Southern California

In February we took a trip down to Southern California. We went to Bakersfield and over through Tahachipi. Fred knows all the back roads and little used roads from his trucking days.

Going through the desert and observing the landscape quiets the mind like no other scenery.

This field of white boulders was amazing. I'm sure somebody has the geological explanation for how they came to be in this area, but that doesn't negate the wonder.

Joshua Trees—I kept seeing them in abundance, and when I finally decided I should take a picture, there were only a smattering left along the road.

(If you want to see wonderful pictures of the desert in all its seasons, visit this site I found while trying to locate cactus names: http://www.wildnatureimages.com/anza-borrego_photos.htm)

We went to Escondido to attend a live taping of Wayne Dyer’s lecture Excuses Begone (currently being broadcast on PBS).

While visiting San Diego, we ate crab sandwiches at one of our favorite places on the wharf under the watchful eyes of some scavenger gulls.
I love visiting Old Town while in San Diego. An excerpt from the San Diego Chamber of Commerce:

Old Town San Diego is considered the "birthplace" of California. San Diego is the site of the first permanent Spanish settlement in California. It was here in 1769, that Father Junipero Serra came to establish the very first mission in a chain of 21 missions that were to be the cornerstone of California’s colonization. Father Serra’s mission and Presidio were built on a hillside overlooking what is currently known as Old Town San Diego. At the base of the hill in 1820’s, a small Mexican community of adobe buildings was formed and by 1835 had attained the status of El Pueblo de San Diego. In 1846, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant and a Marine Lieutenant, raised the American flag in the Old Town San Diego Plaza.

Historic buildings include La Casa de Estudillo.

La Casa de Estudillo has been kept totally intact as it was in the 1800s when it was a private residence-

from the herb garden,

to the outdoor oven where they baked bread

and the furnishings in all the rooms.

It’s quite a treat if you like history and want to get a feel of what it was like to live back then.

I am always amazed at just how much we have grown in a little over 100 years. Everything was so downsized back then.

Before the drive home, we swung by the ocean one more time and came across this old surfer dude. He was up there in years (way up there). He’d had a stroke, leaving him with limited use of one arm and limping, but by gum he was goin’ surfin’. Now that is determination.

It was the perfect footnote to Wayne Dyer’s lecture, Excuses Begone; there's little you can’t do if you get your mind in the right place and this ole geezer exemplified that.

So, what is it you think you can't do?

Surfer Dude

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