Catching up.....Part 2- Tristan!!!

 The featured guest for this post is Tristan! He arrived very late Wed night and we took him back to the airport Sunday afternoon. In between those times we had wonderful talks and MANY activities. We never want our guests to be bored!
  On Thursday Dave and Tristan golfed after we slept in. No golfing photos since I wasn't there!  Friday morning we headed out for the day at 8 am and we didn't return until 8 pm.  The first event of the day was to hike at Elfin Forest once again~ approx 3 miles uphill both ways....ummm maybe not!

Pretty blooming plant- some sort of succulent.

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Father - Son bonding on top of the mountain.

Dave texting- some of his co workers don't understand what "vacation" day means! That is Escondido in the background.

 Then we had a picnic lunch on the beach at Torrey Pines. After a short nap we headed out on our second hike of the day. This time we hiked from the beach at Torrey Pines up to the top and then back to the car. Probably another 5 miles or so.... I know I have posted pictures of this hike before ( like twice!) but the views are so beautiful I have to post more pictures.

First the stalking....

 Here begins the attack of the ground squirrel... Tristan sat down and took out his pack of nuts and immediately the attack began!

Next the approach....

And finally the attack!

And others were lurking nearby!

Looking down at the path to the beach and towards La Jolla

I can't get over how blue the sky is on clear days!

We stopped at Torrey Pines Glide Port and watched people walk off the cliff and then soar like the pelicans!

It looks amazingly fun even to me and I don't like heights!

 On the way to the glide port Tristan started getting all excited and frankly drooling... he saw the Salk Institute which was designed by Louis Khan. This meant nothing to Dave and me but apparently to an Architect this is IT! At first we were not impressed by this kind of shabby concrete and wood building until we saw it through Tristan's eyes. And then we entered the courtyard! Wow! It is hard to see because of the bright sun but there is water flowing down the center and it appears to be dumping into the ocean.

 After a delicious supper at The Fish Market we went to a little beach in Del Mar to watch the sunset.

 Saturday we headed out again but not quite so early! Just about 20 minutes north of us is Temecula. Temecula has just the right climate for growing grapes. We toured one of the vineyards.

It looks a lot like the photos of Italy. We are constantly amazed by the variety of things that grow here in our new part of the world:)

The machine that separates the grapes from the stems.

Oak barrel room- they buy the American oak barrels from Wisconsin at $300 each and can only use them 3 times. The French oak barrels cost $1300 each!

Then off to the beach again! We met Chad and Jacinda and Bob and Deanna at the dog beach in Del Mar. Talk about entertaining! Dogs were everywhere including in the middle of our picnic lunch. Note to self... do not try to eat at a dog beach!

This doggie liked the shade from our umbrella , the food, and Tristan!

Tristan and Dave even got to play some beach volleyball. We hated to see him leave on Sunday but he will return. He thinks we live in a really neat place and wants to move back in!!!

Catching up... Part 1

    I have fallen behind on my blog posts because I am having so much fun living! I do have lots of work to do between our adventures because if I fall behind my "boss" may fire me! First a few photos of the beautiful roses in our  yard.  When we moved in I informed Dave that roses are pretty but they are too needy for my liking. Roses bloom  and bloom here in Fallbrook- I have never seen anything like it. That said...sure enough I went out to look at the roses and discovered many yellowing leaves and on the underside there were orange "warts"! With the help of the internet I diagnosed them as having "rust" which is a fungus. A fungus-yuck!! I was feeling like I had failed my roses by letting them become diseased even though I had fertilized them with special rose stuff. I felt better when I was informed by my plant guru at Joe's Hardware that all roses around here get rust. So all roses get rust and all houses get termites- something to look forward to! So the roses have been treated and I am keeping  an eagle eye out for the termites!

A week ago Friday night we had 2 families of our wonderful friends who live nearby. Thus we had 6 adults and 6 children (6 years and under)! The toys from our boys were hauled out and played with once again.

Katrina,Kaitlyn,Warren and Baron

Dave even shared his new toy with Warren and Kenny

Adorable Karissa!

2 cuties- Baron and Kenny.

That Saturday we visited the Cabrillo National Monument and hiked down to the tide pools.

Then we hiked again!

This is the power plant for a searchlight that was used in WWI and WWII. The searchlight was rolled out along a track so they could shine it on any ships entering the harbor.

Our next stop was Coronado. 

Inside the lobby of the Hotel Del Coronado

View of this famous hotel form the beach

Beautiful beaches

Some very nice beachside villas that we thought would be fun to rent for a night....until we found out they rent for   $900.00 and up for 1 night!!!

Next we picked Arun up from his hotel and brought him home for the night.  He even treated us to a dinner of fish tacos on the way home. It was great to catch up on news and really enjoyed having another one of 'our" boys visit us! His pose is really quite natural for him!