Christmas Eve at Balboa Park

Balboa Park is right in the city, includes the San Diego Zoo, and was originally the site for a World Fair in the early 1900's. The buildings are amazing, surrounded by beautiful fountains, and great gardens. One of the gardens I love is a cactus garden just along a very steep slope to a highway down below.

Here's an agave getting ready to bloom.

Here's Joan sitting in one part of a very large rose garden. This is the first time we've seen any blooms in these wonderful rose gardens.

Here's one rose with amazing colours and an even better scent.

Here's another, with the same attributes. I found out that Joan feels that a rose without scent is not really a rose at all... No pixels were wasted on such roses...

Some agaves had great patterns.

San Diego is the home of many Eucalyptus trees, often lining boulevards, and local roads, and also found as singletons here and there. This one is just beside a pedestrian cross-walk over the road.

This thorny succulent has minuscule yellow flowers.

Part of the Balboa Park World Fair was turned over to the local artist community. Past blog entries included many pictures made in Balboa Park since it has become a favourite destination.

In the spirit of Christmas, here's our Christmas photo for 2011. Joan and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2012.

Odessa Tx to San Diego

We got away at about 8:30 after a good breakfast [Quality Inn] and we were driving along a long fairly flat road. An hour later or so, we got into the foothills where the soil consisted of huge boulders, most bigger than the car. Quite spectacular!

Some of the roads are very straight, leading far into the distance. We stopped for a bit and this was our view.

Looking across the road, there were miles of large cactus, quite stunning at times.

Still at the same stop, we walked up to this little gathering of crosses. No names anywhere, just little mounds, a cross decorated with plastic flowers and the remnants of candles either in bottle or cans. Quite strange really since it wasn't likely set up to commemorate specific people [no names anywhere]. These crosses showed up quite often along the road.

We took a side road that included Ajo, Az, where they are definitely trying to revitalize the town square.

They had a small municipal park decorated for Christmas, that included this venerable century plant.

The town square was surrounded by stores fronted by a sidewalk with columns. There was also a small ornamental fence sporting this wonderful little silhouette.

Behind the square which once was a railway station, were these long abandoned rails.

The square was marked off with these gorgeous columns. If you click to enlarge, you should be able to make out the very colourful old man.

As you know by now, we arrived at Kathleen and Phillip's in San Diego where we are being spoilt with great service, wonderful food and fine wines.

We hope that you are all being treated as well, no matter where you are.

Merry Christmas!

San Diego

Just to let you know, we're at Phillip and Kathleen's, enjoying fine wine and fare. More to follow...

Want your red wine hot or cold?

We did see the crack of dawn, but still left around 9 and it was 3ºC. We were surrounded by oils wells for the first hour or so; that’s a lot of oil wells when the speed limit is 70 and mainly 80 MPH!

By 11 o’clock we were leaving the flatlands and driving into the mountain foothills. We started seeing Cactus and Yuccas, the sign of things to come.

Van Horne Tx was our next excursion. We stayed there a few years back and wanted to re-visit. The Sands motel where we had stayed looked much better with its new red roof, but the motel strip, which caters to hunters, had seen much better times. This strip is also the main street, very wide, very straight. Many businesses were closed, others for sale, other dying a slow death.

Here’s one pink motel in pretty good shape with nothing behind it but the mountains. .

Some times deterioration hands us something to ponder...

By 12, it became 11 again, our second time-change during this trip. By the way, the time-change at lunch time did not result in a second lunch, pity. The good thing was it was sunny and the temperature rose to 13ºC, less promising was the sight of snow on the sides of mountains, far to the North.

We headed South to follow a state road along the border. These two pictures show a decent hacienda with the famous security fence behind it, that’s the black line in the back of the buildings, or the horses. This fence is about 10 feet high and a blight on the landscape, but that’s another story, and a long one...

Further along that highway, we saw miles of cotton fields, then more miles of pecan trees. This is heavy duty agriculture in the Rio Grande basin. An interesting thing about pecan orchards is that the space under and between each tree is actually swept clean and nothing is allowed to grow anywhere near the trees.

Heading West on the I-10 again and we drove by Alamore Tx where there is one absolutely huge building, the American Talc Co. The signs of mine tailings were everywhere so it had to be a big operation. Shortly after that we started passing talc trucks. [couldn’t resist, sorry]

Later we turned northward for a new adventure; the first 40 miles or so were supposed to be a scenic drive but ended up being horribly flat. Did manage a few pictures, the first being shadows on the mountains to the east.

