Every Mile a Memory: Southern California

March 23, 2016

California here we come!! Left Mesa at 10:30 and arrived in Blythe, California at 1:30. Blythe is an agricultural town so there’s lots of farmland and beautiful mountains…and of course the Colorado River. Our campground, Mayflower County Park, has a boat ramp into the river so we plan on doing some kayaking while we’re here.

Entrance to Mayflower County Park. You can see the Colorado River in the background.

Campground road with our RV in the background

Looking from our rig toward the Big Maria Mountains

Sunset from our campsite

Another view of the sunset looking toward the Big Maria Mountains

March 24, 2016

Worked on our blog today. We didn’t keep up with it while the kids were here because we were having too much fun!

March 25, 2016

Today is going to be the best weather day for kayaking so Dave got up early and drove the jeep 13.5 miles to McIntyre County Park to leave it there. He rode his bike back so that we could launch the kayaks at our campground and leisurely float to the campground where he left the jeep. Once we packed our coolers and gear, we put into the river at around 10:30. The Colorado River is beautiful, crystal clear and wide. It wasn’t all that deep in the section we floated. It was in the high 80’s today and hot on the river so we did bank the kayaks several times to get in the water to cool off. The water temperature wasn’t too bad…definitely somewhere in the mid 70’s. Stopped and ate lunch at a nice sandy beach. The entire float lasted six hours.

Getting ready to launch into the Colorado River

We were the only ones out here for a large portion of the float.

Wide open river

Enjoying the views

The river got shallow in some parts...we actually stopped for a little break

right in the middle of the river here.

The "beach" where we stopped for a lunch break.

It got hot enough to go in the water...

March 26, 2016

Very windy today and with the farm fields all around us, we can barely see the mountain ranges in the distance across the field due to the dust. Since we can’t be outside, we went to the library for internet, Albertson’s for groceries, and Kmart.

Nice day!

Windy day!

March 27, 2016

Today is Easter. We were invited by a group of people in the campground to an Easter potluck at 1. We accepted and said we’d bring some dessert. We decided to go for an early morning site-seeing adventure to look at the Blythe Intaglios (geoglyphs) in the Colorado Desert. The geoglyphs were made by scraping away layers of darker rocks or pebbles leaving behind a lighter soil to create the artwork. The largest human figure is 171 feet long. The group of gigantic figures on the ground are just east of the Big Maria Mountains. Since we were in a mountainous area, we incorporated a short (one hour) hike into our site-seeing. Then headed back to the campground for Easter dinner. We arrived at 1:10 and most people already had their plates and were going back for seconds but there was plenty of food and we enjoyed it all…ham, potato salad, deviled eggs, scalloped potatoes, salad, rolls… and for dessert there was the carrot cake and chocolate chip cookies we brought along with chocolate pies, pineapple upside down cake, and other assorted goodies. We sat with our neighbors who invited us: Lynn, Bill, Steve and Brad and had a nice time. But at around 2 everyone started heading back to their RVs. So Dave and I took our half bottle of wine and went to a little beach in the campground along the Colorado River and spent the rest of the afternoon there. We had some leftover pesto pasta for dinner and then when next door to sit with Brad and Steve to watch the sunset and it was a beauty!

Entrance to the Blythe Intaglios

Drawing of human figure

Animal and spiral figures

Another human figure

Campground beach along the Colorado River

March 28, 2016

Big wind storm today! Sustained winds of 27 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. This was predicted so it didn’t really come as a surprise. It is very difficult to go outside because you get dust in your eyes and in your mouth. Did some laundry, prepared for future legs of our adventure in California, and put a pot roast in the slow cooker. Brad and Steve had mentioned going to a local dive bar, Pattie’s, for tacos at 1 so we headed there. The tortillas for the tacos were freshly made there with an original house made salsa and they were delicious. And only a dollar and beers were $3. Had a nice lunch for less than $15. Headed back to the RV and brought the living room slide in. The canopy was really flying!! Since the wind is supposed to continue for the rest of the night, we’re staying put until tomorrow morning. Even though the rv was closed up there was still a layer of dust on everything!

Wind Storm

Lots of dust blowing around!!

March 29, 2016

The wind died down today so we decided to go four-wheeling (or should we say two-wheeling) in the jeep. We went back to the Big Maria Mountains and drove through the same area where the petroglyphs are located but headed up through the trails (Worthington Trail). It was a rough and bumpy ride in some places but the views were pretty cool.

Dave had fun driving through the mountains

Beautiful views!

