San Diego Dreaming

It would be hard to find a more perfect climate than San Diego.

Low 20s every day (in the middle of winter), perfect for walking around town. Couple that with cheap off-season rates, incredibly cheap parking anywhere, and lots of things to see, and you have a recipe for happiness.

Now, for us the only thing that could make it better would be to have a lot of boats around. And again this town delivers! Yachts everywhere, sometimes almost crowded in the huge bay. we watched some sort of regatta on Sunday.

To top if off, we found some great accommodations right in the center of the action. We are staying at the Best Western Island Palms Hotel and Marina (http://www.islandpalms.com/), on Shelter island just a short distance from the customs dock. A few boats are still here from Canada which makes us feel a little more at home; although we are not sure why they are not already heading further south. The Baja Ha-ha rally left almost a month ago.

Here is the view from our room. Very nice except for the incredibly rude name on the nearest boat.

There is always a lot going on here, boats sailing around in the bay, the Navy base on Coronado Island a short distance away sending out a constant stream of big ships, helicopters and jet fighters to entertain us, and a few cruise ships and massive cargo ships trying to maneuver through it all.

While we were downtown earlier this week, we happened upon one of the Oracle boats having the main mast unstepped. Now that is a serious spar. You just don't see this type of boat very often back on Nanaimo.

So far, we have spent our time just wandering around taking in the sights. We spent today at Balboa park, visiting the Air and Space Museum. We will no doubt be back to try some of the other museums and possibly the Zoo. Maybe we will bite the bullet and high prices and actually go to Sealand as well - we are, after all, tourists.

Southbound again

The last few days have seen us steadily, if slowly, following the coast south.

We stayed in Cambria overnight so we could spend a half-day exploring Hearst castle; definitely worth a visit.



Onward to Santa Barbara where we finally found our warm weather, low 20s during the day and not much cooler at night. Walked around the marina area as usual, to check out the facilities and access from the Pacific. Noticed a lot of off-shore oil rigs to look out for here.

Interesting observation on the highways. Lots and lots Toyota Prius hybrids in California - probably not too surprisingly. But also, especially in San Fransisco, there are a huge number of Mini Coopers. Very few Smart cars though. And there are still a lot of big SUVs everywhere. Not sure what it all means - just something we noticed.

We are now finally in San Diego, where strangely enough the weather is a bit cooler again. Of course, any time it falls below 20 we now feel a chill. Tomorrow we will see if we can find the true heart of the city.

Day 7 - SF

Street cars, Cable cars, Lombard street, etc. Are we tourists or what?

After a couple of glorious days in San Fran, the clouds are rolling in and the weather is still a little cool. So tomorrow we will continue heading south.

Day 6 - Hanging in SF

A typical day in San Fran.

Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square, etc.

Check out our new boat.

We are still in negotiation.

Here comes the sun

Day 4

A Eureka moment!

We woke up in the morning in Eureka and the sun was shining.

We drove through more of the redwood forest to get to the coast where we actually got to see the ocean. As the day progressed it got to a sultry 13C at the heat of the day.

We visited the Point Arena lighthouse to get an idea of what this coast has to offer for the wayward sailor. Suffice it to say that this is NOT a friendly coast.

We found our usual budget accommodations for the night and paid the usual price. What would possess anyone to set up a table and chairs in front of a motel room (our motel room of course), on a rather cool Saturday night, and have a poker, beer and maryjane party? Must be a California thing.

Day 5

We travelled inland today, via the twistiest little one-lane road I have seen in years. It was actually quite fun driving it, especially since we had it completely to ourselves - not one car in either direction for over 30 miles. And Sue seemed more that happy to let me drive the entire way - go figure.

We then found ourselves in the beautiful Sonoma wine country, winding through the vineyards, leading to our touristy highlights for the day.

First, we stopped at the petrified forest - a place that for some reason I had always wanted to see since my parents had an old viewmaster with some pictures of it. And we did enjoy it.

Next, we visited the "California" old faithful geyser. We didn't know there even was one so we just had to stop and see it. Not sure it was worth the entry fee but interesting none the less.

Even nicer is the fact the the temperature is getting much more comfortable as we go further south - got up to 15C for a while today.

In the afternoon, we motored on into San Fransisco where we have decided to spend a few days. It has been many years since either of us has been here and, with the excellent weather we are having right now, it seems like a good idea to do some exploring.

So far we have just walked around the marina area, checking out the mooring possibilities.

Wet Wet Wet

Day 2

Following the coast highway (101) through the rest of Washington state. Rain off and on.

With great anticipation, we detoured to Long Beach (every state has a place called Long Beach) to see the "World Kite Museum and Hall of Fame".

Picture a rainy off-season resort town. Little is open and the kite museum is long gone. Had a pleasant lunch at a local cafe and motored on into Oregon (with tears of disappointment in our eyes), in search of warmer weather.







In the afternoon, we arrived in Tillamook to tour the cheese factory, before settling in Newport for the night. Our early arrival there allowed us to do a walking tour of the town in search of a cheap place to eat. Not finding any, we had a first-class seafood dinner overlooking the ocean (pitch dark but you could hear the waves if you listened carefully).

Newport is one of the places that a sailing vessel transiting down this coast could conceivably take shelter, so we made a point of checking out the approach through the breakwaters, just in case.

So far, the weather has been exactly the same as back in Nanaimo. We have not seen a temperature higher than 10C. I'm sure California is the answer...

Day 3

Left Newport in the pouring rain, and it did not let up all day. Through the rain and mist, we caught glimpses of the rugged Oregon coast, small economically disadvantaged (Sue's term) towns, and the old-growth redwood forest.

We arrived in Eureka, California in the afternoon, where the rain held off long enough for us to do bit of a walking tour through the old town and the marina district.

Interesting Victorian architecture and another possible bad-weather shelter for boats cruising down the west coast.

Again, we never saw a temperature greater than 9C all day. I'm beginning to believe we never left Canada.

Day 1 - Cool and rainy

Left Nanaimo early this morning.

Caught the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles - had a nice re-heated breakfast sandwich and coffee on board (that will set you up for the whole day!). Arrived at Port Angeles about noon and started driving south down the Olympic peninsula along the Hood Canal. Decent weather until a major accident on highway 101 sent us on a detour through the town of Shelton,

Then it started getting dark and rainy so we found ourselves a place to hole up in Aberdeen along the coast - it was only 4:30 and it looked like the middle of the night. And then it started seriously raining.

Apparently we are not far enough south yet. Maybe tomorrow?

Enough already.

The weather is turning nastier. Rain most every day - a high of 6 C today and lots of the same to look forward to. So we sit on the boat, huddling by the electric heater, taking the few opportunities for a walk in this soggy city, mumbling to each other about the cushy life we left behind, and generally feeling sorry for ourselves.
It seems our spending is out of control although we are not sure how that is possible, since we need nothing and have no place to put anything if we did. We talk about being more frugal, usually when eating out somewhere to break up the boredom. We both agree that spending the entire winter on the boat does not seem very appealing right now, but can we really afford to do anything else?
So, there is only one possible solution. As in the immortal words of Bluto (in the movie Animal House)...
ROAD TRIP!

Tomorrow we will get in the car and just start driving south.