July 25th - Old Town

The day after the wedding, Eliza and Brett went to a one-day honeymoon.  We gladly took all four kids and made a day of it.  Our first stop was Old Town San Diego.  We wanted to give them a taste of the local culture as best we could for as young as they all are.  We looked at a couple of shops and the kids all got to eat fresh, warm hand made tortillas,  Then we all got ice cream cones and watched some ladies doing dances in traditional dresses. That was about as much culture as they could take, so we ran out to Ocean Beach.

After playing in the sand and tide for a bit, collecting shells, we all walked down to the south end of the beach past the pier to the tide pools.  I think the kids had a great time watch the crabs and such and getting demonstrations of sea anemones.  we even saw a couple of ugly sea slugs.

Back up the beach towards the car, there were a couple of people with this large string and stick device making huge bubbles that would drift all the way across the street.  The guy also demonstrated a boomerang that he threw out to sea and it would come back to him to catch.

After that, it was back to Nana's for bed.

March 3rd - Presidio Park, Ocean Beach, friends, and a sunset.

We called our friends Francine and France and invited them to go sightseeing with us.  We agreed to meet at San Diego's Presidio Park, overlooking Mission Bay, Old Town and the Pacific Ocean.

The park is located on the edge of the hillside above Old Town.  The site of the original mission, and various encampments.  There are a few links at the end of all this in case you'd like more history.  Currently, there is an old church turned into a museum, wide spreading greens and a few monuments to the history of San Diego, The people who lived here and came from far and wide.  The Spanish Mission system, and the beginnings of California itself.

We walked around and viewed the property, visited the various overlooks and looked out at the city and the beach.  It was informative and fun for us.

We left Presidio Park and drove to Ocean Beach.  Two of the best restaurants in the area are actually part of the same complex.  There is Wonderland, which has a large outdoor patio.  They specialize in seafood and craft brew.  Downstairs from it, is Shades, a smaller pub.  The entire building is up from the street, so the view of the ocean and beach is always great.

We started at Wonderland with a couple of pints from Alesmith.  Alesmith is a local brewer that features an ale dedicated to the memory of San Diego Baseball star, Tony Gwynn.  I noticed it was somewhat cloudy, and I asked the poor girl waiting on us if she could guarantee us a good sunset.  She didn't think so. We had some appetizers and then went downstairs to Shades.

At Shades, we sat just inside the south west corner of the room so we would have a great view if the sunset did come. I ducked outside a few times to take pictures closer to the waterline.  We ended up having a great sunset.  The clouds dispersed enough for the sun to be seen well, but stayed around so they could reflect it's glory.  Good food, friends, and a beautiful beach sunset.

Once we had finished dinner and it was dark, we went for a walk out on the pier.  We stopped and talked to people fishing out there. A young man with his family told us about the types of fish he caught, and explained that the end of the pier which is a "T", provides different sea life on each side.  The north shorter branch will give you manta rays, while the longer southern branch will get you Shark. That was interesting.  When we walked out there, we met a man on the southern end who was running lobster traps off the pier.  He showed us, fascinated, as he brought up a cage, how he used a gauge to measure the lobsters and threw back the ones that didn't measure up.

We wore ourselves out and walked back to our cars and said goodnight.  It was a very wonderful evening.

Serra Museum

Mormon Battalion Monument

Looking northwest towards La Jolla

Wine press dated 1880

Interstate 8 from the presidio

These bells run from The San Diego mission, past here all the way up to the bay area.  Nearly 800 miles they mark the original "Kings Road" through California.

Statue of Father Junipero Serra

Time capsule to be opened 2069.  Let me know what's in it, okay?

Monument to Fr. Serra, the mission, and the Presidio.  Built from the remaining bricks of the original fortress.

El touristas

Cloudy evening at Ocean Beach state park.  

South end of the beach. Just past the pier are the tide pools.

The sun, undaunted, begins to show it's glory

Abbott Street

Francine and France

Ocean Beach from the pier

North from the pier

South from the pier

Lobster trap and visitors

A local fisherman shows how to measure lobsters

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/timeline/timeline.htm
http://www.laalmanac.com/transport/tr32.htm
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/99summer/serra.htm

February 23rd - New friends

One of the benefits of Laurie's job is that we meet many new people.  Far beyond what you might do on a normal vacation.  Often, she'll make friends with another traveler and we get to explore an area together.  If, as in this case, the new friends are not from San Diego and of course, we are, we get to share this land with them.  Francine and her husband France are not from here, but she works with Laurie. We had arranged for a date to go to Old Town San Diego.

We first met up with them in the area known as Grantville.  Grantville is a corner of land.  It sits at the junction of Mission Gorge Avenue before it runs up over the hill into Santee, The very end of Fairmont Aveune that runs north through East San Diego and drops down into the eastern edge of Mission Valley, and finally, Friar's Road which travels east from the ocean through Mission Valley along the north side of the San Diego river past the major Mission Valley and Westgate Mall shopping malls, The famous Jack Murphy - Qualcomm Stadium, and The San Diego Spanish Mission just past Interstate I-15 before the three-way intersection with Fairmont and Mission Gorge.  Here, we met at the year-old brewery tasting room of Groundswell Brewers.

Groundswell had some tasty brews.  Mostly IPAs and blonde type ales.  we did a couple of flights and I settled on a Ginger Saison that was tasty enough. We all got to know each other and decided we could get along as first encounters invariably are.

We then drove to the Old Town State Historic Park.  Taylor Street, Calhoun St. Juan St., Congress, and Twiggs streets surround this area.  We walked in and out of a couple of shops and talked, On one end of the park is the courtyard of Casa De Reyas. There are some more shops here, and we stopped into Rose's Tasting room where a very knowledegable young man showed up a couple of brews and local wines.  Then, we had dinner at the restaurant where we enjoyed some amazing Chile Rellenos and fajitas.

After that we said goodbye and drove home.  We'll get together with them for more adventures later on.