Chapter 30 - San Francisco and San Diego
December 10, 1998
11/14 We're settled into Pacifica - a San Francisco suburb - for a 10-day culture fix. We hate the noise, the traffic, and the crowds of big cities, but we still get drawn back periodically by the music, the museums, the formal gardens, and the architecture. We also need occasional access to the big-city stores. There are a great many things, ranging from specialty groceries to clothing in our size, which are very hard to find in the small towns of America. I've already stocked up on Gallo salami - San Francisco's most important export.
Or perhaps I should label Chanticleer as San Francisco's most important export. This 11-man group is America's only full-time professional choir, and travels worldwide in a very hectic schedule. We caught them in town to do a concert on their home turf. Chanticleer has several new members, and a new Artistic Director, but the sound hasn't changed. (Well actually it has changed in one aspect - their repertoire of Afro-American spirituals will never be the same without Joe Jennings' soaring countertenor, spirited piano, and ethnically authentic interpretations). The hometown audience was enthusiastic, but the hall wasn't quite full (and it only seats 800). Their program was as wonderfully eclectic as usual.
1/15 San Francisco Chamber Singers: This concert was given in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Art and their exhibit "Picasso, The War Years, 1937-1945". It was in the newly renovated Florence Gould Theater, in the Palace of the Legion of Honor, an attractive circular theater which only seats about 200. The music was far more interesting than the art (we're not Picasso fans, and his gruesome work during the war years is particularly unpleasant). The featured work was the world premiere of "Mindoka, Reveries Of…" by Paul Chihara. The composer was present, and talked about the background for the composition. Mindoka was one of the internment camps, in Idaho, where American citizens of Japanese ancestry were kept for the duration of the World War II. Chihara, as a small boy, was interned there with his family.
Typical of San Franciso, both of the above concerts were in halls which have grossly inadequate parking. Both concerts were delayed for about 15 minutes. Even after the delay, the audience continued to straggle in during intervals in the program after braving traffic jams searching the entire neighborhood for a non-existent parking place and then walking a long distance The traffic was awful in Seattle too, but at least we always had convenient parking when we arrived at events.
11/21 We had a delightful dinner with Internet friends Nick and Jeanne Schmitz, at the Moonraker, on the beach in Pacifica. I've talked with Nick via Email about various issues of full-time RV living. He and Jeanne are just about to drive to Kansas to pick up a custom-designed New Horizons fifth wheel trailer. As we've found several times in the past year, it's wonderful to finally meet in the flesh the interesting people with whom we've already become friends by means of electronic communications. The food at the Moonraker is very good, although we were too busy talking to pay adequate attention to what we were eating.
11/22 We've largely been vegetating this week, enjoying being lazy in-between catching up on a few chores and doing a little shopping.
We did do one long scenic drive, which should be on the agenda for anyone visiting this area. From our campground in Pacifica, we drove down Highway 1. As we crossed Devil's Slide, just a few miles south, we recalled recent newspaper stories. This is the point where a geological fault, apparently a branch of the San Andreas Fault, crosses the coastline. It's also the steep western slope of San Pedro Mountain. There is an area half a mile or so in width where the rock is crumbled and punky as well as very steep, making a very unstable base for a road. Every few years, this piece of the coast highway slides into the ocean, cutting off the communities to the south.
Last year, voters authorized a mile-long tunnel to be built through the mountain, bypassing this unstable area. Since the tunnel won't be in place for five years, they also authorized an experimental short-term project. They are preparing to drill wells into the mountain uphill from the road, to pump out ground water, hoping that the drier ground will be less prone to slide. So for the next year or so, one lane of the highway will be closed through the area where this work is going on.
After climbing over this steep section, the road drops back down and follows fairly close to the water all the way to Half Moon Bay. Most of the coast is a narrow, fairly flat, plain, ending in a steep cliff about 100' high overlooking the ocean. Every few miles, where streams have cut down through the cliff, the road approached sea level, giving convenient beach access. Most of these places are State-operated beaches, offering parking lots, bathrooms, and convenient access to a long expanse of beach. Most of these beaches are in their own cozy cove, cut off by rocky headlands at each end, except perhaps at low tide. A couple of these areas also have primitive state campgrounds nearby. We saw none that were directly on the beach, although one was on a high bluff, with a view of the Pacific.
