September 10th - A shopping mall is put into the grounds of the old San Diego Naval Training Center - NTC

On a previous visit, we have gone into the Trader Joe's shop in Point Loma.  What I didn't realize was that the shopping mall around it was a very large area covering several blocks and situated on the grounds of what used to be the Navel Training Center in Point Loma.  Someone told us about it and we returned to walk around and what we could see.  Besides stores like Trader Joe's and Vons, There are museums, nightclubs, a comic book shop, a couple of art galleries, and even a Stone Brewing brewery and restaurant.  The grounds are beautiful.  The buildings are period for the training center but brought up to date and all the lawns refurbished.  We saw a bunch of it, and want to go back to see more.  It's pretty fantastic.

February 4th - Point Loma

We started our day in North Park an then we went to lunch with her sister Linda at a place she loves in Point Loma.  It's a nice place and more upscale than your usual taco shop.  The food is great and the view from the upstairs patio is pretty good.  Afterwards we drove around the area a bit and stopped later at a couple of taprooms and such on the main street.

Just a lazy afternoon in an area of San Diego that we don't usually go to for hanging out.

Novermber 9th - our second Geocaching event.

It was a Wednesday, and there is a meeting of a geocache group at Plaza Bonita every Wednesday.  We got up and had our usual delicious breakfast and headed out.  We walked through a nearly empty mall until we found the food court and the group.  A great bunch of people.  We introduced ourselves and talked about the hobby.  Outside in the parking lot, I located a number of cars with Travel bug stickers on them and got to log discoveries for them.  We followed a couple of cars from the group as they were going to check on a cache one of them has that often gets muggled.  It had been this time as well, but they had a replacement for it.  We got to log the find, but it has since been archived.

After all that, we went up to Point Loma area and drove around.  Modern Times brewery is on a back street somewhere.  The selection was okay, but it was really hot, in the 90s, and we didn't stay too long. 

I took a picture of some houses/storage places across the street.  It was a reach into a previous time in my life.  There had been some local guys who had formed a band.  They had been pretty good, but the guitarist abruptly decided to stop playing and move away from the whole scene.  He had been a heavy drug user and had found a truer path in Christianity.  The funny thing was that the one time I watched them practice, it had been in one of those places I took that picture of.  The band had called itself, Makus Tremmel after some fans watching them is the small practice studio remarked about the vibrations of the loud music and said "You guys really make us tremble".

Fisnjack's Travelbug

A reminder of my youth.

March 16th - Sunset Cliffs

You come to San Diego and you are doing the whole sightseeing thing.  Of course, you want to experience the SoCal beaches.  I've done little of north county beaches, because I usually don't live up there.  However, the coastline from La Jolla down to the end of Point Loma has some of the greatest beaches in the world.  Every beach has it's own look and personality.  Our favorite beach is Ocean Beach.   Not only for the wide beautiful sand and sun, but the the pier offers fishing, a great view of both sea and land, and a beautiful backdrop for the sunsets.  On the south end, there are tide pools during low tide.  On top of that is a community which combines a 50s and 60s style living with today's culture.

The day before St. Patrick's Day, we were out traveling, and decided to catch the sunset a bit further south where Ocean Beach becomes Point Loma at Sunset Cliffs.  A natural cliff created by wave erosion and a stone foundation, there are a few parking areas, and on any nice evening, the cliff fills with people and photographers catching the sun sinking past the horizon.

It was beautiful and amazing.  I confess, I have only ever been here a couple of times.  A flock of pigeons nest on the actual side of the cliff away from anyone's ability to bother them.

We had a great sunset and experience.

The Community of Sunset Cliffs at Point Loma

Sol says goodnight

A crowd watches