Temecula, California

Good morning, my friends. The day got off to an exciting start yesterday. Finally, finally, finally, we got some action at our seed feeder when several house finches showed up to our table.

They would like to have driven the kitties absolutely INSANE!

So, we left them with birds entertaining them, and headed out for our planned excursion to Temecula.

As you can see from the sign above, Temecula was established in 1859. During the mid-1800s, the Butterfield Overland Mail company contracted with the federal government to deliver mail and goods. Temecula was one of the stops along the Butterfield Stage route which followed the Southern Emigrant Trail. The Butterfield Overland Trail is now a National Historic Trail. You can see the route at that link I've given you. The first stage, eastbound from San Francisco, stopped for a change of horses at Temecula probably during the night of September 18, 1858. 

We found parking in a free public lot with no problems. On a wall facing us was a huge mural that looked very realistic. We both looked twice at it. It appeared three dimensional. To the left was shown this steam locomotive.

In the middle, this train stop.

And then, looking the rest of the length to the right, a depiction of what the area might have looked like at the time.

The main drag through town is Old US 395. Old Highway 395 refers to the original path of U.S. Route 395, a historic north-south corridor known as the "Three Flags Highway," linking Mexico to Canada. Since we left the area in 1975, segments have been replaced by I-15 and California SR 163. Those areas are now marked as "Historic Route 395," showcasing parts of the old alignment through scenic, less populated areas. Temecula likes to call this the "historic" downtown area, but we can tell you that these are modern structures, built to look old. Looking south, it looks like this:

It's a busy road, and hard to get very good pictures. This is the view looking to the north.

We had three reasons for stopping: First and foremost...fudge. And there's the fudge place right across the street! We'll come back for that. Keep walking, my friends. The time is nigh.

Second, we just wanted to get some exercise by walking up and down the main drag and snooping some of the shops. Third, I was on the hunt for a shot glass. (I already have a refrigerator magnet from Temecula.)

We passed by a restaurant where we'd eaten on previous visits. It was lunch time by then, and so we stopped in for some lunch. Outside, this "medallion" was inlaid into the sidewalk. It was a little larger than a manhole cover.

Mike selected the Double Prime Smash Burger.

It came with the name of the restaurant, 1909, branded into the brioche bun.

I chose the Sun-dried Tomato Portobello Burger. I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm often choosing the vegetarian option on the menu.

It was one of those sandwiches that disassembles itself as soon as you pick it up. It tasted good, but it was messy.

After lunch, we went on the hunt for a shot glass and some fudge. Approaching the fudge place...what?!? Chocolate Covered Bacon? Really? Well, if that doesn't get you through the door, maybe the fudge will.

Like so many fudge shops, if we chose five pieces, we got the sixth one for free. I can't actually remember what we selected.

The piece in the upper left is orange cream. In the lower right is raspberry chocolate. There was also a Vanilla Butterfinger piece and a Toffee Heath piece. I believe the one in the upper right is Maple Pecan, and I can't remember the last one. When we got back to the RV, we had our afternoon cups of espresso and selected one piece, cutting it into fourths for sharing. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Also, I found a shot glass. This one simply has the outline of the state of California on it. I wanted one that said Temecula, but those were all square-shaped. And I'm snooty about my shot glasses. I only choose the ones shaped like this one. (I use egg cartons for a non-breakable storage option. The round ones are the only ones that fit.

And that was our day in Temecula. We headed back to the RV and took naps. 

After that we relaxed for the rest of the day. I finished off the 20th of 21 embroidered sections for the Raggedy & Friends project. I'll start on the final one today. 

It rained a little last night. There's no rain in today's forecast, however. We talked a little about whether we want to continue with our to-do list of hikes and attractions, or whether we wanted a day off. We opted to stay at the RV today. I'm going to do some sewing. Mike has some things to work on, and he'll probably ride his bike. 

As for sewing, in a previous post, I said I was going to work on the remaining blocks for the Gumballs project. Instead, I'm going to start sewing together the blocks for the Raggedy project. I'm far enough along with the embroidered sections that I can probably have the last one finished before I'm ready to sew the last block together.

So a day of rest is sounding good about now. We have another week here in Escondido before we move along to Boulder City, Nevada. There are still two hikes and a visit to a botanical garden on our list. I suggest y'all rest up too. We'll have time for at least one of those next week, and so you'll want to be ready to go when the day comes.

