We awoke abruptly January 15th to a National Weather Service tsunami warning (maybe it was an advisory), stemming from an undersea volcano explosion near Tonga (in the South Pacific), urging everyone in San Diego's coastal areas to stay away from the beach, where waves of 1-3 feet were expected. 1-3 feet. As a result, no doubt, the roads to Pacific Beach, a mile from here, became immediately clogged by cars carrying surfboards and anything else that might catch a wave. T-shirt makers presumably are already marketing their "I survived the 2022 tsunami in San Diego" wares.
I suppose we are in fact in a coastal area, about 200 feet from a beach on Mission Bay, a little over a mile to the actual ocean. Mission Bay, as I noted in a previous post, is a completely man-made "bay," dotted with islands and peninsulas and such, and featuring an assortment of parks, trails, nature reserves, marinas, beaches, golf courses, athletic fields, and, of course, Campland on the Bay, a campground where we are presently and pleasantly ensconced. It's all on landfill, 8-10 feet above the bay's dredged out water level, which is entirely protected from the ocean except by a narrow channel. Subsequent visual inspection of the bay by me revealed its usual glassy surface. If the tsunami in fact got into Mission Bay, it was probably about the size of the tidal bore we saw in Moncton, New Brunswick, 50 or so years ago, which we pronounced a total bore.
We didn't venture outside to witness the tsunami on the bay because--horrors!--it was raining. Rain is not what one comes to San Diego for, and on this day it has caused us to completely revise our plan of activities. Just what one might expect on the Ides. Instead of continuing the camper waxing project, Vicki is baking scones. We may have to delay or even cancel our daily walk. We are now regularly doing around 15,000 steps a day. But, our other daily activities, cooking, reading, planning future travels, churning credit cards, working on the camper, watching assorted videos or TV, will continue. If nothing else, the tsunami and rain have given me the pretense needed to post again, after a couple weeks of inactivity. Be safe.
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| Undersea volcanic eruption |
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| Mission Bay from outer space |
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| The wolves of capitalism never sleep |
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| Although there were vestiges of the previous day's rain all around, there was only one sad fatality... |
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| The 1-3 foot waves of the tsunami apparently were too much for her diminutive stature...RIP, Barbie |
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