Didn't have to go far to see this. The Annual Hash House Harriers Red Dress Fun Run was last night and the 500 runners(?) went right past the beach house after a beer stop at the Mission Bay Woman's Club. (Why isn't it called Women's Club?) Hash House Harriers is a world wide "drinking club with a running problem" and they have several runs a week and has members of all ages. This Red Dress Run is probably their most popular event in San Diego. It looked like they were having a lot of fun, if we lived here I think [View Full Entry]

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We just returned from another week long sea kayaking trip with the Mar y Adventuras located in La Paz, Baja CA Sur. This was Joe's fifth and my second Baja kayak trip with this company. This website describes this particular trip. http://www.kayakbaja.com/trips/baja.html Five years ago we went on their "Island Hopping" kayak trip, which focused a little more on seeing different cultural sites. Once again we opted to drive to Mexico and had no problems coming or going. Although we went through a total of 15 military checkpoints and our car was searched several times, the soldie [View Full Entry]

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We began a 7 day houseboat trip on March 19 on Lake Powell in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. I was looking forward to this trip because the plans were to spend the majority of the time in the Escalante arm, an area of the lake I'd never seen. We camped the first night near the "Cookie Jar" formation in Padre Bay, then three nights in Willow Creek in Escalante, one night in Oak Canyon and the last night back in Padre Bay. We used a smaller motorboat for lots of side canyon exploring. We enjoyed beautiful weather with the exception [View Full Entry]

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March 8, 2009 Carmel has to be one of the most charming towns in the country. I believe the shops and homes on the hilly tree-lined streets have jumped out of some fairy tale. We had breakfast with Frank and Gloria and Frank’s Fresno high school buddies at the popular Katy’s Place. Joe and I shared the Swedish pancakes (crepes filled with berries) and if we would be so lucky to live here, we’d become Katy’s regulars. We all went back to the beautiful house where the Fresno gang was staying for an hour, then Joe and I headed south down [View Full Entry]

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March 9, 2009 What fun to take our time drinking coffee and eating breakfast with good friends! We finally decided to get outside to take advantage of the CALM sunny morning. We climbed the lighthouse, and then ventured down to the ridge overlooking the elephant seals' hangout. And there we sat with the sun on our backs for at least an hour, our eyes glued to the scene below us. There were six giant papas weighing around 4000 pounds each, a few feminine-faced cows, and dozens of good-sized pups that had been weaned and left by their mothers. I was constantly [View Full Entry]

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March 10, 2009 Everybody else was up early, but I slept in until almost nine missing a good part of another sunny calm morning. We were all out in front of the flagpole at ten for our official tour of the Piedras Blancas area. Our guide was a retired college professor from Cambria and his specialty was soil, so he knew a lot about the flora of the area. For over two hours we were educated in lighthouse keeping, whale spotting, “first peoples” abalone middens, bobcat track finding, the gestation period of the elephant seals, exotic ice plant eradication, gardening in [View Full Entry]

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They don't call the Salinas River Valley the Salad Bowl of the World for no reason. I just had to touch and smell that dark brown soil for myself today. It seems just about anything will grow here and every inch of land is used for something. I was astonished to read that farmland here goes for $35,000 an acre, that's a bit of a difference than Kansas farmland. We've seen thousands of acres of strawberries, lettuce, grapes, cauliflower, beans, onions, artichokes, and there were many fields where we had no idea what was growing there. It was fitting that we [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Monterey last night and are happy with our $59 a night hotel. This is a slow time of year for the area and there are good deals to be had in nice places. Our drive up started out slow with bumper to bumper traffic through L.A., but after that it was all wonderful. I loved Santa Barbara, wish we could have spent some time there. Dave, we drove through Goleta but didn't have time to look for Deckers...maybe on the way back. We were on 101 so we saw lots of agricultural areas and dark fertile soil. The [View Full Entry]

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The Bay of Islands Day 73 December 13, 2008 We’ve got this place a little more figured out now. In my opinion, the Bay of Islands is one big water park for tourists and Kiwis on vacation. There are about 150 small mostly uninhabited islands to explore, nice beaches, lots of nifty accommodations, shops, cafes, golf courses, hiking tracks, the warmest climate in NZ, and it’s pretty. There are dozens of variations of boat trips that run the gamut from fishing to swimming with the dolphins, etc. We think it would be a great place to have a sailboat or at [View Full Entry]

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Goat Island and Auckland, Bye to Jucy Day 74 December 14, 2008 We woke up to gray skies, but no rain. No matter, the morning was spent cleaning out the van and giving away salt, pepper, butter, and laundry detergent. We managed to eat all the food we had in the van so little was wasted. The beach here at Paihia started getting lively early with people swimming and little kids running around. We weren’t very eager to leave. I thought we were done with dirt roads (they called them “shingle” roads here) but I inadvertently led us on one last [View Full Entry]

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