Quinn

Camping in the Desert

A view of the Anza-Borrego Desert

When pitching a tent, be careful of cactus - especially jumping cholla and also rattlesnake holes

There's that cute nephew of ours! This was Quinn's first camping trip. He loved playing inside of his tent.

One very cute and ruggedly handsome husband!

Happy 2 Year Anniversary!

Hiking in Southern California

So far we've gone on a couple of day hikes. We visited Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and hiked up to Garnet Peak. Part of this hike follows the Pacific Crest Trail.

At the Peak, you can see into the Anza-Borrego Desert. Our hiking guidebook claimed that this may be the best view in all of San Diego County.

We also hiked in the southern region of the Santa Ana Mountains. We found a trail that follows along Holy Jim Creek in Trabuco Canyon. The trail travels through a glen, then a forest and finally arrives at a small waterfall.

We brought Hazel Roy's cousin along for this hike since we were in National Forest. That's Merlin above. He had a great time running, sniffing, and sitting in creeks. This pup loves water just like HR. We miss our lil' Hazel Roy so it was great to have Merlin's companionship in the great outdoors.

These treese have grown into an amazing perfect tunnel that you can walk through. Does it remind you of anything? It reminded us of the houses in the movie Where The Wild Things Are.

Holy Jim Waterfall

Happy Merlin

Wildlife and Ships

We visited La Jolla Cove to see the Harbor Seals. They were all napping after their lunch.

These two were pretty relaxed one minute and then the tide came in...

Plenty of Pelicans

Our favorite were the Sea Lions because they were the most animated. When one barks, they all bark. Then a trip to the Maritime Museum which has an excellent collection of historic ships most of which can be explored.

The Star of India, the world's oldest active ship, still sails once a year on it's birthday.

Torrey Pines

We spent our first day in San Diego at Torrey Pines, a state reserve on the Pacific coast. The weather here is perfect, unbelievably so, and we enjoyed hiking the numerous trails that go to the ocean or overlook it. Because it's springtime the bluffs are covered in wildflowers. This is such a beautiful place.

California, Here We Come!

Homemade Samosas

Jeanne and I got together to try something new. We made Samosas filled with peas, potatoes, cauliflower and spices. Traditionally, these are deep fried but we opted to bake ours. We watched an online video of a cute lady demonstrating how to fold the dough into a cone and then fill and fold over again to make a nice stuffed triangle shape (thanks Manjula!). These were fun to make. Very simple. We also made some nice spicy tomato chili chutney and mint coconut chutney accompaniments.

Painted Butterflies

Over the past month, friends and I have been volunteering to paint large butterflies which will be installed throughout Eden Park to accompany the upcoming Butterfly Show, opening at the Krohn on April 17th. This year's show theme is Butterflies of Japan. This weekend we sewed our painted wings to the frames and the final result was marvelous!