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.

Leaving Yosemite and Vasquez Rocks

The rain started last night and was so nice to listen to. California is getting some much needed moisture and the wildflowers are showing up.

 

We took the twisty road back down.

Then we took another one up which was more narrow than the last with one more back down.

In Coulterville the coffee shop lady suggested that we take the scenic route. That was not a good plan due to more of the ugly roads. We had checked with the person at the RV park desk before we left and he thought this was fine. Not so much.... They said "It is only 20 miles to Mariposa".

Coulterville was named after George Coulter, one of the first whites to come to the gold camp already populated by Chinese and Mexicans.

  Highway 120 winds through rolling hills dappled with heritage oaks, past picturesque small towns including Groveland where Gold Rush history was made, and on into the dramatic high country with  views of the majestic Sierra Nevada.

Our morning visitor after another night of rain.

 

We stopped in Santa Clarita for a couple of days in a Thousand Trails resort and felt there had to be something interesting here. There was a brown sign along the road side that said Vasquez Rocks so we had to check it out.

The famous Vasquez Rocks has been used as a film site for Star Trek (Captain Kirk battling the Gorn), Blazing Saddles, The Flintstones and many others. The Pacific Crest Trail runs right through the park, and that there is a rich history that includes ancient Native American petroglyphs.

And westerns

 

 

In the canyon, you’ll see holes in the canyon walls with bird markings. There are owls that nest in there.

 

  Vasquez Rocks is named after notorious bandit Tiburcio Vásquez, America's most infamous Hispanic bandit who used the rocky region to elude capture from California law enforcement in 1873 and 1874.

The PCT runs through the Rocks.

Poison Oak and its cousin the Poodle dog brush are a couple of elements to be dealt with on this section of the Pacific Crest Trail. This part of the trail is definitely a winter endeavor for those intrepid thru hikers. The sun became pretty uncomfortable just the short time we were out there.

Some interesting pictographs