Author Archives: Mike Kuper

Pack My Bags

As I left the Mission Bay RV Resort Wednesday morning, I had to stop the Spyder and snap a picture of De Anza Cove. The bay water was so calm, it looked like glass and reflected images of a few clouds in the sky, palm trees and the houses terraced in Bay Park.

De Anza Cove

There was a boat anchored in the cove – a cabin cruiser I hadn’t seen before. They found very smooth water to spend the night in. But I imagine the noise from I-5 couldn’t have been pleasant.

I played pickleball at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center. Ocean Beach is a unique community – it was a hippie hangout in the ’60s and ’70s and that influence is still obvious. It’s also a popular place for surfing. When I left the rec center, I took a ride along the waterfront. I saw a cool old VW bus that someone had cut a section out of, shortening the wheelbase.

Sectioned VW bus

On Tuesday, our friends John and Sharon Hinton checked into the park (On The Road of Retirement). We got together Wednesday evening for happy hour. They brought homemade garlic pesto pizza. Donna cooked salmon with ginger and scallion topping and made guacamole with pomegranate seeds, a twist she picked up from The Barrio Queen restaurant in Gilbert, Arizona. John and Sharon are beer lovers. We shared a blood red orange IPA from Latitude 33 Brewing. It was tasty, as was the food.

Happy hour became dinner

We were so absorbed in conversation, I never thought to have them pose for a photo.

A couple of hours passed quickly. When I came inside, I turned on game 7 of the Major League Baseball World Series. The Cubs were up 5-1. I thought it was game over. But over the next few innings, we had some twists. First the Indians stormed back to tie the game at 6-6 in the eighth inning. Then there was a rain delay. The Cubs won in overtime in the 10th inning.

Thursday was another beautiful day in San Diego. My first priority was a run to Costco. I picked up coffee K-cups for the Keurig, a case of bottled water and pork tenderloins. I arrived at Costco at 10:05am – they open at 10am. This is the way to do Costco. The parking lot was only half full and I didn’t have to fight crowds in the store.

After I dropped the stuff off back at the coach I headed out for more pickleball. Later, I spoke to my daughter, Alana, about picking me up at SeaTac airport tomorrow in Seattle – I wrote about the reason for this trip in my previous post. I also spoke to Sini. She’s already packing her things in her coach.We plan to get together Saturday evening and hit the road Sunday morning for our trip back down to San Diego.

By the time we get here, Sini will be a seasoned big rig driver. I have a plan in mind for her to get up to speed driving her motorhome – we’ll see if she likes my plan.

Donna made coconut curry chicken in the slow cooker for dinner last night. She served it over jasmine brown rice with chopped cilantro. I thought it was great but Donna wants to double the amount of curry powder and add some turmeric next time she makes it.

Coconut curry chicken

I paired it with an IPA from Left Coast Brewing in San Clemente called Trestles. Trestles is a reference to a popular series of surfing spots near San Onofre Beach in north San Diego county.

Trestles IPA

Today is another sunny, beautiful day here. The high is expected to be in the mid-70s. Seattle’s forecast is wet with the high temperature in the upper 50s for the weekend. I’ll pack my things today and leave for the airport around 6:30am tomorrow. I don’t know if I’ll be able to post over the next several days while we’re on the road.

Breaking the Routine

I’ve mentioned before how we fall into daily routines when we’re stationary for weeks or months at a time. This is especially true when we’re in San Diego or Mesa, Arizona where we have many friends and old hangouts.

Donna’s settling back into her daily routine after her trip to Akron, Ohio. She has a publishing deadline on a book she’s writing and that is her priority. She also gets out for exercise – she either runs or bikes daily. I leave her to her writing for a few hours – on Monday and Wednesday, I play pickleball in Ocean Beach. And on Tuesday and Thursday, I play in Pacific Beach. I meet up with the guys for happy hour and a cold one on Monday and Thursday at Dan Diego’s – on Tuesday and Friday it’s Offshore Tavern and Grill.

