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.