Downtown evening market at Huntington

Frankie's evening hom

Balsa Chita beach

Curfew

Every day driver

A Huntington evening

Sunsets to die for…

Almost every evening at 5:00 there is a spectacular sunset.  It can be viewed unobstructed on the ocean horizon, or with the Huntington pier in the forground if you are into taking some wonderful horizon pictures.

I am hooked on sunsets, so most evenings, I jump on the bike to get a couple of shots that are not much different that the hundred or more that I have taken from this location over the last 7 years!

To night is farmers and crafters market downtown.  We look forward to strolling along the closed of Main Street and picking up fresh strawberries (that were actually picked fresh—they taste even better than our home grown summer berries!) and other fruits and veggies.

Although the cost of fruit and veggies are not any cheaper than home, the produce is extremely fresh and tasty.  Regarding price, we are finding that not much in the way of groceries is cheaper than at home, and much the same can be said about other store products, and cars.  However, gas is definitely cheaper, with a gallon of gas averaging only $3.50 per smaller US Gallon.  It makes feeding Frankie much less costly than travelling at home.

 

 

Thankyou Huntington Beach Library

I

Thankyou Huntington Beach Library

 

Because of our extended stay at La Jolla, we arrived at Huntington Beach rather late on Thursday.  Our destination was the central library in the town.

 We love this spot, as you are adjacent to one of the most beautiful libraries I have seen, with a number of open levels, and statues, and fountains throughout—as well as books!  Also, right beside where we park is an enormous park with hundreds of acres of nature trails, ponds, and natural trees/vegetation (not the phony palms you see everywhere).  The natural trees down here look something like enormous Arbutus trees.  They are right now in the process of losing some of their bark, but the leaves are still green.

 Each morning we head out at about 8:00 to get our oceanfront piece of real estate in the parking lot, only a few feet from the endless sandy surf beach with a spectacular view of the enormous Huntington Beach Pier.

Huntington Beach is the home of surfing in the USA.  The sport was brought to the US by a famous Hawaiian by the name of “Duke”.  He won several gold medals for the US in swimming and is recognized as the father of surfing in the USA.  The town hosts the US national surf championships every year in mid July. 

Judging by the miles of parking lot that the town has that run parallel to the sandy seashore, there must be tens of thousands of people in this town daily throughout the summer months.  However, at this time of year, there is less than 5% occupancy in the enormous lots, so we almost have the beach to ourselves! 

Unlike San Diego, however, we do have to pay $15 per day to park in our little piece of paradise.  Since there are so few cars this time of year, we can spread out with our entry mat, bikes, and scooter taking up any space we might want to use.  We even open the slide for a nap on occasion!

Like San Diego, the beach has a seemingly endless beach promenade to walk and ride our bikes on.  Temperatures have ranged from a low of 63 up to mid to low 70’s.  With no hills along the beach area, your only obstacle to a relaxing bike ride is the light sea breeze that blows in your face for half of your ride and helps push you along on your return home. It is a very easy lifestyle to slip into.

For evening entertainment, Thursdays and Tuesdays have large craft and farmers markets that take over either the pier parking lot, or the parking lot and first 4 blocks of Main Street in the town. 

The base of the pier often has free live entertainment where musician just seem to gather and have jam sessions. It is very entertaining to sit back and take it in

The first 4 blocks of the town are full of small shops and restaurants that usually sprawl into their organized sidewalk serving areas.  It is very a very quaint and warm environment that encourages sidewalk strolling and a little outdoor bar hopping.

Our favourite haunt is Perqs bar.  On NFL game nights they have $2.00 draft, so how can  you say “no”.  Also, they have the fastest wifi in town, so we can have a drink, watch a game, enjoy people watching, and keep in touch with anyone at home—makes for a fun evening.

 

 

La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya)

Thursday and we are off the short 1.5 hour ride north to Huntington  Beach (also known as Surf City).

Only 10 minutes north of San Diego is La Jolla (la Hoya).  This suburb area of San Diego is very “up-scale” with its Ferarri dealer in the middle of town along with other “yuppie” high-end retailers. 

