Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Mission Bay Out-Takes

We were there, at Campland on the Bay, from January 7th to February 24th. Our one departure came on January 27th, when we rented a car and drove to Oceanside for the first of our Moderna vaccinations. Through her usual ingenuity and persistence, Vicki got us early reservations on California's My Turn website. We took advantage of the car rental to see more of Mission Bay, the ocean beach, San Diego Old Town, and Oceanside harbor. Otherwise it was pretty much the same daily routine: sleep in as much as possible, read news/internet/etc., do Duolingo (I'm on a ten-week streak in French!), have brunch/lunch, go for an afternoon walk generally approaching 10,000 steps, sometimes more, rest, fix/eat dinner, watch MSNBC, read news/internet, etc. In addition, after watching The Queen's Gambit, I've taken up playing chess with the computer (lichess.org mainly). Alas, I've not progressed much in these two months: Stockfish #3 routinely routs me, and I can barely hold my own with Stockfish #2. But I pretty much know the rules, if not the strategies and tactics. Vicki watched the entire Outlander series, again, and is still disappointed in my lack of resemblance to Jamie. We are watching Men in Kilts now, together, so perhaps she still has hope. We took few pix over our nearly two months on Mission Bay, except for our outings, but enough for the customary out-takes.

The area apparently has a problem with giant rats...

Surfing on the beach south 
In Old Town, the original site of early San Diego

Excellent signage


19th century Old Town hotel

Big first shot day

In "recovery" after my first shot; neither of us had any side
effects, apart from sore arms

First sighting for me: a vertical take-off/landing craft


Dutch van?

Another first for me; I'll be really impressed when they can
train cats for paddle boarding



Near La Jolla, at the French Gourmet restaurant (with patio
dining); we liked it well enough to make the six mile round-trip
for brunch twice, en pied
N
The beach just south of La Jolla, Valentine's Day






























What, your town doesn't have an indoor axe-throwing parlor?


Friday, January 22, 2021

On Mission Bay

January 6th we decamped, bade farewells, and began our drive south to our new temporary home, Campland on the Bay, an RV park on Mission Bay, in San Diego.

January 6th.... As I was driving, Vicki began picking up reports of the assault on the Capitol, the insurrection, just after we passed through Gilroy and began across Pacheco Pass. The reports continued all afternoon and into the evening. We were appalled, of course, though hardly surprised. It has been building toward this since Oklahoma City, or before, and Trump's encouragement, as the authoritarian wannabe and white nationalist-in-chief, has been a central feature of his administration. Wednesday, January 20th, we joined with most of the rest of the world in breathing a heavy sigh of relief as Joe Biden was inaugurated. But the dunghills of racism, extremism, and authoritarianism remain, still very much intact. Other than fixing the climate, the pandemic, and the economy—what president has ever faced greater challenges?--Biden could help us toward greater unity by seeing that Trump's manifold transgressions are fully exposed, offering his followers the opportunity to see how they have been duped by him and his political party. But I digress.

We have been at Campland now for more than two weeks, not doing much except reading and going for walks in the area. The weather is slightly warmer than Middle California, even to the point of days with short sleeves once or twice. The major change in our routine is that we hooked Le Sport's TV up to the campground cable and have been watching MSNBC in the evenings. Our other pastime is playing the national Covid19 vaccine sweepstakes. We have appointments late in February but keep hoping something earlier will open up.

