Last Day: Beach Glass and Tall Ships

Today, Sunday, is our last day in San Diego. We packed a lot in today! First we left early to go to Torrey Pines State Park to squeeze in a little more beach glass hunting during a low tide. The low tide is getting later in the morning each day and today is around 8:30am. So we left by 7:30 so we'd catch it around 8am going out. We were going back to the spot we went on Friday, but when we got there the road to the state park parking lot was closed and the parking beachside was already full! Turns out there was a half marathon being run that day. So we parked up the road a bit and hiked in on the City of Del Mar side of the beach.

It was 45 degrees when got to the beach, so we were bundled up. But we did remember to bring our shower sandals, so that we wouldn't get our walking shoes wet like we did last time (they took two days to dry out). But my feet were really cold and we ended up not walking through the water this time.

We found a lot of great glass, mostly in the rocks further from the water's edge rather than in the surf. The glass was very beachified. The sky was overcast most of the time with only a few sun peeks and so it was harder to see the glass. Some of the glass was so beachified that it looked like a rock until you picked it up. In the first photo below, the glass is the darker rock right below the white piece of shell. In the photo below that, Sandra is holding the same piece of glass up to the light. The color looks completely different in the light.

Here's another photo of glass in situ.

In spite of the low light and cold, we spent about 2 1/2 hours looking and got quite a haul. We got a lot more green than usual, probably because it was easier to see. Also notice the beautiful light blue piece at the bottom of the photo. By the time we left, it was 54 degrees.

BTW, we did find out that this is what a Torrey Pine looks like.

After we finished beach glass hunting we drove to downtown San Diego and had lunch at Anthony's on the Embarcadero. We had a great water view and some good food. Cobb salad is one of my favorite meals and they had a yummy seafood cob salad with crab, shrimp, tuna, and salmon rather than the regular chicken. Sandra had Stacked Ahi. It was stacked with pineapple, avocado, and cucumber. It reminded us of the layered causa we ate in Peru last summer because it was stacked in a round tuna-can sized shape.

Seafood Cobb Salad

Stacked Ahi

 

After lunch we walked to the Maritime Museum, which has several vintage and replica ships. The first one we went on was the Star of India. It is the oldest ship of its kind that is still sailing (they take it out once a year). It was built right before the US Civil War. It has been used to import cotton to England from India and then to take folks to New Zealand (it made 21 trips around the world doing this).

Here's Sandra at the helm.

They had some of the cabins set up so you could see how they looked and two dining saloons, one for the captain and first class passengers, and one for everyone else. They also had some fun displays. Below is a photo of the Figure 8 knot Sandra tied. The photo of me is a display that shows how a block and tackle helps to lift weights. There's just a plain pulley with a 25 pound bag of sand: pretty hard to lift. Then they put the rope through a single block and tackle and it's much easier to lift. Then they have a double block and tackle and the same 25 pounds seems very light.

The next boat we went on was a cold war era soviet submarine. It was really claustrophobic! It had a crew of 78 (including a political officer) and only three toilets. The only shower was in the tower and could only be used when the submarine was above water, but you could use all the cold salt water you wanted.

The torpedo room:

The main museum is an old ferry that was used to take folks from the Oakland train terminal to San Francisco in the early 1900s. While it is similar to the ferries we have up north, it is much more elegant. The seats are all beautiful wood. I don't know if the dance floor below (see Sandra dancing) was original on the ferry, but the beautiful stained glass around the top is original.

There is also a working replica of an 1800s British Warship, a modern US submarine, and an early 1900s private yacht. Below is Sandra sitting at the controls of the US submarine that was decommissioned in 2007. This submarine was much less claustrophic than the older one; it had regular height doors rather than the hatches and an actual shower, but it was still pretty cramped.

Now it's time to go pack.....

 

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Being a Tourist

On Saturday we did tourist-y things around town. First we went to the Cabrillo National Monument. This is where the Spanish explorers led by Cabrillo landed first in what is now California. This point of land protects San Diego Bay and has great views of San Diego from very high up.

There's also supposed to be some good tide pools, but the tide was in too far to see anything. The low tides right now are early in the morning and then after dark in the evening, so we're not seeing too much in the way of low tides. Still the coast where the tidepools are is very beautiful.

After that, we went into downtown to do some shopping at Seaport Village. It's a cute little tourist mall--all outside right along the water downtown. We found some nice t-shirts and San Diego ornaments for our seasonal tree.

Late in the afternoon, we went to Ocean Beach which is in San Diego and about 10 minutes from where we are staying. We're amazed that everything is pretty crowded--it sometimes hard to find parking. We can't imagine how crazy it must be during the summer!

We did find street parking at Ocean Beach and walked from one end to the other (about 45 minutes). It was wide and sandy and would be good for swimming (if it wasn't 60 degrees; although there were some young 'uns swimming even in this weather). But it wasn't good for beach glass. I did find one big jagged piece of glass and put that in the garbage. Most of the beaches don't allow glass on the beach, so I was surprised at this. Here's the sun going down over the pier at Ocean Beach.

 

 

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Last Day of Golfing: Mission Bay

Today is our last day of golfing. We figure the courses will be really crowded on the weekend and we'll do other things then. We went to Mission Bay Golf which is a City of San Diego course. Getting there was a little hard because our iphone map let us down for the first time on the trip. I can't believe we used to travel without these. You just put the address in and she tells you how to get there. You're ready for lunch and you put in "restaurant" and a bunch of nearby restaurants pop up. We've loved it. But the address for the golf course took us to the sports complex behind the golf course. We were able to drive around the perimeter until we found the club house.