I haven’t slept anywhere but my own bed in our RV since we sold our house and everything in it. I started sleeping in our coach about a week before I retired. Friday night will make it 1,210 consecutive nights in my own bed. That streak will end on Saturday when I fly up to Seattle. It will also be the first time I’ve been on a commercial airline in more than three years.

Here at Mission Bay RV Resort we’ve made friends with several other nomads that often come here in the winter. One of the first friends we made back in 2013 was Bob and Sini Schmitt from Edmonds, Washington. Bob was a retired fire chief and a great guy. Their son, Beau, co-owns a brew pub in San Diego along with Mike Sill called The Brew Project.

Bob tragically died unexpectedly last summer while vacationing in the British Virgin Islands. His wife Sini wants to continue to travel in their 37-foot National RV motorhome. When they traveled in their motorhome, Bob did the driving. Sini is an independent and very self-reliant woman. But she’s also realistic. Driving the motorhome with a car attached to a tow bar behind it has a steep learning curve.

Following the plan she and Bob had laid out, Sini sold their home in Edmonds to travel full-time and plans to spend her first few months here at Mission Bay. I’m flying up to Seattle where I’ll have a chance to visit with my oldest daughter Alana and my grandkids Lainey and Gabi on Saturday. Sunday morning I’ll be driving with Sini in her motorhome. My goal during the 1,300+ mile trip is to teach Sini the ins and outs of driving a big rig.

Our route will take us over a few mountain passes with long climbs and steep downgrades. This will be a great learning experience for her. We’ll probably have some long days and try to be here on Wednesday. So, how’s that for breaking the routine!

Yesterday’s weather was little cooler – we hit 70 degrees but the breeze made it seem cooler than that. The forecast calls for warmer days in the mid-70s for the next two weeks. Overnight lows are a very comfortable 60 degrees – we’ve been sleeping with the windows open.

The Irish Room

I skipped playing pickleball Monday. I usually go to the Ocean Beach Recreation Center on Mondays and Wednesdays to play. I did house work instead in preparation of Donna’s return in the afternoon. Then I did a deep clean of the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker/grill.

Around 1:30pm, I fired up the Traeger and set out the two racks of babyback ribs I’d prepped the day before. I preheated the grill for 10 minutes with the setting at 300 degrees which gave me a pit temperature of 270-280 degrees and put the ribs on.

There wasn’t much more to do for a couple of hours other than check the pellet feed from time to time and monitor the temperature for any anomalies. So I sat outside and read a book on my Kindle. The outside temperature reached 75 degrees yesterday, but it was breezy and felt cooler.

Donna came home from her trip to Akron for her nephew’s wedding around 2:30pm. We relaxed and talked for a short while, then she took the Spyder to Trader Joe’s to do some grocery shopping.

I was making the ribs for a guy’s night at my friend Dan Cullen’s house in Bay Park. Bay Park is a terraced neighborhood south of Clairemont overlooking Mission Bay. On the south side of Clairemont Drive, the streets in Bay Park are alphabetical. Going east from Morena Boulevard as you go up the mesa there’s Chicago Street, then Denver Street, then Erie, Frankfort, Galveston and so on. From north to south there’s Ingulf Street, then Jellett Street, Kane, Lister and so on. This makes it pretty easy to navigate the area. Dan’s house is on the corner of Erie and Kane. He has a nice view of the bay – I wish I would have taken a photo.

After two hours and twenty minutes, I pulled the ribs out of the Traeger and wrapped them in aluminum foil. I put them back on the grill and dropped the temperature to 180 degrees. About 25 minutes later, I placed the foil-wrapped racks of ribs in a towel to retain the heat and loaded them in the Spyder.

When we planned to have the get-together at Dan’s place, I didn’t realize it was meant to be a guys’ night with Monday Night Football in his man-cave, which he calls “The Irish Room.” I would have put it off rather than leave for guys’ night on the day Donna returned.

The Irish Room is an addition to Dan’s house. The main house has an attached garage – The Irish Room is on the far side of the garage from the main house. It has patios in front and back and a half bathroom behind the garage on the rear patio.

