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.