Oceanside, CA Feb 7-17, 2012

We moved Feb. 7th from our lakeside campsite in Santee to our new coastal home at the Elks Lodge in Oceanside. As often happens, the day we moved rain was forecast and fall it did as we traveled up I-5 in very heavy showers.  We had decided since we were only moving 50 miles I would just drive the car ahead of Paul rather than trailer it on the dolly...bad idea. Heavy rain, me trying to follow my GPS visual on my iPhone all the time watching that I didn't get too far ahead of the motorhome made our hour+ drive more stressful than we expected. Guess we'll stay "hooked up" from now on.

Leaving Santee was also an experience. We had not started up the motor on the RV for the whole month we were there and, not surprisingly, the batteries were dead when we tried to pull out. But being such an amazing problem solver and mechanic, PK worked and fiddled and finally got that engine running which I'm sure made the campground volunteers so happy...they had been circling our campsite very 10 minutes waiting for us to leave so they could rake, clean it, and call back to the office that we had vacated. We have since bought a "trickle charger" at Harbor Freight to keep the batteries rarin' to go.

Once we got settled in Oceanside and the rain stopped, the campground host came over to say hi and fill us in on things to do in the area. Campsite 13 at Oceanside also came with a wonderful neighbor, Hal and his dog, Glory. I think that's what we really enjoy about the Elks...such warm and friendly people happy to share and laugh together. It is a larger campground with 45 sites, power, water, a gym and even a small laundry area. Our original plan to stay just 5 nights quickly doubled to 10 after a couple of days. So relaxing and comfortable to be back near the beach. The Elks club was only 1.3 miles to the beach, an easy bike ride down and a little push to get back up on the way back.

We wanted to see several of the movies nominate for Academy Awards and we found a perfect theater that first night with all Tuesday night all films $6! Our choice that night was, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. What an amazing young actor playing the role of a surviving child whose father (Tom Hanks) dies in the 9-11 attack. 

The next morning the skies were bright blue and crisp from all the rain...perfect for a bike ride down through town with a stop at farmers market, along the beach, then back to get Foster in the late afternoon so we could watch sunset. 

 Dogs aren't allowed on most beaches so walking Foster along the harbor was a great solution.

That became our daily routine giving us some amazing photos.

I am always looking for designated bath paths for us, ones without any road traffic and Oceanside had a great one along the San Luis Rey river bank. It's paved, flat and about 9mi long. We rode it from the city toward the mountains and back. Once we got away from the nearby freeway noise, it became a lovely afternoon ride. 

The following day was spent exploring Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, known as the King of the Missions.

It is the largest of all missions and has been beautifully restored.

 It has a majestic bell tower, retreat center, and gardens with the oldest pepper tree in California. The mission, once home for 3000 Indians, was self sustaining with a variety of crops and 50,000 head of livestock. The museum has an excellent exhibit of the Luiseno Indian culture and traces the missionaries and the early mission settlement.

Outside of the mission we visited the lavanderia, or “laundry” where Mission residents did their bathing and washed their clothes. Water was channeled from the San Luis Rey River behind the Mission through aqueducts into a series of tile and stone pools, much of which is still intact today.

Saturday we were so lucky to stop at the Oceanside Art Museum while the artist of the current exhibit was giving a tour of his work.  Many of his pieces were of California locations we knew.

The road to Jalama Beach

Bixby Bridge on Highway 1

That evening after a cloudy sunset 

we drove to the nearby town of Encinitas for an outstanding performance of The Enemy of the People, Arthur Miller's adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 1882 political thriller, with a theme so relevant to today's political climate. It was presented by the Intrepid Shakespeare Company in a small local theater with such a talented cast! 

Monday stared out as a cloudy chilly day so another movie was on tap for us, but we ended up spending time on other issues...not quite the afternoon we'd planned but in the end all turned out ok. For a fun Valentine's Day we headed to the darling town of La Jolla. The surf was absolutely beautiful all along the coast.

After lunch on the patio at the la Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art we viewed the current exhibit of John Baldessari's print work,(not Paul's favorite). He alters and crops photographic images adding vivid blocks of color. My favorites: Person with Guitar, and Toes. Look closely at the banner and you can see an example of one piece. 

 This sculpture was in the outside garden.

 The entrance on the ocean side has a collection of boats, kayaks and canoes forming an overhead sculpture.

PK waiting for me to finish my walk in the garden.

Later we walked along the cliff and saw these beached seals sunning themselves 

Amazing to see about a dozen people swimming in the surf, as the attempt was only about 58 degrees...no wet suits and most over the age of 50!!!! Maybe a new health kick, but definitely not for me!  Our day ended with the film, The Artist, and dinner at a local grill. 

Heavy rains on Wednesday so we stayed inside for the morning, later that afternoon we saw the film, Hugo, and finished getting ready for our move the following morning. We both agreed we could easily spend the winter at this Elks Lodge as many snow birds do.

Thursday we had a perfect day for driving north on our way to see Wes and Alena in Tustin. 

A Month in San Diego January 7-February 7, 2012

After a month staying here at Santee Lakes Campground, we packed up on Tuesday morning and moved north to Oceanside.