I planned to take some photos of the place and the guys. After snapping a couple of quick shots, we got down to the business of dining on babyback ribs and the baked beans and seasoned fries that Dan’s wife made. The Monday Night Football game was on the big screen TV. I never took another photo!

Bar and refrigerator in The Irish Room

Decorative lighting – you can see the big screen TV in the lower left

The ribs were a hit as usual – the method I’m using now of foiling the ribs at the end of the cook works great. I’m happy with my rub and the way the meat stays moist yet firm and easily pulls away from the bone. The party broke up at halftime of the game. I came home and watched the second half as Chicago surprised most everyone with an upset win over Minnesota.

This morning Donna started her day with a run – she’s out running as I type this. When she returns we’ll enjoy breakfast together, then I’ll head over to the Pacific Beach Recreation Center for pickleball and she’ll get back to work on her book. The forecast looks great with clear skies and a high temperature in the low 70s.

Not Gourmet

With Donna away, my dinner menu is different. It isn’t a matter of me being unable to cook – it’s more a matter of me doing what’s convenient. Pizza delivery from Mountain Mike’s in Clairemont took care of a few meals.

Donna’s nephew’s wedding in Akron, Ohio was blessed with great weather on Saturday and I hear everyone had a great time. Congratulations to Mark Anthony and his bride Jamie.

I rode the Spyder over to the self-serve car wash in Pacific Beach Saturday and gave it a good cleaning. Then I rode up the coast to La Jolla. One thing I miss about our scooter is the ease of parking. The Spyder needs nearly the same space as a compact car.

I found a parking place right by the main life guard station at La Jolla Shores. The beach wasn’t especially crowded, but there was a surfing contest sponsored by WindanSea going on.

View to the north toward Scripps Pier from La Jolla Shores

Surfing contest

On Saturday night, I cooked an old standby – a Marie Callenders pot pie. Cooking in our convection oven is a little different than a conventional oven – it cooks faster. I foil wrapped the perimeter of the pot pie and cooked at 400 degrees for 50 minutes. A quick-read thermometer showed an internal temperature of 168 degrees. Just right.

Not so gourmet

On Sunday morning, I wheeled the Traeger wood pellet-fired smoker/grill from our trailer in the storage yard to our site. It might be more accurate to say I dragged it here. The wheels are small, the unit is fairly heavy and the pavement is rough.

I had the cover on it and left it in our site as the NFL football games were about to start. I was surprised during the Chargers game in the afternoon when I realized it was raining! It was a light shower, but I had the door open and our door panel was wet. I’m glad I had the Traeger covered.

I prepped the babyback ribs for tomorrow’s guys’ night. I was surprised to find the membrane on the bone side of the ribs had been removed by the butchers at Siesel’s Meats. Removing the membrane is something I always do. It’s not that hard, but this is the first time I’ve bought babyback ribs with the membrane already removed. Siesel’s has a reputation for quality meat and they obviously pay attention to the small details. I applied the dry rub and let them rest overnight in the refrigerator.

Two racks of babybacks dry rubbed and ready for the Traeger

Two racks of babybacks dry rubbed,stacked and ready for the Traeger

Donna will be home in the early afternoon. I’ll have everything ship shape. The weather forecast looks great – low-70s and sunny.

Grocery Stores

Donna was up early and her Uber driver picked her up at 5am Thursday for her flight to Akron, Ohio. I managed to fall back asleep after she left and had a series of dreams (pardon me, Bob Dylan).

Thursday turned out to be another typical day. I started with a couple of hours of pickleball at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center – which was exhausting as the games ran non-stop with little down time.

On Thursdays, the guys all meet up at Dan Diego’s for happy hour. My friend, Dan Cullen, an attorney and alumni of Cal Western – the law school where my daughter Shauna earned her law degree – made plans for a Monday Night Football gathering at his place in Bay Park. I’m planning to smoke a couple of racks of babyback ribs for the occasion.

Dan invited me to join him and his wife for dinner, but I’d already ordered pizza delivery. I stopped at his place and checked out his “Irish Room.” What a man cave set-up! Pictures will follow after our Monday guys’ night.