Half Moon Bay has a private RV Park, Pelican Point, that is almost on the ocean - separated by a fenced golf course, with the view blocked by a low hill. A walk of a few hundred yards leads to the beach. We drove through the Park, and spoke briefly to the manager. About half the sites are filled with long-term lease residents. Some of the sites are quite pleasant - concrete pads and well-tended grass. Some will hold a 35' rig.
South of Half Moon Bay, we turned inland on Pescadoro Road, and then north on Stage Road - a very narrow ribbon of blacktop which meanders north through the hills, staying roughly two miles inland from the ocean. We suspect this may have been one of the earliest roads in the area. It clings to the side of hills with the minimum of improvement, and goes from farm to farm (or are they "ranches"?). On one occasion, the road led straight through a half-mile-long long avenue of very old eucalyptus trees, heading straight for the front door of an impressive old house. Just before reaching the house, the road veered off and headed for the next settlement. In places where the road crested a hill, we had an impressive view to the west, over rolling grass-covered hills to the ocean. One of these remote hills had a house and 25 acres for sale, right on top. Tempting!
Eventually, Stage Road came to the tiny hamlet of San Gregorio, and we again turned inland on La Honda Road (which also seems to be named San Gregorio Road). A mile or two inland, the grassy coastal hills and stunted pines began to give way to Redwoods - first in narrow ribbons along the protected valleys and eventually becoming a dense continuous forest. This road works its way along deep, narrow valleys, with occasional tiny settlements, eventually reaching the somewhat larger rustic settlement of La Honda. From here, it turns north and begins climbing steeply, up to Skyline Drive (SR 35). From here, we followed Skyline north. This road lives up to its name, staying on the crest of a long narrow mountain range, at an altitude of 2000 to 2200 feet. The east side of this range drops steeply down to the San Andreas Fault. Skyline Drive is mostly wooded, and has occasional interesting homes tucked away in the trees, with a few little settlements. At two points, there are parking areas with panoramic views - one to the east, out over San Francisco Bay, and one to the west, over the redwood-covered mountains dropping down to the distant ocean. Finally, where Skyline joins SR 92, it ends and we followed SR35 and SR92 down to join I 280 at Crystal Springs Reservoir, following I 280 along the San Andreas Fault until SR35 again branched off to lead us back to Pacifica.
11/23 Arrangements for Thanksgiving have finally gelled. We packed up this morning and pulled the trailer 70 miles south, to Maple Leaf RV Park, just south of Morgan Hill. We've stayed here before, and have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the Park is new and modern, with lots of carefully tended grass and good facilities, including telephone connections at every site. On the other hand, the design of the place feels slightly wrong, with streets too narrow and, many of the RV sites being too small to park a toad or tow vehicle, and inadequate parking elsewhere. The management also seems slightly wrong - a hard to define feeling that has bothered us both times we've been here, amplified by mildly negative comments from other long-term residents, and from the person who told us about this place originally. But the location is good and the telephones are wonderful.
11/24 One advantage of this RV park is that it is a few miles from Camping World - just down the road in San Martin. Dave made the required pilgrimage, but came back with only a few odds and ends of supplies and repair items. They had a sale on the fancy TurboMaxx thermostatically controlled variable speed fan. I finally talked myself into getting one for the bedroom vent, and then found that they were out of stock and that we would be gone before one could be shipped in. Just as well - I saved $200.
