Adios San Diego…¡hola El Centro

Since our last blog we enjoyed 4 days at the South Carlsbad State Park atop the cliffs overlooking the ocean. The first days provided magnificent vistas and sunsets. The remaining 2 days were totally fogged in day and night!  But we could go less than a mile inland and then we had sunshine and hot temperatures.

Long walks along the beaches once or twice a day were beautiful. Surfers were on the waves continuously, even in the fog. Several times there were baby seals ashore, some of which became stranded and then the SD Sea World trucks would come along and pick them up. They would take them in for the night to inspect and feed them and if healthy then would bring them back the next day.

We had a couple of rounds of golf with the most memorable one at The Crossings of Carlsbad; a gorgeous course with elevation changes and drops into the canyon. No Torrey Pines this time; unfortunately we missed an opportunity to golf there with one of Ron’s former colleagues, as our paths (and cell phone messages) missed each other, until we were on the road.  We’ll take on the challenge of that course next year!

Crossings at Carlsbad Golf Course

 One of the foggy days we took a day trip to Temecula. The temperature change was from 15 to 38 degrees, less than an hour inland and north east of Carlsbad. Temecula is a very friendly, quaint town in wine country.

It was time to say good bye to the San Diego area and head for ‘home’ at Casa Grande. We decided to spend one night at an RV park near El Centro, which then turned into 3 nights when we learned the Navy Air Blue Angels were doing their first and possibly their last show of 2013 right in their home training base of El Centro. We hit the airfield at 0830 with our lawn chairs, umbrellas, sunscreen, and water, and parked ourselves for over 8 hours as temperatures hit 38 degrees. But it was worth it; a spectacular air show!! The still pictures cannot do it justice.

The RV Park, Rio Bend, was surprisingly nice, as the El Centro area is quite depressed (but they have a Costco and IN N OUT burger!). The 9 hole golf course was fun and challenging; the pool area was very nice and a welcome place in the heat. Once again we met several Albertans who claim the park is 60% Canadian snowbirds.

We now plan to spend 2 weeks at the house in CG; we are very happy to have friends Ken and Linda arriving for a week of that time. Then we’ll make a slow trek northward during the first 3 weeks of April. No intentions of returning home until that white stuff disappears, which it sounds like there is still plenty of!