September 28th: Studio City

We left early Sunday morning to try to beat the Los Angeles traffic on the way to Rebecca's home in Studio City. We were for the most part successful, only a few slow downs, even though we stopped to pick up some live lobsters for dinner.

We turned down her street in a nice quiet neighborhood and spotted her house. Very nice! London and Trevi greeted us with great enthusiasm as usual.


After a tour of the house, we wasted no time getting started on the projects. Her garage had been modified to add a room on the back and a large shelf, that was added by the original owner, was too low for her to pull her car in. Once I looked at it I recognized it was much more substantial than I anticipated. A large support beam, regular 2 by 4 studding, covered with drywall and 3/4 inch plywood on the bottom of the shelf.




I looked at the job and told Rebecca it was really a one person job so she and Linda could work on hanging the big screen TV on the wall.


 The TV project was successful.








While Linda and Rebecca were hanging the TV I continued with the needed destruction of the garage shelf. Not surprisingly, it was more difficult than I thought. I removed the dry wall and discovered a framework capable of holding an elephant! The shelf was very over built and therefore more difficult to tear out. After a lot of pounding and use of most of Matt's power tools I brought along, I finally arrived at the point I wanted to remove the 12 foot long, 4 x 12 foot support beam.

Hmmm? Can I just tear it out without weakening the roof? I thought yes, but decided it was a long day and not the right time to make that decision.




So just cleaned things up and decided to attack the project on the next trip up.


We were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening watching the newly hung TV.




The next morning we headed back to our Oceanside Beach House. Trevi, London and Rebecca waved goodbye!






When we returned to our Beach house I thought about one more fishing trip. I like to fish for rock fish, but most of the boats were fishing for tuna or yellowtail. In addition the 1/2 day trip is usually so crowded that lines are constantly getting tangled. Typically there are 30 - 50 anglers on the boat, way too many. When I checked the schedule there was a trip going and only fourteen reservations. Perfect! The tuna trips are fun but a great deal of the time you are just cruising around looking for fish. When fishing for rock fish you drift in 200 feet of water and wait for a fish to bite.

Passing Point Loma leaving the San Diego harbor

I went on the trip, had beautiful weather and caught fish. I even caught the "Jackpot Fish". Those who want to play throw $2 in a pot and the angler who catches the biggest fish wins the pot. $32! The deck hands were as usual very helpful so I left most of it to them as a tip.

September 26th: Oceanside, California

It was great to be back at the beach at Oceanside, CA. I had decided to go tuna fishing early in our stay so we would have plenty of time to eat any that I caught. Good plan as we enjoyed some every night with plenty left!

Tom

Tom rode the train from Flagstaff, AZ to Oceanside, Ca. The train depot is a five minute walk from our place. He arrived early, around 10:00 am, thanks to a change in stops, but very tired. Tom likes trains and he thought he could just sleep in the seat on the overnight trip, but not so much. He was fine after sleeping part of the day. After he woke up he quickly looked relaxed and had his typical smirk on his face.

Rebecca and London

Steve and Trevi

Rebecca also arrived on Friday with London and Trevi. Matt and Wendy came up from Encinitas and we enjoyed catching up with everyone.







Several in our group had never seen the Green Flash, and possibly were even skeptical they exist. Green Flash Explanation It is very difficult to get a picture without a special camera but Linda and I have seen quite a few in Florida. We were all together when conditions for a green flash were looking good. Sure enough, we got one and everyone saw it. To top it off we saw another one the next night. No more skepticism! The next night was a little cloudy so no green flash but a pretty sunset.











September 20th is Linda's birth date. Our family is seldom together on birthdays so we decided to have a joint birthday party for everyone. We ignored our diets and had barbecued chicken. It was great. We even had a raspberry sorbet birthday cake!

Rebecca, London and Trevi

London and Trevi like the beach. There is a no dogs allowed sign by the main Oceanside Beach but  our beach house is  pretty far away from the main Oceanside Beach and there are no signs anywhere near us. So Rebecca took the dogs for a romp in the surf while Linda enjoyed the sun. Unfortunately, after only a few minutes a police car came by and said, "Please remove the dogs from the beach, no dogs allowed anywhere on the beach." :(  Bad timing. We rarely see a police car going by.



