"Yesterday's Dream": December11th: Back Home to Encinitas and Trip To Catalina Island

I returned to my Encinitas home and was pleased to be back. I added my trophy for catching the smallest fish to my nautical wall. It's the small fish basket by the yellow AGLCA burgee. It will be a good reminder of fun times on Lake Temagami.

Sunrise from my balcony

The view from my balcony is still beautiful. The Norfolk pine is huge!

I retrieved my plants from Karen Rahn who took excellent care of them for the 5 months I was gone.

Rattlesnake plant daytime

Rattlesnake plant at night

I rescued this rattlesnake plant from my daughter Rebecca. Actually all my indoor plants are rescues from Rebecca! I could tell her to stop buying plants, but then I wouldn't get any more cool plants.

The rattlesnake plant in really fun. During the day the leaves flatten out. But then as it gets dark the leaves stand straight up. Then back as soon as morning arrives.

I also enjoy Rebecca's Teardrop plant. I think it's pretty unique and I can see why she bought it.

Karen plant-sat this for me also. She is a truly wonderful friend. After I dropped it off she called to tell me there were tiny bugs all over it. Yikes! I said to do whatever necessary. She got rid of the bugs and the plant looked better than ever when I picked it up. I didn't even get in trouble for bringing bugs into her house! Well, not too much anyway!.

And then there are the succulents I rescued 3 years ago. Karen told me how to rescue them and I was successful. I envisioned two foot tall succulents by now. Karen kept saying they are not supposed to be big! But still, 3 years and this is it! I think at some point she said something like, "They're not trees!"

Here's a picture from 3 years ago.

Rebecca's succulents 2021

Rebecca's succulent s today

But now I marvel that these little devils just exist, assuming I don't over water them. At first I thought. "More water and they'll grow faster." Karen told me "No". I learned what happens when you do that.

Not pretty. I tried to bring it back but I don't think even Karen could have saved it.

I wanted to check out the San Elijo Lagoon to see how it had changed. I love walking there. Given the time of year there weren't a lot of water birds but there were a few. And there were actually some Fall colors.

I saw several Snowy Egrets.

Snowy Egret taking
off, yellow feet

I was able to get a picture of one taking flight. Its yellow feet were quite visible. The egrets wiggle their yellow toes to attract dinner

I needed some exercise and the beach walk and Swami stairs are a great way to get it. I never fail to appreciate what a beautiful place is on my doorstep. Here are a few pictures.

Low tide so tidal pools

Look closely for the Swami stairs,
great view and exercise

Because it was low tide I could get this picture of a little fish and a nice anemone in a tidal pool.

Sunset from the Swami stairs

Sunset from the beach

I had set a goal for getting more involved in Encinitas and establishing an increased social network. Rebecca suggested I check out Meetup. She assured me it wasn't a dating service, just people who wanted to do fun things with others close to their age. It was a good suggestion. I joined a hiking group that scheduled a 6 mile Bridge Walk through San Diego. Didn't seem like San Diego was hiking terrain but why not? It turned out great, nice people and a very interesting history of San Diego.

We walked past a yard where the resident had sculpted an Easter Island Head out of his bushes. This was clearly an artist area.

I especially appreciated these iron sculptures. They were just in the person's yard.

Included on the walk were several murals in downtown San Diego.

Link to the Bridge Walk

In addition to MeetUp, I checked out the AARP activities. There was a Guided Mural Walk in Oceanside just 20 minutes away. Oceanside is a nice Beach front city so I signed up. It was better than I expected. Fun people and a lot of information about Oceanside in addition to the murals.

This mural is a cut glass mosaic

High school students completed this mural
under the direction of their art teacher

I learned that the City along with the Arts Council worked together with artists on the medium for the murals and a special coating designed to withstand graffiti. I'm happy to say I saw no graffiti.

My friend Fran asked me if I would like to captain her boat to her yacht club's trip to Catalina. Fran is learning to drive it but is not ready to solo yet. She did not need to twist my arm. I had been helping Fran with some maintenance issues after the boat having sat for several years. Fran's husband passed away about the same time as Linda so between COVID and not wanting to run the boat herself, it sat for a while. I could certainly relate to that. Fran joined me for a month in Canada on Guppy and she is happily enjoying the boat once again.

Brenda, Steve and Fran

Fran's friend Brenda, also a boater, joined us for the outing.

Buffalo milk

We had to try the Avalon specialty, a Buffalo milk cocktail. There are buffalo on the island left from a movie shot long ago. But there is no actual buffalo milk in the drink, but lots of whipped cream

The yacht club members are a fun group. We enjoyed good restaurants, interesting bars, and beautiful weather. There was a dinghy breakfast gathering at one of the boats which offered Mimosas and Bloody Mary's. All of the boats spent the weekend on mooring balls in Avalon Harbor, Catalina.

There was no shortage of tasty treats. Fran and Brenda had us well stocked. Brenda made a great sausage roll and deviled eggs. Fran brought fruit.

Dinghy fishing outside
Avalon Harbor

Fran loves her dinghy and we both love to fish so we gave it a try twice. It was a beautiful day the first time but no catching.

The second day we were pretty far away when a fog bank rolled in. It was fun to watch it, almost like a science fiction movie like The Crawling Eye. We got back to the harbor just as it was closing in.

Night time is very pretty at Avalon. Its a very popular tourist area.