Friday I was on a mission. I made a list of things I needed to have on hand the night before. I thought the Walmart in Kearny Mesa would have what I desired. After taking care of domestic chores – with Donna away I’m doing dishes, vacuuming, dumping and flushing tanks and cleaning Ozark’s litter box – and oh yeah, watering planter boxes. Not complaining, this life beats most anything I can imagine.

When I arrived at Walmart I remembered this is not the usual Super Walmart. It has a limited number of groceries – no fresh vegetables or meats. I found a few things I wanted, including Kiwi polish for my boots. Then I went to Von’s at Clairemont Square.

I needed babyback ribs for the get-together at Dan’s place on Monday. I was disappointed at Von’s. They had pre-packaged babyback ribs, but they were priced at $5.49/lb. I’ve bought these pre-packaged ribs for $3.99 or less many times. I passed on the ribs but bought some produce.

The next store on the way home way was Kiel’s. I’ve always liked this family-owned grocery store. But, this is their last week of operation. Due to lease issues, they’re closing at the end of the month after 26 years of serving the neighborhood. They had some good deals – including a good price on babyback ribs. But they were cut very small and I was wary of cooking them.

I decided to bite the bullet and go to Siesel’s – a San Diego icon for meats. I paid a higher price, but I got very good looking babyback ribs that were over three pounds per rack. I don’t know if there’s much difference in the quality of pork loin ribs, but I’ll find out on Monday.

It hit me then. Clairemont used to have neighborhood grocers. Some were small – like the place on old Morena Boulevard, others were medium-size like the Mayfair store on Moraga Avenue. Nowadays, it’s not so easy to run to the store. You have convenience stores with limited choices or you deal with traffic to travel several miles to find a bona fide grocery outlet.

This strikes me as I think about our travels over the last year. It seemed like no matter where we were, we could find a local brewery. This is good. But why can’t you find a good local grocery store?

Half an hour before sunset looking west at Crown Point

Donna’s Packing

The days are flying by. We’ve been here in San Diego for two weeks already. Donna’s been busy working to meet her book deadline while also completing side assignments for articles and doing her usual media interviews. I’ve been playing pickleball four days a week. Two and half hours of pickleball pretty much wipe me out, but my game is really improving again.

Donna has taken time every day to either run or bicycle – or a combination of both. She’s training to run a 10k race in December.

The Mission Bay RV Resort doesn’t seem to be as busy as usual. The first weekend we were here, there were few empty spaces. As usual, many people pulled out on Sunday and Monday. During the week, the park was about 2/3 occupied. Last weekend, we didn’t have the usual influx of campers. A few arrived, but just as many pulled out. With Halloween coming this weekend, maybe the place will fill up again.

On Monday evening, Donna made steelhead trout with dijon sauce. It was cooked perfectly and so tasty. As usual, she serves me meals fit for a king.

Steelhead trout with dijon sauce

Tuesday night she followed up with more seafood. She made shrimp with artichoke, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, asparagus and feta cheese and served it over thin spaghetti. It was a pantry concoction as she is clearing out food. She hasn’t done a major grocery buy since we got here and is using up food before it goes bad. The meal was a departure from her normal method of following a recipe as she just winged it and it was good eats!

Winging a shrimp stir-fry

Tomorrow the routine will be broken. Donna has an early morning flight to Akron, Ohio for her nephew’s wedding. I’ll stay here and hold down the fort. I’ll be living the bachelor life until Monday. I haven’t set foot in an airport since I retired over three years ago.

That will change a week from Saturday. After 1,210 consecutive nights sleeping in my own bed in our RV, I’ll take a flight to Seattle. I expect to be gone for four nights, but I’ll fill in the details of that trip in a later post.

The days have been pleasant with the high temperature reaching the low 70s. We can expect more of the same in the coming week. I’ll head over to the Ocean Beach Recreation Center for today’s dose of pickleball and leave Donna distraction-free while she works.

