San Diego part 2

More about our trip to San Diego.

After driving up the coast from the south to San Diego...the next day we began at La Jolla beach and started driving north on the Coastal Highway.  La Jolla beach is really nice. You can imagine how packed with people it would be in the summer months.

I had to get out and get my feet in the water here too, although we returned here on our last day of vacation for a lazy beach day.

I can't remember the name of this town where we pulled over to stretch our legs.  We were on a level above the beach. There were cliffs below with houses right next to the shoreline.  Blue skies, blue ocean, warm sun. Nice!

We continued the trip...  driving through Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corp base.  From the car we could see them doing a maneuver or practice with an "Osprey" a sort of plane with helicopter blades on both wings.  Pretty cool!

As we got closer to Los Angeles traffic started getting heavier and we were ready to head back and call it a day.

Another morning, when the forecast called for cool and cloudy weather, we took a tour of the decommissioned aircraft carrier docked in the San Diego Harbor....The USS Midway

We were there when they opened and the first thing we did was climb four flights of steep metal stairs to take the guided tour of the "Island".

That's the tallest part of the ship. Here is the view from the command center for flight deck operations.  

It's also where you would find the Captain of the Ship.

There were lots of planes on the Flight deck and you could learn about each one by listening to a handheld device -  actually worn around your neck.  Also on this deck there were presentations on how the planes take off and another on how the tail hook works when they land.

Then below was the Hangar deck, with more airplanes there and also a movie about the history of the USS Midway and how it got it's name. Also on the deck were the sailor's bunks, the anchor chain room, and the Tactical Command Center.

Below decks were the kitchens, dining areas, storage, laundry, sick bay, dentist, barber, and even a small chapel.

We were there nearly six hours and still did not see all of the displays and exhibits.  So much to see and so much information here. It is the most unique and best museum I have ever visited.

It's not over yet...

On one of our scenic drive days we headed up to the Palomar Mountains.  Our first stop was the Palomar Mountain Observatory  They have a visitors center there with a lot of information and a few exhibits...all outer space related. We were lucky to be there in time for a tour of the building that holds the 200 inch Hale Telescope, which was the largest in the world for decades.

On the dome below you can see the doors that slide open when the telescope is in use.

It was cold inside the building. They keep the temperature set at whatever the predicted low temperature is for that night...to prevent the metal of the telescope from expanding and contracting.

This is just the base.

And here is the telescope.  It isn't for looking through, only for taking images.

Interesting tour and good guides.  They were very serious about not touching anything and staying with the guide.  

We had a short drive through Palomar Mountain State Park, then we headed for a desert park nearby...but, my phone GPS couldn't get a signal, I took a wrong turn and drove for miles in the wrong direction. Gas got low and we ended up paying $4.19 a gallon. A frustrating afternoon but we made it out okay and consoled ourselves with dinner at Mike's BBQ, which earned my husband's BBQ stamp of approval.

Well sorry! I have a few more photos and a couple more days to talk about. I will be following up with part 3.

San Diego trip Part 1

Of the two of us, my husband is the one who likes traveling the most.   I like the idea of it and I like to see new things...but I am reluctant to give up the comforts of home.

When Lonnie told me he'd like to take me on a vacation to the San Diego area though, it was just too tempting and I didn't drag my feet at all.
San Diego is a good city to visit. It's safe and clean and close to beaches on one side and mountains and forests on the other.

We chose to stay about a half hour's drive north of the city, in Escondido, since we planned to divide our time between seeing the city sights and driving up in the surrounding mountains.

The weather was perfect - mid 70's - with none of the humidity we have in Kentucky.  Many mornings would start out cloudy but by noon the sun would break through.

The harbor there is huge...and busy. There are military ships, cruise ships, commercial craft, sight seeing boats and even a decommissioned aircraft carrier turned into a museum.

They have one bridge...the Coronado Bay bridge that leads to Coronado Island, which is part touristy area, homes for the wealthy, shops, restaurants...and part Naval Air Station.

One place we visited was the Mt Soledad Veterans Memorial, a massive cross on top of the mountain, surrounded by low walls covered with thousands of plaques inscribed with photos and military career of veterans, both the living and the deceased.

From the top it was an amazing panoramic view of the city and the surrounding area.

