Thanksgiving Weekend in Paradise!

Sean, Gloria, Marlene and I had lunch in downtown Oceanside at a roof top restaurant over Thanksgiving weekend. The weather was in the 70's! My knee almost fully recovered from surgery. One last physical therapy session next week and I should be fully recovered. We all got together with Brian, Jackie, Evan, and Elise on Saturday. On Saturday morning, it rained here for the first time since June. Southern Cal is in a drought, so they can use any rain they can get. It was short lived and blue skies and beautiful sunsets are back.

A week to take it easy

Kevin finally had knee surgery one week ago today to repair an injury from last May. Kevin's knee was locking up if bent back too far, and it was gradually getting worse. He was lucky to get the team orthopedic surgeon for the San Diego Padres to do the surgery. Kevin had to hobble on crutches for a couple of days, but amazingly we were doing some moderate bike riding and walking just 4 days after the surgery. Weather remains great in Oceanside. High temperatures are around 70 and each day features amazingly blue sky. We saw our first whale heading south to Mexico from the Oceanside Pier on Sunday. December is whale watching month, so we are excited to see more.

A day in Dana Point

We drove a short 30 miles north across Camp Pendleton to Dana Point. You may not be familiar with Dana Point, but it is right next to San Juan Capistrano (no, the swallows were not returning today) and San Clemente (yes, home of Nixon's western White house). We spent the day at the Dana Point Harbor walking, looking at the harbor (and boats for sale), and catching lunch the restaurant that Sean created a parody song about (you have to ask Sean). The harbor is huge. I thought Oceanside had a big harbor, but Dana Point definitely is larger, with many restaurants and shops. Dana Point is also a departure point for boats to Catalina Island. We will save that for another day. Weather has been great. Still wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts.

By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea....

Oceanside, California, November 3.

We have had some beautiful sunsets in Oceanside. The sky has some amazing colors in the evening. The weather has been great, the sky has been blue every day, but the coast does get immersed in fog on somedays. This weekend is the tall ship festival at Oceanside harbor. This is the first ship that arrived this week. It's next voyage is to Panama. They have a sign indicating you can buy passage for this voyage. Tempting.

"Touchdown"

Marlene and I have not been good at updating our travels in the last few days, but after 4500 miles and 3 weeks of (mostly) living in hotels, we have landed in Oceanside, California for a few months. Oceanside is the ultimate beachfront city. It has a huge pier right off the center of downtown. The pier has a "Ruby's" restaurant built on the end of the pier, so you can eat great American diner food, with a fantastic view of the city and the ocean. This is the sunset view tonight from the deck of the condo we rented. The temperature was in the low 80's today. We found a great furnished condo in a beachfront complex, right next the to harbor, so I have already been checking out the trawlers. We are right below downtown, so the beach, the downtown, and the harbor restaurants are all in walking distance. We were really busy in the last week, visiting Kings Canyon, Sequoia National Park, and San Diego. We got a chance to see Brian, Jackie, Evan, and Elise. It was great to hold our grandchildren and see how much they have grown and developed skills. Oceanside is just 35 miles north of San Diego, so we hope to see a lot of Brian's family in the next few months.

Sunny in San Jose

Marlene and I spent the weekend with Sean, Gloria, Jacob, and Emily at their home in San Jose. It was nice to have a break from hotels and restaurant food. Saturday, Emily participated in a cheer leading class and in the afternoon we all went to a high school football game to see Emily and her cousins Alex and Jane perform at the halftime show. Sean and Gloria prepared a Spanish dinner of tapas on Saturday evening. We also had the chance to spend the evening with Gloria's brother Tim and his family. Tim just moved down from Seattle. We had met him at Sean's wedding, but only briefly.

The weather has been sunny and in the high 70's. We are staying at Sean and Gloria's through Sunday, Monday, we plan to start towards San Diego, taking time to visit Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park on the trip down.

Fast Forward to Monterey, California

After a quick cold Sunday overnight in Lake Tahoe, we decided "enough" with cold weather. Descending from Lake Tahoe(in the 30's) we found the warmth of NAPA valley to be very welcoming. We spent Monday afternoon doing a circle of the wineries in NAPA, then headed towards San Jose. The temperatures were a balmy 80+. We spent Tuesday in San Jose, meeting Sean and Gloria for lunch in Los Gatos. We spent the evening with Sean, Jacob, and Emily. Wednesday, we drove down to Monterey and visited Fisherman's Wharf. We took a 3 hour whale watching tour. We didn't see any whales, but we did see a large pod of dolphins. The air temperature on the Ocean was in the low 60's , but it was great to be back on the water. Marlene was happy. Whale watching is one of her favorite activities.