Feb. 22-26. Pacific Beach, CA

Yummm. Something called Dragon’s Hash for brunch on Friday at a little place just off of Cass and Felspar called Isabel’s Cantina. 

Our pampering continues after brunch with pedicures. 

Saturday we biked north up through La Jolla and on into Delmar.  Our weather has been steadily improving and getting sunnier and warmer everyday. 

At Delmar we started exploring an alternate ride back south and found an excellent bike trail along Interstate 5 including this very nice pedestrian overpass. 

After walking and biking Saturday we decided to make it a tri-modal day by trying out Lime electric scooters to go visit friends Dave and Cindy Muhleisen staying in Mission Beach.  The scooters worked very well and I expect we’ll use them again. 

Dave and Cindy are our daughters in-laws from Lincoln, NE. We let Cindy spoil us as she chauffeured us up to Torrey Pines to see the hang gliders and the famous golf course followed by a trip to Old Town and a late lunch at the Alamo Mexican Grill.   It was a great day. 

I’m always amazed watching these brave and skilled people slope soar over the cliffs of Torrey Pines. 

Around 9am on Monday Angela thanks me with a kiss as the warm morning allows us to take in the beautiful Pacific scenery while eating breakfast on the deck of the Lahaina Beach House Bar and Grill. 

Monday afternoon we basked in the sun and read on our cottages patio. 

Monday evening after drinks we enjoyed watching the sunset from the patio of Dave and Cindy’s ocean front rental.  Very nice. 

Tuesday the 26th was another chance to explore by bikes, this time south to the very cool and quirky town of Ocean Beach, where it still seems like it’s the 70’s!!

We closed out our day celebrating Taco Tuesday and two for one Marg’s at the PB Cantina, on Garnet,  a short walk from our cottage. 

Cheers!!

Feb. 18-21. Pacific Beach, CA

On Tuesday Feb. 19 we took a 16 mile bike ride around Mission Bay.  San Diego has a great network of paths and bikeways around their coastal towns. 

Looking to the SSE to my right you can see downtown San Diego’s skyline over the Bay. 

Nothing like an active day of bike riding and walking to make Angela become possessive of both hers and my dinner at the Fish Shop, a few blocks from our cottage. 

Who said it “Never Rains in Southern California”! Wednesday and Thursday have been mostly cloudy with occasional showers.   We’ve still been spending a lot of time outside but also cocooning a little bit in our cottage reading or napping. 

 

Our two cats, Stella and Max, also enjoy cocooning as well as watching passer-by’s through the windows. 

After a breakfast on Thursday morning we took a 7.5 mile walk south along Mission Bay and back north up the Pacific Beach boardwalk.

We stopped with a few miles left to go to enjoy the brief appearance of the sun and a capacinno. 

We’ve found a local dealer for an evil, nefarious drug known on the street as “soft-serve” called Mr. Frosties. Mr. Frosties gets you hooked on the gateway dessert called “small cone” for only $1.45. It’s a slippery slope to the harder stuff like hot fudge sundaes and banana splits. We’re clearly in danger.  

Feb. 15-17 Pacific Beach

Our first 3 hours of driving west ovet the Rockies on Interstate 70 happened to coincide with the swarm of people from states further east and Coloradans swarming up to Summit County for fresh powder at places like Breck,  Keystone, Copper Mountain and Vail over the long Presidents Day weekend.  It was slow going, even though the roads were mostly dry and clear, taking us 3 hours to go 85 miles from our home in Boulder County to Silverthorne for our first pit stop and lunch. 

Only 520 more miles to our overnight stay in Cedar City, Utah!!

We could have taken a slightly longer route south on I-25 and I-40 west across New Mexico but we really enjoy driving across the mountains and into the canyon lands of Utah.  Such beautiful landacapes, colors and relative desolation.  The older we get, the less we like the crowds and the more we enjoy solitude and open spaces. 

Less than an hour before sunset we make a short stop at a lonely rest area in central Utah and see this glorious horizon looking back to the east. 

Saturday morning the 16th we awoke to 3” of fresh snow in Cedar City.  It was a nice surprise and appropriate send off to SoCal that day. 

After crossing the deserts of Nevada and California we arrive in Pacific Beach around 3pm to see the western sky glowing over the Pacific and silhouetted palm trees. Ahhhhhh. 

Shortly after settling our things in our little one bedroom cottage we hopped on our bikes and filled up our panniers with the initial groceries for our 3 week stay, heading back to our house on Reed Ave. just before the sun sets. 

It’s nice to be at the beach in warmer weather!  Our first day we jumped into action with a 9 mile walk to reacquaint ourselves with Pacific/Mission Beach and make up for sitting in a car for the last two days!  Time to start settling into beach life!!