That's the city skyline on the horizon in the far left side of the photo (if you can tear your eyes away from Mr Cutie) 

No photos, but on that day we also explored Balboa Park a bit.  It's 1200 acres of museums, trails, gardens, shopping, plazas, fountains,attractions and includes the San Diego Zoo.  It's so big, it's just too hard to decide what to see...so we left!

Another morning we decided to walk this trail across the Lake Hodges Suspension Bridge.

Where is the lake?  It was completely dried up. They haven't had any measurable rain since March of this year.

We still enjoyed the walk though, especially since we had a long scenic drive planned for the day.

We drove south...almost to the Mexican border, then cut over to drive back up following as close to the ocean as possible.  Beaches, piers, beach towns along the route.  

This is Imperial Beach. I had to walk down and put my feet in the Pacific Ocean.

The road eventually turned into the Silver Strand, a long penninsula - mostly a state park beach that leads to Coronado Island.  We looked around there for awhile then came across the bridge into the city and continued north around the bay.  We drove out on Harbor Island for a great view of the city.

Then it was uphill and more uphill on Point Loma to see Cabrillo National Monument and the Old Point Loma Lighthouse.  Breathtaking views from up here too!

We then called it a day with a fish dinner at Point Loma Seafoods.   

I will have to tell more in another post.  If I put too many photos up at a time, problems seem to happen and my post disappears.

I will follow up with part two.

what I've been reading

My friend Isolde, from my quilting group, asked me if I would like to take home these "Quiltfolk" magazines and look through them.

Well Yes!

It's a new magazine concept for quilters.  Instead of the usual patterns and pages of advertising, this magazine is completely photos and articles.

Each issue focuses on one state...these were Iowa, Oregon, Massachutes, Tennessee, and Hawaii.

The articles are about folks who are involved in the quilting industry in some way.

There are fabric shop owners, pattern designers, antique quilt collecters, fabric mill workers, quilt museums, charity quilting volunteers and more.

Then there are the stories about quilters, From senior ladies who have been quilting a lifetime, to art quilters, all men quilt guilds, modern quilters, crazy quilt makers and more.

The photos are wonderful. No advertising at all. They did include patterns in a couple of the issues.

So relaxing to browse through these...but inspiring too.

Thank you Isolde!

sewing machine maintenance class

Months ago, I signed up for a class on how to maintain my Singer Featherweight 221 sewing machine.
At the time I signed up for the class, I was trying to give myself a "jump-start" and start getting out of the  house again.  As the date drew nearer (this past weekend), I was beginning to regret signing up but it turned out fine.

The class was near Colombus, Ohio...about a three and a half  hour drive, so I started out early the day before, planning a small detour along the route to Ikea.

Ut-Oh !!! 

Something about this store pushes my buying buttons!  I have joked that the Swedish names on the items must contain subliminal messages... saying buy...buy...buy.  

Yes, those boxes did fit in the Jeep but I had concerns about leaving them in there in the hotel parking lot overnight.  The soft top is not much of a barrier to a thief.

Fortunately the hotel was in a nice area and there were no problems.  

I realized something.  I have traveled a lot but I have never checked into a hotel and spent the night on my own.   It seemed so strange, but I just hogged up all the bed pillows and slept fine.

The class was right in the same hotel at 9am the next day.

There were 20 ladies there with their Featherweight machines

Step by step we learned how to take our machines apart and clean them...and most important...what gets oiled and what gets greased.

This is during a break.  The lights were dimmed so we could follow along to a slide presentation so we all had work lights at our stations.

It was a good class. Much more detailed than information I'd found online.  The instructor, Nova Montgomery, gave us all a laminated chart to remind us how to do maintenance on our machines when neded.  After the class, she waited to be sure everyone's machine was back together and sewing perfectly.   

I could tell a difference in mine. It was running smoother and quieter after it's "spa day".

Nasty weather for traveling home.  Rain...but it let up for a few minutes just as I passed through Cincinnati.

The sun tried to break through and made the most beautiful golden backlighting for the clouds.

Of course the photo snapped through  the window of a moving vehicle doesn't do it justice.

So...some of my Ikea purchases were not impulse buys.  I have been looking for a small ottoman to go in front of this chair that had belonged to Chopper.

I like to sit in it every morning and have coffee but I'm always more comfortable with my feet up on something.

This "Strandmon" ottoman is just the right size.  It was available in 4 colors. I thought this would be the closest match but it's more of a cool beige.

 Probably should have gotten the dark grey but I'm certainly not driving back up there to exchange it!

