Proctor Valley and Pioneer

In Jamul on Proctor Valley Rd just a smidge east of Pioneer Way is a place to park a vehicle and enter into the Daley Ranch nature preserve. About a mile or so down the main trail there starts random forks in the trails so the hikes range from about 5 miles to much longer and path can range from flat, rolling hills, to small mountains. The view down from our first hill:

I have come to learn that hiking w/ Maria means spending some time off of the trail and creating our own way. Certainly not a bad thing, but it does mean wear pants (to prevent poison oak or scratches on legs) and to prepare to get sticky plant stuck in shoes. These shimmery guys (foxtail?) stuck to everything from the ankle down. We had to stop several times to disengage them from their free acupuncture treatments.

I have another friend w/ a dog named Copper. Copper did a fantastic job of keeping up, running ahead, running back, and patiently waiting for us at the forks in the trail. Great hiking buddy. And Copper loved the creek that ran through part of the trail as you can see from his damp muzzle.

The goal of the hike was the old brick foundry located in the middle of a field. I used to enjoy seeing the old ruins of WWII military facilities along the ocean during my Bay Area hikes, so it was a treat to see this crumbling façade among the golden grains. The creek barred us at first from making our way to it.

But another path lead around to the building. There was a little fence around w/ no trespassing signs, but we concluded they were for decorative purposes only. I adore all the succulents that are some how growing out of the top rim of the roof.

The view up one of the smoke towers.

The view up the second hole inside. As you can possibly tell, the birds are rather found of this structure (though none were seen or heard while we were there.)

The walk back was very relaxing; it was low-mid 70's w/ a warmish breeze. And we got to see a tarantula scurry into it's hole along the path. My hiking buddy Maria, who can hike 12 miles like no body's business. And again, the wonderful Copper.

I swear I slathered sun screen on quite liberally before hiking, but here is yet another picture of me w/ a stupid looking sunburn. Some day I'll remember that if I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt, when I take it off most of the sun screen will be coming off w/ it & I need to put more on. Sigh. Excellent hike, though.

Vine

Vine is a tasty little wine bar/restaurant in OB that's a satifying place to go w/ a friend after work for a bit of power down. I got the three cheese grilled cheese on garlic toast w/ bacon strips, onion, tomato, lettuce and house made criss cross chips & crunchy pickle. April got the grilled chicken breast stuffed w/ herbed cheese and mashed Yukon/sweet potatoes (w/ roasted garlic) in a sauce au natural. Is your mouth watering yet?

Also, The daily happy hour (all night on Tuesday!) means half price glasses of wine, so I was able to get my lovely Russian River Pinot for a descent price. (It's standard for most restaurants to mark up wine %150; so that's why the $10 bottle at the store is $25 on the menu.)

http://theobvine.com/

The dessert was an above average S'more w/ the marshmallow toasted just right. The graham cracker part was a little bland-dry for being a desert that gets eaten w/ a spoon. I would've added a bit of vanilla flavor and possibly some kind of fat (butter, shortening?) to the crust. The chocolate top tasted like chocolate fudge frosting which was okay. I think a ganache style would work better. But still, quite tasty!

The superb thing of having a meal in OB is getting to walk along the water afterwards. Here's the silhouette of the pier against the slowly setting sun.

And finally the sun bows good night.

My choice company for the evening w/ the almost full moon in the sky.

A Fine Day

Instead of going to normal work I got to go to a POST class of Courtroom Testimony at the Marina Village. (Or as I prefer to call "Court Room Confessions".) This coincided w/ bike-to-work day and google maps laid out a nice little 6 mile path from my home to destination. While finding Marina Village, I came upon these two kitties among the sea wall by the Life guard Services Station. This is a close as they'd let me get to them.