The second shows the road disappearing into pretty dark clouds that kept threatening snow if we kept driving further north.

Being wise, we opted to return to the I-10 by a different route going westward through the mountains. We crossed the Continental Divide at about 6500 feet, then downward until our ears popped again. At the higher elevations, the nearby fields had patches of snow every few yards, and the temperature was 3ºC.

We stopped for the night on I-10 in a Comfort Inn in Wilcox Az. So far, about 11 pm. we don't have internet in our room, so I'm doing this in the office... Not the usual fun.

When we ate at the home style restaurant next door, the waitress asked Joan if she wanted her red wine hot or cold. Kind of sums up Wilcox Az nicely.

Tulsa Ok to Odessa Tx

Yet another crack of dawn missed, but then, that's becoming the norm. The day started well with gas at #2.969 and cloudy. As we drove further South, we hit some fog that kept getting wetter until we were driving in fairly steady rain for a few hours. The temperature started at 10ºC and was hovering around 3ºC during the rain. I was getting concerned about freezing rain and freezing bridges, but all for naught.

As we got nearer to Texas, the traffic almost disappeared and for many miles we had the road almost to ourselves.

We started the day driving through hilly areas with beautiful vistas and very little development nearby. By noon, the land flattened out, the fields got huge with tracks of green pasture with well kept cattle; many Angus, and different sorts of horned cows. We even saw a farm with dozens of miniature horses! Of course, there were many horses on the loose in roadside reservations. We also saw ambitious houses with large stables, exercise areas, and show horses on the front lawns...

By mid-afternoon, we passed up gas at $3.189 expecting to find cheaper further on. We'll, the rest of that particular village was completely dead, or barely breathing. A dozen miles later it became obvious that the chance of gas on our road was getting slim. Carmen found us a choice of four gas stations just off the highway we were on. We picked one, Carmen showed the way and we paid $3.199. Feeling better, we took a different route towards our highway, but not before passing two gas stations with a price of $3.189. Go figure.

Carmen then directed us to use a Farm Road, so with teeth gritted, I turned right. I'll tell you that our farm roads and Texas farm roads are different: this was paved, in good repair, with the same speed limit as the Interstate, 70 MPH! ... and no slow farm vehicles or turnip trucks!

By then, not only was everything as flat as possible, most of the land was just scrub land. Some areas had been cleared with the scrub pilled up into burn piles. Some of these cleared fields were quickly returning to scrub land, the burn piles still unburnt.

By the time we got to Odessa, we were in the thick of oil country. Farm Implement Dealers were replaced by Oil Drilling Equipment Dealers, complete with drilling equipment, oil pumping equipment, and all manner of weird machinery on display. Transport trucks were loaded with such equipment and cast the most interesting silhouettes as they drove overhead on the overpasses.

All in all, a very pleasant day,fog and rain notwithstanding. We stopped driving at 6:30 or so and found a Whataburger for a cheap supper. As it turns out, it was a good choice: I recognized the Wattaburger styrofoam glass being carried by a chap at our hotel and mentioned that we had just eaten there too. He said he had driven up and down most of the restaurant strip and every restaurant had a waiting list, so he went to Wattaburger because it didn't look busy.

On the face of it, it wasn't busy, only a couple of patrons inside. As we looked on, they had a steady stream of drivers at the drive-through [or drive-thru, as they say in Texas] and by the time we left, there were lots of people inside also. This place was not nearly as good as the same chain in Calgary, but the veggies were fresh, the fries very crisp and hot, and the price a fraction of Calgary's. Out total for two Wattabugers, fries and a machine drink was $12.73 or something.

I forgot to mention that we stopped at the Texas Welcome Centre where we asked about weather conditions. The lady mentioned that the Interstate 40 W had just re-opened about an hour ago, and it would be slow going for most of the day. We mentioned our destination as Wichita Falls, and she said that would be fine all the way, and likely fine all the way West from there.

Carmen is programmed to route us the fastest way, which for this trip would have been to take I-40 W, the same highway that had just been slammed by the snow storm with blizzard conditions yesterday. It's a good thing that we've always headed for Wichita Falls for the simple reason that going further south would help us avoid winter storms. I'm sure that we missed the storm by just 50 miles or so, what a fortuitous break! As it turns out, we haven't seen an inch of snow anywhere since we left the Folly. Let's hope that going West tomorrow will not change that.

Dwight Il to Tulsa Ok

Due to time changes, some laziness, and a sincere wish to leave early, so we got away at 9, local time. Gas was $3.19, a steal, but we saw as low as $2.969 during the day. This is good when you fill up almost twice a day.

