Big Trouble

Haystack Rock - where the puffins nest.
And cormorants, and murres, and other
birdy creatures (saw them all through binoculars and got close up viewing and photos later on at the Oregon Aquarium where they have an aviary with local birds). It was windy and cold
really fascinating to see all the tidal
pool critters in addition to the birds.

July 8. San Diego. My long anticipated visit with old friend went somewhat awry. So on Saturday July 4 I was looking for available camp sites in gray, cloudy, not exactly warm (average temp 64) central Oregon coast but, alas, they were apparently all spoken for. So I gave up and decided to retreat to San Diego asap. I found that the wide open, drive like bats out of hell, travel from Sacramento to San Diego was less irritating than the long, slow, traverse of endless mountain roads. But I must say, if you've not yet had the opportunity to tackle California highways you are missing the biggest thrill ride(s) ever! They squeezed a few "sweet jesus's" out of me. And then I hit Los Angeles at 4:30 p.m. (I'm really good at arriving in cities during rush hours) but I needed the break, so the hour and a half crawl through wasn't so bad. Did get my brakes tested a few times but we all managed to miss each other somehow.

Since then I have been hanging out with my sons, getting my car serviced (I've driven about 7000 miles since leaving Colorado), walking on the WARM beaches,washing clothes, cooking on a stove, and getting lost in the warren of roads and highways in San Diego.

My middle son, Drew, is a photographer and last night (Friday) he had his first solo show. So my turning up out of the blue was sort of serendipitous. Things went well and everyone is a little calmer now. But I looked around at one point and noticed that none of us (even Mr. Photographer) had managed to bring a camera...what a sorry bunch.

July 14

Finally. I think all my travel arrangements, flight reservations, visa requests and so on are taken care of. Later this week I'm off to San Fransisco for a few days; I will probably take the train up there from San Diego so I won't have to worry about (and pay for) parking in the big city.

Weather here has been fabulous and I've been having such a nice time hanging out with Joe, Drew and friends. This afternoon after hitting the Fedex office to ship my passport off for visas I went to the local library. Sigh. Withdrawal from PPLD standards and expectations is really challenging. Time sure goes fast when you're doing nothing of consequence :) Take care dudes.

While here I'm taking care of ticketing, visas, insurance and so on for the next phase of this little jaunt. Next few week will get around to checking out other parts of California.

So, I'm regrouping in San Diego, taking care of my airline reservations, visa business and such, and will be using this as the base for exploring the rest of California until August 8.