Chapter 65 - San Diego
February 10, 2000
12/20/00 Helen and I will be spending our first Christmas apart in 40 years. Helen is in Newark Delaware, visiting our daughter, Leata. I'll be in San Diego, California with our son, Dan. Helen and Leata will fly to San Diego, and we'll all be together for a week starting Dec. 30.
I'm writing this from Pismo State Beach, on the way from San Francisco to San Diego. It's my first trip with the trailer all by myself. Hooking up and leaving without help was kind of a weird experience - I kept forgetting to do things that Helen usually does. Not having a navigator while on the road and while maneuvering into and out of campsites also makes it quite a different experience. Fred (the voice of Street Atlas) is doing his best to fill in for Helen, but he isn't nearly as good, and he can't watch for the tree I'm about to back into <g>.
Highway 101 from San Jose to Pismo Beach is surprisingly attractive. I don't think I've ever driven it before. It goes through the edge of the coastal mountains for most of the way, threading along pretty agricultural valleys with low mountains, often dotted with live oaks, visible on both sides.
I've found another glitch in the new Street Atlas (Release 8). The program refuses to plot a route to the campground I've selected for tomorrow night. It computes for a long time and then just gives up. It appears to be a problem with the one-way labeling of segments of complicated expressway on and off ramps (which is a new feature in this version, so errors are not surprising). I'll write it up and EMail it off to DeLorme, along with three other problems I've found in the past few weeks. The problems that I reported in the last version have all been fixed in this version, so at least they do fix problems when they are found.
I arrived at the park at 4:30, and rushed to get in a walk before dark. The park is bounded by the dunes along the beach on one side and by a long narrow lagoon on the inland side. A nature trail runs along the edge of the lagoon, then connects with a trail across the dunes to the beach. Poppies and lupines are in bloom among the sand dunes - it seems like the wrong season for them. The park has a nice stand of large Monterey Pine, planted in 1934 when the state acquired the property. I did the whole loop - north along the lagoon, through the dunes, and back south along the beach. By the time I got back to the trailer at 5:30 p.m. it was very dark. Today is the winter solstice, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. But after a summer in Alaska with 20 hours of daylight, these very short days take some getting used to.
12/21 It was 38 degrees when I woke up this morning, and I'm only a few hundred yards from the ocean on Pismo Beach. Today's drive continued along 101 with similar terrain to yesterday, still with heavy fog banks along the coast. I stopped at Golden Shores RV Resort in Long Beach, across the channel from the Queen Mary. Nice park - pleasantly landscaped, large enough sites.
12/22 Still cold, still a heavy bank of fog in the morning. I decided to go to Jojoba Hills. The first hour on Interstate 710 and SR 91 across the Los Angeles Megalopolis was 50 solid miles of continuous urban population. Traffic was dense but generally kept moving fast. Eventually, after turning south on Interstate 15, the city ended and I began driving through desert with occasional irrigated farmland in the valleys.
Jojoba Hills SKP Resort is in high desert (about 2000 feet elevation), 17 miles east of Temecula. It's a pleasant 145 acre park with 280 large (50' x 70'') sites on rolling terrain, generally separated by landscaped common areas. The landscaping is modest - minimal irrigation only slightly modifying the desert environment to allow drought-tolerant trees, shrubs, and ground cover. Many of the sites have a nice view of Palomar Mountain to the south and down a long valley to the west.
It seems like it's the first time I've been warm in months - I put on shorts and basked in warm air and intense sunshine (only 68 degrees in the shade - but the clear atmosphere and strong sunshine made it seem warmer). It would have been too hot in the sun except that a pleasant west wind kept things comfortable.
12/23 Hitched up and headed for San Diego this morning, over familiar roads. By San Diego standards, the traffic was quite light. I was set up in a campsite at Campland on the Bay by 11 AM, after waiting a while. The previous occupant discovered his motorhome battery was dead when he was ready to leave, and it took a while for him to move his car around to the engine end of the motorhome and hook up jumper cables (tricky - he had driven the motorhome into the site frontwards).
12/24 Rearended again! This time Helen was driving Leata's car in Newark, Delaware, and was hit from behind while stopped at a traffic light. No one was injured, and the by now routine exchange of information went smoothly, but these incidents are making Helen jumpy about traffic. The car will need body work. Maybe it can be done the week we are in California.
12/25 I cooked Christmas dinner for Dan and me - baked ham. We sat around eating and talking for several hours.
