OB - Ocean Beach

Here in SoCal, we can say PB, OB, or IB and even the tourists know the correct beach.  But none would even dare call Coronado Beach CB.  Not sure how these familiar terms came to refer to 'my' beaches. Thus we’ve made a couple bike rides. to OB.

Built in 1966 the iconic OB Pier has been shuttered since an October 2023 storm caused significant damage.

Damage from high surf has caused closures of the pier in recent years.
Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty images

This past week the city has confirmed that no additional repairs will be attempted.  The OB Pier will be demolished and replaced.  The current plan rendering has been released.

Ocean Beach Pier rendering.
Photo: Courtesy of the City of San Diego

The estimated cost is near $200 million! and will take years to complete. The new rendering shows the pier to be 2000’ as was the original.

I believe the WOW Cafe on the pier is also gone forever :(, it has not reopened anywhere in the OB area ... so I am now on a personal quest to find another fish taco in OB worthy of replacing WOW.

Fran and I rode our bikes over the recently completed bike path on Sunset Cliffs Blvd through Rob Field and down to the sand volleyball courts at Dog Beach.  She had heard that Beach Tennis is to be played there.  It’s kinda like Pickle Ball on a half-height volleyball net, in the sand.  We enjoyed walking the beach, but alas no tennis.

It’s nice to have the sand between the toes, it’s even nicer to wash it out.

We walked all of Newport Ave from the beach and then back checking out the options.  And we ended back at South Beach an old favorite.

Really, it is a very good taco, with a variety of condiments

At $5 their ‘World Famous’ grilled Mahi Mahi is going to be hard to beat.  But their service is a bit slow and does not have the personality the WOW had.

Saturday 9/7 Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC) was sponsoring a wheelchair Over The Line (OTL).

Many of the participants are not disabled, but are there to support friends or family.  OMBAC provides chairs for the them, so they too can compete.

A while back I put together an OTL-101 blog.  If you want to check up on the game that blog can be found HERE.

A few concessions for the ADA version.  Although the ball must still go Over The Line.  If the ball is fielded cleanly in the air that, of course, is an out.  However in Chair OTL The ball can be fielded cleanly after a single bounce or simply touched in the air before a bounce and that too is an out.

The use of a T-ball stand is permitted at the batter’s request.

Field positions are the same with 2 forward to protect the corners and 1 deep to prevent a home run.  A good hitter will spin the ball into a corner over the line and with bounce out of bounds.  It's only a homerun if the ball travels over the last defender's head without touching the ground, hence he plays deep.

Rather than use a T-ball stand, the batter may chose to have a teammate pitch the ball.

The idea is to drop the ball near the wheel so a nice one handed golf shot can spin the ball over the line into a corner or sideline.  After watching for awhile I drove to Rob Field to unload my bike for a ride over to the Sunset Cliffs Auto Show.

With 250,000 miles on my truck I just put on a set of new tires.  I should have waited!, now these are some tires!, don't think they'll fit.

My personal fav at the show

Custom surfboard graphics to match his car.

A fully restored 1929 Hudson and it’s available!

A Stoddard Dayton 10-K.

A 1953 Bentley

also with some nice tires.

This 2017 Rolls-Royce Ghost is a commissioned build.  Simply it’s one-of-a-kind.

You get the idea the OB Auto Show has some really classic entries.

New to OB is a City Tacos.  They are a chain found throughout the county.  But this one is  their OB playground.

I wanted a grilled fish taco, but what came was fried.  Hard to compare grilled tacos ... maybe next time.

But their salsa bar is to be recommended

The outdoor patio is pretty open.

With it’s own fenced dog park

Foosball and cornhole for adult entertainment.

And on the puzzle table, Aj and I finished this mosaic.  Aj calls the edges 'The Crust', since neither of us start there and we completed the guts, we left all the 'crust' for Fran :)

Then Aj whipped out this Bobcat in record time.  Since it does not have an interlocking 'crust' and a nice collection of pieces in the shape of animals, I thought it might be more of a challenge … nope ....

That’s the action from the past couple weeks.  Fran has planned her Ohio trip for next week.  And I’ll let you know how my new tires hold up, next time!

W.O.W. - Fireworks, SpaceX and OB

Throughout the summer season SeaWorld has a fireworks display to signal closing time.