Dwight is in the flatlands, a where the farms are huge and all they grow seems to be for the biofuel market. What an absolute waste of great farm land, but that's another story.

By mid day, the temperature was up to 12ºC [53ºF] too high for serious snow which is predicted. By mid-day, it came down to 8ºC where it stayed for the rest of the day. But, and a fairly big 'but', the rain started and got progressively worse during the remainder of the day. Still able to drive the speed limit plus a bit, until after 5 when darkness and heavier rain meant slowing down big time. The afternoon was also in big hill country, but the roads are great and well signed so maintaining a good average was fairly easy. The hills brought us smaller but still large farms, and black angus cattle everywhere. Gorgeous white fences, large entrance roads to good looking farm homes and neat outbuildings. All picture perfect, but not a single pixel was exposed today, ... again.

After a little work by Carmen to fix a missed turn, we found a Comfort Inn & Suites, right next to Ruby Tuesdays, one of our preferred restaurants. How good can this get? Our room has a separate siting room with its own TV, a small sofa, and a computer desk. The main area has a king sized bed another large TV, what more could we ask for.

Ruby Tuesdays was great, relaxing, and we were well fed, well served, and left itching to try some other menu items. Good deal!

Tomorrow we have a decision to make whether to proceed weather permitting, or stay put and return to Ruby Tuesdays to sample some more good fare.

One of the issues that surfaced is that I forgot to pack the book disks to help pass the time when good radio is not available. Most of the day we were able to receive the Public Radio Network which seems to be the only intelligent radio available. Unfortunately, these stations quite often have a weak signal, so increasing static forces us to find another station. At one point, I stopped the scanning at a talk program that ended up being about guns, front loading guns at that. The talk hosts and the callers were of a type quite fitting with our northern impression of the Ozarks which we were driving through. It took almost ten minutes to select another station... I guess the talk of coon dogs, shooting coons in trees for the coon dogs to get, and the discussion of shot size, powder bags, scopes, etc. was just too much for Joan and she found a nice classical station with very decent Polish Christmas music. Good enough for me. Next time, I'll bring some Cd books...

On the road again

Stittsville to Dwight Il.

Our usual crack-of-dawn intentions were doused yet again, as we pulled away from the Folly in Stittsville a minute or two after 10 am. It's quite strange how that works since most of the car was properly stuffed yesterday and we thought that there was little else left to do. Little things turn out to be bigger things, packing the rest of the stuff meant repacking some of the earlier stuff, and not finding the snack-canyon in the back seat meant repacking a third of the trunk again... Without the puzzle-box, a raft of puzzles, a puzzle table, and with less clothes than usual, we didn't have anything behind the back seat so technically, we could have the top down, but I digress.

Ottawa, oops I mean Stittsville, to Sarnia was fast, with lighter than usual traffic, very little construction, and we actually shaved about 15 minutes off our ETA. We stopped for a little gas at $1.19 /L in Sarnia [was $1.09 in Carleton Place], had difficulty getting back on road to bridge due to ramp construction, but once the bridge was in sight, the customs entry process was as fast as they come. We were third in line, waited less than 5 minutes, the customs guy was young, pleasant, asked very few of the usual questions, had someone look into the superbly tightly packed trunk, and managed to close the lid without incident, and we were off.

Our fumes were replaced by real gas at $3.359 / gal, about a $15 saving! It's $3.175 just next to where we are. Unfortunately, that's when I discovered that my US$ MasterCard expired, and one of my debit cards is not being accepted. Fortunately, another credit card was OK so we're sort of OK for the moment, I think...

We left the Folly in freezing temperatures, and it was just above freezing at the border. Now it's a balmy 6ºC [42.8ºF]

The driving was fairly fast and dry all the way so we just kept on driving until about 11:10 pm. our time, 10:10 local. The only two motels are side-by-each, the culinary delights were offered by Subway, MacDonald's, Burger King and few others of equal stature further away. The big M was closest, and Joan was pleased with the decor and cleanliness, but the food? Well the fries were somewhat soggy and coolish, my Big Mac was disgusting looking and bland tasting, and Joan thought the Ketchup very salty, and she hopes she won't get food poisoning from the microwaved chicken sandwich... So far so good, it has not disturbed her snoring...

