Oceanside, California

Good morning, my friends. It's another beautiful day here in Escondido. We're meeting up with some friends for lunch in a couple of hours. Aside from that, there's not much going on today. As for yesterday's wanderings, I took the first stitches on the smaller embroidered section for Block 11 of Raggedy & Friends.

We were meeting up with friends for lunch at the Oceanside Broiler near Oceanside Harbor, and then we were going to walk on the Oceanside Pier. When we left the kitties, they were clearly distraught about being left alone for a few hours. Sadie was snoring on her window hammock. (Don't mention the snoring, though. You'll embarrass her.)

Smitty was crashed on the couch, having already cried his eyes out.

I didn't take any pictures of the harbor yesterday, but here's one I took during a previous visit. It was cloudy on the day I took this picture, but the weather was perfect yesterday. We were out in short sleeves. (I actually wore shorts a couple of days ago.)

After lunch, we headed over to the Oceanside Pier for a little walk around.

We were in the process of taking a selfie...

When a woman offered to take our picture with my camera.

Our friends on the left, Tom and Deb, and I were all in our high school band together. Deb and I played clarinet (I played alto clarinet), and Tom played the saxophone.

Okay, so let's go for a walk, shall we? Please obey the rules.

Don't embarrass me now.

If you're riding your skateboard, please pick it up and carry it from here.

It's a beautiful and long coastline here in Oceanside. Looking north toward Los Angeles, it looks like this:

Looking south toward San Diego, it looks like this. That road you see on the left side of the image is known as "The Strand."

It was a good day for surfing

When we're here, I always take a picture of the Roberts Cottages below. You can read about the history of this Oceanside landmark right here. When I see them, I renew my commitment to make a quilt of them some day. 

I haven't yet taken a picture of them that I really like for rendering them into fabric. On the other hand, when I looked for that link about the history, I found lots of images online. One of those might do for my quilt.

Looking in the other direction, there were boats offshore.

We walked to the end of the pier. Since our last visit, the restaurant that was here burned down, damaging the end of the pier. It's now fenced off to prevent folks from walking out there. We know of no plans for rebuilding, but I expect the pier will be repaired eventually, even if the restaurant is not rebuilt.

As we were leaving the pier, these musicians were setting up for some entertainment.

We walked south on The Strand. We were on the hunt for the house you see below. 

If you've ever watched the program "Animal Kingdom" on TV, this is the house that Baz lived in on the show. We enjoyed the show because it was mostly filmed right here in Oceanside, and it's always fun seeing places you recognize on television. (And if you haven't watched "Animal Kingdom," it's a good show. Some violence, but an interesting story and engaging characters.)  We tried to locate Deran's bar (also on the show), but couldn't find it.

Turning directly around from the house above, we could see the length of the pier...a little shorter now with the loss of the restaurant.

Walking along, I took a few shots of the landscaping. I'm not sure what these are. They look like huge rosehips, but this is not a rose plant. The "berries" are about the size of a cherry tomato.

Also, this...it kind of looks like a double daffodil to me.

Okay, and we headed for home mid-afternoon. We got into some terrible traffic, making our drive longer. We tried looking for some wheatgrass for the kitties, but couldn't find it at the two stores we visited. We'll try again today. 

As for today, lunch with these same friends, as I mentioned earlier, and then probably home to relax for the rest of the afternoon. (I can't rule out a visit to a quilt shop.) The good weather is expected to continue into next week. We still have two weeks here in Escondido, and we still have some items to check-off on our to-do list. Also, we're hoping to get over to see our recently-hospitalized friend the weekend. She's home from the hospital now, and slowing feeling good enough to meet up again.

So that's all I have for you today. I'm going to get busy with my slow-stitching next. Have a good day, Everybody!