B & B in San Diego

Most of you probably think that "B & B" means bed and breakfast but in San Diego it means Beaches and Balboa. Our last couple of days with Lael and Doug were spent at Balboa Park and enjoying the beaches.

It was a rainy day when we visited the park so we only did a minimal amount of the grounds; but it was enough to enjoy the architecture. You can't go to Balboa Park without enjoying the buildings. And since we viewed an exhibit of black and white photography, I had to try my hand at some... I am easily influenced.

Can you believe the vibrant color of these flowers! That is the botanical garden in the background.

Once inside the building, the first thing to capture our attention, was this beautiful orchid.

You never know what you are going to find hiding in the greenery.

We went to the Natural History Museum for the display of gems and minerals. Can you believe these opals???

I think I want my next bauble to look something like this one... only with an opal maybe. Isn't this a striking setting.

The display was very interesting and we learned that San Diego County is rich with gemstones. In fact, there is still a mine that operates and we plan to make a trip there in March sometime. Balboa Park is an area that needs to be visited every year and the best time to visit is in February as all of the San Diego museums are half price during that month - a great promotion.

So, on to beaches. My fascination with black and white lives on.

The old roller coaster at Mission Beach.

Huh...

Each beach has its own personality.

The Imperial Beach Pier - two different looks

Now our Cleveland friends are basking in the warmth in Arizona and we are "chilling out" in California. It has been a cool and rainy week; lots of games and not much else. Till later,

Whales and Osprey

One day last week, we headed out with H & M on a 3-hr. whale watching excursion. It was a cool morning and the people on the boat were as interesting as the sights we hoped to see. We chatted with a couple from England and another from Germany. All shared high expectations to see whales. We headed towards Mexican waters and were not successful in the first hour. Then some fisherman told the captain about a sighting just off off Point Loma and we turned around. It wasn't long before we were seeing "spouts".

We saw some "whale tale" but I really wasn't successful in getting any good pictures so you will have to use your imagination. As the sightings increased, it fun to watch the battle between the big ships (like the Hornblower) and us little guys; once again, it proved best to be on the smaller more mobile boat from H & M.

Doug and Lael and Mike and I enjoyed the cruise, the people, the whale sightings. And the other boats in the harbor.

When we got back to shore, we headed to Pt. Loma Seafood for a wonderful meal of fresh shrimp, crab and fillets. It was a great day!

And then on Saturday, we had the privilege of watching the Naval Aviation's Parade of Flight in celebration of 100 years of service.
By this time, I had purchased a new camera and was very happy with its ability to capture planes in flight. So you have probably guessed that the Osprey I review to in the post's title is not the bird, but rather the plane.

The event began with Navy Seals carrying the flag to the Stennis, an aircraft carrier where visiting dignitaries watched the events of the afternoon.
And then the Blue Angels did a fly over... what a simple sentence for what was a magnificent experience.

There were older planes used in previous wars

and more modern ones.

There were planes that flew alone

and those that flew in tightly controlled patterns.


And then came the Osprey. What a remarkable plane. It can virtually stand still and this skill was demonstrated over a dirigible just off the deck of the USS Midway.

I can't remember the name of this monster but I know it is a modern creature.


The horde of helicopters was impressive; Mike says each one was a little different in design.

And of course, coming over The Coronado Bridge made for a very impressive entrance for all the planes. For two hours, the air was filled with planes of all shapes and sizes and eras.

The Coast Guard demonstrated a rescue. Note the red flare in the background.

The flare is spotted by the Guard and a man is lowered to perform the rescue.

And soon two men are hoisted up to the aircraft. Hundreds of these rescues are done every year along the beaches in California.

Check out this midair refueling of the helicopters.

Even though I didn't know much about any of the aircraft that I saw during the day, I was still very impressed by the maneuvers and precision. The sun was shining, the air was warm and filled with "big birds", and our lawn chairs were close to the bay - not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

Back Home In California

Alright so we have never really lived in California, but sometimes it does feel like we are coming home when we reach the San Diego area. We were so anxious to reach our 2 month home at Santee Lakes, that we actually left Yuma when the sun was just rising. This is unusual as we rarely, and I mean rarely, get up early enough to see sunrise.

Soon we were in the land of my favorite flower. This one looks a bit beat up but I still love its unique shape and colors.

As we have done so many times before, we headed up to Point Loma on one of our first days. And a couple of days later, we were there again as we gave the Grand San Diego Tour to Lael and Doug, our friends from Cleveland, MN. It was high tide, so there was no exploring of tide pools.

But it was a clear day and the Mexican islands were easy to see. The "new" lighthouse is at the bottom of the picture. This new lighthouse is only 100 years old.

I managed to find a new perspective from which to photograph the old lighthouse - this is a place of which I never tire.

The second stop on that Tour was Coronada and the famous red roofed hotel - The Del. We enjoyed walking the beach and admired the gold flecks in the sand. And we enjoyed the dude building the sand castle near the hotel.

This is Lael and Doug posing for their "I was there" picture.

Another day this past week, we headed out to Venice Beach near Los Angeles. This is a most interesting location that Lael remembers visiting years ago. Paintings on the buildings, (not so easily imitated)

medical marijuana doctors advertising freely,

art that looks like reality,

all combine to make Venice Beach a very cool place to visit! We enjoyed lunch at the Sidewalk Cafe, a place that was "active" during prohibition and has been a haunt of important people in years past... still is - we ate there.

From Venice Beach to La Brea Tar Pits... it is hard to believe the history that this area has enjoyed. Go back tens of thousands of years ago and you will find prehistoric animals roaming the area.
Some of those animals stepped in the tarry oil produced from ancient sea life and were preserved for all time. Archeologists have unearthed these remains, reassembled them and that is what you see at the Page Museum. This is the skeleton if a bison.

Nearly all of the displays are real bones of real animals. Volunteers continue to work at the labor intensive process of cleaning the "finds".

This was a quick stop but a very interesting one. From there we headed to The Walk of Stars and downtown Hollywood. This time of the year, it seems there are back to back award shows. The day we visited, the red carpet was out for the 3D Award Show... Down the road, we saw where the X rated awards were being given.

Mike had an easy time finding his favorite with which to pose.

Later we had dinner on Sunset Strip at Mel's Diner, which was featured in American Grafiti. Doug's nephew joined us. We didn't get home till 10 pm which is late in our current life, but the day was worth the effort - L.A. is a very entertaining place!

Yesterday we went whale watching and tomorrow we are off to the Centennial Celebration of Naval Aviation. A post about air and sea will be coming up shortly.