San Diego & Oceanside

Now this is what a perfect day looks like!

We sailed into the Big Bay in San Diego under sunny skies and 75 degree temperatures, and tied up between some pretty impressive neighbors--the three-masted schooner The Star of India and the aircraft carrier The Midway. We also had a front-row seat of the planes landing at the airport after they appear to skim the buildings near Balboa park.

About 500 of the 1400 passengers on board were disembarking so it took a while for them to clear customs, delaying our departure until about 9:00. As the Coaster trains have just gone on to their winter schedule Fritz and I had to take Amtrak for our one-hour journey to Oceanside.

As we are no longer spending our winters there we wanted to go and see what the past 2 years have done to our favorite town. 

Zipping through the beach communities on our way north we pointed out all of our favorite restaurants and beach walks. Mission Beach in San Diego, the cliff walk in Del Mar, the paved walk in Solana Beach. We wish we could have fit in breakfast at Honey's in Encinitas, but we had to be satisfied with gazing longingly as we whizzed by.

In Oceanside, we quickly marched to the Farmer's market to grab two cranberry-orange scones before they ran out.

It was Thursday after all and that's what one does on a Thursday. We then strolled through the market smiling at all of our favorite vendors. I'm sure that not a single one recognized us as we did our mock-royalty stroll nodding to this side and that!  Fritz was sad that he could not get his usual 3 pints of strawberries

and I would have loved to pick up flowers at my favorite stall.

So, we had to content ourselves with 4 paperbacks for a dollar from the friends of the library. I'm sure some of these books are the same ones that I donated when we left. Oh well, I'll be 2/3 finished before it dawns on me that I've read it and then I won't know the ending!

Onwards to Pier View Coffee.

We missed you Monique, but we did say hi to the homeless lady with the big hair! I love it when nothing changes, and everything is as you remember it. It makes it seem like All is Right with the World!  We strolled through the neighborhood and had a nice long chat with a former neighbor about the state of the town. He tells us that things are picking up. There is a new brew pub right around the corner, a new hotel with a great new restaurant, real estate prices are coming back up, and the top gun house has had a coat of paint!

We topped off our day by making sure the ocean was still rolling in and out and the pier was still standing

and then we had to swing through the Red Cup frozen yogurt

on the way back to the train station! Is that not the recipe for a perfect day!

Mark and Andrew continued their quest to visit all of the Maritime Museums on the West Coast. They had previously spent a jam-packed morning (all the time we had) in the Maritime Museum in Victoria. They then came back and shared all they had learned in a Jeopardy like question session at dinner that night. 

In San Diego they went to the museum in the morning, came next door to our ship for lunch, returned to the museum after lunch, and were the last on board as they were raising the gang-plank in the afternoon. At dinner we were bombarded with "how many warheads did a 70's era Russian submarine carry", etc. You know, the usual dinner table chit chat carried out with a rapid-fire Sargent-Major-like grilling!

According to their story Mark was showing off holding the hatch handles and swinging both feet through the hatch to the other side. This was back in the Russian sub. Andrew, with his gimpy knee, had to go through sideways like a crab. So, Andrew was delighted when he was filming Mark doing this and Mark caught his foot and fell through face first. On the second attempt his wallet caught and spilled out all over. I would have the video for you, but the guys wanted to go paddle boarding in Cabo and so didn't want to take the phone ashore so that Andrew could email the video to me for use here! I will endeavor to get it and post it here--stay tuned!

Barbara and Roger took the shuttle to Sea Port Village and then strolled over to Horton Plaza for a little Retail Therapy. We didn't see any bags, so they must be saving up for south of the border. They didn't even bring a camera on the trip, so we won't have any photos of them unless someone else takes them. (Does the term "herding cats" ring true with this group?)

We were sad that we didn't have more time in San Diego, but it is always great visiting and so cool to sail out of the harbor past Coronado and all of the Navy toys!

The Crown Princess is on the left (we think about 3,000 passengers) We are the Holland America Zaandam, on the right (about 1,400 passengers).

This unidentified ship was just doing a 3-point turn in the channel as we came by close enough to see the smiles on their faces!

As we now leave the country (and free Verizon access) it was great to get to FaceTime and talk with the family before we go! Please stop the grandchildren from having any milestones before we get back!