Window Shopping

Today we drove closer to downtown San Diego, to a tourist area called the Gas Lamp District.  It's a fairly large area of older buildings that have been successfully 'yuppified'.  Some were old hotels, taverns, theatres, and old stores.  They've been transformed into youth hostels, fancy shops, fancier restaurants, antique shops, and the like.  Joan and Jan quickly found the chocolatier [highly recommended by Kathleen] while I walked up the street to an equally highly recommended 'old car' store.  At first I walked right past it since the building still looks like the bank it used to be in a prior life [but that's another story].  I was shocked at the range of cars that I found at the Beverly Hills Motor Cars store.  I call it a store since it's hardly a garage; there isn't a wrench within a half mile!  The red car in the picture is the sporty version of the Smart car: it's never been imported into north america, so it's a real oddity 'over here'.  The square topped car in the back is actually dark blue and is a 1927 Buick [only $21k].  The red Mustang beside it is a 1965 for $24k, the orange 2005 Lotus Elise is $45k, you get the picture.  [try www.bhmotorcars.com  if you want more].  They also had a Studerbaker Hawk, a Delorian [its natural finish is brushed aluminum!], a model "T" hot rod, an 'oval window' Volkswagen, Morgan, MG, Pontiac GTO, well, you do get the picture don't you.  It was my kind of candy store.

Back to the streets, I found the ladies who by then had discovered that most of the shopping was geared to tourists with too much money.  We walked around and saw beautifully restored old buildings and decided that $30 entrees were not in our snack bracket.  

We drove down to the waterside after a few wrong turns and found the parking lot for the aircraft carrier Midway where the was a restaurant. It too looked pricey [valet parking $7 was our first hint].  Between the restaurant and the Midway was a double sized [or more] statue of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square NY the day the second world war was ended.  It was quite an attention getter.  Further on was a small memorial commemorating Bob Hope and his participation in the many USO concerts for the troops  [I think these concerts still exist today].  The memorial consisted of separate statues of soldiers in different uniforms, one on crutches,  one in a wheelchair, some with head bandages, others just plain soldiers standing or sitting; all were looking at a same point as if still looking at Bob Hope, all wore a very sincere smile.  It was a very touching memorial and a well deserved tribute.

Behind the memorial was the harbour of San Diego.  We were just in time to see an aircraft carrier leave for exercises out at sea, what a sight!  This huge boat was coming straight at us, turned south [our left] and went seaward under the tall bridge to Coronado Island [that we drove over a few days ago].  We moved around to better follow its progress and found the whole exercise quite fascinating.  The aircraft carrier was preceded by a small 20 / 30 foot steel patrol boat complete with siren and bull-horn.  At 1/4 mile away, we could clearly hear him tell sailboats "Get out of the channel!"  "Stay on your course!"  "Don't move!" [hard to do for a sailboat when there's wind...] but all obeyed quickly.  I guess I would too; seeing this behemoth coming my way.  At more than one occasion we mentioned the carrier's speed.  This ship is the size of an large apartment block and would probably take the better part of a half mile to stop yet she was moving at a good clip.  Sailboats and power boats out of the way, and surprising headroom under the bridge and the ship was gone behind a headland, so we resumed our hunt for lunch.

We ended up going back towards Coronado and found the same small restaurant by the marina where we ate a few days ago:  it was still good.  On our way home, well Phillip and Kathleen's home to be precise, we drove along the small streets with houses hanging on the edge of the cliff along the highway down in the ravine.  These million dollar homes on postage sized lots, are literally hanging of the edge of a cliff.  They have absolutely no back yards, just a drop of 500 feet or so to the highway below.  They all have a spectacular view of parts of the city with mountains in the background.; the horizon being at least four or five miles away.  Our conversation was that we couldn't sleep in such a place, for fear of sliding down the cliff.  In an area of earthquake tremors,  and  frequent mudslides, and unforgiving wild fires, one would think twice about building on the edge of a cliff covered in scrub brush.  Oh well, we couldn't afford the area anyways.  But the very small gardens were simply spectacular, cactus and succulent plants everywhere, with many in bloom during January.   

Balboa Park

Balboa Park is a San Diego municipal park of many facets; one being a very large cactus garden.  The cactus garden is on a flat area adjacent to the main road that bisects the park, between that road and another main highway, well below in a ravine.  When we first visited Phillip and Kathleen for Christmas, 2004, the slope down to the highway in the ravine was 'under construction'.

We went to the cactus garden today and were surprised to see the main garden extended down the slope to the lower highway.  There were cactus everywhere, many in bloom.  The older garden is filled with large mature plants, some were versions of cactus plants that people 'back home' grow indoors, plants we've never seen as large bushes or even good-sized trees.  Quite a spectacular display!

My picture's main subject is such a plant; many people have small versions of this succulent growing in a pot, in their homes.  This particular plant is probably more that 15' high and living happily surrounded by a small succulent ground-cover with pink blooms at this time of year.  All the plants in this picture are either cactus, succulents or palms.  Even the ground-covers are often cultivated in pots 'back home'.   