It was our first try at a longer stay which we both have decided we do really like. The park is a regional county park with 300+ sites and majority of campers are snow birds at this time of year. The locals show up on weekends to enjoy it too and I'm sure come summer this place is a zoo!

We've met some very interesting people here...usually while we were relaxing in the jacuzzi in the park. (Not a bad way to spend a chilly evening.) There are many residents who also have traveling positions and come here to enjoy the warmer winter and take on work in the area; we've met several traveling nurses, a small business owner as well as electrical linemen, a wide variety of folks. It always amazes us that so many people choose a mobile life style and not all are retired.

We probably have one of the oldest RVs in the park. Lots of huge motor "coaches" 40' or longer as well as the very large and comfortable fifth wheels and trucks. But we really do like our little home with it's modern interior, small though we are. 

Santee Lakes is about 25 miles east of the coast so we had warmer weather most days. It is part of Padre Dam and is comprised of 7 small lakes...home to mallard ducks, coots, snowy egrets, 

Great Blue Herons and our favorite: gorgeous wood ducks. 

It is very popular with fishermen and this was trout season so it was busy at times. Our campsite was #13 on Lake 7 which also has 10 darling wood cabins for rent. Since we booked only 2 weeks before arriving we didn't have lots of choices of locations but have enjoyed having the lake view (when the campsites across from us are unoccupied). The majority of RVers are camped further from the lakes, quieter and less weekenders coming in.  

The cabins made it lots of fun when our friends, Diane and Burt, came to stay for 3 nights. They had the cabin and we had our RV. Perfect blend. Even had the use of a paddle boat! 

One of the first things we did when we got here was to buy a months pass on the San Diego Transit system. It gave us easy access to the trolley 

that comes here to Santee, its last stop, and included the bus system.  We used the combination of trolleys and bus to do "car free" days into San Diego which Paul loved. He could sit back and relax rather  than deal with the traffic.  But...we do have to say San Diego traffic is so easy. The lanes move along without the jams of LA freeways and we were usually only 20-25 minutes away from most things. Days when we wanted to do bike rides we hooked up the rack on the car and drove to a pretty biking path.

We did have some wonderful days at Balboa Park, with its amazing collection of museums and gardens.

The Timken Art Museum, Beautiful European art

The Museum of Man with its mummy exhibit


The Arboretum, with a lovely pond in front of it

The Mingei International Museum with a whimsical character greeting us outside

The Mingei is a collection of different crafts including these exquisite chairs, 1960

One evening we also attended live theater at The Old Globe Theater with dinner beforehand on the outdoor patio of the Prado Restaurant.

There are still a couple of museums we didn't get to see as well as a visit to the San Diego Zoo, but we'll save all that for our next trip here.

The trolley also stopped right at Old Town San Diego, a State Historic Park near the city. We enjoyed a great tour with this gentleman 

explaining the early history of California, then we walked around to see the old buildings. Paul was fascinated with the plaster work being done on the old hotel there

and then found a lovely courtyard.  

To change things up a bit we took our bikes one day on the ferry to Coronado Island giving us a lovely view looking back at San Diego

and had a beautiful ride out to the beach to the Hotel Coronado

 

Paul's sister, MarLyn, came for a visit and survived staying with us in the RV, sleeping on the futon in the living room for 4 nights. While she was here we did a day trip up to see the western town of Julian, very sweet, very quiet this time of year...BUT...it has the best apple pie ever! Also got to meet her very close friends, visit the Point Loma Campus and enjoyed a fantastic dinner out at Miguel's Mexican Restaurant. The food was so good in fact, PK and I went the following week to another Miguel's on Coronado Island.  We highly recommend it!  MarLyn had packed her fishing reel so she tried her hand along the bank one afternoon but no luck this time. Just a relaxing afternoon along one of the lakes. 

We also discovered a wonderful hiking area at the nearby Mission Hills Regional Park.

 The best thing was we could take Foster along on our hikes. The rocky hills and oak preserve was a perfect place for afternoon walks.

Grinding Rocks Trail

The rest of our days were a blend of hanging out here at the park, bike riding over at the coast and Mission Bay,
We toured the aircraft carrier, The Midway, 

Paul found a helicopter similar to ones he worked on in the Guard

and visited the beautiful San Diego Botanical Gardens 

 PK found a place to relax while I  wandered further into the garden

The most beautiful colors ever!

The gardens had sculptures set around everywhere

I've always wanted to visit all the California Missions, so we spent the afternoon at the San Diego Mission and learned its long history with several reconstructions. We asked about a self guided audio tour and were handed a cassette tape recorder to carry along our way...something Paul hadn't seen in ages. So glad we did, the tour was excellent!

This was one of our all time favorite sights here in SD... 

Unconditional Surrender

a 6000 lb,  25' sculpture standing along the Harbor. It was based on the photograph taken in Times Square in 1945, by Alfred Eisenstaedt. We loved it and returned several times.


Good Bye, San Diego...and Santee Lakes! 

Our new home is the Elks Lodge in Oceanside for some beach days. Of course the one day we decided to move the weather had changed and we got some much needed rain along our drive. But the next morning the sky was a beautiful blue once again.