Moving to the Hills

After our Thanksgiving at Borrego Springs, I moved to Jojoba Hills RV Resort, an Escapees Park in Aguanga, CA. The WINs were having a gathering here in the dry camping area.

Less than a mile away is where Ricardo Breceda has his retail lot where you can buy one of his sculptures. He is the artist that did the sculptures in Borrego Springs, and I got to meet him here! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him, I was too distracted by his sculptures.

One day, I took a trip down to Oceanside.

I stopped to see one of the old California missions, the Mission San Luis Rey.

The inside is just beautiful.

I always like to look at the Stations of the Cross in Catholic churches. These were hand painted, and almost black. But when I took a picture of them, you could see the picture much better.

One afternoon, we went to the Pala Casino to see a Supremes tribute concert.

On another day, we took a train from Oceanside to Old Town San Diego. The ride is beautiful - right along the ocean, and only $6.50 round trip for seniors!

Even though I had just been to Old Town with my daughter, this time I got to explore some of the old buildings, this one a printer's workshop.

The Rust General Store got my attention, but it wasn't what I thought it was...

And now, Old Town was decorated for Christmas!

Beautiful!

And then on another day, 4 of us did a tour of the wine country around Temecula. There are LOTS of wineries here!

Unfortunately, the grape vines were a lot past prime...

But that doesn't prevent doing a wine tasting!

And then on another day, our own Paul Martin performed at Happy Hour at the RV Park. He was very much appreciated!

Good night!

More Fun in Borrego Springs

One day while in Borrego Springs, CA, we went on a great 4X4 drive and hike. The trip began with a drive up a very wet dirt road through Split Mountain. You can tell we'd had a bit of rain lately...

There are some unique geological features in Split Mountain.

This one looked like a chess piece.

After a long drive, we left the vehicles down in the wash and hiked up to the top of the hill.

The view of the mountains in the distance was breathtaking!

We're up here to find the Wind Caves, and there they are!

I'll bet some of these were people's homes in the past.

Herding the cats together for a picture. I'm kind of in the lower left.

On our way home we went by some more great geological features.

It was a great day!

Borrego Springs for Thanksgiving

After my stop in Escondido, I made a stop in Indio, where I went to quite a few ukulele jams, but failed to take any pictures. My next move was to the annual Thanksgiving stop in Borrego Springs, CA. We even got some snow on the mountains!

My first hike was up the mountain/hill behind where we are parked.

Every year we go up here to see the big snake, which gets more intricate each year.

And more creatures appear each year. One of these new ones is a Big Horn Sheep.

All around Borrego Springs are beautiful rusty metal sculptures done by artist Ricardo Breceda.

And if you want one for your garden, you can buy one in town.

One day we went out to hike to the Calcite Mine Slot Canyon. Since I was driving, we walked to it instead of taking the scary road.

But the slot canyon is just beautiful, and well worth the hike.

Back in camp we had another gorgeous sunset!

A Magical Circle and a Safari

After leaving San Diego, my friend Marian and I went a little north to Escondido. Our first adventure was to visit Queen Califia's Magical Circle, a beautiful circle of mosaic sculptures. That's Queen Califia standing atop a 13-foot, five-legged eagle.

The circle is enclosed by a series of snakes.

It was just beautiful, but only open Tuesday and Thursday morning. Fortunately, we timed it just right.

Afterwards, we drove out to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Loved the hairdos on these two!

This lion liked to hang out on top of an old car.

And we got to see the patriarch of the gorillas. Winston is 47 years old, and the oldest breeding gorilla in the US.

I liked this guy's hairdo too!



The flamingos were really vocal!

But the best part of the Safari Park is the area that looks like you are actually in Africa, with all different animals commingling. We took the free tram around the African Plains area twice.

But to get up-close-and-personal with the animals, you have to pay a lot extra. We didn't do it this time -

But 13 years ago, my daughter and I did the special tour, where you get to feed the giraffes.

Their tongues are REALLY long!



The last thing we did was to watch the Cheetah Run. Cheetahs can run 70 mph! This one was so fast he caught the toy right away the first two runs, but on this one you can see him go all the way.

A Short Trip to See the Grandkids

After the Dance Rally, I headed over to see my daughter and her family in San Diego. One day we went to Old Town San Diego to do a little shopping. The Grandkids really like to shop. They must get it from me...

There was lots of Day of the Dead stuff there.

My friend, Marion, happened to be parked where I was, and one day we went to the top of Mt. Helix. You can drive almost to the top, then climb up the steps of the open theater that is on top.

Looking back down.

There's a cross at the very top -

And beautiful views all around. It was a little hazy towards the ocean -

But nice to the east.

Back at the Elks Lodge were I was parked, they had an arts and crafts fair going on all weekend. I bought some of these beautiful handmade quilled greeting cards, for a very reasonable price. They were selling them 2 years ago in the Big Tent in Quartzsite, and I bought some then too. And - GOOD NEWS - Yoder Do will be back in Quartzsite again this January!

It was a short visit, but we got to visit and do some ukulele.