Day 38 - 2/23/14 La Jolla Shores & Biking to Kate O Sessions Park

It was another beautiful day in paradise here today, and it being Sunday it was another day to spend with the girls.

We were up early and out of the house to La Jolla Shores for a walk.

Here is a picture looking south to downtown La Jolla.  At this end of La Jolla Shores is La Jolla Cove and where Denise & I have taken a kyak tour of the caves on the sharp cliffs rising up from the water surface.

The area is popular for seals & at time some kind of sharks that just basque in the water.

Before our walk it was time to use the playground.

Madison at 5 is still practicing the monkey bars.  Future gymnist possibly? 

Taylor at 2 just hanging around.

This area is also popular to scuba diving. There were many groups diving and yet other groups were surfing.

Now on our walk Madison finds some seaweed and drags it for some distance.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography pier

Looking north to Torrey Pines. 

Heading home after our walk.

Here is the new lifeguard lookout that has seen a lot of negative press lately.  It seems that there is a viewing problem that only showed up this winter when the sun went low in the sky causing a reflection (glare) on the glass windows that makes it extremely difficult to see swimmers.  

Here is a link to the detail story on the lifeguard station problem.

http://www.cbs8.com/story/24422355/glaring-problem-with-new-38-million-lifeguard-tower-at-la-jolla-shores 

After returning to the house from our walk I wanted to go out for a bike ride and work on biking this mountain.  There are 5 roads up Mt. Soledad.  I chose a different road with a more gradual overall slope. I road down to Kate O Sessions Park.  This location did not have as much vertical height change as the other way and was 5.5 miles round trip.

I still have more work to do to get my skills up to make the hill up from La Jolla downtown.

Weather reports are indicating much needed rain possible for southern CA later in the week.

I plan on some indoor and outdoor activities to match the weather during my final week here.

Day 37 - 2/22/14 Morning Out with the Girls & Haircuts

The girls took me out for breakfast at Harry's in downtown La Jolla first thing this am.  

For exercise we walked the 3.5 miles down the hill to our destination.  Madison  & Yaylor traveled mostly in the two child stroller.  The hill is so steep Dana has a tether strap to the stroller around her arm when walking the hill.  If something happened at least we wouldn't have a run away stroller getting into a catastrophe of some kind.

We went to the recreation park downtown La Kolla for the girls to pay.  When we got there the American Heart Association had a fund raising event with teams doing exercise events.

Taylor is quiet but loves playing in the playground.  Her face says it all about the slide.

Madison on the other hand is not shy or quiet and loves the monkey bars.

Jacob, a boy about the same age as Madison, became friends with her and even picked a dandilion and gave it to her and later joined the girls on the tire swing.

There are so many flowers around here.  Here are some on our walk home up the hill.

When I got back I learned that the girl's electric car was not working.  A bit of troubleshooting got it working.  Now to get it fully charged.

Madison doing fine with her haircut.

Taylor got in the hairdresser seat for her hair cut and was scared and cried so she came to sit with me and they gave her a sticker.  I needed to entertain both girls by watching nursery times on YouTube while Dana had her hair cut.

When we walked out of the Supercuts Dana said look at the clouds and I put myself I a spot to get this photo of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Later-day Saints.

The sun was setting and projected the color on the clouds behind the church.

Then we were off to eat dinner at Su Casa Mexican Restaurant in La Jolla.  Another popular destination,

Day 36 - 2/21/14 Finishing the Backup Camera & Bike Ride

Today was a so called slow day for activities.  It was 74 deg in La Jolla today with mostly clear skies.  A very nice day to be outside doing things.

I needed to finish the installation of the backup camera in the camper.  In shorts and tee shirt this am I converted my temporary wiring to permanate.

I had to find 12 volt power so I grabbed the camper wiring off the camper battery but in doing so I would have to have a switch to turn the power on/off to use the camera.  I know it would be off when I wanted to use it and would forget to turn it off.  That wouldn't work well at all.