Friends and Wine

Good morning, my friends. The weather took a little turn yesterday. It was cloudy much of the day, but there was no rain. Definitely the temperature dropped a couple of degrees. Nevertheless, we had a very nice afternoon with our friends, Debi and Jim. Debi is looking a little perkier than she was the last time we saw her. We're very hopeful her recovery will continue on the path toward wellness. 

The evening before, we received a text from them suggesting two wineries: Cougar and Robert Renzoni. Mike suggested starting at Cougar since we've been to Renzoni before. When we arrived at Cougar, we realized that we had been there before. No matter. It was a good way to start a nice day. I took a few pictures, but mainly, we just enjoyed our wine and our food and relaxed and gabbed all afternoon long. I took this next photo in the tasting room at Robert Renzoni. It seems a good place to start, because you know I took pictures of every blooming thing.

The first winery we visited was Cougar.

This first one is phlox.

There were plenty of white roses. Here's one:

My phone tells me this is Uniform Treasureflower.

The phone tells me this is Salvia microphylla. Apparently, it's common name is "Hot Lips."

These are red geraniums.

Here's another white rose.

This is a Wood Iris.

It's a beautiful tasting room. I liked this chandelier made from wine bottles.

These were messages on slats from a barrel.

This was hanging on the wall. Who sees a quilt here?

We each selected a glass of wine and then found a table outside. Looking out across the valley, these were the vineyards for this winery.

If I'm remembering right, we all chose a red wine.

And we enjoyed this charcuterie board...

Along with more bread and olive oil made with olives from trees grown at the winery. The olive oil was delicious.

After we'd finished our wine, we decided to move along to Robert Renzoni.

Here I enjoyed the things they had for sale inside their tasting room. This one seems obvious.

I told Mike he needed this hat, but he thought $28 for a hat negated his need.

I liked this one too:

Like before, we each selected a glass of wine and then found a table outside. Gazing out across their vineyard, it looked like this:

Here, we had lunch. I had another Italiano sandwich. Mike had a chicken club sandwich. We only ate half and brought the other half home for dinner.

We sat and talked, and talked, and talked, and then we returned to the RV. It was nearing dinner time by then, but we still took short naps, and then enjoyed what remained of the evening.

Just as I was finishing up this post, the kitties spotted birds outside our window. There's a tree behind us producing lots of seeds right now. They get scattered all over the catio. We haven't yet seen any birds at our seed feeder, but I suspect they prefer the seeds from this tree. 

What kind of bird do you suppose this is? It looks kind of like the goldfinches we get at our feeders back home. When the goldfinches arrive at our feeder at home, we know spring has arrived.

The weather is taking a turn for the worse today. We're expecting a cloudy day with rain probably starting around dinner time. It won't interfere with our plans to visit the City of Temecula this afternoon. I just want to walk up and down the main drag and snoop in some of the shops. For sure we'll visit the shop that sells fudge. And I don't know how a day in which fudge is involved could be anything other than a good day. Do you? 

Okay...so off I go to enjoy our cloudy good day. I hope you have a good day ahead of you too.

La Jolla Cove

Good morning, my friends. What a marvelous day we had yesterday. It’s going to be another good day today. I have a lot of pictures to show you, and not a lot of time to write. So, let’s just get right to it. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we were heading to La Jolla to walk on the Coast Walk Trail. We left the kitties in their usual state of angst,

Begging us not to go. As if.

It was about a 45-minute drive. When we crested a hill, there it was again: the Pacific Ocean. 

When we reached the general vicinity, we drove around for three days and nights looking for a parking space. When I saw this sign, I remembered that I was a lifeguard in college. Does that count?

Fortunately, we didn’t have to test that theory because we found a parking spot on the morning of the fourth day. We didn’t actually end up where we were headed, but it didn’t matter at all. It was a wonderful place to walk. I expected beautiful scenery and blooming things. I was surprised by the wildlife, although I shouldn’t have been. So…this is where we ended up.

Looking to the south, it looked like this:

Looking north, it looked like this:

So we started walking north. Before we get too far along, though, let’s get the rules straight.

As we walked along, I loved how the rock wall and pillars incorporated seashells into their construction. Those are scallop shells on top. The large shells on the sides are abalone. 

These are some little cowrie shells, or maybe they’re periwinkles. I’m not sure, obviously.

Here are more abalone shells. Mother of Pearl comes from abalone shells. You can also see they’ve created some starfish on the top of the wall. And there’s another aloe blossom. I think this is a different variety from what we’re seeing in the RV park.

The flower below is statice.

Here’s another aloe blossom.

This next one is fox tail agave.

Some perky daisies.

This is Rock Purslane.