Leata and Helen baked a 10-lb turkey that Leata got as a work bonus. Working in a full-size kitchen was a real luxury for Helen who enjoyed it with lots of cooking and baking while she was there. Leata's freezer is now full of home-cooked stuff stored in individual meal-sized packages.
12/26 Dave finally got to feel a California earthquake. The magnitude was only 3.9, but the epicenter was only a few miles away - just off Mission Beach. I was sitting quietly in trailer at the time, and my initial reaction was that someone outside was gently but rhythmically pushing on the side of the trailer. I got up and looked outside before realizing it was an earthquake.
12/27 Looked up dentists in Phone Search. Visited the office of one who is in Pacific Beach, fairly close to the campground. I liked the looks of the place and liked the answers I got from the receptionist. An appointment was available next week, so I signed up, and also made an appointment for Helen the following week.
Drove through some Pacific Beach neighborhoods, looking at houses. Saw three for sale, and called the realtor about one which looked interesting - up on the slopes in North Pacific Beach.
A big flock of Cedar Waxwings is perched in the top of a tree near the trailer - approximately 40 birds.
12/30 Dave picked up Helen and Leata at the airport this morning. Their redeye flight from Baltimore was uneventful in spite of dire forecasts about "the storm of the decade" descending on the Northeast. The storm moved a bit slower than predicted, and they got out just ahead of it. Fortunately, their flight was south, through Atlanta. By dawn over Louisiana, the landscape below was beautifully lit. Helen wished for a GPS indicator on a map to tell her what landforms she was seeing from the air.
Helen and Leata drove out Point Loma to Cabrillo National Monument. The tide wasn't right for good tide-pooling. A fog bank changed the day from full bright sun to dense dark fog in less than five minutes as we stood on shore.
12/31 Leata, Helen, and Dave wandered around Seaport Village - a large collection of boutiques and restaurants on the San Diego Waterfront. Bought a hat and souvenir T-shirt. Then back to Berta's for another good meal.
1/1/2001 Picked up Dan and the four of us drove to Los Angeles where we had reservations at the Hollywood Econolodge. The motel is old but neat and clean and surprisingly inexpensive, and located conveniently at the center of our planned sightseeing.
On the way, we stopped at Mission San Juan Capistrano. This mission functions as a historical museum, and has many artifacts and explanatory material which present an excellent picture of life in an early California Mission community. A small church has been beautifully restored and is in regular use. A huge stone and adobe church was destroyed by an earthquake soon after its construction in the mid-1800's, and will never be restored - it remains as a "magnificent ruin". Other outbuildings have been restored and furnished with period artifacts.
Most of the afternoon was occupied by a tour of Universal Studios. When we first went in the noise was horrible - building sized TV screens blaring some football game. But further back after the boutiques and fast food gauntlet, things quieted down for the Studio Tour, a bus tour through some huge warehouse type buildings and then through some charming outdoor sets.
The bus drove right into the warehouse and after the doors closed the lights went out, the earth began to shake and floods and fires began. This studio was used for some movie about a major disaster in a big city, and we were driving the subway line. A plane crashed setting off huge sparks, a car fell through a crack in the street above, setting off an enormous deluge; and an oncoming subway train sideswiped us -- all realistic enough to increase our heart rates and cause us to flinch in our seats.
It was a relief to leave that studio and drive through the serene back lot, a movie set of residential houses (Leave It To Beaver or was it Father Knows Best House and others), Olde-England-style streets (for Agatha Christie Movies?), a lagoon with a shark fin moving about (Jaws?) the Wild West with wooden sidewalks, Sheriffs offices, saloons and trick wooden bridges that fell down and righted themselves after the scene was over, the Bates Motel, and middle-America Courthouse Square (Back-to The Future).
This back lot was very strange, almost eerie, however. There was no current filming going on and the buildings were quietly waiting for whatever movie came along that might need them. All the usual stuff of living was missing -- no street signs, no mailboxes, no toys on the lawns or cars in the driveways or on the streets, empty store fronts, no advertising signs, no newspaper vending machines cluttering sidewalks, no power lines, no blowing trash, no people walking about, an immaculate modern-day ghost town.
On the way out we detoured to the rides, and enjoyed the Jurassic Park water-ride - several times. The Terminator 3D movie also was very interesting, with 3D effects so realistic we ducked when fragments of bone flew toward us. Spurts of mist (water) on the audience was coordinated visually with blood droplets squirting on us from dying aliens (Gross!), and also specific odors wafted through the audience coordinated with the film action.
1/2 Today, we all visited the La Brea Tar Pits and the adjacent Page Museum which houses La Brea discoveries. We've previously described both (click for earlier description).