I Am Just a Cowboy

Saturday was another warm day. The temperature reached the low 80s. Donna went out for a run before it got too warm. I puttered around. We planned on going to Donna’s sister’s house for a Halloween party in the evening. This has been an annual event for us over the last four years.

We were going to do western themed cowboy-cowgirl outfits since we both had the boots and would only need a couple of accessories. Donna changed her mind and made a creative outfit. She used cotton balls to create clouds on a blue shirt. She had a water bottle that sprayed a fine mist. When she was asked what her outfit was, she said, “I’m your up-to-the-minute weather forecast – partly cloudy with 100% chance of showers.” Then she would spray her water bottle. Fun.

I went ahead with the cowboy look. I rode the Spyder over to the Boot Barn in Kearny Mesa. I bought a Roper cowboy shirt with mother-of-pearl snaps and a bolo tie. I have a Stetson cowboy hat and I wore cowboy boots. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos from the party.

We decided to take a Lyft ride to Point Loma for the party at Sheila’s house. When I tried to schedule the pick-up, there was something wrong with the Lyft app on my phone. It located our pick-up point and I input the destination. When I tapped the “Request Lyft” button, it said “Busy” and went back to the previous screen. I tried it a couple of times with the same result. It never showed a car or driver or the wait time.

Donna opened the app on her phone and it worked fine. It showed a driver available with an ETA of four minutes. The driver picked us up and we were on our way. About half way to Sheila’s house, my phone rang. It was a Lyft driver telling me he was looking for us. I told him my app malfunctioned and didn’t confirm him coming, so we took another ride. A few minutes later, I received a text from Lyft saying they charged my credit card five dollars for a no show. How about that – a no show message as I was riding in a Lyft car. I sent an explanation to their customer service – we’ll see how that works out.

Sheila’s Halloween party is two parties at once. There are a number school kids – friends of her 12-year-old son Connor making up half of the party. Then there are the adults – parents of the kids and friends that make up the other half. We had an enjoyable evening with good food, drinks and lots of interesting conversations.

A little past 9pm, I tried to schedule another Lyft ride. My app had the same result – it said “Busy” next to the pick-up address and never showed a car or driver in the area. This time I waited to see what would happen.

After touching the "Schedule" button it shows "Busy"

After touching the “Request Lyft” button it shows “Busy”

After several minutes, my phone rang. It was a Lyft driver telling me he was in front of the house to pick us up. I had to break Donna away from a conversation she was having. We left in such a hurry we forgot to bring home leftover food and a package of pulled pork that one of the guests had smoked and given to us.

Sunday morning we woke up to a passing rain shower. It passed, leaving a thin overcast sky behind. Things quickly dried. Donna went out for a run – she ran along the Bayshore Walk path around Crown Point. Her plan was to pick up a City DecoBike near the Catamaran Hotel at the end of her run and ride the bike back to the RV park. There’s a City Bike station right in front of the RV park. She didn’t find the station she expected to find near the Catamaran. She had to walk past Mission Boulevard where she eventually found a bike station at Mission Beach.

Meanwhile I was absorbed in NFL games. The Chargers won a thriller in overtime. They came back from a second-half 17-point deficit to win 33-30 over the Falcons in Atlanta.

Today we have overcast skies this morning – it’s supposed to clear up by the afternoon and reach a high temperature in the low 70s. Sounds good to me.

San Diego Routine

Donna has been busy writing while I’ve been getting out to play pickleball. She has a mid-December book deadline and also has couple of articles to complete. I played pickleball four days in a row – about two and half hours per day. With the shorter waiting times between games at the Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach Recreation Centers, I’ve been getting a good daily workout.

My days are already falling into a familiar San Diego routine. Get out of bed around 7:30am. Mess around on the Internet for a while. Breakfast. Pickleball. Read. Happy hour with the guys at Offshore Tavern and Grill or Dan Diego’s. Watch a show or movie. Bed time.

