Birds of a feather at the 'Jewel' and a gem in Escondido

It’s been a while, our stay in San Diego, where we rested and prepared for leg 8 of Hike-about. Where does the time go? Perhaps that’s why we have to keep moving. The clock is running, the bones and muscles are aging but the heart and soul are willing and raring to go. Two out of four is good enough for us. Our real fear is what happens when the latter two slow down. “Don’t anticipate the future,’ we always like to say. In any event, we can always find other parts of our body to cooperate should these let us down. If nothing else, we hope to be creative.

Approaching the La Jolla coastline ..Click on photo to enlarge

It takes only one 'bird' to upset a content flock

We’re heading for Hawaii, this time the island of Hawaii otherwise pronounced in the native tongue as “The Big Island”. Thank goodness as we have much trouble with names in that part of the world. Everybody knows that Hawaii is famous for its beaches and surf. That’s why we told our editor that we are traveling, this time, with a surfboard. Of course, she was not impressed. In fact, short of balancing on a cliff edge on one hand while singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner’, we doubt whether we are able to impress her. She is a lot tougher than one would expect. ‘If you don’t surf in San Diego, why begin in Hawaii?” she asked. We thought long and hard about her rather penetrating question. ‘We’re trying to develop a ‘cool’ image,’ we tried to explain. However, she’s not buying that. We now have just three days to come up with a better explanation or sell the board.

'Sunshine' (that is Jenni) preparing for Hawaii

Truly wonderful place to stand and observe—terrific boulders and rocks,too

We had a couple of hikes this week that provided surprising views, especially at Stanley Peak, Daley's Ranch in Escondido. At a little over seven miles with an elevation gain of about 1,500 feet, the views are splendid. (Various routes allow for additions to the hike.) We admired the blue-mountains in the distance and noticed a few we hiked over the past weeks. The county has impressive boulder and rock covered mountains with many, many peaks. Sometimes we wonder why we travel so far when there is a very attractive area close-by. Fortunately, we don’t wonder too often or too deep about the issue.

Jenni finds last week's hike in distance from below our peak

Blue-mountains in the distance, from Stanley Peak

Our regular walk to the beach in the ‘Jewel’, that is, La Jolla, provides different views and perspectives each time. The sun, mist and clouds create wonderful variation to the fixed natural features. Our only complaint is that to reach the cliff-tops from beach level,we have to approach via the nudist beach. This is quite traumatic, especially because most of the exhibitionists are of the male gender. It was only last week that we thought we observed two beached whales. Turns out that when we closed the distance to less than two hundred feet, we noticed they were in fact, a huge human couple. The good news, after a rather rough previous week, is we seem to be sleeping better. Fortunately, we haven’t suffered a nightmare in the last couple of days.

In a rather unusual way, we recently discovered two admirable men from whom we learn much. We salute Geoff Patz of San Diego and Ivan Sacks of Dallas.

Feeling a little on edge near Stanley Peak

We look forward to ‘seeing’ you in Hawaii soon.

Cheers,

Jenni and Jeffrey

Welcoming the warmth on a winter's day