I dug in the cavity over the rear doors where the camera is located and tested out all 20 something wires with ignition off and on and there were no ignition wires to use.  With ignition on and in reverse I did find the reverse light wire and decided to use this green wire for the camera power.

I had wanted to be able to turn on the image while not in reverse but this was not possible.  The whole process took a lot of time.   

I did also decide to make the video signal wireless so I didn't have to fish the 20 foot video cable to the front if the camper. I had bought the wireless kit for the rear camera when I ordered it.

Now it was time go wire the front monitor and wireless video receiver to it This went faster, but couldn't find the reverse wire yet so I hooked it to an ignition connection on the fuse box on the firewall.  Overall it took 3.5 hours to complete the job to solder wire connections and replace interior panels, etc.

It was now time for my exercise for the day.

I will try to give you an idea on the bike ride.  Take this picture of the ocean and rise to the top of Mt. Soledad and it is close to distance and elevation I attempted to ride my bike up.

Of course I road my bike down the hill to down town La Jolla about 3.5 miles and it was a fast ride.

After riding around town I headed back up the hill.  I thought I might be ready to make the hill riding the bike all the way.

I started my climb up the 800 ft mountain  over the 3.5 miles and nearly made it but gave in to leg pain just about 1000 ft from the intersection at the top.  

When I got off my bike to walk the remainder to the light I saw a biker coming up behind me, although a long ways back.  I was standing at the intersection waiting for the light to change when the biker came through the intersection making a right hand turn in front of me.

Oh the guy on the bike was 10 years my senior and blew by me with energy to spare.

I'm not giving up on riding all the way to the top.  I have been hiking and up and down biking so I will try it at least once or twice more before I leave here at the end of next week.

I was back at the house in time to make hot dogs and fruit plate for dinner at granddaughter Madison's request before she left for school this am.

Where are people from that are following Brent's Travels?

The map below shows recent Brent's Travels Blog followers from the US, France, Germany, Poland, and Ukraine.  In the past I have noticed Ireland & Japan following too.

Thank you all for your interest.

At any time someone has questions about my trip, or looking for more information about places I have visited you may contact me at my macaloney@hotmail.com as it is an easy address to remember.

Day 35 - 2/20/14 Revisit Berangle Park Disc Golf & a hike in Torrey Pines

I woke this am and decided I would go play disc golf after responding to MWCC about the course I am teaching.

I have played most of the 18 hole courses in the area so I decided on the course I like best at the Berangle Terrace Park in Vista.  Because of people in the park the other day, I had to hold off playing a couple as it was the Presidents Day and people were enjoying the day.

Today there was only a few people playing the course.  This basket above is like many holes in this course with significant elevation changes and some real challenges.  I have gotten to like the more challenging courses.

One such hole in this course you throw from the top of a hill down a valley to the top of another hill.  My disc hit the last tree in the opening and bounced off.

I sent another disc through the opening in the trees and it went sailing a bit to the left just into a road.  I over did it on that one.  I went looking for the first disc and it was nowhere to be found.

The next group of players came along and I told them to pass ahead.  They offered to briefly helped look for my disc.

The disc is bright orange so not hard to spot.  Having scouring the immediate area, I finally figured out the dynamics and the valley slopes away steeply to the right and I went down the hill and at the bottom there was my disc about 800 feet down the hill.   It was behind a picnic table next to a tree that apparently it hit as it rolled down the hill.

So back up the hill to play the basket over again.

On my travels through the course looking for the disc here was a bit of color on an otherwise dry patch of ground.

I left Disc Holf for Torrey Pines for some ocean viewing and hiking.  With the ocean to the right ahead is the hill that is called Torrey Pines.

There were not any free spots to park along the road so I needed to pay the State Park fee of $10 to get in and park.

I drove to the top of the hill and hiked the path from the top doe to the ocean.

The tide was just high and was headed out so there was beach to walk on.

I went south to start and here this young girl sat on a rock pondering her life's dreams.