We seldom watch anymore, but tonight was worth watching from our deck.  As just a few minutes past the finale SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy from Vandenburg.

As the finale finished, 

WOW!

The sky was clear with a sliver moon, while Fran and I watched the launch live on my cell phone.

The rocket would be here in just a few minutes.  It was so worth watching for it.

WOW!

The San Diego Surf is our local soccer club.  They have their practice field at Surf Sports Park in Del Mar, near the Polo Fields, just east of I-5.

The name 'Surf' is a bit confusing with the ocean and associated sports, in this blog it will refer to soccer not to surfing.  .Here’s why - The daughter of my niece plays soccer for the Tacoma Evolution.  They lost in their bid last week in the National Championships, but are here in Del Mar to compete for the Surf Cup.

Even though grandniece Audrey was not playing I decided to watch the team play.  Teams from all across US came to compete in this Best of the Best event.

Tacoma, in white, is taking on Dallas, in blue.

Tacoma scored first, but Dallas quickly tied it up.

But the Tacoma girls soon showed their abilities and easily defeated Dallas 5-1. 

WOW!

As I mentioned in my last post I set a goal to walk the reopened OB Pier.  Fran and I set out to check it out.

Yup, it’s long, the longest concert pier on the west coast at just under
2000’

A popular surfing spot, but the waves were not cooperating that day.

The W.O.W. Café sign has been repainted.

Their website indicated they were still closed, so I figured they’d be opening soon.  But they were indeed open for business with their full menu!

We completed our walk and ordered our fish tacos.  We ordered the fish taco plate with fries and slaw as we can split those and a fish taco.

The tacos come on 2 tortilla shells to hold all the fillings.  There are enough fillings to separate the shells to make 2 tacos or 1 extra long taco.

WOW! the W.O.W. is back.

Work continues to progress in De Anza Cove.  We plan to walk there next.

Brakes - for the Toad

When we first bought Rufus, over a decade ago, we knew there would times we would want the Jeep to be towed.  Our 1997 Jeep TJ can be towed 4-down with both front and rear differentials placed in neutral.

We tried a Brake Buddy that sat on the floor and manually push the brake pedal when the RV brakes were applied.  But with the short wheelbase of the Jeep TJ and it’s stiff suspension, it would quickly become dislodged.  This made our first trip to the Cactus League Games a bit exciting ...

I then installed a unit from SMI called the Stay-In-Play.  It is permanently mounted and activated by simple toggle switch providing power to the vacuum unit and a deceleration sensor.

But alas it finally failed, as we discovered on our last trip to Borrego coming down from Ranchita!  SMI was purchased by Demco and makes a similar unit.

Certainly the new manual has added color to the graphics and the schematic.  A nice touch.

I started with the morning sun’s glare, even though I thought this might be an easy exchange if I could reuse the old tubing and wires.  

That was not so.  I broke the original SMI desecration sensor and switch while removing the seat.  Then I noticed the Demco unit is physically larger than the SMI unit.  But it still fits nicely under the seat.

The diode block on the left provides brake light indication to the unit and prevents feedback

When doing a test fit I discovered the vacuum tubing was a different diameter, ARG!

It finally all came together in the long shadows of the evening.

We will be hosting a birthday gathering tomorrow for Fran’s sister.  Fran will be making a Macadamia Nut cake from the last harvest of this season.

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With the rain and a few storms have kept us inside, often at the puzzle table.

This is puzzle of our neighborhood.  The missing house shaped piece is centered around our home.

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Fran likes to do the borders first, while I tend to work toward the border

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Grandson is a big Mandalorian fan.  This is 'family' puzzle with large and small pieces.
Note the upper left corner is twice the size of the upper left.

Storm damage can be found all along the beaches.  Here’s a photo news article showing the beating the OB Pier experienced, the entire article is at NBC7.

OB Pier Jan 2023

The pier is closed ‘indefinitely’.  Which means WOW Cafe is closed ‘indefinitely’, along with my favorite fish tacos ….

Mission Beach also took a hit when the Sea Wall was breached.  A News8 YouTube video can be seen HERE.

Mission Beach Jan 2023

I am happy to report the Boardwalk was quickly restored and the Royal Rooster was undamaged … Fran’s favorite fish tacos.

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