May Gray – a meritage to catchup

When I mentioned to Fran I was going to work on the Blog, she asked if we did anything Blog worthy.  Not really a single event, but a couple weeks filled with some fun doings.

1. Little Italy Art Walk

It was full on May Gray and misty with rain, and more in the rain forecast for the afternoon.  But we hopped on the Blue Line Trolley for the ride to Little Italy.  From the trolley it's a couple blocks up Beech St. to the the Art Walk.  It looked like we'd get between the rain drops.

Kg is in Boston studying for her advance degree in Library Science.  She can catalog pretty much anything now.  We found this gift for her at the Art Walk.  

Reaching Forward

The rain came early and now it’s pouring!  The trolley stops have covers over the standing area, but not over the seating area!  Who designed this?

2. Bates Nut Farm

Various events are held at Bates Nut Farm (Bates Brothers Nut Farm) to attract visitors.  Bates is located in Valley center (Bear Valley) just east of Escondido.  The event that had my attention was the Rods, Customs and Classics Car Show.

Some restored customs:

A work in progress

and my favorite restoration:

A restored Texaco tow truck

Towing its mini-me

A few rods:

The 'rust' is part of the paint job
Notice the shine

And some classics:

Bates always has some farm animals for the kids to feed

And this day they also had a craft fair to wander around.

Fran asked me to pick up a few snacks for our trip to the Moonlight Theater.   Good Grief!, where to start???

I skipped the candies

4 long isles of various nuts made for some selections

A fun mix made from 6 small selections

3. Guajome Reginal Park

This is a county park near Oceanside, just an hour from home, and is our overnight for attending the Moonlight Theater.

Although the county raised the one night stay to $48 (from $38) with FHU, I’d rather stay then arrive home at midnight.  The park is a great walking and birding spot.  We walked around the 12 acre lake a couple times, but too many bugs for us to explore into the marshlands.  

The trails connect the local communities, as we sat out we'd see lots of walkers, strollers, joggers and kids on bikes as they go to/from school.

Tonight's Moonlight Theater play will end around 10pm, by the time we return to Rufus it'll be close to 11pm.

I simply cannot drive at night, so a little camping is just part of the adventure.

4. Moonlight Theater

This is a fun outdoor venue in nearby Vista about a half hour away.  It has a huge stage for the plays, but only seats around 2000, which keeps it intimate.

We are here for the stage adaptation of Grease.

Snacks and non-adult beverages are allowed to be brought in, and on site beverages including adult are available, lots of food options too.

The play? The headliners are from a great Broadway cast, with lots of awesome local talent.  So much energy and just fabulous vocals.  Sandy was played by a softspoken gal who had no trouble when it came to singing, she filled the outdoor theater.  She was the best, well except for ONJ … RIP

5. Cinco de Mayo

On another cold May Gray day with a bit of rain, we again hopped on the trolley for a couple stops to Old Town.  But with the heavy mist it was not as well attended as past years, still fun.

The last time we were here was a couple weeks ago with Marty and Juanita and there were Mariachis.  Not this time, there were lots of Folkloric dancers … in the street and on the stage.  Such graceful and colorful dancers.

.

This time we ate at Casa de Reyes (Casa de Pico), and would return again.  Fran had the chicken tortilla soup (a cream broth) I had a carne asada tostada, excellent!, but they had a grilled mahi-mahi tostada.  I've not seen that on another menu.  Next time.

Casa de Reyes is near the stage, a big plus for this day, and although it's managed by the group that runs Barra Barra, the menu offers other options.

6. Some plans that were rained out :(((

Motorcars on MainStreet

This is the annual classic car show in Coronado, which we've been to in the past.

We had planned to bike to the Coronado Ferry, take the ferry to Coronado and then bike to the event near Star Circle.

 ... but there's rain

Animals on the Bay

$5 admission to the Chula Vista Discovery Center on Gunpowder Point (usually $20), it's an easy ride from Pepper Park.  Although we've been here a few times it is an enjoyable visit.

and it is adjacent Sweetwater Park is now open.  We’d normally do a bike ride from Pepper Park,

 ... but there's rain

Well, we certainly need all the rain, too bad it's later than usual when fun events have been planned.

7. Up next

Rain permitting, a bike ride to the Grand Opening of the Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center in Chula Vista.  We'll bike from Pepper Park and hope to have time to investigate the new Sweetwater Park along the way.

and here at home it's war on the gophers!
 ... rain or shine!

any ideas?

Please offer suggestions if you’ve done battle with these critters!

September - a wrap-up

These last two weeks of September are pretty much a blur, although we stayed busy, I took very few pictures.

The Blue Line Trolley stops at the bottom of our hill and for $1.25 each way we chose to  ride it to a Wednesday afternoon Padre game at PetCo Park.

Junita climbing the steps

Fran likes to sit high behind home plate to get a better view of the whole field.  I can hardly see the ball from up here :)

The one-way trolley ticket is good for two hours.  We took advantage of this, as it gave us time to hop off in Old Town to enjoy a Margarita and share a platter of Nachos at Barra Barra.

Barra Barra is a good choice as it is close to the Old Town Transit Hub and typically offers good food and fast service.

On Sunday the Moonlight Theater was performing Saturday Night Fever.  We typically stay overnight at Guajome County Park rather than make the hour drive back at night.  It’s $34 for a FHU site … much less than parking at the Padre game :) 

There’s usually a site open for a Sunday night.  Despite a Sunday performance the Moonlight had a nice turnout.

And a huge cast for the performance.

Before Marty left Tacoma his doctor recommended he have an Ablation to lessen the chance of another heart beat malfunction.  He got a second opinion from a local cardiologist, who concurred.  Marty was comfortable with the local surgeon and they scheduled the procedure to be done here on Tuesday afternoon.

Sleeping Beauty

After our visit at the hospital, where Juanita was able to spend the night with him, we returned home.  That is, we returned after a dinner stop for Taco Tuesday at Off Shore

One of Fran’s high school chums lives in north county, in fact Barbara and Fran came to San Diego together and never left!  A mutual friend from high school was in town to visit them and will stay with Barbara.  This turned into a perfect opportunity to have a slumber party. 

That left the three of us to figure out what to do with ourselves.  Juanita suggested Tri-tip for lunch.  One of the best places for brisket and pulled pork is found at the Coronado Ferry Landing.  So that was our adventure for the day.

Once there we walked around the park to where the original auto ferry landed until the bridge was complete in 1969.

We stopped for a wine tasting at the Coronado Tasting Room.

where they offered us a tequila tasting, too.

Both of the tequila offerings were quite good, their wine not so much.

Somehow I have no picture of lunch at Lil Piggy’s Bar-B-Q.  Where we ordered brisket and pulled pork sandwiches.  The sandwiches were cut in half for sharing.  Juanita declared the pulled port best and ate both halves!  

Fran and the gals were also at the Ferry Landing having lunch at Costa Azul.  I had to stop in to say Hi.  They were sitting in the same area where we recently met Gay and Joe for lunch.

We then caught the ferry for our return home.

We are now getting ready for October's annular eclipse.