Beyond her towards La Jolla Shores are the cliffs that the parasailing jumpers run off.  None were running off while I was there.

I just liked this picture with the afternoon sun shinning on the water.

Heading north now towards the road I drove up the hill you can get the magnatude of the sandstone cliffs.

I saw this section where people have shared their love for others and it made me think of petroglyphs of old.  Being sandstone these will not last that many years before they are gone.

Looking south I caught a seagul posing for me in the air.

Wearing the Firefighter Throwdown tee shirt I was given yesterday when I met David Rogowski from Barre FD, a nice young woman was more than willing to take my picture. 

By the way David ranked 36 out of 100 that were invited to participate in the event.  They took the top 10 as finalists to compete today.

I journeyed back up the hill to the car making a big loop.  I don't know the actual distance but probably a few miles.

A stop at the grocery store in La Jolla for dinner and home to cook turkey burgers for the girls when they get home.

Day 34 - 2/19/14 Firefighter Throwdown Competition / David & Lesley Rogowski

Dana and the girls (Madison & Taylor) were delayed in leaving Biston and didn't get into San Diego until well after midnight today.

I woke up to the girls talking and laughing, so I got up and met them at 1:30 am then soon back to bed.

They were real troopers and got up and respectively went to work and school.

My day was planned out to go to Firehouse World that's in San Diego this week.  Specifically, I wanted to meet David Rogowski from Barre, MA Fire Department where he is a call firefighter, and at least his dad, uncle, and cousin are also on rhe department.  

I was meeting David having found out before I left on this trip that he was chosen to be 1 out of 100 contestants that would compete in the Firefighter Throwdown, a competition of strength and agility.

When I first found out about the competition I contacted David as my plans put me in San Diego at the same time of the show and I wanted to cheer him on.

Here is the weight lifting competition from this am.

This part of the competition was to fully press progressively heavier weights over their heads twice before moving to the next level.

I had not met David before today.  We exchanged texts and we met behind a short fire engine. Here is David and wife Lesley.

David's full-time job is working at a body building site in MA, so this provided him with the musles that allows him to be a competitor.

While waiting for David to compete in the next event I toured the Firehouse World Exibition Floor.

Here is the booth for Indian Pumpcans.  You can buy them in the original metal or plastic.  My first paid fire in 1967 was a brush fire and I wore one of these 5 gallon metal cans full of water to fight the fire.  As much as things change, some things don't.

The CA Firefighters had this museum quality steam engine, complete with Dalmatian that turned his head to pose at me when I took the photo.

A number of years ago Engine 51 and Squad 51 toured the US and I didn't get to see them.  Today here they were.  What a piece of history.  What young firefighter didn't love this show.  I still find watching the show fun.

I saw David again at the next competition where there is a part where you need to double skip ropes.  (The rope needs to pass under your feet twice while they are in the air.  I dont think I can skip once.  Another part you have to carry a weight across the floor on your back walking in full squats. 

The top 10 out of 100 compete in the finals tomorrow.  I told David that if he made it I would come back to watch him.

Then it was off to buy groceries for dinner as I decided to make dinner for the girls believing that the short night would not give us much opportunity to have a drawn out dinner and Dana didn't need this on top of her day either.

A stop at Von's I picked up some chicken and vegetables to make for dinner. Also a few extra items for the fridge.

I had a short window to get a bike ride in to the top of Mt. Soledad. It isn't a distance trip at a mile from the house to the cross at the top. But it was about biking nearly all up hill to see how my legs are after yesterday's ride.

My legs were tired and burning climbing the hill.  I will need to practice this each day to develop some stamina to be able to attempt going down to La Jolla and back up to the house.

Here is a look south towards the city and Pont Loma.

This is a picture looking north to La Jolla Shores, Scrips, and Torey Pines.

This picture is looking northeast to the University of California San Diego.

I made it home to get dinner cooked and served when the girls came home.

I won no awards from Madison & Taylor for my chicken & broccoli & store made macaroni salad, but I know that Dana appreciated my efforts.