Hens and Chicks bloom

In July, I noticed my Hens and Chicks putting out an unusual growth. Since I have seen them blooming elsewhere, I figured that's what was happening with this one.

Over the summer it started looking more and more strange and eventually several smaller stems emerged from the main one.

As the smaller stems got longer - the main stem started dying back.

The blooms never became beautiful to behold.They were scaly and pinkish...rather homely.

Then the whole thing started looking poorly.

And drooping to the ground.

The Sasquatch suggested that I put a pot of dirt beneath the drooping stems...thinking that might be the way the plant gets a fresh start (other than producing the "Chicks")

That seemed like a good idea so I tried it.  So far I can't tell if the stems are going to send out roots or not.  I don't want to pull them out of the dirt to see, so I'll watch and see of they turn brown or stay green.

On the other hand, I've had good luck starting some cuttings from a rose bush that was growing in an area that became too shady (not in my yard).  I just dipped the cuttings in rooting hormone and stuck them in this pot of dirt.

I figured I would be lucky to get one stem started out of around a dozen cuttings, but it was the opposite...only one died out.

Now, what am I going to do with all these rose starts?  Roses aren't my favorites. I don't really like anything with thorns and roses are high maintenance.

But, I will probably start digging a spot for them. I'll have to look up some information online on how to care for them.

deviled egg plates

Just three years ago, in 2015, I bought the first deviled egg plate that I'd ever owned.

I make deviled eggs pretty often and I had one of the special plastic-ware containers made for storing or transporting them, but I always just plunked the eggs down on a plain plate for serving at the table.

This was messy because the eggs all slid together and teamed up to try to glide right off the plate as it was passed around the table.

So, I did the easy thing and ordered a simple clear glass egg plate off Amazon.  Not too fancy for everyday use but still looked good when I got the holiday plates out.

A few months later, we found an egg plate half buried in mud and junk, outside of one of the abandoned houses I have mentioned here before.
It was too pretty to just leave there to eventually get broken or buried so I brought it home. ( I couldn't tell you how many times I washed it before I felt comfortable using it.)

This one was fancier...white with metallic gold trim...so I decided I would use it on Easter and at Thanksgiving.

Now, for my birthday this year, my parents gave the the ultimate egg plate...this lovely green glass one...

It was from my grandmother's china cabinet so it is a special one to me.

I was able to find info about it on line.  The pattern is American Concord by Brockway Glass Company.  The same pattern was made in clear and an amber color - in other pieces as well, but the green seems to be a bit more rare and made in the egg plate only.

It's a beauty, isn't it?  And it holds 15 eggs!

This will be my Christmas Egg Plate.   

Gosh, when I was looking for info online, I looked through hundreds of egg plate photos trying to track it down.   There sure are a lot of cute and neat looking egg plates...and it seems like I already have the start of a collection....

No Darla!   Back away from the computer...you do not need more egg plates. I repeat....

what a mess

I guess since I am always showing off my successful projects - it's only right for me to show the failures too.

We recently bought a new quartz top for our bathroom vanity.  It's nice.

I got the old one mostly disconnected and the Sasquatch lifted it and carried it out.  You can see the wall got torn up a bit from removing the tile backsplash.

The Sasquatch not only picked up the new top at the store...he got it inside and up the stairs and lifted it on to the vanity...and hooked up the water and drains (I did one faucet). 

Since the new backsplash was perfectly straight and our walls are wonky, there was a gap in between that needed to be filled before caulking.

So the next day I went down a bought some spray foam to fill the gap.

My gosh ...what a horrible mess!

this is after some clean up

I knew not to fill the crack completely because the foam expands, but good grief...it came erupting out of there like a volcano!  Going up the wall and spreading over the top of the back splash!

I started trying to pick up the excess with my trowel, making an even bigger mess. Then I got panicky, worrying that it would hurt the surface of the new quartz top. 

I grabbed the nail polish remover since it was handy and saturated some paper towels to clean up the sticky mess.

No harm was done to the counter top but I ended up with cotton ball fuzz and paper toweling glued to my fingers.

Of course I tried to wash it off with soap and water but I think the water just made the glue really set up and harden.

It took about 2 full days and a layer of skin for it to come off completely.

As for the counter top...I was able to scrape and cut away the extra foam that covered it.

I still need to work on the wall some more before painting but we are still trying to decide on a paint color anyway.

We like the new counter top and the larger sinks. I will show more photos when the project is complete.