After learning how to not make an ass of myself on the stand, if ever I should testify, I began my bike ride homeward bound. About 40' before I got off of the bike path & onto Morena Blvd I saw a guy standing on the side of the path w/ a little bird several feet to the side of him. I did a double take, stopped, and went back because it looked like a juvenile red tailed hawk to me. (I've volunteered in wild life care before so I actually know what they look like :)

I asked the guy if the bird was his and he said no, he had just gotten there and wanted to make sure no bikers ran over the bird so he was standing by it. The poor little guy didn't look to well and it was pretty cool out, so I took off my sweater and wrapped him in it. Then I called work which handed me over to Animal Regs. Luckily AR was willing to come out and pick him up because there wasn't a safe way for me to transport him on my bike.

After several minutes wrapped in my sweater I thought he had passed on, because he stopped moving. Then his foot kicked a bit and I was relieved. He must have been so stressed that being wrapped in something soft and warm had simply induced him to fall asleep.

I called April to explain why I would be late in meeting her and told exactly where I was while waiting for AR's to show up. She wonderfully surprised me by driving over & parking nearby. This was a bit of a relief, because even though the guy (Bill) who was standing w/ the bird was nice enough, he weirded me out a bit. I'm now privy to how his first marriage ended, the incredibly creepy way he met his second wife and then her passing, and about some of his family history. When April came, Bill nicely excused himself to continue on down the road. Here's April holding the hawk while we waited for AR's together.

Luckily AR's found us easy & was willing to take the baby to Project Wildlife where they'll care for him until he's ready to be released back into the wild. Below is AR's holding the raptor in the proper fashion (talons secured w/ one hand and hands around the wings w/ another.)

Then it was off to celebrate both a good deed and Mel's birthday. Here is my Hefenweizen trying to complete it's lemon.

And the three graces of the Harp.

We are just so cute. Someday I'll open my eyes in a photograph.

Goofy picture moment!

Padres actually slaughter the Dodgers 10-5

As if to say, "oh I missed you, dear", LA has been very good w/ supplying at least one bout of heavy traffic whilst I'm in it's mist as of late. It's as if it's saying, "oh, please don't go; you know we can make you stay."

The city from Chavez Ravine, aka, Dodger Stadium.

A panorama of our rather nice seats. Rolin did a boss job scoring these.

Mmmmm...Dodger Dog. But hey, at least it's Kosher! And of course I spilt a big ol' smack down of mustard in the one spot of my lap that the napkin wasn't covering. At least it wasn't ketchup, I guess. Don't need to wander around the park w/ red crotch stains.

Becca is always good about honoring the old time Cracker Jacks, but how their prizes have gotten lame. While the little talking crabby was kind of cute, a piece of colored paper as a prize is just a smidge anti-climatic. So we fed him a jalapeno.

The tiny foam finger the guy in front of us kept wearing kept cracking me up. He got it from the Miller girls that were wandering the hallways, enticing random males to take the little hands.

Representing in my Tigers hat, I kept being told by random employees that I was two days early for the game. They had a special Star Wars night for when the Tigers were there. I watched it on the tv in OB and Chewbacca threw the opening pitch. It was sweet.

You can just barely make out Yoda's head in the upper left.

The Padres ended up creaming the Dodgers 10-5 because of two home runs, one w/ bases loaded. Here's the final sprint to home.

Half moon over the stadium.

A final look of the score. There was no "I Love LA" heard that night.

And the city at night as we wandered out.

Johanna!

Johanna and Patti came down to visit for the day to see a Padres v Dodgers game. Dodgers won (this round) and J & P met up w/ me & Jason afterwards for a bit of Ranchos yumminess.

Afterwards, we walked around the University to watch all the cleanup from the North Park Arts Festival. It was a rather cold & dreary day so we ducked into Heaven Scent desserts for a bit of warm something to sip and a scrumptious dark chocolate cupcake w/ lingonberry compote center. To the left of the cutlery is a sparkly white chocolate rose that graced the top of the dessert.

It was terribly nice to see them both again. I miss my Johanna walks.