11/25 Dave drove into Santa Clara to pick up Helen's niece Linda, intending to be there at 7:00 A.M., but 20 minutes late because of an accident-caused traffic jam on US 101. By the time we got back to Morgan Hill, got the trailer hooked up, and hit the road, it was 9 A.M. We still had hopes of getting through the Los Angeles traffic before rush hour and into our San Diego campground before dark, as we turned on to SR 152, the Pacheco Pass Highway. This is an interesting and scenic route across the low mountains into the central valley, where we joined Interstate 5 and started to rapidly chew up the southbound miles. It was a fast trip, for many hours.
For many miles, as we approached Lost Hills, northwest of Bakersfield, we watched a huge plume of smoke off to the west of the highway, speculating on what it was. As we got closer, we could see violently turbulent flames climbing high under the smoke. Dave decided it must be an oil well blowout, although there were no other signs of this being an oil field. Next day, we read about it in the newspapers. It turns out that it was indeed an exploratory well in a new area, drilling very deep (rumored to be at 18,000 feet at the time of the blowout.) The outflow is primarily natural gas, and is being viewed as good news - signaling a major new gas reserve, with perhaps some oil too. Boots & Coots (the Houston company founded by Red Adair) is on the scene, preparing to put out the fire and plug the well.
After this "entertainment", we ground our way up and over the long and windy Grapevine grade uneventfully and roared down the other side, grateful for the exhaust brake which held us between 55 and 60 mph for mile after mile of descent, with the torque converter locked in 3d gear, rarely touching the brakes. Shortly after that, we found ourselves in bumper-to-bumper stop-and-go driving. This was in mid-afternoon. So much for "beating the rush hour" - apparently it's always rush hour here. We made a guess that the San Diego Freeway would be the simplest route with the trailer, and might even be the least traffic. Perhaps it was the wrong guess - we'll never know. The traffic speeded up through the airport area, then bogged down again as we started out the southern side of the metropolis.
Eventually, somewhere approaching Camp Pendleton, things started moving again, and we made good time until near Oceanside, where I-5 almost became a parking lot and we again encountered stop-and-go driving, lasting until the Interstate 805 junction just north of San Diego. After this, driving across San Diego was quite fast and pleasant - strange that in both San Diego and Los Angeles the traffic was worst on the outer edges of the city, and much lighter through the central area. We pulled into the KOA in Chula Vista at 8 P.M. - 11 hours for what should have been an 8-hour trip.
This KOA is very pleasant - far enough from expressways to be tolerably quiet (by big-city standards), well managed, well maintained, with large grassy sites, paved parking pads and patios, and a lot of attention to little design details. It's perhaps the best KOA we've seen. If we discount the fact that it's not on the water, it is, to our taste, the nicest RV Park in the San Diego area. It's reasonably modem-friendly, with a phone plug on a dedicated line at a stand-up counter in the office.
We made the plans for Thanksgiving in San Diego with the expectation of a quiet restaurant meal with our niece Linda and son Dan. But by the time we got here, this had evolved into our participating in a big dinner at Marc and Kristen Huber's palatial hill-top home - 8 yuppies, two cats, a delightful 11-month old girl, plus two retired old fogies. Marc is an old school friend of Dan's, self-employed as a consultant in Artificial Intelligence. Everyone except Helen and I were 30-ish professionals, already successful (except an M.D. and his Ph.D.-candidate wife, who were nearing completion of their very long educational process). All were excited about their various professions - three computer scientists, two psychologists, a medical doctor, an educational therapist and an electronic communications specialist. Conversation was extremely varied and always interesting. Surprisingly, Helen and I rarely felt out-of-place and had a great time. In the small-world department, Marc and Kristen grew up in the same part of Michigan as Helen and I, while Linda and Jennifer both played solos in the same concert with a regional high school orchestra in New Jersey.
11/28 San Diego served up a day of almost the worst possible weather for this area - cool, heavy overcast, windy, with frequent, occasionally heavy, rain. We went out and enjoyed ourselves anyway, wandering around the Wild Animal Park in our raincoats. For Helen and me, it was our third visit there. But each time, we find things that we missed the previous time and we thoroughly enjoyed the place. Little things that caught our eye this time: a huge, bored, and ornery bull giraffe, harassing a small group of cape buffalo, apparently just for the fun of it; a continuous procession of leaf-cutter ants marching along a branch beside the path, each carrying a little white, red, or green flag back to the communal nest from a feeding tray of multi-colored leaves 50 feet away.
