Coastline hikes

We waited a couple of days for the wind to drop before taking on our coastal headland walk just south of Morro Bay in the Montana de Oro area. There is no gold here, just hills covered in yellow flowers that the Spanish explorers referred to in naming this area. The trails follow the rocky peninsula and you could walk 20 miles but we settled for 5 miles along this stunning coast.

Morro Bay campground

Setting fire to a bunch of logs and sitting out for hors d'oeuvres and cocktails is an enjoyable way to start the evening especially as the fog rolls in from the cold Pacific Ocean. A dozen shucked oysters and a couple of scallops wrapped in prosciutto make for a pleasant appetizers, followed by blackened Alaskan halibut for dinner. Morro has so much fresh seafood it's just a joy to pick up a different treat each day from the seafood market at the harbor!

San Luis Obispo Farmers Market

This is undoubtedly the best Farmers' Market we have ever been to! Just six blocks of downtown that are closed down about an hour for setup before the 6 pm bell that strikes and kicks off trading. SLO is a land rich in small holding and diverse produce that showcases this market. Lots of food to go, lots of different ethnic styles, great produce and fruit, lots of variety of parallel products like flowers, nuts, cheeses, spices, olive oils, etc. and it's tremendous fun!

Morro Bay

Great dinner at the Galley overlooking Morro Bay and Morro Rock. Watched the sea lions frolicking in the harbor water along with a few otters playing and swimming on their backs.... we had blackened Pacific Rockfish and Petrale Sole straight off the fishing boat....

Dozen Grassy Bar Oysters

Quick visit to Giovanni's seafood in Morro Bay and a dozen local oysters for $15, then pre dinner shucking and tasting of raw oysters with either a squeeze of lemon or a dash of mignonette made with shallots, white balsamic and a dash of sweet white balsamic reduction.... Grassy Bars have a deep narrow shell and are medium size with quite a briny zing to them... this is how they are described: "Grassy Bar Oyster hits the palate with a strong, briny flavor of salt and the ocean followed by the unmistakeable freshness of garden cucumber and a lingering wet-river-stone minerality." Note that I had already downed four before I thought to take a photo!

Essex Emergency Management PIO

Unknown to most folks in our home town, one of my roles is Public Information Officer for Essex County VA EMS which means I get updates and alerts to be disseminated to our 10,000 population. The last couple of weeks have brought two significant snow and wind storms to Eastern Virginia so while enjoying the warm Borrego Springs and Palm Springs desert warmth I have been posting dire warnings to the local populace. The latest 4" snow warning hit their attention and was shared and read by over 25,000 people in the area!

Pineapple Express

Two days of torrential rain coming straight in from the Pacific Ocean left us surrounded by a lake in Oceano campground at Pismo Beach! Two to three inches of water at our door led to some serious footwear considerations and even buying flip flops... the rain stopped the night before our scheduled departure and next morning after 60 hours inside the Airstream we ventured out, the waters having receded enough for us to hook up and make our way to Morro Bay!

Pacific Ocean

Evening at Pismo Beach...

Beach Camping and ATV

The only beach in California you can drive on so it's trucks, ATV or OHV, campers, toy haulers and dune buggies galore for the ten mile long beach and the state park dune area adjoining the sea shore...

Pismo Beach

One of our successful plan-ahead reservations snagged us a spot in the small Oceano campground nestled in the strongly scented Eucalyptus trees. It's a short walk to a vast wide and ten mile long beach, one of the few beach state parks that still allows 4x4 vehicles and 4 legged animals!

Spidercam at Indian Wells ATP 1000

This is an amazing bit of technology in use at Indian Wells... The Spidercam system allows television cameras to move both vertically and horizontally over an area, such as a football field or a tennis court... The Spidercam system is modeled after Skycam, which was invented in the United States in 1984.

