We learned an important climate lesson this week; elevation matters. Even though we moved south, we also climbed 4000 feet up and encountered freezing temps at night. Fortunately, when the sun came up the lines thawed quickly and we enjoyed sunny, warm days.
I bribed my family (with Julian CA’s famous apple pie) to take a sunrise hike. It was tough getting everyone moving, but it made my day to have company during an early morning outing.
We discovered some cool ice formations under the mud:
After we finished our lessons for the day, the girls and I drove into Julian to get our pie. This quaint California town is also home to some old gold mines, so we took a tour. Our knowledgeable tour guide filled our heads with mining processes and jargon. Suffice it to say that it is a lot of hard, dark work to mine gold, especially in the late 1800’s.
Here we are enjoying our Julian apple pie. It lived up to its reputation, “the best pie ever”!
We moved further south at the end of the week to be near San Diego for the weekend. The girls and I took a field trip on Friday to the Birch Aquarium, part of UCSD’s Scripps Institute of Oceanography. I am afraid that as cool as these places are, they are starting to look the same.
We experienced a typical San Diego winter day on Saturday, cool and rainy. It was a good time to give the RV a good cleaning. Window washing is the preferred chore.
It cleared up enough later that day to head to the San Diego harbor where we toured the USS Midway:
Natalie playing the “gator” or navigator. I love military titles; I am working on a title for everyone in our family.
It was fascinating to see the planes and understand how they are able to take off and land on a ship.
We were reminded of the hard work and dedication it takes to run a military vessel like this one. It was another notch of respect added for those who serve (thank you).
By Sunday the “winter weather” had moved on and we enjoyed a nice afternoon in La Jolla.
But it smelled a little fishy….
We were also educated on the controversy surrounding San Diego’s Children’s Beach. This seawall was built in the 70’s to provide a protected beach for kids to play, but the sea lions took over and they have resided here ever since. The sidewalks were filled with those who thought both people and sea lions could use the beach together and others that feel the beach should be closed to people. The sea lions didn’t have much to say about it.
But we found another beach that was less controversial to enjoy our afternoon.
Next week should be our last week in California, so we are going to be taking in all our favorite things before we move on.