Sunday was the annual Nail and Sail competition and Festival at the Oceanside harbor. Nail and Sail contestants are given a sheet of plywood, several boards and a box of nails to construct a boat. They started at 10:00 AM and were to set sail at 1 PM. There were no power tools that I saw so it must have been hand tools only.

Catamaran style

Canoe style

At 1:00 PM the boats were carried to the ramp. The contestants had to successfully paddle around a buoy about 50 yards away and return. Fastest sail/paddle wins.

In the running for winning

 There was variety in the designs. The catamarans appeared to be the most stable. The two young men won their first heat and qualified for the finals. They looked like a sure bet to win. Unfortunately, as one of them jumped aboard for the second heat the plywood holding the pontoons together broke.

Cleveland Brown's jersey

One poor team's boat just completely fell apart 15 feet from the ramp! I believe a good time was had by all. I even spotted one contestant wearing a Cleveland Browns jersey! Go Browns!!!








The festival was a big deal. There were around one hundred vendor stands, lots of food options and some pretty cool motorcycles on display.

Inflatable Shark slide

This bouncy gym had a fun nautical twist.















We ended Tom's visit with a good bye lunch at the harbor. There is a nice dockside restaurant that has good food, picnic tables and a good view of the boats in the harbor.

I went to the train station with Tom to see if he could upgrade his ticket to a sleeper with a bed. Tom told the nice ticket lady, "My body just doesn't bend like it used to anymore and I can't sleep in the seat". There were no sleeper spots available but there was a "Roomette", two seats that made into a bed and a television. Very nice way to travel. Tom called shortly after he left and told us he was never travelling coach again!


The day after Tom left we were fortunate that Craig and Karen - friends we met on the Trent in 2016 -were able to join us for a day. We had been able to travel with them on the Canadian canal system for  a couple of summers and have enjoyed seeing them when we are out this way. They live in San Juan Capistrano which is only about 30 minutes north of here! Small world for sure :-) Sadly no pictures of them but we enjoyed their day and a half stay.

All in all we had a great time with everyone. The next thing on the agenda was a trip to Studio City to see Rebecca's new house. She had some projects in mind so we were going up to do some planning and get a start. We still had our Beach house at Oceanside for another week so we wanted to make it a quick trip and then back to enjoy the beach.

Sept: 25th: California!

We made it to California! Picked up our rental car at Dirt Cheap Car Rental. We were pleasantly surprised when we were assigned a very nice 2018 Toyota Corolla. We'll have it for a month at a true dirt cheap price :-)

We stayed with Wendy and Matt for a couple days. We always love being back in Encinitas with them.

Their house looks great and the landscaping in front looks very healthy. Quite a number of years back we replanted the front yard per Wendy's plans.  Its fun to see everything doing so well. We also did the back yard, especially the giant Birds of Paradise, Matt's favorite. You can see them towering over the house in the picture. I feel like I am in Jurassic Park when I barbecue in that corner.

Wendy is still knitting fun animals. I had to get a picture of the latest crop. Very fun. I still like the dragons the best.

We got to see Matt's Leadville Giant Belt Buckle in person. Sadly there is nothing to show how big it is, but trust me, it would look very large on Matt's belt.  Leadville is a mountain bike race in Colorado. In August, a team of committed riders, including Matt,  took on the infamous Leadville 100 mountain bike race in Leadville, CO. It's 104 miles long with over 14,000 feet of elevation gain at altitudes up to 12,600 feet. It was Matt's first time on the course and he did great. If contestants finish under 9 hours they receive the Giant Leadville Belt Buckle. (Very difficult to do.) Matt finished at 8 hrs and 57 minutes! Yeah Matt!

Yellow Fin Tuna

 After spending a couple days at Wendy and Matt's, we moved to our Oceanside, CA rental for three weeks. We stayed here before four years ago and really enjoyed it. It's right on the beach and has enough room for Rebecca and Linda's brother Tom to come and stay for a few days. It's dog friendly so London and Trevi could also come.