Carmen, our much maligned Garmin, gave us an ETA of 3:11 when we left this morning. This is our expected arrival time in San Diego, or at least, that's what I think it is. Unfortunately, we don't know on what day that will happen, nor do we know if it will be day or night. While in Canada, we whittled that down to 2:55 or so, but stricter speed enforcement rules in the States meant I hung around with the slower fast guys instead of leading the faster fast guys. Well, almost leading them at times... One way or another, after some gas stops, relief stations [how bland a term is that?] and a border crossing, our ETA now reads 3:27. That's a pretty consistent drive in dry conditions with reasonable traffic, if I say so myself.

We're checking the weather and hope to squeeze by before the predicted weather hits. So far so good. Maybe we'll even have some time to find the camera and sort out some pixels.

...to be continued.

Ottawa to Dieppe NB

Just a quick word to let you know we did a 1000 km drive in 12 hours and arrived at Dieppe NB by 7pm today. No great construction delays, traffic on #20 on south shore, but none in NB.

I was surprised at the lack of speeders, so few of us left... Managed to get here within 10 minutes of the time originally predicted by Carmen, not too bad if I say so myself.

Hopefully we'll have pictures tomorrow.

Home Again

Just to let everyone know that after two 'crack of dawn' departures [8am] followed by two days of constant driving until about 8 pm, we arrived safely in Ottawa, welcomed by a very clean condo and about 40 orchid blooms.

No pixels were collected during our trip home, sorry. I can say that it was pretty, the red-buds, dogwoods, forsythia, and wisteria plants all in glorious splendour of pink, off-white, bright yellow, and deep purple. With that feast for the eyes, and The Davinci Code talking book on the 13 CDs, the trip fairly flashed by. We followed Carmen's suggestions all the way and she found us 'off route' only when we stopped for gas or overnight.

Thanks for reading the blog this year; there will be more to follow eventually.

Orchids, Chairs, Rain, and Cats

There was a hint made that we [I] didn't buy any orchids during this trip. WRONG! I just photographed them yesterday as proof positive that we have been enjoying their beauty since early January when we bought them for a song in Port St Lucie.

This first one is a peloric orchid hybrid which I would not normally buy because of their confused breeding: what flowers you get can vary dramatically from year to year. In bloom, this plant has been quite phenomenal: the blooms have lasted since early January and show no hint of approaching their 'best before' date. This plant has even opened three buds since we own it. It's been quite a stunning show all along.

This next orchid is a much smaller bloom [1.5"] on a smaller plant. Christopher would like a white orchid [or more] for his office. This hybrid is called Phalaenopsis Timothy X Christopher, likely a good candidate for the office if I can part with it. It did have about 7 blooms, and they all were beyond their due date today, so I cut the spike off. It has been a cutie since January though. Christopher may have to wait...

This nearly red hybrid has also given us much joy. The plant has been growing and has produced two new buds that might open when we get home. It has lost about 6 blooms in the last week or so. Again, a long bloomer, and as far as I'm concerned, a decent 'almost' red which I did not have.

On other matters, here's a question for the grandkids and anyone else that wants to play. What is special about this next picture? It does have a story to tell, a story of eventual problems and possible demise. Click on the picture to see a larger version...

By the way, and without giving any hints, the story happened overnight and is quite a normal occurrence in Florida and other tropical places.

We had torrential rains this morning, complete with lightning and much thunder. Here's a quick shot from our balcony when the rain was not at its strongest, but it was pelting enough to drench anyone venturing out.

The rain actually leaked into the rear seat of the car... Our first leak in the convertible! Not a good thing...

It could be that the feral cats in the area, that have been luxuriating on the roof, may have made a few holes... I'm hoping that the wet / dry process will close the leak. Maybe a convertible top shop in Ottawa could remedy the situation without too much trouble or expense.

At any rate, after the big rain and T'storms this morning, this cat decided that a convertible top was a good place to rest...

Not too long afterwards, another feral cat thought the latent engine heat might be comfortable...

Soon thereafter, both were on the roof, doing what cats do best: surveying their Dominium from some height. What a life.

Over the years, many seasonal residents in Grayton and the area have left pets behind when it was time to return home. Over the years, many feral cats have populated the area. While they are good controls over mice and other pests, they were becoming pests themselves.

Apparently, the local council and concerned citizens joined forces and captured the feral cats, had them neutered, then released them into the area. Each neutered cat has a bit of their ear cut off, so it's easy to spot the 'treated' ones. Both cats on the roof are feral cats with ear tips missing. Cherri, our landlady, has food and drink out for about 7 feral cats and they all enjoy a pretty good life around here, considering they are fairly wild cats in a near civic environment. What a clever program to solve a constant problem!

The stripped one has become tame enough to be petted by almost anyone, while the marmalade coloured one is more reticent. The tabby actually can be found sitting on Cherri's desk at times...