After lunch in the Farmer's Market, we toured the Museum of Tolerance. This is a weird place - stretching the definition of "museum". It uses a series of clever filmed skits and multiple-choice electronic questionnaires to educate about fundamental issues of racial and ethnic tolerance. This is integrated with the Holocaust Museum, which presents a carefully programmed historical account of the Holocaust and the events which led up to it. Both halves of the museum carefully control the pace of the visitors, moving small groups along a pre-defined path through small rooms, with the duration of the stay in each room dictated by doors which are automatically locked and unlocked at pre-set times. It takes a minimum of about two hours to get through the presentations, with no way to hurry. A few additional exhibit areas are not part of this programmed sequence and can be visited on one's own schedule (adding to the total time, of course).
A saunter down the sidewalks of El Pueblo in downtown LA gave us a chance to buy trinkets and see colorful "olde Mexican crafts". In the evening, we had an excellent dinner at the Gardens of Taxco in Hollywood. This is an unusual Mexican restaurant, which tries to offer a meal in the manner that it might be served to guests in an upper-class home in Mexico City. There is no printed menu for the full multi-course meal. Each guest can choose among about a dozen main course items, but there are no other choices (except for drinks). The food is very good, and may change your whole attitude about Mexican cuisine (there's not a burrito or enchilada to be found). Helen and I both had a very good chicken mole poblano. The kids ordered other things that were also very good.
1/3 The entire day was spent at Disneyland. I suppose everyone has to do it once, but at the end of the day, I think we all felt that once was enough, and that we will only return if we have young children to bring. The ride we most enjoyed was based on Indiana Jones films.
We saw a gentle 3D film called Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. In one scene, the shrinking machine was also a replicator which accidentally replicated a pet white mouse. When the power went out, hundreds of the mice fled into the audience. At the same time, tiny ropes whipped gently about under our seats, hitting the backs of our legs, simulating the tails of all these mice on the loose. Delightful squeals of fun. (I'm well into my second childhood, I see.)
1/4 The kids enjoyed walking the sidewalks in the blocks near the corner of Hollywood and Vine Streets, looking at the hundreds of names of entertainment people in the stars on the sidewalk. A scenic drive from downtown Beverly Hills across Sunset Blvd and north on Summit Drive to Mulholland Drive let us see more expensive, housing than we ever need to see again. Nice views from the hilltops, though.
The NBC studio tour was disappointing in that it focussed on the superficial - the sets where various programs are created, the parking lot where various television personalities kept their cars (I leaned on the fender of Jay Leno's Jaguar XK120), the costumes and wigs used by various famous people, etc. We saw and heard nothing of the program editing process or the electronic wizardry which enables the actual preparation and distribution the programming.
A couple of days ago, we had obtained tickets to be part of the studio audience at CBS for the Late Late Show. We had arrived well in advance of the announced time, but were still too late - they issue quite a few more tickets than there are seats, and we didn't get in. But as a consolation prize, we got a special pass which "guaranteed" that we would get in next time we showed up. So we went again this afternoon, showing up at 4:15 PM for a taping that was scheduled to run from 5:30 PM to about 7:30 PM.
This was a fascinating experience. The audience of about 90 people, in a surprisingly small studio (much smaller than the set for the Tonight Show, which is much more expansive and seats over 300), was carefully prepared and coached in advance by a comedian whose entire job is to brainwash the audience into exactly the right state of mind so that they will respond as desired during the actual program taping. It worked! Even Dave got into the spirit of the moment and, along with the rest of the audience, became one of a cast of actors, acting out a carefully prepared script, applauding wildly and instantly at each joke, without taking the time to think about whether it was funny. In fact, Dave got so good at instant enthusiasm for jokes that he didn't understand and probably weren't funny anyway that he was singled out by the warm-up comedian and awarded a souvenir coffee mug - one of two incentive awards presented to audience members.
The program was taped somewhat out of order from what would go on the air later. A guest band came on first and taped one song, which would appear late in the program, then this portion of the set was cleared out and re-arranged. Host Craig Kilbourne went through his prepared monologue. Guest Dick Clark came on and went through his semi-choreographed conversation with the host. Clark then came back and taped an introduction for the band while sitting in the middle of the audience. Kilbourne then prepared a couple of promos for future shows and for Clark's American Music Awards show which airs next week. These short promos were the only time that there were multiple re-takes, as Kilbourne tried various experiments with pacing and emphasis of the presentation.
