Wednesday 11th October. Day 22.

San Diego!

Our stay with Chris in his new part-time home in San Diego started on a high with an early start at the Balboa Park for the 6.29am Wednesday meeting of the November project. This project was started by two ex-rowers who had moved from being active sporting undergraduates to desk bound workers. They were getting unfit and decided that for the month of November, three years ago, they would meet before work twice a week to exercise in the local park. After a while friends joined in with the activity, then friends of friends, until over 200 people joined the group. Similar groups then grew up in other cities. The project had huge momentum largely due to the charismatic personalities of the two guys involved. When Chris and I arrived at sunrise, we parked in the beautiful gardens at the park. Dozens of very athletic looking people were swarming along the front of the dawn-illuminated ornate white museum building and gathering around the circular fountain. The morning’s routine was explained - various stations around the fountain were marked by instructions for a circuit tracing exercise, and a pack of playing cards governed in which direction we had to sprint after each exercise - around the rose garden, the reflection lake, over the bridge to the cactus garden, around the giant ficus tree etc. Most of the exercises involved a partner eg ‘handshake planks’ and so it was impossible not to be thoroughly drawn into the high energy, enthusiastic and friendly bunch of people who seemed amazed to have a)someone from the UK and b)Chris’s mum taking part in this brilliant and fun session.
Afterwards we treated ourselves to green smoothies from Juice Crafters in Little Italy and I felt so Californian!
Afterwards we returned back to the RV where Bill had caught up on some sleep and prepared breakfast.
We cam down to earth with a bump after breakfast - Mike rang from home to say that poor blind Elly cat was much worse - in pain and suffering. After watching her with him on FaceTime we agreed that he would put her to sleep as she lay in her bed in front of the Aga. We all shed many tears for our very for special little cat.
Then it was time for Chris to head off to work and we set about the process of negotiating with Dogberry and the rest of the Mission Bay registration team over parking our RV somewhere more scenic than between another RV and a dilapidated laundry building.
As I wept quietly over Elly Bill came up trumps with the best pitch on the campground, right next to the water with sea views on two sides at the far corner of the ground. The chain link fence did not enhance the setting, but it was still brilliant and secluded and probably the best we could get in the centre of a big city like San Diego. Did I mention a laundry building? Well that is what we needed as we had run out of clothes. Annoyingly, the dilapidated laundry building was closed and we had to walk to a neighbouring static home park to use theirs.
Another low point, but soon, all our clean clothes and towels were fluttering in the quite considerable sea breeze, pegged to washing line tied in a zig zag pattern to the chain link fence. I installed myself behind this colourful curtain to catch any items that blew away, whilst Bill set off solo to acquire some bikes to hire - the thought of sight seeing and trying to park around a huge city like San Diego in a 25ft RV seemed unthinkable!
We ate lunch at our picnic table whilst the last few bits of laundry dried and enjoyed the hot sunshine, sparkling sea and cool breeze. Then we set off on our bikes to explore the city and its beaches. The bikes were quite a challenge - just one gear and no brake levers. To slow down or stop we just had to back pedal, which worked reasonably well, but made it impossible to also touch your feet to the ground, whilst slowing down. It took a lot of getting used to.
From Mission Bay we rode west and picked up the Pacific Beach Coast Route.
This was quite an experience. The first mile was on roads but then followed a wide cycle oath that ran along the back of the sandy beach and in front of the very exclusive beach homes that stood next to the beach. These varied from rustic wooden cabins to functional apartments, to modern buildings with floor to ceiling glass and stainless steel, to mini mansions with exotic gardens and swimming pools. Eventually we arrived at the main Pacific beach and we cycled south watching the surf roll into the sand, then turned onto the cycle lanes over the huge bridges spanning the sea between this part of San Diego and the area called Ocean Beach where we had arranged to meet Chris after work.
We met on the beach just as the sun set and then wandered into town. First stop was to watch the extraordinary group of people gathered in the park at the back of ocean beach. There were hoop dancers, acrobats, jugglers and musicians. We watched enviously as people of all ages appeared to effortlessly do handstands and somersaults.
We moved on to the weekly Farmers Market - very different from the one at home at Knightwick.
There were bands playing, lots of street food from all around the world, fruit, vegetables and flowers, ginger beer, jerky, cosmetics, herbs and grasses, massage therapists, people with crystals and carvings. We are a bowl of African food and then set off to explore the craft beer options.
Whilst in one bar we were intrigued by the simple but addictive bar game of swinging a brass ring suspended on a string attached to the ceiling, trying to get it to slip over a hook on the wall. Chris managed it in five goes, Bill in two and me in about 25!!!
All we had to do then was to bike home - about eight miles in the dark and over two bridges, and in a strange city. It was quite a challenge - but we did it!!