Spidercam operates with four motorized winches positioned at each corner of the stadium, each of which controls a Kevlar cable connected to a gyro-stabilized camera-carrier. By controlling the winding and unwinding of the cables, the system allows the camera to reach any position in the three-dimensional space. The Spidercam "pilot" commands are processed by software which forwards the commands to the winches via fiber optic cables. Two of the Kevlar cables also have fiber optic cables woven into them to carry commands to the camera and the remote head, and bring the camera's high definition signal back to the control station. The remote head, which houses the camera, provides pan and tilt movement and includes the lens remote which controls focus, zoom and irising. A gyro sensor in the dolly stabilises the horizon. A specially trained Spidercam camera operator controls the camera. 

Mediterranean dinner delights!

Super "Red Tomato" Middle Easter Market with real tandoori clay ovens and grilling pits supplied our wonderful dinner for ten for our family gathering! Lots of great treats including Halami grilled cheese, falafel balls, chicken kabob, lamb kabob, kofta kabob, baba ghanouj, tabouleh, olives, hummus, cucumber yogurt spread, house salad and tandoori breads! What a feast! Thank you Ben for selecting and taking care of the deficit! What did I forget?

Rancho Cucamonga overnight

There is always a first time - parking and sleeping on the street outside Jasmin's step-mother Wendy who lives in a northern part of Los Angeles! Almost the last street before the San Bernardino mountains! A 15 amp extension kept our fridge cold and our toes warm! [Wendy, Ben & David]

Catching up with family!

Quick 48 hour stopover in Rancho Cucamonga to meet up with Ben and Jasmin (a fast drive from SF to LA!) and 10 year old step-sister Ella. Dinner at home for ten extended family was a great way to bring us all together for the first time. Free courtesy camping on the dead-end street was so peaceful!

Happy!

Roger Federer is on court.... Margaret is overjoyed! .... why else would we be here!! I'm quite amazed how many folks it takes to play a simple tennis match! Today I counted 7 linesmen, 6 security guys, 10 ball boys/girls, 7 TV cameramen, 1 Tournament official, 1 announcer, 3 groundsmen, 1 umpire, and 2 players... Total 38... and that's only the ones I could see... and Roger won! Back on Wednesday for Roger's next round....

Borrego Springs Farmers’ Market

Pretty nice Farmers' Market in the Christmas Circle at the center of Borrego Springs with local produce looking very fresh and appealing - loaded up on lettuce, eggplant, hummus, sourdough ciabatta, cheese, oranges and strawberries! Had s long chat to the cheese vendor about Pink Floyd - a throwback to the 60's!

Galleria Meadows

Love the metal sculptures scattered across the desert around Borrego Springs especially the Chinese Dragon almost like a sea serpent that undulates on either side of the highway. These sculptures really add a major dose of desert character and intrigue to the Borrego Springs area and attract lots of visitors. The sculptures are well made, good quality construction, fairly accurate in their depiction and contrast well with their immediate environment. Horses, Tarantulas, Grasshoppers, Vineyard workers, Sabretooth Cat, Dinosaurs, Elephants, Camels and many more. Excellent couple of hours touring. Note they are located on both sides of town so make sure you get to see them all....

Down the gold mine!

Amazing that you have to crush one ton of quartz to get one ounce of gold. Hard work extracting the vertical 18" wide quartz rock vein from this mountain in Julian and processing it. This mine was worked for nearly 100 years and the yield was marginal. Bumped my head several times on low roof!

Twins!

Identical twins in Borrego Springs! Your unit friends Rich and Neesia from Vancouver WA! Had a nice drinks and hors d'oeuvres get together and swopped tons of ideas! Amazing same model, length, year and configuration!

Slot Canyoneering

About ten miles SE of Borrego Springs in the State Park there is a dry wash that becomes a slot canyon for about half a mile.... it's an exciting and tortuous trail as you get deeper and narrower into the slot and anyone with a husky figure might have a problem getting through with maybe 12" width in a couple of places. Rather than go around the full trail we just doubled back and hiked our way back up this exhilarating slot adventure to the trail head....