The Internet continues to feed my latest obsession. Last weekend I ordered another pair of Lucchese cowboy boots. This time I went a little overboard and bought full quill ostrich boots with calfskin shafts. They arrived from Amazon on Wednesday. I was really disappointed when I opened the box. The stitching on the shafts – the part that comes up around your calf – was supposed to have a gold hue contrasting with the brown calfskin shaft. These boots looked like someone had smeared brown shoe polish over the stitching and the shafts were uniformly brown with no contrast – you could hardly see the stitching.

I called Lucchese customer service and told them the boots don’t match the images I saw online. They were very helpful and told me something was amiss. They stitch the shafts after the leather is dyed and polished. I don’t think it was a factory defect – something happened to these boots. They offered to repair or replace the boots if I sent them to the factory in El Paso. I opted to return them to Amazon since I had free returns with my Prime membership. I boxed them up and rode the Spyder to the UPS store in Pacific Beach. It was super easy – the UPS guy scanned the return label and gave me a tracking number.

When I came home, I ordered another pair of the same boots. I received an email from Amazon telling me they had already processed reimbursement to my credit card – they must get a notification when the return label is processed by UPS.

While I was at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center playing pickleball on Thursday, I got a notification on my phone telling me the replacement boots had been delivered! Wow! I ordered the replacements around 4pm on Wednesday and they came before noon the next day!

Lucchese full quill ostrich boots with calfskin shafts

We had another minor issue this week. Last weekend the Mission Bay RV Resort office lent me a converter box for our TV since trees were blocking my Dish satellite reception. It worked fine on Sunday – I watched NFL football all day. On Monday night I wanted to watch football but the reception kept cutting out. Monday was a cloudy, overcast day. I assumed the clouds caused the RV park’s Direct TV antenna to lose the signal.

On Wednesday we tried to watch the presidential race debate, but the TV signal was cutting out again. There weren’t any clouds on Wednesday. The RV park sent a guy out on Thursday and he gave me another converter box. When I hooked up the new box, it couldn’t acquire any signal at all. I found it hard to believe that I had two defective boxes. I suspected a problem with our coaxial cable. The 50-foot cable I used to hook up to the park’s TV system was given to me three years ago by my brother-in-law, Tommy. It’s been knocking around in a container in our trailer since then. I went to Home Depot and bought a new cable. Problem solved – the TV reception is great and I was able to watch the game last night.

Donna made a pot of pork chile Thursday with the chicos she bought in Santa Fe. She had it in the slow cooker all afternoon. Our friend Mona visited with her while I watched the game and enjoyed the chile with a Racer 5 IPA. The chicos were coarser than I expected. Maybe that’s the way it is with ancient foods. I’m sure I got plenty of fiber.

Pork chile with chicos

Racer 5 IPA from Cloverdale, California

As the sun was setting, I walked over to the cove and shot a different sunset view. De Anza Cove is east of the RV park. Looking across the cove you see the Bay Park neighborhood terraced on the Clairemont Mesa. The sun lit up the neighborhood as it dipped below the horizon. I missed the dramatic lighting by a minute or two, but this photo gives a sense of what it looked like.

Last rays of sun on Bay Park

We had an unseasonably warm day yesterday – the high was 89 degrees. The weather guessers are calling for low to mid-80s for the weekend before the temperature falls to a more normal high of around 70 degrees. Tomorrow we’ll go to Donna’s sister’s annual Halloween party. I’m taking a break from pickleball until Monday.

San Diego Spring Tides

I have an affinity for mechanical wristwatches. There’s nothing wrong with a quartz movement – in fact, the most accurate time keepers are probably quartz. But there’s a certain romance with a purely mechanical watch movement powered by a mainspring and meticulously assembled from tiny plates, gears and jewel bearings. Automatic watches have self-winding mechanical movements.

I had quite a collection of watches at one time. I kept my automatic wrist watches on watch winders – a special case that rotated the watch periodically to allow the rotor to wind the mainspring and keep the watch running. Like everything else, I pared my collection down and now I have five wristwatches and one railroad pocket watch. I’ve been favoring my GMT Master II for several years and it’s overdue for a service.

