San Diego - Day 17 - February 28, 2015

It was a walking day today. We started out heading down to Tourmaline Surf Beach and turned right and explored the north side of the beach for a change.  It's strewn with smooth cobble stone and interesting sea life in the tidal pools.  And of course the challenge is to not get a hotfoot as you bound along the rocks.   

 

Views of Northern Pacific Beach

 



 

the million dollar mansions are perched precariously at the edge of the cliff 

Love the way the water sparkles in the sunlight

Then we walked down the beach to Crystal Pier and came up on the boardwalk and walked down quite a ways. We decided we would discover Mission Bay which is an area somewhat unfamiliar to us so we hung a Louie and walked the maybe 100 yards to the Bay and continued our walk. We came upon an aquatic center where you can rent paddle boards and ocean kayaks. I want to try the paddle boards but I'm afraid that the water may be too cold and I have the feeling that on my first try I may be in the water often.  It's on the to-do list so we'll see.  They also have ocean kayaks and maybe we can stay dryer. 



Map of Mission Bay.  One can walk for miles and miles along board walks and beaches in SD.  Bring your walking shoes folks.   The ocean is seen on the right.

We then continued our walk and ended up at the Pacific Beach Bar and Grill on Garnet Ave. There we had a beer and wings(BOGO) and watched the first half of the Duke/Syracuse game.   

a PB institution

A taste of home in California ... wings and a locally crafted beer.  I think Ron's smiling because of the BOGO or maybe it's the scintillating company he's sharing his meal with ...

Duke got off to a slow start but they did win!

The only reason we left before the game ended is that Mass was at 5:30 and we didn't want to be late. It was a brief 2 minute walk to St. Brigid's.  How convenient.  After mass we completed our walking loop by heading directly home - about another mile.  All in all we probably walked 5 or 6 miles today. I think I'll skip the gym tonight. It did actually rain while we were in the bar - for all of about one minute barely wetting the sidewalk. There were even fewer sprinkles when we walked out of church but we walked home and were dry. We'll see what tomorrow brings as there is an 80% chance tomorrow and Monday.  It supposedly rained more inland today maybe it just never rains at PB.  However, they truly need it so we'll find some indoor activities if necessary.  We talked to Christine on the phone walking home and let her know we contacted the wedding venue to clear up some questions that we had.  Things are progressing.  We also researched how to take the train to the towns north of San Diego in order to expand our exploration.  With our senior passes we can get a round trip ticket for $5.50 to go as far north as Oceanside.  Perhaps in a future blog we'll share with you that experience. 

San Diego - Day 16 - February 27, 2015

Quiet, uneventful day yesterday, almost like a regular day at home. Took a walk to the UPS store in Bird Rock with the intention of mailing one of the purchases we made here back home. When we found out what it would cost though - almost more than value of the item itself - we decided we would figure out a way to get it in our suitcases or carry-on.  After our walk we went down to the gym and worked out for an hour or so with Ron adding 45 extra minutes of sweating in the sauna. We also did some errands like making some appointments for when we get back home, working on wedding arrangements and trying to track down our mail. We had it forwarded here and haven't gotten anything even though it's been over 2 weeks - no wonder they call it snail mail and the US Postal Service is in trouble. After enjoying a quiet afternoon reading we went out to dinner with Jason at Tony Roma's for our Friday fish dinner. Jason had ribs.  It was a nice chance to get to know our future son-in-law even better.

Interesting vegetation on our walk to Bird Rock, the quaint yuppie village between San Diego and La Jolla and about a mile down the road from our condo.  Where, if you are following the blog in close detail, we ate lunch at Don Bravo's the other day.  

Love the huge cactus they have here

Crazy Seussical looking things

This must be their Christmas tree - notice the lights on the trunk!

Yes they actually have winter storm warnings for the mountains near here.

Looks like a very serious conversation

San Diego - Day 15 - February 26, 2015

A new San Diego adventure for us today. We took the two hour Flagship Cruise of San Diego Harbor on a BOGO of course!!!!

We headed down to the harbor planning on taking the 11:15 cruise. We were advised though to wait until 12:30 as there would be fewer people as the "foreign" tour groups generally take the 11:15 tour. So we spent our time exploring a new section of the harbor that we hadn't seen before. We went to the Broadway Pier, saw the Maritime Museum featuring tall ships, went by the San Diego Administrative Building(city hall), a nearby park and playground and then returned for the tour.

built in 1962

probably more than a quarter mile of fountains on both sides of City Hall

darn lisinopril

entrance to City Hall

bath time for Miguel and Jose

amazing park adjacent to city hall.  San Diego can truly be proud of their amazing city particularly the waterfront area

Brayden and Cooper would LOVE this park.  Even if they fell the blue surface is like a sponge. 

Our tour was right by the Midway but we didn't visit this year since we took a very extensive tour last year.

 

 

 

The guide was very informative, you could tell he was retired military(Navy), and he gave us the in's and outs of all the buildings and ships on the harbor. I kept thinking that Dad should have been with us - I think he would really enjoy it. I certainly couldn't name all the ships both naval and commercial but I will share some of the things we saw.

needless to say there is an amazingly HUGE military presence in San Diego

We passed under the Coronado Bridge and saw the Convention Center, downtown skylines and Petco Park from the water vantage.
 

bridge built in 1969

The ship we mentioned in a previous blog in the forefront is 252' long with a 300 ' mast.  Called the M5.  The downtown skyline view from the water is beyond belief.   

 

We saw lots of small ships and boats and lots of sea life - like the pelicans and sea lions.

After our tour we made another run at mother of the bride dress shopping and hit the jackpot at the downtown Macy's. I came away with two dresses that were a real bargain even by Ron's standards which were far surpassed.  The great day was topped off by dinner in the Gas Lamp District at the Bistro and the trolley ride to Old Town transit center then the bus home.

Horton square .. well worth a view and visit

another BOGO meal