The south end of the part of the garden we visited had a huge rose garden. Unfortunately, January has the rose bushes in total hibernation; not a leaf in sight, signs of very heavy pruning everywhere.  Essentially just sticks in well manicured dark soil, but full of promise!  It should be quite a sight when all these rosebushes are in full bloom.  We'll have to be told about it since we'll be looking at other gardens by then....

Spanish Village Artist Center

Balboa Park is a San Diego must-see.  We've played bocce ball on their lawns, walked their acres of parkland and today, we went to the Botanical Gardens and their Art Center.

The Botanical Gardens are housed in a huge adobe and wood structure that is just like a very large greenhouse without the glass.  When it rains outside, it's wet inside too!  It's a place where the plants are protected from the beating sun, but not necessarily the weather; I guess it's more like a shade house than a greenhouse, whatever...

Remembering that it's still January and that the plants are somewhat dormant, it was hard to imagine the number of flowering orchids being shown.  Many of these plants are planted there, not flowered elsewhere in pots and brought in when it's convenient.  The background plants are mainly large ferns and palms of different types with the growing focus is on the epiphytes; plants that live in or on other plants without being parasites.  They did a good job and a visit to this free facility is well worth the effort.

 

There are also many different museums, theaters, meeting places, playgrounds and similar 'community activity' type places in Balboa Park; one of these facilities is an old World's Fair remnant from the 1920's [or so].  The area had many different uses over the years, from a triage facility for the wounded after the second world war, to a fast food location for tourists a few years ago.  Its present use is as a place for artists to practice their art and sell their wares.  Kathleen suggested it as a place to see.

Each artist is juried and the quality levels are quite high.  I spoke with a retired high-school teacher who now throws pottery.  His potter's guild is made up of 40 potters who rent their space from the Balboa Park administration and his 'volunteer' time ends up being about a day a month.  Their facility includes an area with about 5 potter's wheels and miscellaneous work spaces so that the different artists [potters] have a place to work.  The rest of their area was devoted to showing off their wares and to sales.  What a neat place.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Expecting a rainy day, we chose to drive into the high desert, hoping for better weather.  We went to Jan's campground and left for our 'adventure' from there.  We avoided the Interstate highways by staying on state roads.  we had a late start, about 11:30, from Santee and found state highway 67 then 78 to Ramona. 

The roads were in good shape but twisted wildly as the climbed further into the mountains; a biker's paradise!  There was very little traffic and many very small turn-off [to let the locals speed past, but that's another story], and as we slowly climbed, the temperature got colder and the winds got higher.  I was very busy driving while Jan and Joan were like people watching a tennis match from side to side: look left, look right, look over there, look way down there [remember? I don't generally like heights...]. 

Halfway there [to Ramona], we started to see the deforestation and other horrible effects of the recent fires: blackened tree trunks, fallen fences, burned out yard-wide trees, darkened earth everywhere, occasional burned out houses, cars, trucks, camping trailers, farm implements.  Amongst the rubble we saw many standing homes,and properties  untouched!  The fire seemed to go everywhere but in many places, it wasn't hot enough to do serious damage, just char the tree trunks then move on.  This went on for miles!  ... as did the handmade signs on fence-posts thanking the firemen!  

As we got higher still, we literally drove into the clouds, the fog was everywhere and getting thicker, and it started to rain.  Not such a good way to avoid the rain expected in town, but it was truly beautiful [in spite of the fire damage]. I wanted to stop for photos but it was blowing hard and raining harder; we'd stop on the way back. 

The roads seems to be carved into the crevices between the many mountains we climbed; sometimes they were smooth, sometimes just jagged with dangerous looking boulders defying gravity.  Road-signs warning of flash-floods, mud-slides, road flooding, falling-rocks, windy road for XX miles, and the like were not encouraging, but even in the rain and fog, the scenery urged us onward; it was spectacular!

We joined up with State highway 79 and continued on to Julian, where we hoped to find an apple pie for Kathleen [our plan was to buy two so that one would have a chance to reach San Diego].  The rain got heavier so I drove on, expecting to stop on the way back.

At one point, the elevation marker read 4000 feet and suddenly, as we slowed to 20 mph for a sharp turn and the sky got much brighter.  It was like starting a new day, we were now going down, not up; the road straightened out and we seemed to be on a high plateau, just beyond the clouds we had been driving in for the last hour or so.  And then there was a rainbow: fatter, wider, brighter and more intense than any of us had seen.  The landscape was quite suddenly flat with mountain ranges off in the distance, the whole image framed by this humougous rainbow.  Unbelievable but true, and awesome.

