado bridge.

Gorgeous private sail boat docked in front of the convention center.

There are currently 82 breweries in San Diego and one of the largest and most well known is Stone Brewing. We took a tour of their brew facility in Escondido along with Chantal and James and my sister and niece, Rebecca and Crystal. Besides the brewing facilities, Stone has a beautiful bistro with garden at the Escondido site. Their Liberty Station venue is reported to be excellent as well.

Stone processes a LOT of beer through these tanks!

Miles and miles of pipes get the job done.

Enjoying tasters at the end of the tour.
Lisa, Rebecca, James, Chantal, Crystal, Hans, and our tour guide: Nichole.

It's been awesome hanging out with Chantal and James in San Diego; they return to Oregon tomorrow.

We've got just a few more days in San Diego before we make tracks for Arizona next week, but we've got a full agenda ahead of us with a few good-bye meals planned with friends and family and The Sand Devils have one more gig.

The Good Times Continue in Sunny San Diego

We are well into our second month in our former home town: San Diego, CA. The good times continue with family and friends so here's a little update on some of the things we've been doing in the past week.

We are now staying at Mission Bay RV Resort, a "parking lot" style RV park (resort is a misnomer) whose saving grace is its location on the edge of Mission Bay. Since this park has no resort amenities we were amused to see one RVer brought their own hot tub:

Portable hot tub!

One evening we got together with good friends Sunny and John and Sunny and I cooked up a storm in her gorgeous kitchen:

Lisa and Sunny enjoying the fruits of the vine and the big kitchen!

We got to know our toilet intimately when we replaced the seal kit:

Toilet repair!

Hans' step sister, Toni, and brother in law Dan were in town (from the arctic land of New Hampshire) and we spent an afternoon exploring Ocean Beach and Point Loma together:

Happy Hour with Toni and Dan at Jimmy's Famous American Tavern.

We enjoyed a wonderful family gathering for Hans' parents 30th wedding anniversary. Fritz and Turid hosted us for the night at Humphreys Half Moon Inn and a delicious dinner at the Bali Hai.

Celebrating Fritz and Turid's 30th Anniversary, their kids with spouses all together.

Sunrise on Shelter Island, view towards downtown San Diego.

Mother and son pose under a cool sculpture.

Tropical birds on the tropical grounds of Humphreys Half Moon Inn.

We've also gotten out for a few walks. Below is a postcard perfect shot on a Torrey Pines State Park trail.

We still have a couple more weeks in San Diego and they look to be packed with fun. Hans' band, The Sand Devils, has two gigs lined up: one on Friday, January 10th at The Merrow and another on January 18th at the Winter Surf Fest in Orange County. Also my daughter and son in law, Chantal and James, will spend next week in San Diego...YAY!

So Long 2013, Welcome 2014

Posting's been a little light around here lately...with San Diego being our former home town, our days are filled with social activities and quick visits to old favorite places.

We closed out 2013 with a late afternoon super low tide walk on one of our favorite San Diego beaches: Coronado. This was the closest beach to our former home so we'd hop over the Coronado Bridge often for a walk on the long, wide beach and stroll through neighborhoods full of lovely historic homes.

From the Coronado Bridge you get an excellent view of downtown San Diego.

From the Coronado Bridge looking towards Coronado with the long arm of Point Loma in the background.

Natures sand art.

The fabulous Hotel Del Coronado.

Marine layer flowing over the tip of Point Loma.

During our month in Santee Lakes we met up with Tim and Amanda (for the fourth time this year!), who in turn introduced us to Mike and Kelly, who happened to be staying at Santee Lakes too. We enjoyed our final meal in 2013 with Mike and Kelly at a new restaurant in our old neighborhood:  Buona Forchetta. 

Tasters at Thorn Street Brewery after a fun dinner with new RV friends Mike and Kelly.

2014 is already looking good with sunshine and blue skies and lots of adventure ahead of us. We look forward to sharing our travels with you and hope to see you somewhere down the road!

Thank you for reading the blog!

Tis the Season

Tis the season to take advantage of Rosie's cuteness...whether she likes it or not! Behold, our Christmas mascot:

Wishing all of our readers happy holidays from our cozy little home on wheels!

Hugs from Hans and Lisa and Rosie!

Campground Review: Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, San Diego, CA

This is our second month-long stay at Santee Lakes; here is my review from last year: 2012 Santee Lakes Campground Review.

This year we had site #267. This is an excellent site! We had only one neighbor and pretty parkland on the other sides. Though our side yard (right out our door) was rather narrow, there was a very nice sitting area behind our rig. Rosie loved all the quiet park space for her walks.

