AHH… THE GOOD LIFE…until the other shoe drops...

Imperial Beach

It's our third winter on the road and again we wile away the winter months in the San Diego area.  This year we spend the entire break at the Bernardo Shores RV Park in Imperial Beach.  We enjoy holidays with family, visit some of our favorite spots, binge watch Netflix, get our camera's checked and services at Canon's fancy service center in Costa Mesa and take care of some repairs and upgrades to Dave and Dimples, while we enjoy the warm southern California weather.

The View

Dimples gets:  All new screens, Sirius XM Radio, a Rogue Wave WIFI antenna and a US Carberation Generator Conversion Kit to convert our Yamaha generator to run on gas or propane.  

Balboa Park, San Diego

Living Coast Discovery Center

Orchids bloom in Balboa Park

There are lots of restaurants within walking distance so we don’t always have to cook...

Three of our favorites:

Don Pancho’s is the go to place for cheap good eats.  We graze through their menu.  Never a disappointment, and we have more than a few favorite dishes. All of their burritos are bigger than my forearm and packed full of goodness. The Carnitas Burrito ($4.75) is juicy with just the right amount of crispy edges and there is just a smattering of salsa and onions to balance the flavors.  The Surf and Turf Burrito ($6.95) is a perfect blend of Carne Asada, Jumbo Shrimp and Mexican rice.  An order of the Carne Asada Fries ($7.69) or the Nachos Grande ($6.59) is a meal in itself.  The Breakfast Burritos are also tasty and a great bargain at $3.30 each.

All of the meat here is tender and flavorful, veggies are fresh and the sauces are zesty.  The only thing we’re not fond of is their guacamole, too much cream and not enough avocados, but this problem is easily solved.  Just add fresh made avocado salsa from Northgate Market and a couple of Negro Modelo’s for a perfect take out meal!

Giant Pizza King is a local chain that makes horrible Pizza - BUT their Lasagna Dinner for $8.99 is surprisingly delicious.  It comes with a generous mixed salad and a huge chunk of focaccia bread.  It’s enough to serve two average appetites.  Even better - they deliver, so a quick phone call and about a half-hour wait (just enough time to let the wine breathe) and we’re enjoying a really good lasagna dinner.

Big Kahuna’s offers up burgers and such with a Hawaiian twist.  We have to agree with Samuel L. Jackson about the Big Kahuna Burger – “Now that’s a Tasty Burger!”  They also have great pulled pork dishes, rice bowls, and a favorite breakfast: the Loco Moco – ground beef, onions and gravy served over rice and topped with two fried eggs.

Overall it's a great winter, with one crappy exception.  Chris gets a tooth ache… goes to the dentist & discovers that all of his 20+ year old caps & crowns  are failing… he gets a plan and a price to basically rebuild his mouth with new caps, crowns and partial dentures… we are in sticker shock… but the work needs to be done, so he starts the process and we tentatively plan to return to IB for the summer...

CACTI, ROSES, CHERRY BLOSSOMS and more…

Shells on the Beach

We call Chula Vista home for two months.  This is our longest stay in any one location since we started on this adventure.  You know what they say, “location…location…location” and weather doesn’t suck either! So we kick back and wait for spring.  Of course while waiting we explore more and expand our experiences.

Visiting Balboa Park  is one of our favorite pastimes and full of surprises.  There is always something going on. (One afternoon we followed signs and sounds and were able to sit in on a rehearsal of the San Diego Youth Symphony.)

Cherry Blossoms

The two-acre Japanese Friendship Garden originated as a teahouse during the 1915–16 Panama-California Exposition. Along the Garden’s winding paths is a Zen garden for meditation, an exhibit house, koi pond, bonsai exhibit, ceremonial gate, and a Fujidana  (wisteria arbor).  We are fortunate and visit the garden on the day of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The garden is packed with folks viewing the blossoms while enjoying culinary treats, dancing, music and Japanese culture.

The Spanish Village Art Center is home to  San Diego County's largest community of artists. We spend a pleasant afternoon exploring the thirty-seven working artist studios/galleries that host over two hundred local painters, sculptors, metal smiths, jewelry designers, clay artists, gourd artists, photographers, printmakers, fiber artists, basket weavers, mixed-media artists, glass artists, and more!

