San Diego to Yuma
The drive from San Diego to Yuma was a very windy one!  It rates as one of Don's least favorite drives since we began our travels over 2 years ago.  The first part of the drive was through the mountains and there were some very gusty spots.  It is also very close to the Mexican border.  For the passenger who did not have to have a death grip in the steering wheel it was an interesting trip scenery wise.

 The hills were just huge piles of enormous rocks and the road in some spots is pretty windy as well as windy.

We went past some fields of lettuce once we got into the Imperial valley near El Centro.  When we got closer to Yuma we saw these really cool sand dunes.

There were lots of RV's parked out in the desert and lots of dune buggies too.  This sure looks fun!

 Very interesting to see the fields in different stages of growth.  The one to the left must have just been seeded and was getting watered.  The rows are interesting also, some are built up quite wide and some are narrower like this one.  At a distance it is a real patchwork of browns and greens.

There were a lot of cabbage fields that we never saw last time we were here.  I talked to one farmer and he told me some of his cabbages were used by the "colonel" for his cole slaw.  He also said most of the cabbages still had a long way to go and would be used for St. Patrick's day.

 Also a huge field of onions.

Red and green lettuce. 

Today we went for a drive out to the date farm.  On the way back we stopped and watched them harvesting green lettuce heads.  The boss came over and told me about what they do and answered my questions.  This was a new crew just in their first week.  They  start at 11.00 and hour, he says within a month or so they will make 20.00 an hour.  All of these workers are from Mexico.  I waved to them and tried out my Spanish.  They waved back and a few of them kept asking me to take their picture.  This big platform on the truck that they use to pack the lettuce can swing around and face the other way in the field.  The workers cut the lettuce with a knife and then pick up the heads and put them on the platform where they are packed into crates and loaded on trucks.  It is interesting that they wear hair nets and gloves out in the fields.
I also took a video in case you are interested - my video skills are really not good so be warned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myUQl3eGxzs&feature=youtu.be

I had  nice afternoons at the pool the last two days.  I call it therapy for my stupid shoulder that has been acting up since I wiped out about 3 weeks ago.   Not too shabby to tread water in a nice warm pool while visiting with some nice folks!
Tomorrow we are getting the motorhome washed.  A guy came and said he would wash the car and motorhome for 45.00   Sure easier than Don climbing up on the roof.  We are here until Monday when we leave for Mesa.

where or where did the Die go??
I had no intention of blogging 2 days in a row but once I got back and looked at the pictures I could not resist.  We had a lazy morning, cleaned the house, made some breakfast bread and took a trip to the store for chili fixin's.  By then it was lunch time so we had lunch and then went out to a place called Lake Jennings.  It is really close to our RV park and we had tried to go there another day but the park part is only open on weekends.

It is not a huge lake and you could walk all they way around if you walked on the road.  We decided to drive part way and then walk on the dirt path.  There were a lot of fishermen out and it was a super nice calm warm day.

I have seen this grass in yards and planters but I never knew that it grew in the wild.  I have seen it all over the place growing on hills and what not.  It is huge and beautiful.

 These gum trees amaze me with their smooth bark.  This looks like camouflage pattern to me.

And I think this Peregrine Falcon thought it was a good place to hide too!   What an unexpected treat to spot him while I was checking out this tree.

There were tons of spots to just stop and sit and enjoy or have a little picnic.  By this time Don was sneezing his head off due to the eucalyptus trees.

This may be a few too many pictures of this neotropic cormorant but I loved his silhouette and the sparkling water.

The sun and clear blue sky really set the stage for some fun picture taking today.  We are off to Yuma for a week tomorrow morning.




 

La Jolla Area, San Diego

 La Jolla in Spanish means "the jewel".  In about 2 minutes of walking around this area it is pretty apparent that La Jolla is indeed a jewel. 

 This is looking down toward the sea caves.

 Beautiful  - that's about all I can say!

This area was noisy with sea lions and birds - also pretty smelly!

This is La Jolla Cove, there were a lot of people out swimming quite a long way from shore.  The waves aren't as high as on a big beach so I guess it lends itself to swimming.  There was even a sign telling about the waves, wind and water temp (which was 66 - 68)

This pretty little snowy egret just plopped itself down right in front of me.  He was kinda shy and would not turn around so I could get a better picture - or he was a brat and teased me until I wasn't watching the waves close enough and got my shoes wet.
We walked along the streets in the town for about an hour and looked at the interesting shops and restaurants.  This would be a fun place to shop!  La Jolla is known to be one of the most affluent communities in the United States.  It was difficult driving and parking and we wanted to see quite a bit in this general area so we drove out to Torrey Pines State Reserve.

This is Torrey Pines City Beach and one of my favorites.  It was a very long beach and I could not wait to get my toes in it!  The sand was sparkly with little gold crystals.  The beach held amazing shells and polished rocks (even a pretty little white quartz one that looks like a jelly bean).  We were super lucky to even find a parking spot and even luckier that it was low tide.  We both set out walking and enjoying the beautiful day.

 Don met a fellow metal detector dude and they had a good time comparing notes.

I met this cool young fellow who traveled across the US on his bike.  It took him 80 days and he is going to fly back home to Vermont on Sunday to go back to his job as ski instructor.  He was a neat kid and only 19.

These are some shots of the Torrey Pines. They are very pretty trees that I had seen in the area and really didn't know what they were. Torrey Pines are one of the nation's rarest pine tree.  Once this tree covered a larger area, now it only grows here and near Santa Barbara.  We did not take the time to stop and walk on the hikes etc as we had quite a few stops we still wanted to make.  Also . . .  we might have missed the turns in this area as the navigator gets a little distracted when there are birds in marshy areas (can you say ADD?).  We had done a fair bit of backtracking by this time already.  It would be nice to come back and spend at least 4 hours just in the reserve.  Apparently there is a beach off this area that is clothing optional as well.

 We stopped at the glider port and watched them for quite a while as well.

There were super good views from up there too. Look how they build houses in this area.  Some have absolutely no back yard at all and are right on the edge of the cliff.
It is too bad La Jolla is about half hour plus driving from where we are.  I would love to spend 2 more days looking at all it has to offer.  The driving on these scary freeways is not fun at all.  Speed limits are 65 mph.  Don was going 70 and people fly past - very unnerving.
On Thursday night the park had a pot luck Thanksgiving supper.  They cooked turkey and potatoes and gravy and we all brought sides.  About 90% of the people in the park live here year round.  Many have lived here over 5 years.  

This morning we took a drive north into the mountains.  The road was very curvy and the scenery was very beautiful.  There were so many photo opportunities but no way can you get out on those narrow roads.  This was in Escondido.

We made our way to Mission Bay today as we had tried to get there on the La Jolla day but went the wrong way once again and that was the last straw for Don.  This would be a great place to walk and bike as well but it was super busy with a breast cancer walk.  The walkers were all decked out and it was quite entertaining anyway.  I have no idea what this guy's excuse was for his get up!  Srsly didn't anyone tell him matching your clothes to your bike was so last year.  hee hee

 Where I come from we have snow routes . . .

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Just another picture of the streets and houses.  This street was super steep - you can tell they don't get ice and snow!