Driving north

The day began at out home base in Chula Vista at the KOA.


While we were leaving we passed a guy sweeping leaves and junk from the road and he had a really, really big broom


I love taking pictures through the tinted windows of the car. This one is a cell tower on Interstate 805.


This is some concrete towers on a hill near Scripps Ranch.


You would thin Cristos was doing landscape mega art in Rancho Bernardo with this hill....


.... and this hill.


They are always working on the freeways in California so they build concrete plants in the median of the freeway to supply the road crews.


This crane is supplying rebar for the new roadway.


Here's a closer look at the dangling steel.


This guy is loading guardrails for another part of the road.


After lunch with Ed and a trip to the driving range (We only watched) I took Ed back home and met back up with Scrabble Queen for the drive back to the KOA. On the road we were passed by this truck (nothing unusual everyone passes us up in California) it was really cool and I was sorry I only got a shot at the tailgate.



Scrabble Score - Scrabble Queen 369 the contender 369 a TIE!!! Too Cool

Quote of the Day ~

I've lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate." ~ John Steinbeck

Castle in the Bay, Kayak Fisherman, Salt and Zorba

Several years back I worked in Chula Vista near the bay and off J street. There is a nice park there near the Chula Vista Marina and off shore there is "the castle." Everyone seems to know about it existing but not one person I've talked with is exactly sure what it is. If it's a home it's very large or a business (how do people get there). I've heard rumors of gambling, drug lords, house of feline persuasion all these predicated on how impossible it would be to pull a surprise raid. Of course that's all silly rumor because as anyone who spends June in San Diego knows about fog and the June gloom. At any rate that's it out on the water straight ahead.


The park had this cool work of municipal art. It's metal wind direction gauges lined in an arc and yes they do move and point into the wind, in this case from the West North West.


On the beach was a not so ordinarily rigged Kayak. Yes, there are 3 rods and a fish finder onboard as well as GPS and an emergency radio.


It seemed pretty small to be hanging out with these larger boats all around including a military landing craft. Note downtown San Diego in the background and the Coronado Bridge.


But there it was big (oops! I mean small as) day - paddle and all.


I never found out why these gulls were all around unless the kayak owner had dumped bait.


So I asked the owner Chauncy and no it wasn't him. He told me about a Thrasher Shark 250 pounds that had pulled a kayak fisher man from LaJolla to the Mexican border not long ago and although he looked like an "old salt" he just took up the sport in October.


About that time what looked like a ferry for very small cars drove by and in the distant background that's Point Loma where we visited the lighthouse the other day.


And going back in the other direction were two twin engine Coast Guard vessels headed toward "the castle" with black plastic covered 50 caliber guns on the bow. I wondered if all those rumors were true and the raid was on but nothing happened and they drove right by.


I got a better picture of the WWII landing craft later.


One thing I remembered just south of the Marina park was a salt production facility where salt water is evaporated over time and salt crystals are formed and scooped into piles for processing. The hills in the background are in Mexico and the radio towers you see are some of the more powerful radio signals short of NASA.


Not sure what this plant is but it's big and right on the bay.


North Island and Coronado are not quite an Island there is a road that goes to Coronado from Imperial Beach. The narrow strip of road is called "The Strand" and now there are condos and expensive residences on the strand. It is also, in parts on the ocean side where Navy Seals train. But wait what is that in the lower porting of the picture. It's a cat!! I speculated it escaped from the Castle lending credence to the ugly rumors.


First I needed to make sure this furry omen didn't cross my path then got this picture. I guess it makes sense though that a cat near water and FISH would look so healthy.


Well picture taking was almost done except for this Handicapped Parking sign at Zorba's, a Greek all you can eat on Broadway in North Chula Vista.


