bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- We left early again to go to the Farmers Market in Little Italy. We easily found a parking place at a meter about a block away. The Farmers Market was 5 blocks long,  and is San Diego’s largest. We walked into the middle of the market, so we walked uphill on one side, then downhill on the other side, then back uphill to the middle.

We tried a lot of different foods, such as salsas, cheesecake parfaits, fruits, cheeses, breads etc. We purchased some Mexican Chocolate almonds, oranges and strawberries.

We returned to the MH and followed the Old Town Trolley La Jolla tour route. Our first stop was at the Mt. Soledad Memorial. There was a bike race going on, so we had to avoid bicycles on the mountain.

We traveled down the mountain and followed the tour to La Jolla Cove and La Jolla beach. We found a 30 minute parking place and ran down to the park.

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Above, there was a wedding going on. I can’t think of a prettier place to have a wedding! There was an indoor pavilion, where we could see the gifts on the table. Outside, there was a quartet playing music. We walked around the wedding to avoid disturbing the ceremony

Our 30 minutes were over and we drove around the town of La Jolla. This is the famous La Valencia Hotel, where many of the old movie stars used to stay. It was knows as “The Pink Lady”.

We stopped at the museum to take a picture with the rock egg.

We stopped in Pacific Beach to visit the Crystal Pier. There was a gate, but pedestrians were allowed on the pier. There were cottages right on the pier.

We continued south, going through Mission Beach, then Belmont Park, where there is an amusement park. We left the beach, and went to Old Town to lunch. We could not find parking! There was construction and we rode around and around looking to park. We finally gave up and went to a Mexican carryout in the Hilltop area. Bob had a fish taco meal and I had a shrimp taco meal.

We went back towards the beach, with our destination Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma.

There was a line to drive into the park. A Ranger was standing in the road, and he directed the cars. Since we have the National Park pass, we were sent to the right and drove right in. The first area on the peninsula, was the Lagoons. The parking was full in this area, but we took this picture from the top of the hill.

We continued up to the parking lot, and walked to the Visitor Center. I stamped my pass book, and we walked out to take a look at the scenery.

Note the Hotel Del Coronado in the distance!

Above is the monument  to Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. He started his epic voyage 50 years after Columbus discovered America. He sailed north from Mexico into uncharted waters. No one knows where he was born or where he is buried. He gained prominence as a crossbowman in the conquest of the Aztec Capital Tenochtitlan by Hernan Cortes. He also helped to conquer and settle Guatemala. He became a wealthy landowner and shipbuilder.

Here is the Point Loma Lighthouse. It was dedicated in 1851, completed in 1854, and the Fresnel lens was put in November of 1855. It  stands 422 feet above sea level and overlooks both the bay and the ocean.

 

We returned to the car and drove back to the MH after walking over 5 miles today!

Sunday- We left early to go back to Old Town to catch the Old Town Trolley again. Today we got off at the Embarcadero.  We walked over to the USS Midway.

We walked out to the water, and here was a famous statue! There are several of these around the country.

 

Behind the statue, was this Bob Hope memorial.

We walked back to the Visitor Center and purchased our tickets to the Maritime Museum. The Visitor Center sells the tickets at a discount, plus we get a senior discount, $12 each.  We walked to the museum and turned in our tickets to get our hands stamped. They also gave us info on the Chocolate Festival going on today at the museum. We went on to the ship that is the real ship, from which a replica was used in Pirates of the Caribbean. Bob sampled beer and chocolate and I sampled wine and chocolate. You were given five total samples, but hey, it was included in the price!

We toured the ship, then moved to the Russian submarine. The Russian sub was very small. We had to climb through these holes.

Everything was very small. This is the officer’s washroom.

Bob in the engine room.

We left the sub and moved to the Berkley. This was the ferry that crossed the bay to Coronado until they built the bridge.

On the upper floor was more of the Chocolate Festival. It was very crowded, so we grabbed our very small samples and left. I walked around the gift shop and Bob went to tour the American sub.

The American sub had doors and a periscope. The Russian sub was much smaller with the holes to climb through.

We left and walked back to the Trolley stop. We went to Coronado to lunch. We got on the next trolley and made it to Balboa Park for the Spreckel’s Organ Concert.  The organ is the largest outdoor  pipe organ in the world. It was built by the Austin Organ Co of Hartford CT and deeded to San Diego on January 1, 1915. It has 4,725 pipes, comprising 76 ranks.