 

Our interest in La Jolla is in the beautiful beaches (and free parking!) where you walk along the cliffs above and listen to the surf and sometimes watch the surfers—and countless numbers of seals. Our favourite spot is where you walk down the cliff stairway to a sandy beach that has several caves located in the rocky cliffs.  I climbed into these caves and took some great pictures as you come out the other end of the cave to a beach with pounding surf, and seals working hard to remain lying on rocks as the surf cascades over them.

Another amazing site is to see all the swimmers who come to this beach and simply start swimming.  They go for incredible distances to the point that you can no longer see some of them, as they are well over a mile out.  I felt very humble to see many of these swimmers were men and women well into the seventies!!

It is easy to get captured by the trance of La Jolla.  We decided to head a tad farther north to La Jolla’s main surf beach where there was parking for many hundreds of cars (free again!).  The afternoon was spent just laying back on the sand and enjoying the ocean waves and surfers.

However the late afternoon came calling and it was north to Huntington.

 

 

Last night in San Diego

 

On our last day in San Diego, Ade wanted to lay around the pool, while I checked out a few  more sights around town and the beaches.

A wonderful thing about San Diegois the lack of parking meters in beach area locations. All the beach area parking lots were free parking, along with many of the commercial streets nearby the beaches. It makes it very friendly for families, beach lovers, and “lookie-loos”.

At night Ade was content to hold down the fort, but I wanted to take the scooter out and make one last visit to Old Town, Little Italy, and the Gaslamp quarter.

 

San Diego is a typical large American City, with freeways chopping up parts of the town, and making it easier for cars to get around, but not Scooters than only go 45 miles per hour!

Because of the speed of traffic on the highways, I chose to find a back route, where ever I went. On a map this looks reasonably simple. However, the map does not tell you that a number of the main back roads are "one way".

I had no problem making my way from Campland to my 3 destinations, however the return route was another story. Because of the freeways and hills downtown, there was not a parallel return road near the one way street that took me down-town.

Of course I got a little lost on my way home. I had my trusty GPS with me but of course it wanted me to take freeways home, and it did not indicate which streets were “one way”.

 

Since it was dark and near 10:00 pm, it was a little challenging. I stopped at a gas station for directions from one of the customers. He indicated that I was considerably off target on my return route. However, once again, fortune turned in my direction and he turned out to be a Guardian Angel for me.

He insisted that I follow him and he would take me back to our campsite on Mission Bay. What a relief! With glaring lights and darkness all around me, I just kept a bead on his tails lights. After many twists and turns, we finally got headed in what I thought was the right direction. Sure enough, within 10 minutes, I started to recognize where I was. At a stop light I was able to pull up along side of him and thank him so much! Sometimes it is fun and interesting finding your way out of "iffy" situations.

Once back at our "base camp", we decided to go for our nightly open air hot tub. We changed and got our towels and headed to the pool area, only to find that they were just locking it up for the night. Oh well, time for a quick drink, a game of crib and call it a day.

 

Another San Diego day

Today is our biggest bike trip so far.  It is the round trip of about 26 miles from our spot at Mission Bay to Hotel Coronado.  The wonderful thing about riding a bike in San Diego, on the waterfront is there are no hills.  However that does not help the sore bum at the end of the day!

Coronado on the sea is a truly picturesque spot. White sand surround the hotel area, and the town has only small stores and a European/American/surf appeal to it--quite unique. 

The flowers, and landscaping seem to be a "keep up with the Jones's" mentality on small lots with beautiful old homes.

One of the boats in the San Diego Maritime Museum

 

The hotel Coronado and beachfront

The USS Midway.  At one time the world's largest aircraft carrier.

Now it is part of the US park system!

The tour of it is amazing and takes you back to many important historical

events that this carrier and its aircraft were part of.

 

 

We arrived back home just before dark with "bike bums".

 Ade took a break, while I decided to go to Best Buy to purchase a new

electronic toy. 

 

It is called a Chromecast and is only available in USA.  For $35 it

is the best deal around.  It integrates your phone to your Television

and allows you to watch internet tv at no cost.  I thought I would give

it a try.