Through it all, three cameras, one on a very long telescoping boom, danced around in the space between audience and stage set, continuously moving to change angles, sometimes pointing at the action on the set, and occasionally turning to focus on a portion of the audience.
Immediately after the show, we bought some quick food to eat in the car and then got on the road to drive back to San Diego. Traffic moved surprisingly smoothly, and we were back in a little over two hours. We dropped Dan at his apartment, and he set his VCR to record the program in which we just participated. The rest of us headed back to the trailer and crashed, very tired after a hectic four days.
1/5 Dave went to the dentist while Helen and Leata went to Balboa Park, spending most of their time in the Spanish Village Art Center watching artisans create pots, weavings, watercolors, jewelry, etc., and attending an IMAX film at the planetarium. In the evening, we picked up a pizza and went to Dan's to watch the tape of ourselves performing in the Late Late Show from last night. None of us were visible, except for a brief view of the back of Dave's head. It was very interesting to see the final result of the taping, and to relax and view it critically from the viewpoint of a real audience - quite different from being in the studio audience, who must think of themselves as actors in the show. (Viewed objectively, it's a pretty bad show - and we now remember why we've never watched these shows even on the rare occasions when we happened to be awake that late.)
1/6 We thoroughly enjoyed an afternoon at Seaworld, which none of us had previously visited. It's a very well-designed and well-run place. Both the animals and the trainers seemed to be having fun. The bird show featured many large predators in free flight. Two varieties of hawk were released from a balloon high in the air, and dove down to the stage at high speed. Scarlet Ibis flew in from somewhere and circled close above the audience. Vultures flew in for a meal, huge and graceful in flight, but comically clumsy when walking on the ground. The incredibly well-trained Orcas are probably the most popular feature, but the other shows were all of high quality. We regretted not having more time (the park closes at 5 PM during this slow season).
A moonlight walk along the waterfront in Pacific Beach north of the pier let us enjoy the waves on Leata's last night with us. Some stars and planets were visible.
Leata headed home on a redeye flight leaving at 10:20 PM. We were concerned about her getting back, since she was flying Delta, which had been canceling many flights because of the ongoing labor dispute with its pilots. But her flight left on time.
1/7 Moved the trailer to yet another campsite in the same park. Since we made our reservations fairly late and the long-term portion of the campground is essentially full, we were in six different campsites during our 6 1/2 weeks here.
The long-term residents are grouped in specific sections of the park. Staying in the long-term ghetto is an interesting experience - quite different than our usual camping among short-term vacationers. Our neighbors span a wide cross-section of backgrounds and lifestyles. Most of the people around us are essentially permanent residents, many with full-time jobs in the area and quite a few with children attending local schools. Some are retired or otherwise unemployed and seem to be surviving on very low incomes. Others are quite affluent, with big, fairly new, rigs and high-paying jobs. Many of the sites are cluttered with the paraphernalia of living - all the usual outdoor stuff plus overflow from a too-small RV. It's hard to complain about this - I'm sure our own site would soon look the same way if we were to settle in one place for six months.
The area tends to be noisy. Most of our neighbors have been here long enough to know each other, and they socialize - usually outdoors and often loudly. Several have outdoor television sets under their patio awning, and keep the volume cranked up. They also spread out informally into each other's sites, sharing the limited space. In both our current and previous sites, I had to help neighbors move their things in order to have room to get our long trailer into the sites (which had previously been occupied by smaller rigs). Instant phones are available, and are keyed to specific sites, so we're occasionally getting calls for the previous occupants of our site.
One of our neighbors at the site we just left is a Dish Network dealer and installer, and I took the opportunity to discuss the Starband two-way satellite Internet system with him. He said that setup and alignment of the antenna (which is larger than a TV-only dish and has to simultaneously view three satellites) didn't seem any harder than with a standard television dish. He also said that supply is still very limited, and that he's been waiting a long time for the unit he's ordered for his RV. He also said that after setting up the system at a new site and calling Starband for the new parameters, it may take a couple of hours to be activated -a nuisance for those who are traveling frequently. Starband officially discourages RV usage, but seems to be tolerating the handful of people who are doing it anyway.
Another neighbor - a single 60-ish man living in a small travel trailer - owns a house in San Diego, but rents it out. Given the low monthly rate at this RV Park, I suspect his income from the house is enough for him to live on quite comfortably.
1/8 Helen has a series of routine doctor's appointments set up today and tomorrow, with follow-up visits likely over the next couple of weeks. We both have appointments with an eye doctor, in about two weeks, and then will have to wait at least a week after that for our new glasses to be manufactured.