We visited the Visitor Center and took a map of the park. The building below is the San Diego Museum of Art. There are three original buildings from the 1915-16 Pan American  Exposition. This is one of them. 

This is the Visitor Center which is a second building.

We walked down the El Prado, passing the Botanical Garden and Lily pond.

We walked over to the  Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden.

Next to the rose garden, was the cactus garden. San Diego is a desert city.

We crossed back across the bridge and stopped at the fountain.

This artist was standing in the corner. The White Man, is a live statue.

We continued back down El Prado to the Botanical Garden, the third original building. The wood lath structure was built in 1915 and houses more than 2,000 tropical plants. Currently, Iris’s were blooming.

This last plant above, smelled like cherry chocolate!

We wandered back out of the building and walked across the bridge looking out from the Botanical Garden building.

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We walked back towards the Plaza de Panama. On the way we passed this juggler.

There were lots of onsite performers playing instruments and there was even a guy teaching how to use a hoopla hoop!

We wandered over to these statues.

We stood in line for the trolley. While waiting, the organ concert ended with The National Anthem!

We got back on the trolley and Hatch was again the driver. He was the best one in the two days that we traveled on the trolley.

We returned to Old Town, got in the car, and returned to the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista, having walked over 5 miles today! We returned home and collapsed after eating dinner.

Monday- Today is a quieter day. Bob took the sheets and towels to a laundromat to wash them while I stayed and washed clothes. Lisa Nelson, the dog groomer, arrived and she took the dogs to groom them in her mobile RV.

Bob returned and we ate lunch. We got the dogs back at around 1:30. We left and went to Petsmart for some dog food, then off to Walmart to grocery shop. Not a Walmart that we will ever go to again. It was small and very crowded. We were about 5 miles north of the border so it was very different.

We returned to the MH and I tried to get my computer fixed. I had downloaded Google Photos, which is supposed to replace Picasa and it crashed my computer. What a pain!

We ate dinner, watched TV and went to bed.

Tuesday-  Today we left and went back to Balboa Park, taking the dogs with us. We parked and walked the dogs up to the Plaza de Panama, and then down to the Globe theater. We stopped at the Alcazar Gardens on the way, but nothing was blooming.

Above is the San Diego Museum of Man.

Shakespeare memorial.  Below is the Japanese Garden . They charge extra to go into this garden. The other gardens are free.

Above is what the Spreckel’s Organ enclosure looks like when it is not open, Below is a new Mom’s exercise class. Note the baby buggies and the mom’s doing steps onto the benches. Note all the baby buggies on the left side.

We returned to the car and had two cars waiting for our parking spot. We needed to water the dogs, so they just had to wait.

We left and traveled to Fiesta Island. This island is an off leash dog park with 2.7 miles of  beach. Dogs are allowed everywhere on the island, but we went to the fenced in area, which is huge. Here are the pups…

Out on the beach.

There were a lot of dogs around. Some in the water swimming and fetching. There was lots of butt sniffing and barking with joy! Roxie would run, stop and dig, then run again. She did this several times.

Below is the view from the beach. Note the color difference. The brown area, lower on the horizon, is the marine layer. That is not smog. It burns off in the morning and comes back in the evening. San Diego does not have a lot of smog because it is very windy.

I became cold and wanted to go back to the car. Bob kept going with the dogs. As I was walking back, Karlie caught up with me. I sent her back to Bob. She went half way to some man, stopped, said to herself, that is not Bob and ran back to me. Bob was waving to her on the hill. Roxie was right with him. I sent Karlie back again, she went to the man again, then spotted Bob. She took off like lightening.

They walked for a bit, then Karlie got worried that I was lost and had to track me back to the car.

We left and stopped at an In ‘N  Out Burger for lunch, then returned to the MH and took a much needed nap.

I finally got Picasa going and worked on the blog up until we went to the Elks Lodge for dinner. We had tacos, which were just okay.

We returned and I finished with the photos and the blog for last week.

Wednesday-  Moving day!  These are the social spots at this Elks Lodge.

We left the Elks at about 8:50, driving north on I-805 to Freeway 54, which took us to I-8. We turned east on I-8. The trip was really windy. We kept seeing permanent signs; the first said strong winds next 63 miles, then 43 miles, then 23 miles… It was really howling. We are so high profile, so we drove 40 mph. It was a long ride through rocks.

We dropped down, still in California, onto desert, where the temperature skyrocketed. We went from the low 70’s to the high 90’s in 4,000 ft  drop in elevation. I don’t think I want to take this route again!