Back on States side

 

After 8 days in San Felipe, it was time to head north.  We decided to go across the border at Mexicali.  We wanted to stay away from Tijuana.  The border crossing there is crazy.  They process through 50,000,000 people per year, making it one of the busiest crossings in the world.  That means on average 5,000 people per hour go through that crossing, every hour of the year!  No thanks!!

Mexicali crossing was a relatively short wait of ½ hour, and we were across and heading west to California beaches.

 

San Diego area is one of our favorite spots to spend time in the US.

There are so many things to see from Balboa Park (site of a world’s fair many years ago),  La Jolla (pronounced la hoya), to Old Town, the Lamp Light District, Coronado, the countless miles of cycling you can do on the large bays in the area, the beaches, down town camping, and many more.

Because it has been under the control of 3 different nations (Spain, Mexico, and finally USA) in the passed 200 years, it has a cultural history that is very unique in North America.

 

The town is very bike friendly, so we have been riding the seawalls and bike paths for between 8 and 15 miles every second day.  For those into the food scene, the town is incredible with a countless variety of restaurants everywhere you go.  It is also amazing that they always seem to be busy.

 

As usual, the weather has been wonderful.  In the day the temperature is between 70 and 80, and it cools down to 60 at night.

 From the picture, you can see that sunsets here are “to die for”.  Also, if you need anything, it seems that every store conceivable has a location within 7 or 8 miles from where we are staying on the bay.

 Yesterday Ade and I had a discussion on whether we should go to a San Diego Chargers game against Peyton Mannings Denver Broncos.  It promised to be a great game with 2 good teams.  Ade figured that the ticket price of well over $100 was more than her interest in the game, so I got myself ready on the scooter and left to check things out on the scooter at a little after 9:00 for a game that started at 1:25

 Thank goodness I was driving the scooter.  I arrived at the stadium just before 10:00 and there was a ½ mile line up just to get into this enormous parking lot that already had thousands of cars in it. 

 With the scooter I was able to slide down the side of the line of cars and slip into the parking pay both.  What a surprise when I had to pay $25 (the same as a car), but for preferred parking near the stadium, it was $50, and if you had a motor home of any size, it was $150!

 

Even though I paid the $25, I found that scooters and motorcycles could use “preferred parking”.  This was a bonus as I got to pull up right in front of the ticket booth.  When I got to the booth, I noticed almost no line up.  The lady at the booth said tickets were basically sold out (all 69,000!) with the exception of a few single seats they were selling off at $130.  With a gulp at the sticker price, I decided to take the plunge and buy one.

 

With over 3 hours to kill, I knew that I could not return back to the camper and fight the traffic for a second, more busier time.  I decided to take the scooter and drive around the enormous parking lot (that in circumference was about one mile!).  The extremities of the complete parking lot were covered with “tail gate parties”.  Some people had arrived before 8:00 to set up.  They had barbeques of all sizes, big screen televisions of all sizes on the backs of pickups, large tables to layout their food and condiments, and areas for games, including football!  It was truly a festive environment!  However, nothing was for sale!  Everyone was feeding their own group and friends, and of course “lookie-loos” like me!

 

After a while, I drove my scooter back to may “preferred parking” location.  By a stroke of luck, the car that pulled in beside me started pulling out their shade tent, and setting up their little tail gate party right in the preferred parking area.  When they saw me, they instantly invited me to spend the morning with them.  I was treated to great burritos, chips and beer.  We got along great!  One gentleman was a retired teacher, who had been coming to this spot for 48 years as a seasons ticket holder!!  Of course the whole family of 3 generations had seasons tickets.  It was a way of life for them.

 

 

 

Seeing 69,000 crazy football fans in a stadium was quite a site it was a sea of Blue (Charger colors) and Orange(Denvercolors). I could not believe that the opposition supporters we so numerous. Apparently thousands of them had come to the game from Denver! They seem to spare no expense when it comes to supporting their teams in the NFL. I actually saw a complete private motor home painted in charger colors in the parking lot!

