Swami's Beach

Yesterday the old guy suggested we go to the beach somewhere. Well, he really wanted to go to REI, and the beach was to sweeten the pot for me. What a manipulator. It was a day emerging from the chilly weather we've been having, quite warm (the high 60s anyway), and clear. He didn't find what he wanted at REI, but we picked up a great book of short hikes in San Diego County. Lots of them are flat, the way I like 'em. Some of them we've been on, like the Tijuana River estuary, and our semi-regular jaunt through the San Diego Zoo Safari Park here in Escondido. Just the right size walks, two or three miles, sometimes more but I like three.

Before the beach, though, we needed food. We found The Bird House Grill, with Turkish food. I've never had fava beans before, and these were in a yogurt/garlic/dill/olive oil sauce (on the mezza menu) and I was sorry to have to share them with Mike. I had a kofte sandwich as well.

Next we went to Swami's Beach.

In Encinitas there's this elaborate Hindu looking complex right on Hwy 101, the Self Realization Fellowship. Our Realization was that we wanted to walk on the sand, and the tiny beach park and parking lot is right behind the Fellowship, with people slipping in and out of their surfing wet suits, and the benches full of guys reading in the sunshine. There are steps going down the 100 feet to the beach, all 145 of them, but we discovered we could return on a ramp-like path a ways down the beach, that connects to a bluff-top walkway back to Swami's. That was good to find because my knees don't like stairs. Next time we'll go down that way also. The beach is long and smooth with nicely packed damp sand for walking on.

It's taken me way too long to put beaches back in my life. I can even do it by light rail and bus if necessary. Expect more beach pictures.

Restless Barb has a new trip report

I finally figured out the dividing line between this blog and the travel one at restlessbarb.blogspot.com. It's still a little wiggly, but if a trip involves an overnight outside of San Diego County then it goes there. If it's a day trip or still feels like we're in our backyard, it goes here. Almost always.

We went to the Mohave and Joshua Tree National Park over Christmas, and I reported on it over at the restlessbarb.blogspot.com. Lots of pictures, some of weird things. Check it out.

 

Border Field State Park

Back in July 2011 I wrote about the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge here. Within a week or two we took another jaunt, farther down the road, to Border Field State Park. Which by its name you might imagine is on the Mexican border. Which it is.

The park was more or less closed. Lots of California state parks are closed. A locked gate blocked the vehicle access road, but we left the car and headed down the road on foot. The parking lot was full of horse trailers, and there were folks heading out horseback along trails through the native brush. We took a longish walk on a big dirt road instead of following the horses, which were kicking up dust, and found ourselves at what had been a picnic area, with restrooms. The restrooms were padlocked, and picnic tables had been hauled away, leaving behind the barbecues. Looked a bit desolate.

But there's good news -- when I went to the Border Field State Park web site today I found that this summer they completed renovations. The road is open (and entrance is $5) on weekends and holidays unless there are flood conditions. (We did see signs of high water as we walked.) Now, the website says, there are shaded group picnic areas and other individual tables, and those restrooms are available. Probably locked on weekdays though.

From the abandoned picnic area we headed on west to the beach. I think it's three miles long, north from the border to the mouth of the Tijauna Estuary. Supposedly you can hike on up to Imperial Beach, but I'm not clear on how you would get across the river -- a satellite view doesn't show a bridge. It look like quite a leap. Maybe when the tide is out? I guess we'll have to go see for ourselves. I'll let you know.

But here's the beach at the border of the US side. Empty of people. Pelicans flying over.

And to our left, up on the hill, that bull ring that we wanted to see close up. We saw it from a distance on the previous trip to the Estuary. Notice the border patrol. 

And heading down the dunes, here's the Tijuana beachfront. It's hard to see in the pictures how packed that beach is. 

Sorry for the blurry telescopic photo.

You can't help imagining how one could get across that border. Or maybe it's just my naturally nefarious mind. 

I wish I had a picture of the roadrunner I saw as we were walking back to the car. It darted into the road from one side, raced ahead of us and then off into the brush on the other side. Mike didn't even see it--they are so quick! That's my second roadrunner ever, and they just make you smile.

