Tijuana River Estuary National Park, March 30 - AMAZING DAY!

  Today we spent the bulk of our day at the Tijuana River Estuary National Park which we visited 4 years ago. We got a little turned around getting there, but managed to find it eventually.
   We saw at least two "life birds" which means a bird you have never seen before. The first and rarest is the light-footed clapper rail, an elusive and shy bird and also endangered. The ranger told us which walk to take and, sure enough, we spotted one or two. We did not manage to get a photo because the one we were watching kept disappearing into the long grass. But, we each bought t-shirts with the rail on the back.
    We walked about 3 1/2 miles total, strolling and sitting and watching.

    The second life bird was the Marbled Godwit, another bird with a long bill which has two colors, a nice identifying marker. Again, we could not get a good photo, but got good looks at several.
     Another cool bird for us was the western meadowlark which we saw on the military airfield. We saw the meadowlarks with some killdeer, birds we get on Nantucket that we really love.
     [Note: As we were next to the southern-most base to the Mexican border, the noise of continually-flying helicopters was pretty intense. It seems like a colossal waste of fuel, not to mention all the pollution, to constantly be in the air. Why not some high-tech cameras and sensors?] Fortunately, the wild life did not seem to mind.
     We saw: amazing curlews (such long bills), lots of willets, several whimbrels, ruddy ducks, blue-winged teal, greater scaup, red-wing blackbirds, cormorants, great and snowy egrets, brown pelicans and amazingly huge white pelicans. We also saw a hummingbird and a hawk that we could not identify, as well as sparrows and terns and I am sure others that we don't know.

Unidentified bird of prey in flight....harrier?

Unidentified hummingbird. It had red florescence that cannot be seen

Whimbrel

Willet

Whimbrel

    We also saw a wonderful jack rabbit with long ears amongst the cactus. Cactus in a wetlands?!

    We ate a late lunch at Imperial Beach at a taco place by the side of the road and had delicious fish tacos.
     Then, we found a Costco and filled up our almost-dry fuel tank. (Gas is expensive in California. It was $2.59 a gallon at Costco. In Palm Springs it was in the $2.40 range. We were paying $1.40 all across the south.) We also bought some chicken for dinner and a pineapple.
    We had planned to go to Balboa Park to hear some jazz, but....we had a full enough day and opted out.
     

Balboa Park, March 29

  Today we took a nice long walk in Mission Beach and chatted with a man named Bob who is about our age and who grew up here. He was in a rock band, Hard Times, which was on the Dick Clark show for 6 months. Anyhow, we talked about the changes he has seen in this area and he loaned us a book to look at that we will return later in the week.

Huge Koi in Japanese Garden; they can live for 200+ years!

Mark in Japanese Friendship Garden

   Later we went to Balboa Park where we went to the Japanese Friendship Garden and strolled around. It is such a lovely park and the weather was beautiful and people were out enjoying it.

Balboa Park by the Museum of Art

Balboa Park View

Balboa Park

Balboa Park Plaza

Then, we took another beach walk as the sun set and came home and Mark made a lovely meal of tuna. We walked 4.66 miles per day. (Thank you, Jecca, for the Fitbit!)

Visit to Phaung Trang, Re-union with Former Student, May 28

 Today was a bit grey and windy. We did a good mile or so walk along both the beach and the bay to start our day. Then we drove to the waterfront in San Diego and walked along in front of the Marine Museum and down toward the Midway. We did not go onto any of the ships as we have done them before, but it was a pleasant, if windy, walk.

San Diego Waterfront

    Then we drove out to Convoy Street to go to Phuang Trang Vietnamese Restaurant where we have eaten before as it is so good. We got Beef 7 Ways meant for 2 people. It was delicious. It started with thinly sliced beef that you cook at your table in vinegar. Then, you soak a rice paper sheet and put in pieces of lettuce, daikon, carrot, cucumber, mint, and celantro. Then, you add the beef and roll it up. (We were not very good rollers) Yum. Another course consisted of more thinly sliced beef. This time you cook it in butter and onions and then add it rice paper wraps similarly. More beef arrived looking like sausages, but were sometimes more rolled beef around spring onion. One was a soft meatloaf which was put on a shrimp cracker. And, there was also soup! It was all extremely delicious with layers of flavors - all for $27.00. We could not possibly finish it all, but did a pretty good job of it.

Some of the food at our Phuang Trang lunch

    In the late afternoon, we went to the Lafayette Hotel to meet Cindy and Amber Garrison. Amber, a former CPS student,  is doing her Ph.D. in Chinese Medicine here and Cindy is here visiting with her. It was lovely to see them both. Amber stayed for a little while and then had to leave.

Amber and Cindy

We went with Cindy to a lovely pub, the Red Fox which was built around 1560 in Surrey, England. It was disassembled and brought to San Diego in 1926 for cinema actress Marion Davies. She had it reassembled as part of her beach home. In the 50s, her house was sold and the Red Fox was disassembled once again and put into storage. It was later reassembled and became part of the Lafayette Hotel

In the Red Fox Pub

Easter with Frank and Linda, March 27

  We spent Easter with Frank and Linda Morral. We went to White Sands where they  now live and had a lovely Easter dinner in their dining room with their friends, Carolyn and John.