No Scrabble - Again

Quote of the Day

"I must go down to the seas again,
for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call
that may not be denied;"

~ John Masefield (1878-1967). Excerpt from the poem Sea Fever. Poet laureate of Great Britain from 1930 until his death, John Masefield was only 22 years old when he wrote the simple and moving lines in his poem 'Sea Fever'.

Various Pictures from the other day

Driving along the 805 we have often passed under the bridges lined with cyclone fencing attached to surfboard shaped arches. At night they are lit with Christmas lights. Well I finally took a picture for what it's worth.


Some of the freeway bridges are awfully high like this one as the 805 curves to the south neat Plaza Blvd.


When we went through town the other day we just missed the Balloon Parade but I got these two still floating in the sky.


San Diego is a strange and wondrous place with sculptures like this abstract of a ship. The rectangular sign in the lower left says "Signal Ahead - Aircraft Crossing"



Down at the Bay Yacht work never stops.


I liked this huge yacht in the background and the ocean going Catamaran called the Cheyenne.


I also liked the pop gun next to the Top Gun.


This little viewing area next to Point Loma Seafood made for a cool picture.


...as did this lamppost


...and the sculpture of a swordfish across the street.


Finally at the tip of Point Loma a young tourists looks into the hills of Mexico in the distance with the North Island jetty over her head and a sailboat to her right.


No Scrabble

Quote of the Day

"A Scout is never taken by surprise; he knows exactly what to do when anything unexpected happens."
Robert Baden-Powell founder of the Boy Scouts, the scout motto "Be Prepared" and The hero of Mafeking

Hillcrest, Bread & Cie, The Cinema and The Bridge

New Year's Eve in San Diego and we decided to go to Scrabble Queen's favorite eatery here and the movies. No better place than Hillcrest and Bread & Cie. Hillcrest is a colorful place with lots of antique stores, cute places to eat and interesting things to see. This is one of the apartment buildings or maybe condos or even business offices in downtown Hillcrest behind Bread & Cie.


Across the street is *Mary Jane* and Tapas Picasso probably a cool place to eat "lunch, brunch ... or dinner"


The back of an apartment next to the parking lot sports a retro-fitted sun window displaying a bucket with flowers.


After a very good lunch we headed to the movies at Hillcrest Cinemas. The theater is located in a very colorful stucco courtyard next to the Hillcrest Medical Complex.


Colors around this courtyard are wonderful.


It's like a touch of the Mediterranean in the midst of modern buildings and the old world placed in a blender and poured out on this hill overlooking the valley.


It's like pure white Santorini in Technicolor...


It's visited every day by some who see it as ordinary but it is really very special.


It's hard to imagine how much a little color and creativity can lift the spirit beyond the "square box" utilitarian mentality of Ayn Rand's Fountainhead


Even ordinary people become larger than life in the rainbow of this setting.


Maybe it's more like a Hollywood Set showing we are all just actors in some grand play.


Canyons of color in a sea of tranquility.


I like this window and the books. It makes me think of a writers room, a place to create vivid stories.


Driving back to the RV park we came upon the reality of the Alibi Bar and the gritty side of life.


We also found this regentrified older bungalow near the Balboa park.


Closer to the RV Park we passed the Coronado Bridge and sweeping landmark on the San Diego Skyline.


We later had dinner with Steven and Martha and got to try Martha's New Years Pasole
I didn't get Martha's recipe but I found this one on line. I know this isn't quite the same because Martha's had a hint of Cilantro but it will I've you a general idea of how it's made

NEW MEXICO PASOLE

1 to 2 onions, chopped
1 tbsp. cooking oil
2 lbs. pork, cubed
1 c. hominy
1 c. red chili sauce
1 tsp. salt
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp. oregano

In a large saucepan saute onions in oil, then brown pork. Add remaining ingredients and simmer, covered until pork is tender, about 4 hours. Serve in bowls, as soup, with crackers or warmed flour tortillas. Serve 6 to 8.

No scrabble

Quote of the Day

"Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men." ('The Fountainhead' 1943)