1/12 This evening, we went to St. James by-the-Sea Church in La Jolla for an excellent concert by the Concord Ensemble, a 6-man a cappella ensemble of whom we were previously unaware. The entire program was from the Spanish Renaissance. Nearly all of the pieces performed were unfamiliar to us, although some were by familiar composers.
1/14 We finally were able to get together with RVers Judie and Gary Ashford, after trying to arrange something via Email for about the past year. We spent the day talking while wandering the San Diego Zoo together, then went to Berta's Latin American Restaurant (which we've mentioned several times in the past) for another wonderful meal.
Sitting in our parked truck at the Zoo, with our motor off, we were jarred from behind! This time by a recent model van with California plates. Two women and a bunch of kids got out and proceeded to talk to us, except that they couldn't speak a word of English and we don't speak Spanish. One produced her drivers license, Mexican, expired 1998! Eventually someone showed up who could speak both Spanish and English and told us the woman just wanted to pay us cash for the damage. By then we had a chance to see that there wasn't much damage, just one more small scuff in a field of bigger ones already there, so we didn't ask for anything. But that makes four times we have been hit from behind in four years.
1/16 Dave spent most of the day installing new side mirrors on the truck. The original power mirror on the driver's side was wearing out, and folded in against the side of the truck all by itself at highway speeds when hit by headwinds or the wind from a passing truck. The new Power Vision product has a larger mirror surface than the originals, has the normal power adjustment, but also can be moved in and out about six inches with the touch of a switch, extending far out when towing, and retracting when not towing. They are wonderful.
1/18 We spent the evening at the Charthouse restaurant with Dan, at his suggestion. It's in Cardiff - half an hour's drive up the coast. It's right at the edge of the surf, and the restaurant floor is stepped up in several levels so that every table has a good view out the huge wall of glass facing the ocean. We arrived just before sunset, and sat at our table enjoying the brilliant colors of the sunset and the antics of a large number of surfers. The food is good but unimaginative (standard steak, prime rib, and seafood) and seriously overpriced. The wine list was mediocre and overpriced. It was a very enjoyable evening, once we realized that about 30% of our bill was for the privilege of watching the scenery.
1/22 Chuck Parfumorse, a neighbor in this section of the RV Park, came over last week and introduced himself. He's getting started in the business of RV fiberglass repair, and offered to fix the cracked fiberglass on the front of our trailer. I've successfully kept it patched with duct tape for the past couple of years, but it does look kind of tacky. He took me for a walk through the RV Park, showing me several repair jobs he had done recently. The work looked beautiful. I'd intended (eventually) do to the repair myself, but he quoted me a price so low that I couldn't turn it down. He finished the job this evening, and it looks beautiful - it will be invisible once it's painted. (He doesn't do painting, so I'll do that myself). I've done some fiberglass work myself, know the techniques, and kept an eye on his methods and materials. He did better than I could have, and repaired it to be far stronger than the original material.
1/30 Helen spent the afternoon at the San Diego Art Museum in Balboa Park.
2/8 Helen and Dave spent the afternoon in Balboa Park. Helen went to the Museum of Man, enjoying a display of Central American stele. Dave went to the Activities Center - a spectacular new gymnasium - to watch part of the competitions for the selection of the U.S.A. National Table Tennis Team - round-robin tournaments among 16 men and 16 women, each with the 8 top-ranked players in the country seeded and another 8 players selected from open competition the previous day.
Dave has gone to this same gym several evenings to play in informal competition with the San Diego Table Tennis Association. Amazingly, the City of San Diego makes this wonderful facility available free to be shared by this club and the Badminton Club several nights a week and all day Saturday.
In the evening, we went with Dan to Itri Cucina Italian Restaurant, downtown in the gaslamp district. This place offers an unusual menu of Italian regional specialties, many unfamiliar to us. Helen and I both enjoyed veal saltimbocca a la Romana - veal topped with prosciutto and cheese. Saltimbocca is prepared in many different ways, with the veal and prosciutto seemingly the only common ingredients. Tonight's simple, delicate, preparation was very good, but was quite different than the spicy version we'd hoped for - simmered in wine sauce with kalmata olives, served over a bed of escarole. Dan enjoyed manicotti.
2/10 After several rounds of visiting doctors, dentists and opticians, we're almost done. There's one more appointment on the 20th, but we're getting hitch itch, and have decided to head out to the desert today, returning to San Diego in time for that appointment (which hopefully will be the last).