Barbara and Linda at White Sands, La Jolla

View from Frank and Linda's apartment

    In the afternoon, we all went to see Mack and Mabel at the Lamplighter Theater in La Mesa. It was a musical about the silent movie director, Mack Sennett. (He worked with Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle and is famous for the Keystone Cops.) He was in love with one of his stars, Mabel Normand, but he was never able to commit to her. He bullied his staff and underpaid them. Eventually, Mabel left him and made films with other directors. She played opposite Charlie Chaplin in about a dozen films. She was involved in a scandal surrounding the death of the director William Desmond Taylor. In the play it implied that he got her hooked on cocaine, but it is more likely that she went to him for help in beating the addiction. At any rate, she died of tuberculosis at age 37. So, the play took quite a few liberties with the facts, but the play worked anyhow.
   The play was well cast and well acted and we all enjoyed it very much. 
   Barbara won a raffle, too - a bunny rabbit that we will send to our granddaughter, Sage. We seldom win raffles, but the audience was small and Barbara was certain this time that she would win...and, hers was the first number called. Happy Easter!
   Then we went back to Linda and Frank's and chatted about theater and other things for another hour.

Linda, Frank, Ocho, Harley

   A lovely day.
   A real highlight also for us was over 100 photos sent from Willy and Jecca of their house in Maine which they saw for the first time this weekend.

Jecca, Maggie

Mission Beach and Cabrillo Point National Monument, March 26

  Today we started with a walk to both the bay and the beach from our apartment which is in a great location. It got to be about 73 degrees and sunny. Our neighborhood is packed with people enjoying the Easter holiday and Spring Break. It's a good thing we have a dedicated parking spot, that's for sure.
   These photos show the views from our little apartment which is crowded in close to other buildings in a funky, lively neighborhood. The photos aren't very good as they are through the screens, but gives an accurate perspective of where we are.

Our apartment is in the brown building in the middle. We have the front second floor window.

View from our window toward Mission Bay, a very short walk

View from our bedroom window toward the Pacific Ocean.

View looking across the street from our apartment.

   Then we headed out to Cabrillo National Monument at the end of Point Loma, a favorite spot for us. We had a pleasant walk and then went to a supermarket and got food for the next few days.

Point Loma

Looking at San Diego from Cabrillo National Monument

Point Loma Lighthouse

Palm Springs to Mission Beach, March 25

   Today we packed up from Desert Vacation Villas and headed over the San Jacinto Mountains toward San Diego, opting to take the mountain road instead of the highway. It was a great day for traveling and the views were great. Once again we have been able to see the desert in bloom which is special.

Coachella Valley in the distance

 
We stopped for a lunch in Temecula and then got on I-15 for the rest of the journey. We have rented a small second-floor apartment on San Fernando Place in Mission Beach very close to the roller coaster. It is not fancy, but will do.

Mission Beach area in 1952 before the Bay was dredged.

We are staying where the blue dot is

San Diego Area. We are in Mission Bay. Frank and Linda live up by the A in La (for La Jolla)

      We met Frank and Linda Morral at White Sands where they now live in La Jolla. We went on a tour of their resort-like home and met their new Border Terrier, Ocho and re-acquainted ourselves with their old dog, Harley.
      Then, we went on a bus with them and other White Sands residents to see Rope, a musical at 10th Street Theater. (It was rather mediocre, I am afraid.) But, it was nice to be out with Frank and Linda.

Relaxing in Palm Springs, March 19-23

  We have spent the last few days just puttering around - sitting in the hot tub, making some good meals, both of us exercising in our own ways. (Mark: doing kicks in the water; Barbara: yoga in the a.m.) We have followed March Madness, watched the end of Indian Wells Tennis on the television. (Victoria Azarenka won for the women against Serena; Novak Djokovic won over Milos Raonic.)
    The weather has been a little blustery and is cooler than it had been.

Sun going down over the mountains around Palm Springs

     We finally got to see Spotlight which won Best Picture Award and we loved it. It was well written and well acted.
 
One day we went to Delicatesse, a "Euro Deli" in Palm Springs which was excellent. Mark had a hot dog with the fixings and I had a salad that the chef made just for me - without cheese or breads, quite unusual fare for a deli. The place had been robbed the night before and had a smashed door and they were in a bit of disarray, but still were awesome.

Mark at Delicatesse in Palm Springs

A great deli hot dog!

    

Barbara at the Deli in Palm Springs

Martha and Harry

Best of all, though, we had a lovely brunch at the Ace Hotel with Martha Cary who was, by happenstance, in the area celebrating her birthday. She camped in the Joshua Tree area for two night and then booked into the Ace with her sweet, sweet dog, Harry. We had the most delightful time with her and heard all about a life we know little about. She is in the production side of television and is in charge of "continuity". She sits with the director and makes sure that the story flows properly and that the edits fit together. (So, if someone has a coffee cup in the right hand, it stays in the right hand, sort of thing.) It was fascinating. She is articulate and so competent. We loved seeing her and were grateful she took the time with us.

Barbara, Martha, Harry, Mark at the Ace Hotel, Palm Springs