On more serious matters, we're packing up, sorting customs papers, and getting ready to move northward on Friday.

Rosemary Beach Car Show 2011

The Rosemary Beach car show is not a very big show, but it always seems to have some nice cars, and the setting is very special: the grass is golf course quality, watered daily and regularly cut, or maybe I should say trimmed. While comfortable to walk on, the green does overpower reflections in shiny things like cars, chrome... but I digress.

Here's an early 50s MG TD that was parked nearby but not entered in the show.

Next is a gorgeous little 1960 Morris Minor Estate Wagon: a woody yet! Note the surfboard: not likely an original accessory in England... Nor the left hand drive.

Here's a storied VW van/truck. Apparently imported in rough shape from an adventurous Canadian owner who drove it from Canada to Peru, living in it the whole time. Bars were installed inside the windows to prevent thieves from breaking into the VW while he was sleeping in it! Not a trip that I would be interested in doing, but I sure would like to hear the whole story.

Of course, who wouldn't like a 1962 Corvette?

1958 was the 50th anniversary of the General Motors Co. They celebrated by ushering a whole new design for most of their cars, then added chrome, lots of chrome... This Buick Super, not a top model, was no exception.

Car shows can be polluted with people; sometimes just a section of car is all you can shoot.

This black paint was stunning, and the restoration beautiful. The wheel, tire, disc brakes are all not likely original. Come to think of it, the original shine was probably not as good either.

This is the other end of the same car, a Camaro SS.

Next is an old favourite: a 1949 MG TC that has been restored with a very open check-book. I overheard amounts between $70 to $100 thousand for the restoration. It was a family vehicle since new, and had been much abused by siblings, then abandoned, until one of the sons had the means to fix her up. In my humble opinion, it was over-restored and is now a 'trailer-queen': never driven, just trailered to the occasional show. Pity, it really could be a fun car to drive.

And you're in for a surprise, the grand finale is next: a tricked out Harley. Have a close look by clicking on it, and I'll tell you more after the picture.

As I walked by, I noticed the controls in the side car, I've never seen controls other than radio controls in a side car. After all, you just sit there and pray right?

My next discovery was the badge beside the license: the American Rifle Association. Look around the picture and you'll find ammunition [seat], a machine gun [aimed backwards], a holster with more rifles [between the bike and sidecar], hand-grenades, and other likely causes of mischief. I always though the right to bear arms didn't include making a bike a two-man weapon of mass destruction.

Portugese Man O' War and Other Flotsam

Grayton Beach is just about the whitest and finest beach we've every experienced, or heard about: it does not get much better. The beach is usually very clean and free of flotsam, weeds, shells, or garbage. Most times you'll just find these sea gulls, sunning themselves.

Occasionally, you can find sea weeds and for the last day or two, the purple flag was flying due to Portuguese Man O' War in the water and on the beach. You can read all about these interesting but dangerous creatures here. You really don't want to get stung by their tentacles; it's very painful, I know from experience decades ago.

But first, here's a surface sea snail that actually feeds on the Portuguese Man O' War, and we have a shell for our collection. You can read all about it here. I was mistaken in thinking that the foam spewing from the shell was a form of egg casing: wrong! It's actually a raft to allow the snail to float on the surface of the sea where the Man O' War and other scrumptious delights are to be found. It's really quite a nice shell, this one about the size of a nickel.

Also found on the beach were these limpets [at least that's what I think they are called] attached to the sea weed. This sea weed is actually sargassum and you can read all about the sargasso sea in the middle of the Bermuda triangle here. [at the end of this entry, one could have a lot of new factoids to impress people easily impressed at the next party...]

Back to the main event: Portuguese Man O' War. Here's one floating on the incoming tide. Since they can not control their own propulsion, an incoming tide means they are doomed. Pity the swimmer who disregards the purple flag and gets stung.

Here it is close and personal. If you read the wikipedia entry, you know that this animal is actually four separate beings. During their ride to shore, some parts get separated from the rest, so not all the Man O' War that land are complete. This next one seems to have lost its tentacles, the dangerous part.

The next one has some of its tentacles that can be over ten feet long. Swimmers beware!

Sometimes the tide does wonderful things with these tentacles, I thought these two samples were interesting.

Of course, tides and wind do their thing and the beach can get quite littered with these menaces: their sting potency lasts a few days, even when dead and dry.

And now, a quick question for the grandkids [if they got this far]. Click on the picture to see a larger version if you like.What is this in the next picture and why is it important to watch where you walk?