Coming to the Home Stretch - San Diego

This trip has been really therapeutic for me (Runcie).  I have so enjoyed spending so much quality time with my family . . . not just the brief periods at the beginning and end of a typical work day . . . but the all day experience.  Taking a two week trip has also allowed me to clear my mind of work related things and truly enjoy exploring this world with them . . . what a gift from God.  I'm glad I work for a company where there is a family oriented culture.

Today, we left the beauty of central California in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada's.  We drove south through groves of orange and other citrus trees, what looked like grape vineyards, corn, and many other crops I couldn't readily identify.  The mountains were always in the backdrop.  We even drove past a sign pointing toward the town of McFarland.  i wasn't expecting to see it, and we drove on past, but in hindsight, I wish we had taken the small detour because of the inspirational movie we saw about the city and a group of high school runners that lived there many years ago.

We basically retraced our drive from LA a couple of days ago, so not a lot of new things to see once we reached I-5 other than intense traffic once we got within 20 miles of LA . . . at 2:15 in the afternoon.  I don't know how the locals deal with it every day.  There are roads and highways going in every conceivable direction for miles and miles all around the city . . . and all seem congested well beyond capacity.  I wonder how they might plan the  road system if they had it to do all over again.  The intermittent hills/mountains probably made it pretty challenging the first go round.

Speaking of LA, Donna made a great point the other day about the price of fame and how ironic it is that those who seek it often try to hide from it once they have obtained it.  I have always viewed Hollywood and Beverly Hills a little negatively, partly because the culture there we hear so much about just seems so out of touch with real America.  I've also heard so much about how poorly governed California is and how they are taxing their citizens into oblivion.  That being said, I really enjoyed my brief time there, and it didn't seem to fit my stereotypes as much as I thought it would.  The Hollywood/Beverly Hills area seemed very vibrant with people and thriving businesses up and down the streets.  Just a short 2-3 miles to the West was Santa Monica beach - a completely different community with a different feel, yet also very vibrant with people everywhere on a Friday night and restaurants and pier activities absolutely hopping.  It took us 20 minutes to go a quarter mile with all of the traffic on the narrow, busy streets.  A brief drive down the scenic Highway 1 took us to Malibu, yet another completely different community in a much more peaceful and serene setting.  Finally, we drove back to our hotel in north Hollywood through Malibu Canyon Rd and then took Ventura Blvd instead of Highway 101.  (Our hotel was over the Hollywood hills at the beginnings of the San Fernando Valley).  Ventura Blvd went on for miles just in this section of town, and it was commercially developed the entire way - kind of like the busiest sections of West End Ave in Nashville except for close to 20 miles.  I didn't notice vacancies - every business seemed to be thriving.  Good for California.

Once we hit Anaheim (south of LA), it began to feel a little more modern and less congested.  The further south we went, the more it began to feel more open and like a beach community.  I'm sure it helped that we could view the Pacific for portions of our drive from I-5 the further south we went.

The blue skies were also very noticeable.  The skies in LA and even near Sequoia were hazy with poor visibility due in part to smog in LA as well as 8 different wildfires burning north of LA toward the central part of the state from what I heard.  It was so hazy, we were mostly unable to detect blue in the sky or even a cloud.  As we headed south from LA, the sky became bluer, clouds became visible, and the thermostat continued to drop (kind of counter-intuitive when you consider that you are heading south and ever closer to the Mexican border).  Since our navigation app was telling us to get off I-5 neat San Diego due to traffic, we exited and jumped on a coastal road near Torrey Pines.

We finally found our  home for the next few days - a condo right off La Jolla Blvd on Bird Rock Ave.  La Jolla is a very quaint community in N San Diego nestled on the Pacific.  After unloading the car, I was anxious to walk the few short blocks to Bird Rock to check out our ocean scenery.

walking toward the beach

Bird Rock just before sunset

View just north of Bird Rock

We walked a couple of blocks south of Bird Rock for sunset

We then discovered a recommended Mexican restaurant within walking distance

The weather is glorious.  Our walk back was actually a little cool.  The highs tomorrow will probably be in the high 70's . . . on August 2.  We have the windows and balcony door open as I write this.  We're definitely looking forward to our time here, and based on the fact that we will only be here a few days and how much we are already enjoying it, I can see another trip to San Diego in our future.

We hope to visit the animal safari and hopefully make it back to our neighborhood by mid-afternoon tomorrow where we can hopefully explore the tide pool ecosystem around Bird Rock during low tide.