Verizon service is a perpetual problem at the north end of this park  and the south end is much better. To make or take a phone call we would go outside or put the phone in the Wilson Sleek 4GV booster and use the speakerphone. Fortunately the park upgraded their Tengo Internet service in the past year and it seemed good enough at the beginning of our stay that we decided to take a month long hiatus from our Millenicom internet plan (saving us $70). The parks wifi worked pretty well during most of the month, but it is important to note that they have a 500mb limit per 12 hour period and will seriously throttle your connection when you reach it. During a very slow period the office said they were working with Tengo Internet to fix an issue with AT&T. Obviously the park needs to upgrade their wifi even more, but it is improved and pretty decent service overall.

Despite the Verizon issues, we love this park. Nature abounds here and it feels like an escape from the big city. Excellent walking within the park along the seven lakes plus miles of trails right outside the park. It is important to note that Santee can be very warm in the summer months, in the winter the temps are perfect!

We intend to spend a month here every winter that we visit San Diego. This year we paid $720 plus electric for one month. Since stays of one month or more can be booked a year in advance, we've already booked a month for the same time next year.

View of site #267 from the back. We had one neighbor on our right and beautiful park space on the other sides.

It's Been a Great Month in Santee Lakes

Our first month in San Diego has flown by with lots of social activities with friends and family. We even got a tour of our old house (thanks Christina, for satisfying our curiosity); the new owners did a major remodel and it is beautiful!

Tomorrow we move to the beach for a month at Mission Bay RV Park. We really like breaking up our San Diego stay in two very different environments. Santee Lakes is a gorgeous park about 20 miles from the ocean, nestled into foothills, peaceful and serene. Mission Bay is a glorified parking lot just steps from Mission Bay, mere minutes from the ocean and a whole different vibe.

One of the best things about staying at Santee Lakes is the incredible amount of wildlife. Outside the park we've seen coyotes and deer and inside the park there is an abundance of birds. Waterfowl, raptors, sea birds, perching birds, hummingbirds...there is an amazing variety here. It's really pleasant to walk the length of the lakes (there are seven) for a bird watching workout. We say a fond goodbye and leave you with a few scenes from this lovely park.

A look at some of the water front RV sites across one of the lakes.

This red shouldered hawk blends with the autumn leaves on a gray day.

Lots of statuesque, and statue-like, Great Blue Herons.

There are at least two black crowned night herons here, but they are elusive.
Usually well hidden in the cattails, you might see them across a lake, or by peeking through the reeds.

Postcard perfect day at Santee Lakes.

That's one dangerous looking beak!

Rosie was entranced by the creek behind our RV (on the right).

Osprey with fish.

Adventures in San Diego: the Zoo and Downtown

Having lived in San Diego for 50 years, the San Diego Zoo had always been a part of my life. This zoo originated out of a need to house animals abandoned after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition and was a pioneer in the concept of open air, cage-less exhibits. During my lifetime I have seen the exhibits become more natural in look and feel, and the zoo administration has become actively involved in worldwide animal conservation efforts.

We scored free guest passes to the Zoo from Hans' parents (Thanks Turid and Fritz!). One afternoon we spent 3 hours walking about half of the zoo. It's laid out on a hilly 100 acres so if you visit be prepared for some fairly strenuous walking. Here's a few highlights of our visit:

There is a huge new koala exhibit with at least 40 koalas.
They are just ridiculously cute!

This young flamingo was adorable! He was following the keeper around and talking to her and he loved being snuggled!
Notice the little pink things on one of his knees; his legs were growing too fast and starting to bend the wrong way so pins and rubber bands will help him as his body catches up to his long legs. 

This guy seemed to be kicking back watching the parade of humans passing by.

Yeah, you're cute!

These two (siblings?) ran around tussling for several minutes.
They are some kind of wart hog that reminded us of Arizona javelinas.

Basking in the last bit of sun.

When we lived in North Park (a community just East of the San Diego Zoo) we often rode our bikes downtown on quiet Sunday mornings and enjoyed watching the city change over the years. One big downtown project that was decades in the making was the new Central Library, and construction was still in the early stages when we left San Diego in August 2012. It just opened in September so we wanted to check it out. Its striking architectural details are an exciting addition to the San Diego skyline.

The San Diego Trolley system has been around since the early 1980's but Hans and I had only taken it once or twice many years ago so we decided to take the trolley downtown. We parked at the El Cajon Transit Center which allowed us to take the Orange Line to downtown and the Green Line back at the end of the day.

We had lunch at Sushi Deli, located in the old Spreckels Theater building.

Fun decor, average food.

We stopped in at Western Hat Works, an awesome shop owned by our friends Martin and Estella. If you need a hat, stop by, they have an enormous selection of every style imaginable.

Western Hat Works on E Street, downtown San Diego.

Estella along with a small sampling of their inventory.

The new San Diego Central Library.

Great views inside the dome.

Petco Park on the left, Library dome in the center, Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge at right.

Sculptures under a moody sky along the harbor.

At the end of the day I remembered to take a picture of the trolley.

This was a fun day and a great way to visit downtown without the traffic and parking headaches, especially with our big truck. The trolley costs $2.50 one way.

A gorgeous end to the day!