San Diego

We took the coastline down to San Diego in order to visit a friend dave grew up with. Adam lives in Crown Point, a peninsula almost completely surrounded by Mission Bay. His apartment is literally biking distance from everything you would need (grocery store, restaurants, the Pacific Ocean, Mission Bay, bar). We had a great time hanging out with him and meeting some of his friends.

Adam’s Backyard

We never entered downtown San Diego. Instead we focused on the areas just outside downtown that we knew we would like. First we saw La Jolla Cove. It is a harbor seal birthing area. Their pups are born in a small cove protected by a seawall.

La Jolla Cove Seal Pupping Area

Seal Pup

Then we took a closer look at the tidal pools nearby. At high tides the indentations in the rocks near the ocean edge are completely covered by the pounding surf. Then at low tides those same indentations are partially exposed, allowing you to explore this normally inaccessible setting. Surprisingly, some animals flourish in this turbulent environment. This was my first experience looking into this underwater world.

Anemone

Tidal Pool

Us at Tidal Pools

We were lucky enough to see a skateboarding competition at Mission Beach. You know those crazy contests you will sometimes see on TV where guys are doing all sorts of crazy skateboarding tricks. This time it consisted in guys launching off a ten foot platform, over stairs or down handrails in some cases. The best trick won $25,000 so there was a lot at stake for the people skating. Ironically none of the contestants wore any sort of safety gear. We didn’t see or hear of any terrible accidents.

Skate Contest (Yes, they were doing tricks off that car in the background!)

Crown Point, Mission Beach and Ocean Beach all seemed to be pretty laid back areas. They all had boardwalks similar to the one we were so excited about in Newport Beach with Jenny a week or so ago.

Street Sign at Pacific Beach

We took the dogs to the beach on Mission Bay one night and were surprised to see a bunch of washed up jelly fish all over the beach. The dogs went swimming and didn’t seem to be negatively affected.

Sunset on a Jelly Fish

Before we left our new favorite town of San Diego, we drove south past Sunset Cliffs to Point Loma, at the tip of a peninsula looking into the Pacific Ocean. It was a great way to end our trip and get back on the road. The surf was definitely up and the surfers were out. Yet it was only the older guys who were experienced enough to chance the choppy waters.

Surfer

Point Loma Scenery

Strangely enough we are now back in Irvine at Jenny and Tommy’s place. We will leave Sunday morning for Death Valley. It will be nice to be out of the city for a while!

A Day or Two At the Beach

A visit to Orange County wouldn’t be complete without at least one day at the beach. Finding a beach that allowed Sprout and Otis to join us wasn’t as tough as we envisioned. Huntington Dog Beach was the perfect solution. The only problem … our dogs went crazy when they found out they could run in the water and off leash. Our relaxing beach day was spent running after two knuckleheads who lost all discipline in the midst of their fun.

Huntington Dog Beach

The next day Jenny, dave and I went to Newport Beach without the dogs. What a difference. Newport Beach has a sidewalk (called the boardwalk) that runs along the beach. It’s easy to people watch and sightsee as you cruise along the stretch. The nice weather brought out a lot of people … but that was just more people to people watch. Jenny and I brought our bikes while dave skateboarded next to us.

View of Newport Beach From the Pier

dave Skateboarding

dave and jody on the Beach

dave and jody on the Move

From Newport Beach we cruised on our bikes/skateboard to the Balboa Fun Park, a nearby tourist attraction. We got a few drinks and played some skeeball before heading back. All in all it was a wonderful day at the beach!

Skeeball

Our stay with Jenny and Tommy was a lot of fun. We'll be back here in September when they get married. This afternoon we are jumping back into the van and heading to San Diego.

Joshua Tree National Park

From the river house dave and I headed west to Joshua Tree National Park. We had both heard a lot of neat things about this park and were excited to check it out. In fact, I would list this as one of my top three things I wanted to see on our voyage. We were not disappointed, despite a freak snow storm, and are already thinking about when we can go back and check out more of the crazy rock formations this park has to offer.

Entrance Sign

Two large desert ecosystems mostly determined by elevation come together at the park. Below 3,000 feet, the Colorado Desert occupies the park’s eastern half. It is dominated by abundant creosote bushes but accented by stands of spidery ocotillo and jumping cholla cactus. Higher, more moist, slightly cooler, the Mojave Desert hosts its signature plant – and ecological cornerstone – the Joshua Tree. Extensive stands characterize the park’s western half.

Joshua Tree in the Queen Valley Forest

Cholla Cactus

The Joshua tree is not really a tree at all but a member of the lily family (like other yuccas). By the mid-19^th century, Mormon immigrants named the tree after the biblical figure, Joshua, seeing the limbs of the tree reaching upwards toward heaven. Their flowering is dependent on a) well-timed rains, b)a crisp winter freeze (researchers believe below freezing temperatures damage the growing end of the branch and simulate flowering) and c) the yucca moth (the moth lays her eggs inside the flower and they eat a few of the seeds while it pollinates the flower). Single stalked trees haven’t flowered yet since the flowering starts the branching process. It is difficult to age Joshua trees because they don’t have growth rings like normal trees. You can divide the height of the tree by the annual growth of one-half inch to get a rough estimate.

Joshua Tree Flower

dave versus the Joshua Tree

The plants were one of the reasons to come to this park but the main reason was the incredible crazy rock formations found throughout most of it. This is a rock climbers paradise. Although we didn’t have enough climbing gear with us to engage in anything too crazy, we did take advantage of the scampering. Scampering possibilities were everywhere. We could have spent our entire park stay within our campground, Jumbo Rocks. It was appropriately named. From our site you could head out over the rocks and climb around for hours. Each night we scampered up to the highest point and watched the sun set. We also tried our luck squeezing through tunnels and walking under rock arch formations. We had a ball.

Split Rock Picnic Area

View of Jumbo Rocks Campground from Highest Point (Can you find Hans?)

dave in a Rock Tunnel

jody Near Arch Rock

Even though we were in the desert we didn’t seem to leave Alaska too far behind. A freak snowstorm dropped an inch of snow on us one day to remind us what our friends are experiencing in Alaska.

Snowy Joshua Tree in the Campground

Despite being in a relatively remote location we were constantly reminded of the modern world outside the park’s borders. While visiting one of the vista points in the park, Keys View, we saw this quote:
Smog filled air from the LA area is blown through a pass in the mountain range and is chocking the desert with all of its pollution.

We Finally Reached Irvine, California Only to Leave for Parker, Arizona

From our stop over at Michelle’s grandparent’s house we drove to my sister, Jenny, and her fiancé, Tommy’s, place in Irvine, California. We didn’t stay long before we piled back into the van and headed to Parker, Arizona. Tommy and a group of his friends bought a house on the Colorado River in the 1980’s. Each year they divvy up the weeks and we happened to get lucky enough to be visiting them on one of their weeks! The four hour drive was brutal with all of us almost falling asleep. But when we woke up Saturday morning it was all worth it.

River House

Surrounding Scenery

Tommy got his boat out even though it was early in the season. The weather cooperated and we were treated to highs in the 70’s. We spent the weekend on the boat hanging out on the river. There is a dam just upriver from the house so we would motor upriver to the dam, cut the engine and then float downstream for hours.

Us Hanging on the Boat

Tommy

The dogs were able to join us on the boat. In their usual way they adapted to their surroundings and seemed to have a wonderful time on the water.

Jenny and Otis

Sprout on Boat

The Gang

Sunset