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.