This next one is Sourgrass.

Okay, my friends. This is where the rubber meets the road. Stay right beside me.

Also…watch your step. No falling. 

Those signs were to warn us about whatever kind of thing this is. We walked out on a sort of railed seawall. It made it possible to get right out into the surf. You could get wet here too if a wave happened to crash up as you were walking by.

Here’s a better look at the whole thing.

Looking south from there it looked like this:

There were some Western gulls standing right in front of us, taking in the many visitors to their home.

They bowed in greeting. (So formal. Who woulda thought?)

By pure luck, I caught this one in flight.

Now behave yourselves. No matter how cute the seals are, you must stand back from them. I’ll try to restrain myself too.

This one was inching his way up onto the beach from the water. This could be a young pup. To my eyes, he still looks like he has some spots.

And from our perch on the seawall, this is what we could see. Lots and lots of sea lions and harbor seals. We would see them all along the way.

This appears to be a stand-off.

As a reminder…

These are California ground squirrels, and they’ll be right next to you looking for a hand-out. These were a distance away, but we came upon plenty that were unafraid as we walked within arm’s reach of them. Arm’s reach…and there better be something to eat in your hand.

Walking on a bit, we came to this cliff where the California Brown Pelicans were hanging out. My friend, Judy, whose knowledge of birds is encyclopedic, tells me this is their breeding plumage.

In the next photo, you’re seeing the same cliff, but I backed up some so that you could see the cave below. You can see it goes all the way through.

We walked on, and looking back, you can see the seawall from the other side.

I took this next photo, hoping to catch these pelicans in flight. They’ll fly mere feet above the surface of the water, and ride the uplifting air currents. We’ve seen them do this over the Atlantic Ocean too.

Farther north, we notice this group of kayaks. I believe this was probably a class.

We also saw seals and sea lions playing in the surf.

Closer to shore, they were riding the waves like body surfers.

On this cliff…a huge grouping of gulls.

Here…more sea lions and seals. And do you see our shadow selves down there? Despite the warning signs. I’m telling you, it’s a constant battle with these two.

Some of the sea lions were making quite a racket.

This gull sat within arm’s reach while I took picture after picture. Someone walking by said a gull had swooped down and stolen a sandwich right out of her hand.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do own the beach.

So if you’re wondering the difference between a seal and a sea lion…wonder no more.

And in this next picture, I believe I captured one of each…pure luck.

It was possible to take these steps down to the beach where the seals and sea lions were. But this big boy chased this woman up the stairs. We walked on and had lunch before returning more than an hour later. The sea lion was still there lying at the bottom of the stairs. If you want to get down to the beach, you’ll have to get through him.

This is the cliff where we saw so many birds. Pelicans were on the far side, and cormorants were closer to where we were standing.

Here’s a better look at the cormorants. These are Brandt’s Cormorants. I want you to notice the blue patch on their throats. It glistened in the sun.

These two were engaged in a mating ritual. We averted our eyes. As they moved, you could see the same blue coloring on their heads and necks. They were beautiful. And look at that blue eye.

This one was showing off for the ladies.

Well, our shadow selves were whining about being hungry by that time.

Just across the street was this restaurant. What the heck, we thought. We were feeling a little peckish too. It was just before noon, and they seated us right away at that table where I’ve drawn the red arrow. Perfect.

This was the view from our table. Not bad at all. Mike had a club sandwich. I had shrimp tacos.

As we left the restaurant, I was pretty sure this sign was there for me. STOP taking so many pictures.

I tried to resist, but how could I?

Especially when you see stuff like these two. It’s good to have a friend.

I resisted taking more pictures, though. Mike wanted to go to the “gliderport” at Torrey Pines. It was just a little way down the road.

From there we could see the UCSD (University of California, San Diego) Scripps Pier.

Much to Mike’s disappointment, there were no paragliders or hanggliders out. There wasn’t enough wind.

We saw them during a visit back in 2022. Here are a couple of pictures from that visit.

It wasn’t a wasted visit, though, because we did see this Osprey in flight. This is an airplane, and it can take off and land vertically. In other words, it needs no runway. With a naval base to our south, and a Marine Corps base to our north, it’s not unusual to see this kind of military aircraft in the sky. Also, it’s common to see military ships far out in the ocean.

Okay…so that was a full day. I hope your feet aren’t hurting too much. Today we’re heading back to see another winery with our friends Debi and Jim. They have memberships at several of the local wineries, and it’s always fun to go taste some wine with them. 

With that…I’ll leave you to your day.