Landscaping near the clubhouse

This golf course was not as hilly as the ones we've done all week. It has some gentle hills and although there were a couple of sand bunkers and a little water, really no hazards to speak of. But it was longer than the longest one we've done by 500 yards. There were four par 4 holes.

No big hills on this course

We did okay on this course and it only took us about 2 and half hours to do. It would have been shorter except we had a threesome of guys in front of us who lollygagged. But we were glad for that as we always worry about holding others up.

The last hole had the biggest hazard: a duck pond right in front of the tee box. This hole was also 291 yards long: the longest we've ever played. It only took me four strokes to get to the green, so my long game has improved considerably!

After golfing we had lunch at a funky fish shop: ahi tacos (okay, I actually ate a fish taco even though they are unnatural) and crab cakes. Then we went to Torrey Pines State Beach. The imap once again took us to the wrong place, first to the Torrey Pines Golf course which was beautiful, right on the water, and then to the Torrey Pines Hang Gliding Port. I did get a neat warning sign for my collection there:

We finally found the beach access park and saw a beautiful osprey up close. He seemed very unperturbed by all the tourists taking his photo. This beach has a wetlands lagoon going inland that is a wildlife preserve, so if we'd been there earlier in the day, we might have seen more birds.

The tide wasn't low, but we hunted for glass on the rocky beach. The glass wasn't as plentiful as some beaches we've hunted on; you had to be very patient. We found some great pieces, though, and they were all very beachified. We did get our shoes wet when a bigger wave than usual caught up on us. We need to remember to bring beach shoes!

 

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Christmas at Lomas Santa Fe

Christmas morning we went back to the Lomas Santa Fe Exec Golf course because it is our favorite so far. It was much cooler today--mid sixties with some bright sun and some dark clouds. While we were on the course we got a few sprinkles and some wind, but it went through pretty fast.

This golf course has two holes on each green: a regular hole and a fifteen inch hole. I'm not sure who would play the 15 inch holes, but they're there if you don't want to try for the regular hole.

We did better with the sand bunkers this time. We each only got in twice. Here's a photo of Sandra getting out of a bunker. I just take the penalty and put my ball out. I don't have the skill for chipping out of the sand yet.

My overall score was only a little better than last time, but I got my first birdie (one under par)! I was pitching the ball onto the green from about 5 yards out and it rolled right into the hole! I also got 2 pars (one shows on the 9 hole scores below and one in the first nine holes). Sandra also got 2 pars and her score was a lot better than last time, although still not her best. (This screen shot is my golf scoring app from my iphone.)

After we golfed, we came back to our hotel, sat in the hot tub a while, then spent the rest of the day playing games and eating snacks. It was a fun Christmas day!

 

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The Loma Club and Coronado Beach

Today we golfed at The Loma Club 3-par course. The site is over 100 years old and used be a country club and then was a navy training center in the 1920s. The course is just a few block from our hotel in the city so the nine holes are smushed into a very small space. This was nice because the fairways all sloped towards the middle so that if your ball went a little to the left or right, it rolled back to the center. We managed to miss all the sand bunkers although once my ball hit in a bunker and then bounced out! I think it hit the side where there wasn't much sand.

After golfing we drove to Coronado across San Diego Bay and had lunch and then drove south checking out the beaches. We went as far south as Imperial Beach, which is just about 7 miles north of the Mexican border. The town was pretty and the beach nice, except they had warnings because of sewage in the water. So we didn't stay there very long. We drove back up to Coronado and went to the beach in town. It is very pretty with a wide flat beach and some nice waves, although the surfers out in the water weren't really catching many good surfing waves.

Coronado Beach

Imperial Beach

 

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Tuesday at Pine Glen and La Jolla

Today we golfed at Pine Glen at the Sycuan Resort in El Cajon. This course is not as lush as the one yesterday. The land is scrubby and the greens weren't as flat and well kept. We also had to walk a lot further and had longer holes. There were beautiful views of rugged hills all round. The course was very hilly, so very challenging for us. The course was 18 holes and 3 par, but we decided to do only our usual 9 holes. We're not used to playing in this much heat and sun. It was up to 78 degrees today. I know that's not hot for my TX relatives, but it's hot for us!

After golf, we had lunch at El Cajon Bistro. Sandra got a wheatgrass and carrot juice drink, which tasted like the sludge in the lawn mower to me, but the salmon wrap and ahi tuna salad we had were delicious. Then we went to La Jolla to look for beaches. Charlie and Donelle saw seals here, but we didn't get there until 1pm, so I imagine the seals were out in the cool water by that time. We walked along the beach looking for likely beach glass spots.

Nita and Sandra at La Jolla

The beach here is mostly very cool carved flat sandstone, but not so great for finding beach glass.

We'd given up mostly and started back when we found a little sandy spot with lots of pebbles (which is sometimes good for beach glass). The receding tide had left them more accesible than they were when we first passed them. We found lots of beach glass!

 

Most of the pieces were pretty small, but we were happy with our haul.

Sandra even found one red piece which you can see in the close up below. We almost never find red glass.

 

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