There are some other day trips I've neglected to put up here, so I'll be trying to catch that up. Keep an eye out.

Joining community life at 33 degrees north -- or not

Being pretty much an extravert all my life, I didn't realize it would take special effort to step out into my new community -- where I've now been living for two years or so. It feels different from the previous moves.

Perhaps I've ground down the edges of my extraversion over time. In fact I'm pretty sure if I re-took the Myers-Briggs Personal Preference Inventory I'd find I've taken a jog into introversion territory. And it's a fact that we're starting over again (in our eleventh neighborhood) more than 50 years older than when we moved into our first apartment in Long Beach.

Thinking about the energy it takes to get connected has gotten me looking back at what it's been like for us in other places. This is the tenth neighborhood we've lived in: Long Beach, Los Angeles, Alhambra, Garden Grove, south Sacramento, east Sacramento, Colorado Springs and back to Sacramento. Granite Falls and Bellingham WA. And now Escondido.

We're back home, in a way. My mother was born in this town, and Mike grew up about 40 miles north. We both have some family spread about "the Southland" and they have bridged the transition for us.
As we've gotten settled (and very settled in) we've been fed and entertained by assorted relatives, on both sides of the family. So they made it easy for us. A plethora of holiday invitations, for example. We managed to eat two Thanksgiving dinners last year, in the same afternoon. One was at 1 p.m. and the other at 3 p.m. and just ten miles apart. That's abundance!

But after a while you realize you need to establish a community life of your own. That takes stepping out a bit. It was easy when the kids were kids, and there was a school community. A couple of times the church (UU) engaged us. We belonged to a Buddhist sangha in Bellingham. But nothing has quite jelled here.

Maybe I'm asking too much. Maybe it's time to embrace that introvert. There's always the old guy to hang out with. We exchange dinners with a neighbor sometimes, and I visit with another. I have a writing group that I really like; Mike has a weekly art class. We still see family, but much less. There are old friends from older communities that we still see sometimes, or stay in touch with this way, on line, with blogs and emails. What more do I need?

Three Chickens

$.99 a pound sounded pretty good, so I added a third chicken to my basket. I don't really know what a good price is these days. But I was actually shopping for boneless chicken breasts because my husband made noises about inventing a marinade and grilling some on our new countertop electric grill. Since whole chickens have breasts it seemed the better buy.

When I visited Petaluma last month, I had a conversation with our gourmand son about the way he makes chicken stock that will jell up as it chills in the refrigerator, so much better than the thin canned or boxed stuff. What is missing there is the collagen. He gets a little rhapsodic when he talks about it. I texted him some questions, knowing it was a zoo at work but he'd get back to me when he could. In the meantime I started the carving up process.

Six nice plump boneless half-breasts in one plastic bag. The rest of the three carcasses in a great big bag, along with chopped up carrots, onions, celery and some garlic cloves. Lucky there was room in the fridge to hold them until morning, because I didn't want to be up all night.

In the meantime I simmered the giblets from all three chickens until they were tender and put them in the mini-processor along with salt and pepper and mustard. We smooshed that on some nice whole wheat crackers to go with our 5 o'clock wine.

Bubbling merrily away

When Dennis called later he reminded me that the thigh meat was also good to separate out for another recipe -- he has a teriyaki he likes to do. So this morning I took the thighs out of the parts bag, skinned them, and put them aside as well. 

Browning three chicken carcasses on the stove top, along with the vegetables, seems way too labor intensive. I knew that Mark Bittman browns his stock ingredients in the oven, so I looked up his instructions for time and temperature. I just put everything in my big roaster in a 500 degree oven and gave it about 45 minutes. Starting to smell good!

After that cooled a bit I retrieved some of the other bits of meat, from the wings and legs, and the tender morsels that can be scooped out of the back. I managed to get almost 4 cups of cooked meat that way. The remaining bones and skin went into my extra-large stock pot with enough water to cover. And, by roasting, I had already rendered out lots of chicken fat, which I was able to discard before adding the delicious juices that had gathered in the bottom of the roaster. Less skimming later.