Desert plants now replaced the trees with cactus perched everywhere.  There were barrel [ball] cactus, large cylindrical ones, tall spindly ones and lots of sage-brush, and other scuffy desert plants; we were arriving at the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.  We turned off the S79 onto the park road [S2] where sharp curves went down to 15 mph!  We then took S22 that us through a small snow-bird settlement and on to the Visitor Center.  The Visitor Center is a fascinating building built of local stones covering the face of an underground building.  From the parking lot, there's nothing but a path leading downward, the building is completely invisible.  From the face of the building, you can see the stone wall behind a well labeled and extensive cactus garden.  Unfortunately, the power was out [high winds downed some power lines] and we could not really see or read the exhibits inside.  I walked the garden, pixel-organizer in hand, while Joan and Jan talked to a Park volunteer.  

Jan had earlier mentioned the nearby Salton Sea as a possible destination.  The volunteer suggested that this was not a good idea unless you wanted the car sand-blasted in the process: the expected winds were that high.  He then gave them further information which they chose to share later and gave us a route to a great look-out where we would have a 360 view that included the Salton Sea.  How great is that?  

We drove off to Borrego Springs, a seasonal tourist village in the Park [population 3000 during the summer off-season, up to 15000 when the snow birds are there] that must have the biggest traffic circle in the Universe!  I'm sure you could drive four cars wide if lanes had been painted, and there might have been two other cars there while we were driving around and around [I missed the turn the first time, but that's another story].  And then we drove on to Font's Point.  

As we drove along, details of this 'side trip' started to emerge; it was a to be a dirt road.  Well, I don't normally 'do' dirt roads: they cause paint chips, and do nasty things to windshields [remind me to show you!], but we'd already drive seven or eight miles, so what the h...  I then drove past the very small sign for the turn-off and had to do a 'u' turn where the shoulder was very loose sand, filled with cactus.  I u-turned and found the turn-off just as someone else pulled the same stunt: missed the turn, drove a bit, and was making his own u-turn.  Suddenly, more information was forthcoming.  Apparently, the volunteer had assured Joan that the road was Ok for two-wheel drive vehicles; some ranger had checked earlier in the day.  Apparently, the heavy rains had packed the sand.  By the way, this desert park normally gets an annual rainfall of .7" and has received more than 8" so far this year!  The spring flowers should be record breaking in March / April!, but I digress...  

It's now become painfully obvious that there is no actual road; just tracks in the sand between the rock, cactus, and scrub.  Joan is quite hysterical with laughter as she shares more tidbits of information like the view is 360 degrees, this is their second most popular attraction, just follow the tracks and you'll be fine, etc...  Joan and Jan were laughing so hard that I was seriously concerned for the leather seats, but that too is another story.  

Then there was a discussion, amid the laughter, about the use of terms like 'washboard' etc. How did these big [axle breaking] rocks get here?  The non-road was getting worse.  Then the bullet: it's only four miles!  At 8 miles per hour and slowing, that was going to be an eternity!  The road finally got worse, the bumps more suitable to  high clearance 4X4, and there it was, the parking lot!  In the middle of nowhere, a parking lot for maybe 25 cars.  

We got out, the wind was howling, a short walk to the edge, and the view was worth it!  Just spectacular!  that's the picture I've included here [if this all works since I've never done a blog before].  You could see for miles [out to the horizon as well as downward!], the sun backlit most views and you can just see the Salton Sea [dark area on upper left area].  The car behind me arrived after a bit and mentioned that we had driven a long way [Ontario plates].  It turns out he was from Toronto, now living in Vancouver and had flown into San Diego when a local suggested this place.  The wind was unforgiving and we got cold quickly so back to the car, back the way we came.  The vancouver guy was ahead of us and drove quite briskly.  Now knowing what we knew about this non-road, we tried to keep up.  On our way in, we remarked that if this was such a popular place, why were we not meeting cars leaving?  Good question!  On our way out, we finally met someone going in.  I was not looking forward to sharing very much of this 'trail' with anyone.  He had California plates and moved over much more that I dared, but there was enough space to pass by and we didn't get stuck. I'd rather be in a proper 4X4 for such adventures...  At this point, I realized that the vancouver guy was probably in a rental car [he had flown in, remember?] so I slowed down...

We made our way out of the Park, missing a small adobe church that we had seen earlier and that I wanted to get closer to and photograph.  It was mid-afternoon and we still hadn't eaten.  I suggested we drive while the light was good and eat when it was dark; I didn't want to do those mountains in the rain, wind and dark.  Besides, Jan never leaves home without snacks...

We opted for a slightly different return route, a 20 mile detour to Interstate 8, instead of the State roads.  Thus we missed the apple pie and those other images that could have been ...  After leaving the Park, we went south on S79 through the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park; and drove through mountains that peaked at over 5000'.  It got darker, the rain started when we reached altitude, the road got twistier and just to add to the fun, it got colder [freezing point] and there was snow beside the road.  We weren't supposed to see snow until April, in Ottawa!

We made it to the Interstate as it got dark and found the same restaurant we ate at last night in Santee, near where Jan is camping, a great ending to just another drive...  What fun!