 

 

From one of the pictures you can see that America does all it can to keep giving the military a very high profile. Over 500 military members were guests of the game, and half time was devoted to patriotic songs and activities, including having 10’s of thousands of stadium fans hold up colours that together spelled out “Thank you Military”.

Once the game was over (nearing 5:00), it was quite a scene to see 69,000 people head for their cars at the same time. Fortunately, I was able to park the scooter near the stadium. The parking lot chaos had already begun by the time I was moving as many people left the game with a few minutes to go to get a head start (even though the final outcome of the game was in doubt!).

With the scooter, I was able to “slide” along side of all the snarled and stranded traffic. It must have been an amuzing sight as I followed two large Harley Davidsons through the traffic and onto the main road home. Even the main road was 3 lanes of stop and go, but the Harleys and myself glided along beside the traffic and made a pleasant ride on my way back to our camper. By the time I arrived it was 6:00, showing that going to an NFL game is truly a full day experience.

Ade truly enjoyed her laid back day and as usual we spent the evening in the hot tub.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shrimp festival--party time

The weekend just passed saw us at the San Felipe shrimp festival.  Along with other varieties of fish, there is a whole shrimp fishing industry in this small town. The Fishman usually send there catch to other countries. It is a good source of currency for the local economy.

What and enormous party with over 100 street vendors stretched out along the ocean promenade it was quite a sight. They were selling everything from Mexican trinkets to full meals, to shots of tequila 

, bottles of tequila etc. etc.

 There were swimming events, bicycle races, and lots of great music and even a midway with rides. 

Also since San Felipe is the home of the Mexican rowing team, there were several occasions when many rowing skulls were out practicing, or racing for all I know on the oceanfront just in front of where we were camped

Halloween

Halloween

isalways a big event in Mexico. Somewhat odd that a "pagan" event would be such a highlight in a catholic country. 

Our neighbours, joe and Mikki, from California were inviting a bunch of friends over for a party, we got an invite. By 7:00 there were over 20 people around the camper!

Joe spent the whole day preparing turkey, pork, prime rib, spare ribs and numerous Mexican dishes. What a feast!  We later learned that joe owned a catering business on the side and has catered for over 3,000 people at one sitting! 

Before we joined the party, we dashed out to town and purchased a large chocolate cake. It looked so tasty that  I was dying to put a finger into the icing for a "check and see"!  

Club de Pesca puts on a famous Halloween show with decorations that include a smoking skeleton in a coffin, sound effects, a gallows with a dangling body, spiders, witches and cobwebs. It attracts well over 100 kids for treats and candy.   We contributed a large bag of goodies to the cause. 

Well the next thing you know the ghosts and goblins and even some of the parents were lining up behind joe's trailer. They must have smelled the baking and of course our chocolate cake!  

Between Mikki's two cakes and our chocolate cake we dished out over 75 servings!

It was a fun night. However,  the slow meandering line up went directly over Joe's sewer hose. By the end of the night it was flattened! Not good!

Joe had prepared such large quantities of food that his relatives and us would be eating welcome left-overs for days !

Joe and Mikki were a delightful couple with an enormous extended family-over 50 members.  His catering business was staffed by many of them!

Day after day they had us over for afternoon treats and drinks. 

We grated them to a fabulous dinner on the town last might and had a great time. 

I am sure our paths will cross again over the next few trips. 

Things have definitely settled down

After our rather exciting first day in San Felipe, things have settled into place. Our spot on the sandy Oceanside just a few hundred yards from town is perfect. 

We have used our bikes and scooter to explore and spent a lot of time just laying back and enjoying our surroundings. 

This weekend is their annual shrimp festival with a party down the main street of town swimming events bicycle races and a lot of other fun activities. We have quite enjoyed some the events downtown but they party like no one i know!  It was 3 o'clock in the morning and they're still going strong!

The residents of San Felipe, a town of a few thousand people, are for the most part rather poor. The only industry that I have noticed in the area is shrimping and fishing. A few tourists do come down to the area. However I think for the most part Americans seem to be leery of traveling to Mexico.

In talking to people who are traveling, and also the local population, it seems that Canadian tourists definitely outnumbered Americans.