I always enjoy sport fishing out of San Diego. This time of year they target Tuna. It's a six hour overnight trip to get in Mexican waters where the tuna are, but its worth it. I ended up hooking several and was able to land two. This one is a Yellowfin Tuna and the other was a Skip Jack Tuna, even larger but no picture :(  Too busy fishing! They provided a lot of great sushi for us.

I was happy to have a lot of really good sushi tuna available for when Tom, Matt, Wendy and Rebecca arrived.

September 8th: Putting Guppy away for the winter

Our scheduled date for pulling Guppy out for the winter was Monday, Sept 9th at Birch Point Marina.  The marina is between Bobcaygeon and Fenelon Falls, two of our favorite towns and both have shore power. We had been at Bobcaygeon for two nights and needed to move on.

What a change of weather since the holiday weekend. The temperatures have been consistently in the sixties during the day and low fifties at night. When the sun was out it was quite pleasant, but otherwise too chilly for we Floridians. Consequently, looking for shore power,  we decided to go back to Fenelon Falls for two nights, then back to Bobcaygeon for two nights. That put us close to Birch Point Marina Sunday night.

We headed to Fenelon Falls Thursday, September 5th and the weather was beautiful. No problem getting a shore power spot during the week as it is getting late in the boating season and Fenelon Falls has a lot of dock space.

Fenelon Falls Lock Wall

The time at Fenelon Falls was enjoyable. We of course went to our favorite Chinese restaurant again and mostly relaxed with Randy and Cindy. Even got a euchre game in. The cards were pretty even which makes it more fun. We had a beautiful sunset that we observed from inside the boat because the temperatures were quite chilly!

Chilly night at Bobcaygeon

Saturday we had to leave Fenelon Falls so it was back to Bobcaygeon. We were grateful for the shore power this last week. As you can see, during our farewell "Docktail" night was chilly. Cricket is covered up in her dog bed and not about to come out into the cold for a picture.






The logistics for transitioning from the boat to land is always a challenge. Our marina was too far for Enterprise to pick us up and cabs are a challenge and expensive. Fortunately, Randy and Cindy left their car at Birch Point marina because they also were storing their boat there. It worked out great. Monday morning, Cindy rode with us in Guppy to Birch Point, and she drove us to Lindsay to pick up our rental car. Great to have friends in Canada!

Guppy at Birch Point, Winter home

We left Guppy at the dock and headed to our motel in Lindsay for the night.

Lindsay Park Boat Docks

Lindsay is a nice town with boat docks and a nice park. We've gone there a number of times in the past but it is kind of a long slow ride up a shallow river so we haven't done it in a while. While we were at our motel I took a walk down a river walkway that goes past the park we used to dock at. It was fun to see the park is still very nice. As you can see from the picture with the boats, the trees are starting to change colors.



In the past we rented a car from Enterprise in Lindsay and dropped it in Buffalo at the airport. It was expensive but it worked. This year, for whatever reason, none of the local car rental agencies would let us drop a car across the border. Linda did a great job planning an alternative. We took a bus from Lindsay to Union Station in Toronto, where we boarded a Megabus to get to Buffalo. The Toronto traffic was brutal as usual and I was happy to not have to do the driving. It was a long trip but worked out quite well and was significantly less expensive. We'll probably use this plan again next year.

Niagara River from the Mega Bus

U.S. Canada border on the Peace Bridge

 On the Megabus we got a good view as we crossed the Niagara River. I was even able to get a picture of the flags that fly at the border line.





We made it to the Buffalo airport at 7:30 pm. The plan from Buffalo was to fly to Florida for a quick doctor appointment and then fly to California to spend 6 weeks with Matt, Wendy, Rebecca, London and Trevi. We're looking forward to Linda's brother Tom joining us for a few days. Linda had scheduled everything well in advance and we thought we were all set. She got a call the Friday before we left that told her the doctor's appointment had to be changed. Noooooo! (Not our choice but the doctor wasn't going to be there that day.) Fortunately, Linda went to work and was able to reschedule  the doctor for Wednesday, which would still allow us to make our California flights on Thursday. We needed to get to Florida earlier, so she got us on a 6:00 am flight. Up at 3:30 am Wed. to catch our flight to Florida, but it worked. We're at the Ft. Lauderdale airport now waiting for our flight to California. Can't wait to get there and see the kids and dogs!

