California!

 My week in Cali is over - it went so fast!  My heart is full from spending a week with my girl.

There was a beach below the condo where we took daily walks. The moon was in the 3rd quarter stage, so the tides were neap. The low was not very low, the high not so high. I still collected too many rocks for my garden.


I took a solo trip to another beach while daughter worked one day. California is beautiful, but the constant traffic does not make a relaxing atmosphere. There is an osprey in the tree on the bluff.


There was one rainy day, but daughter was working and I was reading to finish a rather long book for book club. 
I got out for a beach walk before the rain rolled in. 


My daughter and I enjoyed many chats, beach walks, and movies at night. We went to the San Diego Wild Safari Park and petted a wallaby, went on a Behind The Scenes Tour and had a fun, but hot and tiring day. I can see why they sell multi-day tickets. We didn't see half of the place.

Just a big kitty cat.

The tour we took allowed us to get close to the animals. 

The echidnas were cute, but no touching allowed.

This cassowary was impressive - especially its massively powerful legs and feet!

Daughter's girlfriend joined us for the last weekend. We had lots of fun playing Uno, walking the beach, and catching up.

Saturday morning I rented a bike and went to the No Kings protest in Carlsbad. It was awesome and inspiring to see thousands of people demonstrating in such a small town. 

Thousands of people lined the roads for a mile. 

I didn't expect such a big turnout for a small town. It was very encouraging.

My week ended with a surprisingly trouble free travel day. I had only an hour layover in Chicago which I assumed would leave me stranded there overnight as my flight was 50 minutes delayed leaving LA.
The pilot made up the difference and I had 20 minutes to get to my next gate which was only 4 gates away. Success!

I was thrilled to see a solar farm with three solar furnaces and an array of PV solar cells. 

There was plenty of snow in the mountains of both California and Colorado. Even though I was fascinated by the landscape below me, I managed to read 2/3 of my next book, Heartwood by Amity Gaige.

I love getting away to travel, but I love my home too. I'm looking forward to some quiet down time - at least one day!

Comments

  1. MargaretOctober 20, 2025 at 1:12 PM

    California is indeed beautiful; I loved my visits there when my Older Daughter lived in LA. But the traffic! It's pretty bad here in Western Washington too though. Luckily, I rarely have to brave the worst of it. The cassowary looks like a chicken on steroids. I keep thinking that they've killed people with that kick? It looks like you had a wonderful visit with your daughter. Glad that your travel wasn't stressful and that you're now relaxing at home.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MaureenOctober 20, 2025 at 8:01 PM

    The cassowary is more like an emu on steroids - and yes, their kick can be deadly!

    ReplyDelete

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