11/29 A lovely afternoon at the zoo. Yesterday's storm cleared the atmosphere to a deep sparkling blue. The temperature is around 60, but the bright sun makes it seem warmer. The zoo is infinitely varied, depending on which areas we choose to focus our attention (we couldn't possibly absorb it all in a day), and on which animals happen to be active and visible.
12/6 Not much to report, although we should mention a pair of good restaurants, which we visited with Dan and Linda. This was our third visit to Berta's Latin American Restaurant, in Old Town. The menu features specialties from many different Latin American countries. We were there twice with friends last February. The food is interesting and varied. Everything we've tried has been tasty, well-prepared, and well-presented. Prices are moderate. Seating is quite limited, so reservations are a good idea. We also ate across the street at Rockin' Baja Lobster - funky Mexican cantina décor, and surprisingly good food. They had a choice of Pacific lobster (no claws) and Maine lobster - both live in tanks and both reasonably priced, as well as quite a variety of other unusual Mexican dishes.
After enjoying her recordings for years, we finally got a chance to hear Julianne Baird sing live (her press release bills her as "America's most beloved soprano"). She appeared with the Aulos Ensemble (Baroque specialists, playing instruments from that period) at St. James-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in La Jolla. The program was mostly Christmas-related - English, French, Italian, and German instrumental and vocal music from the Baroque and late Renaissance periods. Ms. Baird was marvelous, as expected. The Aulos Ensemble, about which we knew nothing, was also superb - making a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
San Diego is unusually cold at the moment. One of the performers mentioned that when they left Anchorage that morning, the temperature was warmer than when they arrived in San Diego. (On the other hand, there was a foot of snow on the ground in Anchorage!) It was 44 deg. here when I got up this morning, and the high for the day is about 57 deg. There is a strong gusty wind from the northwest, and the Eucalyptus tree upwind of us is attacking us with a barrage of small twigs, shreds of bark, and seed pods, all booming resonantly when they hit our drum-like roof.
12/7 Attended another concert last night - the San Diego Choral Arts Ensemble. Big disappointment! They gave a creditable performance of the Vivaldi Gloria, with an excellent chamber orchestra, but fell apart in the a cappella portion of the program, with the typical symptoms of a group that was in over its head and knew it - tentative, insecure, ragged entrances and releases, frequent intonation problems dragging tempos, wooden interpretations. Oh well - the price of serendipity, I suppose.
Today, I finished rebuilding the brakes on both trailer axles. I started out Friday morning to replace the wheel bearing on the street side of the rear axle and also to do a quick bearing repack for the other wheels - perhaps a 2 hour job. I discovered the electromagnet on the rear street side was excessively worn and the brake shoe on that wheel was worn almost to the danger point. So I bought new brake shoes, magnets, and grease seals, for all four wheels and new bearings for both rear wheels. The parts didn't arrive until mid-day, and I ran out of daylight before completing the rear axle. I finished the rear axle Saturday morning, but when I pulled the front axle brake drums (I could only do one axle at a time), I found the street-side magnet had badly scored the armature, so that the drum would need machining or replacing. So the job went on hold until Monday.
Monday morning, the RV repair shop thought scoring was probably too deep to machine, so I ordered new drums, getting them in late morning. It took all afternoon to get everything put back together and adjusted. So the 2-hour job ended up taking the better part of three days. Anyway, we now have essentially new trailer brakes all the way around. The total cost was near $500 - just for parts plus a $10 labor charge for pressing the new bearing races into the drums. I wonder what it would have cost to have the shop do the whole job?
12/8 We're finally preparing to leave San Diego. Today was spent shopping, doing odd jobs around the trailer, and reorganizing the entropic drift that results from sitting on one place for two weeks. In the morning, we'll head out into the southern California desert for a week or so.