Best Wishes for a Magnificent 2018 – from San Diego

We were abandoned for Christmas!  First time ever!  The grand-girls, Kg and Aj, spent the Christmas week with the grand-son, Jm, at his new house in Kirkland WA.  However, we did enjoy the company of a couple nieces and their families.  J arrived with husband and their great kids, such an awesome family, they really are the best!  Then niece L arrived from Dayton with her friend A.  So we were abandoned, but not alone and never had a dull moment!

Our family members were not the only ones escaping the cold winter weather elsewhere, a walk along waterfront in Pacific Beach showed there were more tourists then locals.

On a crowded beach how to tell the locals?  Hint these kids are locals …


Locals do not wear jeans on the beach.  The two couples on the left are dating - he is carrying her sandals.  At first I thought the fella on the fat tire bike was a local, nope the bike is a rental – check out his socks.



Locals have wet suits that fit, we’re not comfortable in 60 degree water waiting for the perfect wave.


The surfers are locals.  Any parent would carry shoes so their child could be barefoot on the beach.  But the family in the second photo are tourists, but almost have it.  The dad is carrying his daughter’s sandals, he’s wearing cargo shorts and his socks are below the ankle, mom has flip-flops – but jeans?  The real give-away … they are walking on a clam bed!  ARG!


Yupper – clams stretch all along the shore at low tide.  The tiny colorful Coquina clams are exposed at very low tides.  They are also called ‘bean clams’ because of their diminutive size, not bigger than Kg’s little fingernail.  The little clams are indeed edible, just need a tiny clam fork and an itty-bitty bowl of garlic-butter, or are more often used to form a broth for other dishes.


PB does not have a decent tide pool area to explore, so the Coquina are pretty unusual.  The low tide staple is under Crystal Pier barnacles and muscles cling to the pilings.  The barnacles are light colored while the muscles are a dark violet.


The kite man was out showing off his wares.  The circling kite at the bottom of the first picture is an ouroboros being held aloft by the large sport kite.  The two triangle conventional kites are a pair as seen in the second picture.


Almost fooled me, thought they were locals as I snapped this picture at a street crossing, but nope tourists.  The girls are wearing slip-ons from Belmont Park, not flip-flops, but dad does have a nice tan, the daughters do not.


If you are wondering what do Fran and I do with the sandals … I don’t want to carry hers, if I am carrying mine, and neither of us want to deal with it anyway – so we leave them at home!, and go bare-foot’n.

With the little ones heading back home before New Years, we were able to kidnap L and A for the day.  She had not been to Coronado before, so that became our destination.  We arrived at the Midway parking lot before the first ferry to Coronado was to leave.  Easy to park here, and it’s really a bit of a bargain at $10 for the day.  Again we'll take the Broadway Ferry to Coronado and will return via the Convention Center Ferry.


The 20 minute ride always seems to go too fast.  For this trip around the island we have decided to rent eBikes at the Ferry Landing.  At $10/hr for a 3hr rental allows more than enough time to show the newbies the island.  Our first stop is a bit early as one of the bike seats is slipping.


The world’s first electrically lighted outdoor Christmas Tree is at the Hotel del Coronado.  The hotel no longer lights the historic tree, which is just outside the main entrance.  However they still have a unique upside-down Christmas Tree in the main lobby.


We explored The Del for a bit before continuing the ride up to Coronado Beach, where again we were surprised to see the colorful Coquina clam beds exposed.  As far as we could see, the little clams remained calm awaiting the return of the tide and hoping not to get stepped on.


Do these Ohio kids look to be happy to escape winter for a couple weeks?  Gotta work on their ‘beach appearance’ a bit, but so good to have them here!, even for a visit.


eBike review – the Motiv bikes have a great beach cruiser style and ample twist’n’go power to supplement pedal power or to take over completely.  Very comfortable and easy to use, but IMHO the quality is not there.  Our snifters were different, the bell did not work, keys bent, baskets damaged/missing, but the biggie was the difference in battery life.  OK they are rentals, but do predict what long term ownership might be like.  We may rent the Pedego bikes next time we go, just to compare.