We stopped at a pretty awful truck stop for a small amount of diesel, so that we could make it into Arizona, where the diesel is less expensive.

We needed something for lunch, so while Bob was fueling, I walked down the block to a Subway. It was a hot walk! I returned, we ate lunch, and continued on our way.

We  stopped at the Flying J truck stop at Fortuna Road, $2.05 gal/diesel. We liked that price! We arrived at Fortuna de Oro RV park at around 2. We went straight to our site and starting setting up. They do not really have a place to stop and pay, so we had been told which was our site and to head over there. We went to the office to pay at about 3:30, but they do not take credit cards after 1 PM. They would have been happy to write down the number and placed in the safe until tomorrow morning. We politely declined. Weird!

We met up with friends and went out to dinner at The Copper Miner restaurant, with Marian / Marvin and Paula / Charlie. We had a great time and a nice meal.

Thursday- The rally actually begins today. I did my walk around the park.  We received our packets which included our calendars for the next few days. We stopped on our way out of the park to pay for two nights. We had received a coupon for three free nights when we were in Quartszite, so we also used that. What a great deal!

We went over to Marianna’s rig. Marianna is our friend from the Westminster Elks Lodge. She and Fred are staying at a different resort.  She cut Bob’s hair. She told us that the Westminster Elks Lodge is full right now, which is early. She, Fred and Paul ( all who winter in Yuma each year) are leaving tomorrow and heading up there. When she gets there, she is going to check on a site for us, as we already have doctor appointments set up starting 25th.

We went to Walmart and grocery shopped, then returned, I ran to the beauty shop in the park to get my hair done, we ate lunch, and did some tasks around the MH. At around 2, I went to Barb Zelke’s rig to pick up my material for the weaved basket we are making tomorrow. I had to do some sewing prior to tomorrow morning, so I was trying to get that completed.

At 5, we went to social hour and at 6 there was heavy hors d’oeuvres for dinner. We had a great time catching up with friends.

Friday-  After my walk, we went to the sports pavilion for coffee and doughnuts. The doughnuts were awesome; they are from The Doughnut Corral, an Mennonite bakery, so you can imagine how good they are.

We returned to the MH and I started working on shortening our curtains. They are too long, and I have been meaning to shorten them but have just not gotten to it. Since I had all my sewing stuff out, it made sense to work on this project. Bob and I measured and cut one. Now that I have the dimensions, the other five will be easier.

At 11, I went to the poker room for the basket weaving. We all had a great ladies bonding time. Here is a picture of my completed basket.

At 2, I had a mani/pedi scheduled, so I ran over to the beauty shop. The gal had a family issue and had to cancel, so I rescheduled for Monday. I returned to the basket making.

When we finished at around 3, I returned home and worked on the curtains and finishing the basket.

I ran over to the office and picked up a package. My Fitbit arrived as well as a new harness for Roxie.

It started to rain, so they moved the pot luck dinner to the restaurant patio, which was covered. At  5 we drove over there for the social hour and then the pot luck dinner.

The pot luck became exciting. Since the rally was providing  the meat, the wagon masters were cooking hamburgers, brats and chicken. The grill smoked up the whole place. Finally, the fire alarm went off, and they had to cancel the fire department. The cook from the resort had to break the lock on the alarm door to turn the darn thing off. It was  very loud!

We had a fun time chatting with friends, Donna, Alan and John. Suddenly, my chair banged, and a plate flew across me and fell between Bob and I. It turned out the lady sitting next to me had tripped on my chair and went flying. Her plate fell between Bob and I and broke. She flew thru the air and landed on the floor, face down; she was bleeding profusely and was unconscious.

911 was called, and this lady had three retired nurse, one retired paramedic, and one firefighter assisting. We of course did not move her. We just kept pressure on the cut that was leaving a puddle of blood on the floor. One older man came up to me and wanted to give the lady oxygen. She was alert by this time, knew where she was and who she was, she was pink and breathing well, so I told him no thank you. He became very insistent. I finally had to tell him I was a nurse and that we were not giving her oxygen. Unless someone is turning blue, and you know their medical history, you would not want to give them oxygen, as that could potentially blow off their CO2 and make them stop breathing. Our group assessment was that she was stable.

911 arrived, with about six personnel. That is a lot! They loaded her up and took her to the hospital. Since it was a mechanical fall and she had a period of being unconscious, they kept her overnight. They put in stiches and did an MRI to check for a sub-dermal hematoma.

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