While in Lindsay we received a message and picture from Cindy. Here's Guppy all nicely covered and ready for winter. Thanks Cindy, nice to know Guppy is all set.










 Last blog's wildflower: Queen Anne's Lace or Wild Carrot

 D. carota was introduced and naturalized in North America, where it is often known as Queen Anne's lace. Both Anne, Queen of Great Britain, and her great grandmother, Anne of Denmark, are taken to be the Queen Anne for which the plant is named.^[17] It is so called because the flower resembles lace, prominent in fine clothing of the day; the red flower in the center is thought to represent a blood droplet where Queen Anne pricked herself with a needle when she was making the lace.

This ends the Canada Wildflower portion of the blog.

September 4th: Heading to Bobcaygeon

We changed our plans when we left Lakefield. Looking at the ten day weather forecast we saw temperatures were going to be dropping into the high 40's over night. The days looked pretty sunny but it's getting darker much earlier now. Must be time to be heading south! We have a nice little heater that keeps us nice and warm, but it requires power. We can run the generator but prefer not to do that for long periods of time given the noise.

We decided we could travel to Buckhorn where there is shore power. From Buckhorn we could travel to Bobcaygeon where there is also shore power. We like staying at Bobcaygeon and could stay two nights. Randy and Cindy were heading toward us and hopefully we could both get power spots.

We both got spots and the weather was overall quite nice, just cool. While at Bobcaygeon I spotted this cute little boat we had seen at some of the locks. I went over to talk with them while they were waiting for the lock to open for them. They were from Michigan and heading back to Port Severn where they had trailed their boat so they could travel the Trent. The boat is a 23 foot, 1993 Alaskan Trader. They informed me there were only ten produced and as far as they knew only four still on the water. Small, but a fun little boat.

Given we were in Bobcaygeon for two days, I was wondering if there was something new to see. Linda suggested checking the internet for bike trails. Good idea. I found a small wilderness park not too far away. It had a number of informative signs along several different trails. The terrain was a little different from the typical forest. One sign explained that birch trees are very fast growing but need a lot of sun light. As forests mature, the birch trees lose out. This little glen had some new birch tree growth.

There were also some good pictures of Monarch butterflies. We've been seeing a lot of them but it's hard to get a good picture. I decided these two would suffice. The Monarch butterflies are amazing as they fly from Canada to Mexico. Learn more here.




There was a sign talking about the geology of the area. Pretty interesting place. I was glad I made the ride.

London

While at Bobcaygeon, our daughter Rebecca sent some pictures of London and Trevi, her dogs. They've been on the blog before but this time they looked very spiffy with their recent haircuts and grooming. It's always fun to get pictures as they are growing up.We are looking forward to seeing them soon in California.

Trevi

Bobcaygeon sunrise

We planned to leave Bobcaygeon and head to Fenelon Falls, where as I said, they have shore power. I woke up the next morning to a foggy sunrise. Pretty but also chilly!






Because it was so chilly there was a lot of dew. The spider webs were spectacular with the moisture dripping off of them. I am always amazed at the skill of these web weavers.

Ground spider web 

I spotted several unique spider webs in the grass. I don't know what kind of spider weaves these webs but they were interesting. I waited for a while but no spiders showed up.

Margaritaville at Bobcaygeon

The sun burned off the fog and it was a beautiful day to travel to Fenelon Falls. Randy was finishing up a project so we left ahead of them. I got a nice picture of them docked in Bobcaygeon at the end of the lock wall as we left.






Last blog's wildflower: Wild Snapdragon

Also called 'Butter and Eggs' and 'Wild Snapdragon'. This creeping rooted perennial grows to half a meter tall. The stalk-less leaves are narrow and pointed at both ends while the bright yellow "snapdragon-like" flowers have an orange spot on the lower lip.

Originally, this plant is native to Asia but European gardeners brought the plant back to their homes for garden cultivation. Those same Europeans brought the flower to North America by design or accident where it quickly established itself in both gardens and in the wild. Toadflax is established in all provinces and territories with the exception of Nunavut.


 This blog's wild flower.