A Rainy Day in San Diego is better than a sunny day most other places...

Yesterday (Saturday) was a classic rainy day in San Diego. It rained in the morning and the evening, but most of the middle of the day was sunny. We hung around the condo for awhile and then went out in the evening to have dinner with a friend here. It started to rain as we headed north to Poway, and rained some coming home, but this morning, forecast to be another rainy day, the sun is again shining brightly. Hopefully it will hold for this afternoon's organ concert. Here's what I woke up to this morning (slept past sunrise!!!!)

Our neighbors told us that a gull had been tapping on their window begging, so they fed it every morning. The Western Gull
was back this morning, though I'm afraid they left today!

A Change in the Weather

Thursday, Fred and I took a bike ride around Mission Bay, saw some people enjoying the day before the rain arrived in the evening.

Friday night we went downtown to see the silent movie Phantom of the Opera, 1925/1929 version, at the San Diego Symphony Hall, near the Gaslamp district. We were just parking the car when we heard this huge crash. Two cars had met in the intersection maybe 50 feet away. Don't know which one ran the red light, but no one was hurt seriously. The three people are all shown below. The gentleman in white was in a BMW SUV, pretty badly damaged in the front. His airbag deployed, and, after the intial impact, he rolled into a parked BMW sedan which bumped the car in front, for a total of 4 cars involved. The young Marine in black later complained of back pain and went off in an ambulance. His wife, right side with back to us, said she was OK. She had to exit their car on the driver's side.

We finally went on to dinner and the movie, both of which were uneventful but very pleasant. The 1921 organ is not fully restored, so the organist used it sparingly but effectively. The symphony hall was an old Fox theatre embedded in a modern building. I'm going to have to do more research on it.

No beautiful sunrise this morning. Here's the view from our window this morning. That's Dog Beach across the channel... Fred ran this morning and then this afternoon we're going to go visit our friend Dean for dinner, stopping for a little birding on the way.

As I post this, it's brighter and more blue sky is visible. Rain predicted, off and on, through Monday.

Sunrise Thursday February 5, 2009

This morning's sunrise picture. It's supposed to rain for the next few days, the temperature here will only be a little warmer than that predicted for the Washington, DC area.

We tried to take a bike ride yesterday, but the business we can get free bikes through was closed. We're going to try a different place today. Biking is supposed to be good for my knee. Fred just got back from running and we're debating a hot tub.

Yes, another morning in paradise

Here is yesterday morning's sunrise. I'm getting ready to go out this morning, probably the last good morning for a few days as SD's rainy season is supposed to hit for a few days. I think this is the last morning Fred will join me. Three is a record for him, I think.

I love watching pelicans fly...

Apparently, this Mission Bay resident is collecting abandoned shoes.

Wednesday morning, a real volleyball game was going on. Usually at that hour, there are just people practicing. This is very near to our condo, just down the street on the beach on Mission Point. There are six to eight cours and one or two are usually in use when we (I) go by in the morning.

Tuesday, Part II

Forgot that I can only upload four pictures at a time using Picasa' s blogger interface. Here are the last two pics. Here's the PT Cruiser Convertible we rented. It doesn't look so bad from this angle. We do like putting the top down in this weather!

Another day, another sunset.

Tuesday's Photos

I'm getting caught up, pictures are only one day late in posting now. Here's a shot just after sunrise of Mission Bay with the early light on the boats. So beautiful!

Birds of Paradise are everywhere, as are poinsettias, jade plants and all sorts of things we in the
East are not used to seeing growing in outdoor gardens.

We looked out the window in the condo and saw this kayaker going by. Unusual paddling style.

Small lizard at Cabrillo National Monument. We haven't looked him up yet, any ideas? It was probably the most perfect weather we've ever had at Cabrillo, we were perfectly comfortable with short sleeves, even out on the point. We didn't see any whales, we did see one small child on a bike almost go over the edge. Pretty scarey, but all ended well. Very few birds on that trip, though we did see some feral parakeets on the way out to Pt Loma (more on the bird blog).

Our first couple days

It's so beautiful here; we got into town Sunday night, picked up the rental car (we were forced to take a PT Cruiser convertible, it was all they had at the rental car agency) and headed right to Balboa Park, five minutes away, to catch most of the free outdoor organ concert. The weather was beautiful; people were actually in shorts! The next morning, Fred actually joined me for the sunrise walk. Above, a fisherman makes his predawn passage to the ocean from the bay on the channel that goes by our front door. Below, a pelican, like us, greets the dawn.

We joined several others in watching the sunset Monday evening after a perfect day. We got settled into the condo, got our groceries, walked on the boardwalk and the bay and met the neighbors. It's very peaceful here. Tuesday we will go out to Pt. Loma.

Last look at the condo

Here's the infamous hot tub that we spent so many hours soaking in and calling people in the snowbound east.

A last look at the view from our balcony.

A fishing boat goes out the channel for the day's work.

Last Sunset at Mission Beach

Well, the last one we'll see this year, anyway.

Moon over Mission Point

As we watched the sunset, I looked back and saw that the moon had risen over Mission Point. You can't see our condo in this shot, but it's just in front of and to the left of that white building that you can see. The road and the jetty that run right past our condo.

Fred, sunset at Mission Beach

Fred watches our last sunset at Mission Beach for this year. It was a beauty!

Wild Animal Park

These Okapi are the only animal related to the giraffe. They have long blue tongues, like giraffes.

Pink flamingos. The Land Rover is part of the exhibit.

Abyssinian Ground-Hornbills. (Thanks to Larry from Missouri for this info.) They looked prehistoric.

One of our favorites, the gorilla exhibit. Signs warn you not to make eye contact.

Wild Animal Park

On or trip to the Wild Animal Park, we saw these white rhinos.

The giraffes were far away, but we could see that one was a baby!

Black rhino.

Marabou Stork. (Thanks to Larry from Missouri for that information!) Love that curly hair! Lots of fly-in birds were hanging around these birds, as they had just been fed cow spleens. Great blue heron, snowy egrets, a great egret and a black-crowned night heron were all hanging around.

San Diego Sunset

The view from our rented condo at sunset. Aaahhhh.