Then we went out to late breakfast, leaving the pot simmering. After it cools I can strain and store it. Time for Mike to work on marinating those chicken breasts! Maybe I can get him to clean up after me, too, because I made a mess.

Things to do with grandkids in Avocado-land

We had the pleasure of a visit from 14-year-old Gabriel last week, and managed to fit in a few things we like to do and thought he would enjoy. He and I took the train (and connecting Amtrak buses), from where he lives in Petaluma to Oceanside, and Grandpa (aka Mike) picked us up. The train trip is long, the bus links feel longer, but thanks to electric outlets at each seat on the trains, computer chess and the snack bar, it was fine. There's even wifi.

Gabe loves Mexican food, and we have plenty of that around here. However, here he was in Avocado-land, and he doesn't like avocados! He was philosophical about it when his two tacos arrived with guacamole spread across them. He just scraped as much away as he could. We also went out for western style barbecue (Gabe had some amazing barbecue nachos) and for Mongolian barbecue. Spicy-food-loving kid after my own heart. And very adaptable!

A couple of days we took morning walks at Kit Carson Park, where I finally got a picture of the momma duck and her remaining eight ducklings. She started with eleven. I hate to think.
Kit Carson Park is 285 acres, 100 of them developed. I looked it up. There are trails through the undeveloped parts, and a large amount of the developed acres are devoted to playing fields of all types. Lots of shady picnic areas too. Since Gabe plans on doing cross-country when he starts high school in the fall, we sent him on a trail loop while we dawdled along in our elderly fashion.

And, Kit Carson Park has one of the most imaginative and colorful features you'll find anywhere, Queen Califia's Magical Circle, designed by Niki de Saint Phalle. We always take visitors to see it. It's maybe three miles from our house. These shots were taken on a previous visit, close to sunset.

A small section of Califia's domain

The Queen herself

We went down to La Jolla to the Birch Aquarium, overlooking the Pacific on the UC San Diego campus. The original aquarium, which we visited when Gabe's dad was a kid, was part of the original UC Oceanographic Institute facility there. Now there's a full-scale aquarium (it's not Monterey Bay, but it's nice, and inexpensive in comparison.) I never saw a nautilus in real life before, and the seahorses (sea dragon) and coral reef exhibits were gorgeous.

And finally, the San Diego Safari Park, which is just up the road. We went around mid-day and most of the animals seemed to be taking their noon naps. Here's my favorite animal. He's getting tall! 

It's great to have enough things to do within striking distance of home when we have company. So get in touch if you're coming our way. 

Zydeco for Mom's Day

Today is Mother's Day. Coincidentally, we celebrated, because it happens that this weekend is the annual Gator by the Bay Zydeco Blues and Crawfish Festival in San Diego. Today is the last day. We drove down way early so we could get a free parking spot at a free festival shuttle stop, and then get breakfast in Little Italy before the gate opened. Gigantic breakfast. Must change eating pattern tomorrow. 

Then we wandered along the water by the Maritime Museum until it was time to catch the shuttle. Must make that a trip of its own. 

The festival was great. Five stages strung along Spanish Landing Park across from the airport, interspersed with vendor booths and the extensive food court. I wish I'd taken a picture of the boiled crayfish servings I saw people eating -- a huge huge pile. The Louisiana sausage sandwich and the barbecue tri-tip steak sandwich were plenty. Must change eating pattern tomorrow.  

We watched all or part of performances by five different bands, and we didn't even stay to the end. Each stage also had a big dance floor, and boy, do people dance! Folks dress up, sometimes in goofy outfits, and ham it up. Zydeco dancing has it's own tricky steps, and if you've ever tried to waltz to Cajun music (and have two left feet) you know how challenging that is. We know because we tried it at a previous festival without taking the free lessons that were offered. "Oh, we don't need lessons," he said. Must take lessons next time. There was a parade led by a brass band, and also a great blues band with some very funky dancing happening on their dance floor. Today we were observers, just walked around, sat in the shade on the handy hay bales and watched, cameras ready. A few pictures. 

Must learn to dance Cajun before next year.

PS I'm double-posting this because my Restless Barb travel blog has been so neglected lately. You could go there if you want. It's at http://restlessbarb.blogspot.com/