La Jolla, CA

It's no surprise that La Jolla is one of the most popular beach destinations in California. Surrounded on three sides by the sea and backed by the steep slopes of Mt. Soledad, La Jolla is always such a beautiful destination with a temps that rarely drops below 50 degrees or exceeds 90 degrees.

The roads in and out of La Jolla are narrow and can get pretty congested, parking at La Jolla shores fills up quickly. Unfortunately, the trains don't get you close enough to get to the beach in this area.  Once you get parked and take a breath, it is just blue and beautiful.

There are so many VWs all around.

The rocks get pretty slick when wet. I took a digger when I slipped and had a pretty sore wrist for a while.

We didn't check the tides and got here during high tide which limited our tidal pool walk.

A sea wall to a house on the ocean. Is it there to keep the water or people out. Probably both.

We were taking a rest under this stop and met a very nice couple from the Great Britain. We sat and visited about their travels for a while.  

This seawall was built so children would have a safe place away from the waves to swim. It didn't take long for the seals and sea lions to take over.

La Jolla Cove is San Diego’s most desirable spot for kayaking, snorkeling and diving. The water is calm and ecologically protected, providing a safe home for colorful garibaldi, yellowtail, rays and even leopard sharks.

Somewhat hidden with alluring curves and caves, it is often cited as the most photographed beach in San Diego. This ocean view's striking beauty simply cannot be overstated even with stinky critters on the beach.

Lately, the increasingly territorial animals have started blocking swimmers from getting into the water, forcing people to walk back and forth on the beach until they can find a safe opening to enter the ocean. One even went so far as to bite a swimmer wearing a wetsuit at the water’s edge.

Lots of mysteries around this box. What do lifeguards keep locked up in a small metal box on a post? Spare speedos? 

 

 Is it a form of memorial to a body surfer who drowned, called David C Freeman?

 

Or is it that Boomers has a strong rip tide pulling out to sea between the call box and the green shack, making the beach quite hazardous.

During the summer Boomers Beach has a lifeguard part of the time, with the box being used by lifeguards to call in additional help when needed.

The box used to be open to allow the public (or Boomers locals) to call for help when lifeguards were not present (looks locked now).

Oceanside

What a great week we have had living across the street from the ocean in our little RV park. We can take a morning walk or ride our bikes as we listen to the waves crashing along the 3.5 mile long beach. Now that I have finished my first week at work and orientation, I have to say that I am going to like it here working at a community hospital and some very nice people.

 

Historic Oceanside Pier is one of the longest wooden piers on the West Coast, spanning 1,942 feet in length.

The walk from where we live to the pier is 1 1/2 miles each way. Add walking on the pier and up the street for coffee, we get about 4 miles in with plenty of people watching

Fishing poles and  bait are available for rent right on the pier. No fishing license required. Plenty of people bring their fishing gear on a special cart. Some of the older people look like they might not make it out to the pier but just keep moving until they get to their spot and look pretty content.

 

San Diego’s North Shore, Oceanside is a classic California beach community with its warm sandy beaches, historic wooden pier with unlimited water sports and recreation. We need to get the kayak out and recreate soon. Most of the time, we just splash our feet in the surf.

 With its year round sunny climate, and average temperature of 70 degrees, Oceanside’s weather has been rated as the second most ideal climate in the United States, and the fifth most ideal weather in the world.

 

Riding our bikes along the ocean and then the San Luis Rey Rails Trail, it seems everyone is outside playing one way or another on the weekend.

Fortunately, my contract covers our housing expenses. This cement slab with full hookups and a daily newspaper goes from $900 per month to $2200 starting Memorial weekend. These are discounted monthly rates. The nightly rates go from $70 to $120 for the cheap, sites which we live in on Memorial Day and an additional $30 premium for Memorial and 4th of July weekends. You can imagine what people pay for the premium sites.

I found the entrances and doorways to homes interesting on our morning walk along Ocean Drive.

 

As we walk there are public access to the beach between the condo and houses.

What a nice treat to find the farmer's market that we would visit when we lived in Carlsbad previously is still here.

After so much sightseeing and moving around the past few weeks, it is good to settle down and just enjoy the area for a while. Don't doubt for a minute that we will be ready to head out once my contract if finished. But for now, 7pm we grab out beach chairs and head across the street for sunset.

 

Bike ride in Temecula's wine country

Living in Calsbad,  CA, north of San Diego, and working in Escondido 12 years ago, we never made it over the hills to Temecula. While stopping in a Thousand Trails in Menifee it seemed to be a good time to check it out.

 Old Town district with history dating back to the early 1800's, has many boutiques, theaters, and museums dotted along its wooden boardwalk and we enjoyed walking around.  Rosa's was a good choice for some Carne Asada and reasonably priced.

Pretty fancy city hall. Temecula has remained small since it is surrounded by ranches and not a lot of places for sprawl.

Some of the artsy places.

We also took a bike ride through the wine country on a route I found online. We didn't have a printer so I wrote down the directions of the ride sheet and left out one street. That added a couple of miles. Riding in wine country anywhere can be a workout since most vineyards are planted on hills for drainage. This route met that criteria.

The cactus were in bloom.

We didn't do any tasting since we still had 12 more miles to go. Make that 14 since I messed up the directions.

More than 30 wineries and plenty of spas.

Rural in nature, sustainable in farming practices and including an agricultural preserve known as the Citrus/Vineyard zone.  Less than 60 miles north of San Diego, California and 90 miles southeast of Los Angeles, California lies Temecula Valley. Temecula has built a reputation for being the wine country of Southern California.

It turned into a very nice ride through some nice places. The traffic was nothing compared to that in Napa. But I can imagine the weekends can get pretty busy.

I really liked these cactus flowers with the bee on the left. So I had to add another with a bee that Mike took.