It was a little chilly and windy in the mountains

When we got back, Dave washed the jeep and put the kayaks and bikes back on to get ready for our trip to San Diego tomorrow. We hung out with Brad, Steve, Lynn, Bill, Lynn and Jim the rest of the day. Had dinner with them and then sat around a fire Steve made. It was just the two of us and Steve and Bill. Saw the space station go by…Bill had a list with the times to watch for it each night. So at 8:17 we looked up and there it was.

March 30, 2016

We’re leaving for San Diego today after a nice relaxing week in Blythe. We said goodbye to our new friends from Washington and got on the road at 10. Our first stop was to get cheap gas for the RV and for that we headed back over the bridge to Arizona.

Crossed this bridge over the Colorado River to get gas in Arizona.

We passed under this bridge when we kayaked on the river.

After we filled up we were on our way again at 11:15. It was a beautiful drive to San Diego. The pictures we snapped along the way don't do the scenery justice...but you know how that goes. Everything looks better in person!! We passed through the Chocolate Mountains, the Imperial Sand Dunes and the Anza-Borrego Desert.

The drive to San Diego was beautiful!

This is a portion of the scenery through the Chocolate Mountains.

Imperial Sand Dunes

The Imperial Sand Dunes went on for miles. So cool!!

Windmills in the Anza-Borrego Desert

Arrived in San Diego at around 3:00; set-up camp, and started looking into how we wanted to spend our day tomorrow. The Sweetwater campground is really pretty. We’re in a pull thru site on the top of a hill with beautiful views of the sky and the city of Bonita below.

Our pull thru campsite at Sweetwater Summit Regional Park

Nice views of the sunset from our site

March 31, 2016

Got up early and headed out at 9 for Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. The Reserve features high broken cliffs and deep ravines overlooking the ocean. We parked in the beach lot at the bottom of the reserve. It was a fairly good hike up to get to the trails. We hiked every trail in the reserve as each offered unique views of the ocean and cliffs. In all we probably hiked about five miles.

View from Torrey Pines

Torrey Pines

View toward Flat rock

Dave standing on Flat rock

View down the beach

We left Torrey Pines at around 3 and headed for La Jolla to see the seals in the cove. We could’ve watched them for hours, but ended up spending about 2 hours in the area.

La Jolla cove

Seals and birds

Kissing seals

Fighting seals

Their fight is really getting heated

Barking away

This little guy was fun to watch.

It was fun to be able to get this close.

Since it was getting close to rush hour we decided to stay along the coast and find a place to eat dinner to avoid the traffic. We found a cool outdoor restaurant about a block from the beach in Pacific Beach called Bare Back Grill. Since we got there at around 5 we still had time to take advantage of happy hour prices. So we got a trio, which consisted of fried calamari, onion rings and stick fries ($5) and then got soup and a sandwich (also $5). We also ordered some drinks…I got a gin cucumber mule and Dave tried some local beers.

Happy Hour at Bare Back Grille in Pacific Beach

Appetizer trio - fried calamari, onion rings, and potato strings

Tomato Soup and a sandwich

After eating we walked to the beach for the sunset and to watch the surfers. We walked out to the end of Crystal Pier. The pier has cottages that you can rent… a great location for ocean views!!

Sunset on Pacific Beach

Watching the surfers at sunset

Crystal Pier

Cottages on Crystal Pier

Crystal Pier

April 1, 2016

Got up early again today and headed for Cabrillo National Monument. The monument commemorates the landing of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo at San Diego Bay in 1542. Along with the statue of Cabrillo, the area also is home to the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, and very cool tide pools. So the day consisted of a lot of hiking again and amazingly beautiful views!

Cabrillo Monument

Old Point Lomo Lighthouse (front)

Old Point Lomo Lighthouse (Back)

Beautiful views as we walked down to the tidal pools

Trail down to tidal pools

Dave standing lookout

Beautiful views of the coast

Went back to the campground for sunset and a fire.

Enjoyed a fire at our campsite overlooking Bonita

April 2, 2016

So excited to see Dawn today! It’s been 25 years since we last saw each other in Rota, Spain! We met up with Dawn at her apartment near Balboa Park in San Diego at 10. She gave us a tour of her apartment and then we headed to Balboa Park where Dawn gave us a tour of all of the great things to see within the 1,200 acre park including museums, restaurants, outdoor art, the old carousel... It was a beautiful day and just fun to walk around and catch up with Dawn! We went to The Prado at Balboa and had some delicious flatbreads for lunch. Seeing Dawn was definitely the highlight of our trip to San Diego. Can’t wait to go back!!