Tan Your Hide in Oceanside

Good afternoon, my friends! Or maybe I should say, good evening. We're nearing dinner time here at the Traveling Three Cats Ranch. Before I forget, I wanted to tell you the Starlink unit is set to be delivered Monday. Yay! (I know y'all have been waiting on tenterhooks for that announcement. You can rest easy now.)

So here's how we spent our day. We had lunch at the Oceanside Broiler in the Oceanside Harbor. This was the view from our table.

After lunch, we headed to the Oceanside Pier. This is something of a pilgrimage for Mike and me. We spent so many summers here or near here. The pier was half destroyed in a storm in the mid-70's and then rebuilt better than ever in 1987.

We were with our friends Tom and Deb, and we walked out to the end of the pier and back.

Of course, we need to review the rules before we walk out there. First of all, you'll need to pick up your skateboard here.

Keep track of your fishing line please.

And for goodness sake, put those gaffing hooks away.

As we started walking, some birds were loudly yapping at us. Looking overhead, this was the guy doing all the yelling. It's a grackle. They have a call like a myna bird.

He might have been telling us to ignore this sign.

Looking north, it looked like this:

Looking south, it looked like this. There were surfers in the water. I want you to notice the surfer on the left of the image.

He was on a regular surfboard, but his feet were strapped to the board. He used a paddle to maneuver himself through the waves. We determined that he was a paraplegic surfer. Indeed, Deb and Tom told us they have events here for disabled surfers. Nice.

Looking north, the military was in attendance.

It looks like a Navy battleship out there.

We saw them flying overhead as well. 

 

I wasn't able to get a picture, but we'd also seen an Osprey flying overhead as we drove to Oceanside. I found this image online. They can take off and land vertically without the need for a runway.

(image credit: https://images.app.goo.gl/Qy6qxGmZC7Lte8FY7)

After walking out and back, we all paused for pictures. This is Deb and me.

This is Deb and Tom. 

And here are Mike and me. Do you think it was windy?

It's something of a joke among us that Tom is "Gelato Boy." The man must sample every ice cream that comes within 50 yards of him. We stopped at an ice cream stand and we each got a small scoop.

Nearby was the house you might have seen in the movie Top Gun. (I've never actually seen the movie, but this is the "Top Gun House.")

Parked out front...

this replica of the motorcycle from the movie.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this sign that was posted on one of the posts lining the sidewalk. Oceanside is a town built on tourism. You can read about its history right here. "Tan Your Hide in Oceanside" was a marketing slogan in 1960.

As we sat eating our ice cream, I snapped this image of the pier.

The weather was a little cloudy and cool. As we sat, we noticed the clouds burning off. The clouds were moving south. Here's how it looked toward the south.

Looking north...clear blue sky.

And here's our friend again, telling us to ignore the sign. It doesn't apply to him.

I couldn't resist taking pictures of every blooming thing.

These were in the parking lot at the Oceanside Broiler.

These daisies were lining the freeway ramps. Sorry about the blur.

Back at the Traveling Three Cats Ranch, these two were waiting for their treat and greets to be dispensed.

And here's a little update on my recipe test from yesterday. The last step after it was refrigerated for the bare minimum of 12 hours, it was dusted with cocoa powder.

I'm curious to see how this will be after it's had more time in the refrigerator. It was a little soft, and I couldn't really keep a tidy slice as I got it out of the dish. If you'll recall, the "pudding" was layered over ginger snaps. The ginger snaps had completely dissolved, and it tasted very much like a gingerbread pudding. And it was "gorpy" as I suspected, but it didn't ick us out too badly. I don't know if it's something I'd make again, but it tastes good enough to finish it off. And I'll report back when we try it next time to let you know whether it will solidify more when it's given more time.

We picked up more avocados after our visit with Debi and Jim yesterday. This is one of our favorite ways to enjoy avocados. They're chunked up and then mixed with canned grapefruit segments, and then dressed with something like French, or Catalina (in this case), or Russian dressing. When Mike's dad was alive and shipping boxes of avocados to us fairly regularly, I used to make this for myself to take to work for my lunch. So yummy, and the grapefruit keeps the avocado from turning brown.

Finally...Happy Pi Day, everybody!! This morning, I baked a sweet cherry pie for two. These are cherries from our own trees. We'll have that for tonight's dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

With all these desserts, my diet is taking a hit this week. I just figure that's life. I'll get more disciplined after we move on to our next destination.

Okay, it's time to get going on dinner. We're having a steak salad tonight. Mike will grill the steak, but I still need to make the salad. On tomorrow's agenda, we're heading out to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park where the desert wildflowers are blooming. With all the rain California received this year, the wildflowers should be spectacular. Get ready for every blooming thing.