Mission Bay...an entirely human-made expanse, post-WWII,
dredging the tidal wetlands, building a variety of parks, marinas,
trails, golf courses, etc. Now, of course, the city wants to take
back much of what was built and return it to wetlands; sic transit,
Gloria














Among the largest RV parks we have seen, 500 spaces; with
all the amenities, although many are closed now; the campground
is about half full; we're parked just up from the beach














Our encampment, with Clam screenhouse


















We're about 200 feet from the campground beach
























On one of our daily walks, local flora

Local sculpture
























A building we like, near the (ocean) beach


















The beach and (now disused) pier at Pacific Beach, 2 miles'
walk from our campsite


















Looking south



















Part of the naval presence in San Diego; an assault ship, I think

















Another day, squalls moving in

Surf's up
















Downtown San Diego, from Mission Bay


Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Fun-filled Family Christmas, 2020

Our 2020 Christmas probably was better than most. Hunkered down in our RV, in elder daughter Rebecca's Menlo Park driveway, we got to spend it with half our immediate family--we zoomed Christmas day with the other half, younger daughter Rachel, in DC--and the center of attention, of course, was grand-daughter Penelope, approaching ten years old and a self-proclaimed Tween. Though the gifts she received favored the elder side of Tweendom, she reverted to the younger side on Christmas morning, one more time, much to our enjoyment. 

Things hadn't changed much in the neighborhood













Christmas Past and Christmas Present...a gingerbread house we
made a few years back...and a gingerbread RV we made this year
(Penelope's idea) (from Rebecca's archives)






































There were many big presents, but one of the favorites was
a Sephora make-up kit from Auntie Rachel (note digital
hearth)

P is really into make-up, despite the fact she is
not allowed out of the house with it...
The other big area of interest is Harry
Potter, and this HP backpack from 
Auntie Carole was a similar hit




Christmas brunch; somehow I failed to get pix of the Christmas
eve fondues, cheese and later meat and seafood; and still later the
Christmas day charcuterie and cheese board and then the
chocolate fondue... 
Will and Rachel in their holiday
onesies
Applying make-up to Grandma in the camper

Grandma, made-up
P with some of her make-up "haul"

I did not escape un-made-up

Us, Christmas, 2020; note the Christmas Family Vacation 
Wally World eggnog moose cup

Rubber Duckie New Year's greetings at a neighbor's house

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Return To Middle California, 2020; Again; And Scenes Along The Way

Our autumn return to Middle California was hastened by increasingly cold sub-freezing weather and the continuing COVID-19 super-surge. After cautiously re-stocking at the Walmart in Livingston (maybe 70% wore masks!), we took two days driving across the Lone Star State, many memories of our 13 years as Texans returning, Proust-like ("all them memories come floodin' back"), many of them good, some not, then entered New Mexico, briefly, and on into Arizona. We'd arranged to visit Montana friends Fred and Lynda for lunch at their home near Tucson, and eventually did, after spending a few days in the national forest hills above Patagonia, very near our Glorious Leader's Big Beautiful Wall, Border Patrol and private security force trucks whizzing by our campsite frequently. Anyhow, after a brief and socially-distanced but wonderful stop in Tucson, we got word of another looming lock-down in California, the Bay area actually jumping the starter gun, and so we made the jump to hyper-speed, arriving in Menlo Park Sunday afternoon. Here began our 2020 fun-filled family Christmas holidays. 

Excellent signage at the Escapees' Rainbow's End, near Livingston, TX
Among the more interesting rigs...
Our travels since September took us through both the upper and lower
tiers of Trumpistan, a representation of which, now diminished since the 
election and its long aftermath, I offer for our readers' edification


Somewhere west, or possibly east, of the Pecos, Le Sport turned 100k

Interesting rocks along the way, reminding us we'd pass by Joshua
Tree NP along the way

Remains of Harshaw, AZ, hyper-ghost town


We were camped but a few hundred feet down the road

With Fred Skinner, a former board chair I served in Montana; I swear
we were six feet apart until the photog said move closer together; we
were there, among other reasons, to help celebrate Indiana U Press'
accepting his Beethoven book for publication

Unfortunate snake impaled on a cactus in Fred and
Lynda's yard
Excellent signage at an AZ rest area; rest at your own risk

Christmas decor in our RV,  done by Vicki and grand-
daughter Penelope

Still my favorite Xmas decor, our Montana nativity scene, on loan 
to Rebecca