Blooming Cactus

Rose

TheDesert Garden  contains more than 1,300 plants, including cacti, succulents and drought-resistant plants from around the world, within its 2.5 acres. We are fortunate to catch the tail end of the peak blooming period. And if this isn’t pokey enough, adjacent is the stunning three-acre Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden; a thorny yet fragrant and colorful display of approximately 2,500 roses of nearly 200 varieties.

TheMuseum of Photographic Arts houses more than 7,000 works, representing the entire history of photography, its aesthetic movements, and technological advancements. A special exhibit UNSEEN: The Photographs of Jessica Lange  who maintained a career as a fine art photographer for nearly two decades, alongside her work as an actor. The works are cinematic and provocative. But as to be expected – photo taking not allowed!

Vampire Slayer Kit

TheSan Diego Air & Space Museum  is California’s Official Air and Space Museum and an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.  The Museum houses a collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft from all over the world, including a working flying replica of Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, the actual Apollo 9 Command Module spacecraft and the only real GPS satellite on display in the world. When we visit there is a special Ripley’s Believe it or Not exhibit.  How often can one say they saw the Apollo 9 spacecraft and a vintage vampire hunter kit under the same roof?

Bug

And then there’s the Natural History Museum (affectionately called the NAT.)  The permanent exhibits showcase the unique and bio-diverse southern California region.  The day of our visit it’s all about the bugs. Dr. Entomo's Palace of ExoticWonders is a real kick.   Now, this might be a bit traumatic for those afflicted with Entomophobia but for us, an old-fashioned circus sideshow with glow-in-the-dark scorpions and the world's largest bird-eating tarantula, is fascinating. The museum is also home to a state of the art Dolby 3D theatre where we view Bugs! 3D: A Rainforest Adventure  about the dramatic and savage lives of an Old World praying mantis, Hierodula and a beautiful butterfly, Papilio.
 We enjoy a second 3D  film The Last Reef about our oceans and an exhibit: On the Trail of Ansel Adams, Black and White Nature Photography.

And wait… there’s more…

Cheetah

30 miles north is The San Diego Zoo Safari Park, an expansive wildlife sanctuary that is home to more than 2,600 animals representing more than 300 species. Its renowned botanical collection represents 3,500 species and 1.5 million specimens. This beautiful preserve is dedicated to consumer education and breeding of endangered species.  We take a behind the scenes tour and see some of last Somali Wild Asses on the planet. (BTW these are of the equine variety, not anarchists or pirates.) In the afternoon we watch a cheetah run at 70 mph… yeah… so fast that the photos only show where she was… then there’s the baby Southern White Rhino… How cute is this??? <- click for video

Baby Rhino & Mom


 

Odd Companions

The Living Coast Discovery  center on the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Chula Vista, is the place to explore the amazing animals and plants that call this coastal region home.  Here we see Raptors munching on their rodent lunch, and aquariums full of local sea creatures and reptiles.

Our RV Park is located along the San Diego Bay Bike Route.  This is a 24-mile loop that circumnavigates the bay with a ferry ride to cross the open channel.  We don’t do the loop but ride around our end of the bay to Imperial Beach and Silver Strand State Beach.

IB Surfer

Surfhenge

Imperial Beach  (“IB” in local lingo) is the most southern beach city in California and a classic So Cal beach town. It’s full of great public art.  Here we watch locals fishing on the pier, inspect shells on the beach and stroll along the wetlands of the Tijuana estuary.  Looking further south we can see Mexico.

Our stay would not be complete without an evening spent bar hopping in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter. This 16 square-block neighborhood of side-by-side Victorian-era buildings and modern skyscrapers is a cosmopolitan playground, rich with cultural offerings: cinema, art galleries, symphony halls, concert venues, museums, fine dining, craft cocktails, live theatre, music and dancing. BTW the Gaslamp may be cosmopolitan, but we sip Bulleit Rye Manhattans ;^)

So that’s about it for this area… during this time we have also done some research and made plans for the summer… looks like Alaska is the place to be… so we pack up and start heading north… again…