As with last year we have found no evidence of criminal activity in San Felipe.  The locals are very friendly and obviously anxious for you to spend a few dollars. We walk around night on the beach and on the streets with absolutely no safety concerns. 

The really striking figure about this whole area is the fact that 15 or more years ago many many hundreds of expensive condominiums were built. Today they lie vacant with virtually no residents. At this moment I'm staring at 12 story condominium and it must have 100 and some odd rooms in it but there are only three residents in this beautiful oceanfront building. 

... Talk about a quiet place!

Us and one neighbour. They are planning a big Halloween party. Other than us, I don't know where all the people are coming from!

Evidence ... and they did not send Adrienne to jail!

The only remaining evidence after we destroyed a Mexican telephone pole and left over 200 ft. of telephone line all over the road.

After the episode where we crossed three border crossings in about an hour we headed on our way and eventually made it to San Felipe. 

It was not a good day for Adrienne. We parked  about 100 yards from the club de Pesca. I got out and walked over and found the campsite right on the oceanfront. I walked back and signalled Adrienne to drive the vehicle in. She proceeded to drive forward. When I turned around to see how she was doing suddenly she was stopped and Frankie was wrapped up in telephone wire. She had connected our air conditioner with the telephone line and proceeded to pull down 200 feet of line and a telephone pole!

A Passerby Mexican and myself unwrapped Rita and pulled the line off the road. We then proceeded to club de Pesca and setup and set up camp. 

Within 10 minutes a cop car was on our back door.  He told us that we would be responsible for the damage to the powerline and requested that Adrienne and I along with Frankie follow him to thepolice station.

On route to the cop shop, I stopped at the scene of the crime. It must have been a slow day. There were 3 cop vehicles and 6 Mexican Police at the scene of the crime. None of the police could speak English. However again we got a bit lucky. One of the policeman saw my Fireman's cap. He tried to talk to me as best as he could about what I did.
Within three or four minutes a guardian angel appeared. He was a fireman from the San Felipe  fire department.

The fireman was relatively young and spoke fluent Spanish and English. On my behalf he negotiated what I considered was a very good deal. 

The cop at first wanted to give us a ticket and then report the issue to the national phone company. It would've been a real pain and very expensive. 

The young fireman cut a deal with the police on scene and indicated that I should pay $300 cash to the policeman when he shows up at our campsite.  There would be no paperwork in this transaction. The policeman indicated that he was write his report in such a way that no one saw what happened. 

Fortunately I had 15 $20 bills salted away in the camper. We were sent on our way as the telephone repair truck arrived. An hour later of course we had a visit from  police department.

Other than a smile the policeman's only comment was "no let people see money". 

... Life goes on in Mexico. 

Good morning

The view, looking out our bedroom window at San Felipe. It doesn't get much better!

On to San Felipe

After a wee bit of discussion about the thing of driving in Mexico, we decided to head south to one of our favorite spots, San Felipe. By 9:30 we were purchasing car insurance and heading south across the American Mexican border.

With always careful cars ahead of us in line crossing the border into Mexico was very painless. However that was soon to change.

Two miles south of the border Ade remembered that she had left her purse in the insurance company office in Calexico just north of the border. Obviously we had to turn around.

The lineup heading north had hundreds of cars in it. After about one half hour in line, we approached the American border crossing. We were quite concerned because we had just purchased a lot of liquor and Produce in the United States. Technically you are not allowed to bring liquor or produce from Mexico into the USA.

However as luck would have it and after considerable amounts of pleading on our part, the border agent let us through with the reminder that this was very uncommon it would not happen again.

We drove the short distance to the insurance agent office. Thankfully Adrienn's purse was still there. Now we had to head south again.

Again it was a short wait heading south and believe it or not we were in the line with the same border agent that checked us out the first time!

God only knows if she figured we were drug traffickers or not but and short order, she handed us over to a superior who then got the dog out of his cage and started sniffing around outside of our camper. We opened door and the dog went inside sniffing. However, After a few somewhat intense moments they flagged us through. We were finally on our way to San Felipe.