Balboa Park Adventures

"Where are we going?"
"Balboa Park. There are a bunch of museums and gardens there. And the zoo."
"Boa Park?"
"No, not like the snake. BALboa."
"Alboa?"
"NO! Balboa...like Rocky. Rocky Balboa."
"Oh! Balboa! Got it."

Thus began our Thursday adventure in San Diego. After dropping Meredith off to visit her aunt and uncle, Joe, Bob and I headed up to Balboa Park. After a bit of aimless wandering through the sculpture garden, we decided we should grab a bite to eat. From there, we visited the lily ponds, the Timken Museum, the Museum of Photographic Arts, and the cactus garden. There were so many interesting options, I really believe that Balboa Park is where they invented the phrase "So little time and so much to do."

Reflections of Duck & Verdigris

Column of the Spreckles Organ Pavillion

At the lily pond, (l-r) Joe and Bob tried to commune with the locals.

I don't think the koi were very impressed.

Ducks hanging out in the irises.

And then I just kinda went crazy in the cactus garden...

And speaking of crazy, these two hummingbirds were driving each other nuts...


As things closed up in the park, we decided to head to the Gaslamp Quarter, conveniently located near where we had to rendezvous with Meredith. We stopped for some FroYo, and I did a little shopping in the Betty Page boutique (Awesomest. Dress. Ever.).

I hope you enjoy the pictures. I will be taking a short break from the ol' blog-aroo while I'm back in Portland for a visit next week.

Trekking Tahquitz

This entry began at our Wednesday Night Espresso & Internet Cafe Colloquium (rather than the staff library). Coffee coffee coffee! Blog blog blog!

Anyhoo, I was free on Tuesday so I decided to take a hike...literally. I'd heard that the hike to Tahquitz Peak was beautiful, challenging, and long, so I figured it would be just the thing.

The Goal: The fire look-out atop Tahquitz, some 3000' above Astrocamp.

I was told the trailhead would be easy to find...head out like I was going to Ernie Max, hang a right on the forest service road, and then the trail would be right there. They neglected to mention that "right there" is about a mile, and the road is up, 1000' up, all the way. And this is not the trail head I wanted.

After 45 minutes on the forest service road, I finally came around the back side of the hill that flanks my thoughtful spot on the May Valley trail.

Lo and behold, the South Ridge Trail!

Only four miles to my goal. Four miles and another 2000' elevation gain.

The switchbacks and ever-increasing elevation along the trail gave me great views of the surrounding valleys. Here's Lake Hemet.

A bird's eye view of Astrocamp. The white rectangle in the middle of the shot is the gym and swimming pool.

The heart of Idyllwild. Bottom left is the grocery store, center is The Fort and the coffee shop.

Of course there were other lovely things along the trail. I love the rock jumbles around here...

At one switchback the rocks created a window.

Well, naturally I had to take a peek at was was beyond the window. Surprise! It's a tree.

This tree looked like it was meandering along the trail, too.

As I stopped for a snack, I noticed this pair of trees. The small one almost looked like a bonsai.

While I stopped for lunch, it occurred to me that my legs had turned to jello. Without a hiking buddy to talk me out of backing down, I decided to head for home without reaching the top of Tahquitz. Still, I did cover a lot of ground. My best guess for my finish is the green arrow:

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Zipline: A Photo Essay

Greetings from sunny (for the moment) Astrocamp. Most of the snow that fell last night has already melted (yay!), and the large piles from last weekend are just about gone, too. Here's to wishing that the rest of the season is full of clear skies.

Thursday (which was beautifully sunny), I had the pleasure of working with my buddy Geo on the zipline. As we're both a bit shutterbuggy, we headed over early to snap some pics as we went zippy-zipping along before the kids arrived.

Climbing the cargo net

The view from the top of the zipline tower.

Away we go!! All the pictures below were shot in sequence during one zip.







Prepare for landing...



Perfect landing!

Running the zipline is hard work.

Two Completely Random Weeks

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post...where does the time go?! To make up for it, here's an extra-long entry with everything from sand to snow and surf to turf for your enjoyment.

I kicked off last week with some of the smartest 6th graders I've ever met. For example, when we were discussing the fact that all matter has mass, one of them began quizzing me on anti-matter. Yikes! Anti-matter aside, we had a great time. They were my first group of kiddos to be stealthy enough to spot deer on our night hike, which they thought was pretty darn cool.

This weekend, I had some of the funniest 5th graders on the planet. When prompted to name a famous physicist, one blurted out, "Einstein! He had that thing about families." I couldn't help chiming in, "Oh yeah! The Theory of Relatives!" There was a beat of silence and then the class erupted in giggles. (Sadly, we were looking for Newton and his laws of motion.)

The weather has been pretty crazy....everything from sunshine to Portland-worthy downpours to more snow. (Do I sound like I'm tired of snow yet? Well, I am.)

Earlier last week, I finished the "bling" for our Reno bowling team. Here are the starfish pendants, peridot (green), howlite (aqua), carnelian (orange), garnet (burgundy) and amethyst (purple) before....

And after...

Last Sunday, I was able to take a hike along the Ernie Maxwell trail with my buddy Geo. After finishing the trail proper, we wended our way to town and enjoyed dinner at Aroma's Cafe, where we were chatted up by the owner. Hubert is a retired math professor turned restauranteur, and quite a character.

Along our hike, we came across a stand of young cedars. I just love the chartreuse of their needles...leaves? Fronds? What the heck do you call it? Whatever...I love it.

Here's an ant's eye-view of a fallen log...

There are huge boulders all along the trail. It's a good thing someone came along and propped them up with sticks so they don't go rolling over unsuspecting hikers! :)

I really liked the woven texture of these jumbled sticks...

...and of this whorled root.

These pines get so tall. Does anyone else's neck ache from looking up?

Caught a lovely pine silhouetted against the sun.

As we hiked past Humbert Park and into town, we passed Suicide Rock.

I had Thursday off this week, and in light of the approaching storm, a couple of us decided it would be good to get off the mountain for a day while we could. Josh and I headed down to Oceanside for some fish tacos, wading, and surfer-watching.

One patch of the beach was covered with these little shells. At first glance, I thought it was a tooth or urchin spine, but nope, it's definitely some kind of clam-type critter.

The locals, checking out the scene on the pier...

We noticed that there were a lot of surfers in the water, but only a few of them actually surfing. It appears that the biggest portion of surfing is actually spent waiting for that perfect wave.

Waiting/surfing isn't the only water sport to enjoy in Oceanside.

Whatever this week brings you, I hope you take time to enjoy the spring bulbs for me (the poor daffodils were just starting to bloom, and now they're buried under about a foot of snow).