Monday I rode the Spyder to Ben Bridge Jeweler at Fashion Valley Mall. About a year and half ago the watchmaker there, Israel, serviced Donna’s watch. It takes about five weeks for a service – the watch is completely disassembled, all parts are inspected and any worn parts are replaced. Special lubricants are put on the bearings. Then it’s reassembled and regulated. It’s not an inexpensive job – in fact, the service costs more than the average wristwatch costs new.

Meanwhile, I’m wearing a watch that I bought several years ago when I had a Moto Guzzi motorcycle. One of the guys at the loosely organized Moto Guzzi Club commissioned a limited number of watches built with an ETA automatic movement and iron magnetic shield dial. The ETA 2824 movement is a common workhorse built by the Swatch Group and is used in many watches.

Moto Guzzi watch on my hairy wrist

When I came back from Fashion Valley, Donna was back in bed. She had tummy trouble – we think it may have been a case of food poisoning. She spent the entire day in bed. Fortunately, she was better the next day.

She didn’t need me to do anything for her, so I went to Ocean Beach to the recreation center and played pickleball. I found out that the times listed on the USAPA site were wrong. The site showed pickleball from noon to 2pm – which is what I remembered from last year. Now they play from 10am to 2pm on Monday and Wednesday. I was able to get several games in and had a good workout.

It was overcast when I rode the Spyder to Ocean Beach. I thought it was the typical morning marine layer which would burn off. I was surprised when I left the rec center to find a low overcast still hanging around. I rode to Pacific Beach where I stopped for tacos and a mist was falling lightly. On the way back to Mission Bay, I hit a rain shower. It was brief though and the sun finally broke through by 4pm.

Tuesday morning I had to retrieve some things from the trailer. While I was at the storage lot, I noticed the tide was very high in the bay and the morning sunlight was beautiful.

Morning sunshine on De Anza Cove

Tuesday and Thursday pickleball is played at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. Again, their hours have changed. It used to be noon to 4pm. Now it’s 10am to 4pm. The longer hours of open play makes it less crowded as people come and go after playing for a couple of hours. I barely had break time inbetween games. I played from noon to 2:30pm.

Later, I went to the Offshore Tavern and Grill to collect the spoils of my second-place football pool result. I got a free drink and five dollars. Winning is better, but I can’t complain. A funny thing happened when I left the RV park for the tavern. Just as I pulled out of our site, Donna saw my cell phone on the counter. She knows I don’t like to be without my cell phone. She grabbed the phone and ran after me. A car went through the automatic gate ahead of me, so I didn’t need to wait for the gate to open. I rolled out before Donna could catch me.

I was about to exit the Mission Bay RV Resort property when two women from the office came out and waved their arms to flag me down. I stopped and they said, “You forgot your phone.” I thanked them and turned around. I assumed Donna had phoned the office and I had to go back to our coach to get my phone. About then, Thomas, the security supervisor rolled up in his cart and handed me my phone. I was surprised and a little confused.

Later Donna told me that Thomas saw her running after me. He pulled up beside her in his golf cart and took the phone and came after me. He must have radioed the office girls and told them to stop me. What an effort – just because I don’t like to go out without my phone!

After I returned, Donna and I took a walk around the Mission Bay RV Resort at sunset. The phase of the moon is creating spring tides. Spring tides don’t have anything to do with the season – it’s about the water level springing up and down. Spring tides occur when the gravitational pull of the sun and moon combine, causing higher than average high tides and lower than average low tides. At sunset, the tide was lower than I ever remember seeing in Mission Bay.

Low tide at sunset

Boater paddling in the low water

Donna made panko crusted rockfish filets for dinner. She served it with a kale salad with dried cranberries, pine nuts and parmigiano reggiano cheese. It was a delicious meal.

Panko crusted rockfish

Today we’re in for another beautiful weather day. The forecast high is in the low 80s with abundant sunshine. Donna volunteered to do more data entry for the Girls on the Run organization. I think I’ll head over to Ocean Beach for more pickleball.

Run, Donna, Run

We had a fairly quiet weekend as we settled in at Mission Bay RV Resort.

Donna went to an office in Mission Valley Friday morning. She volunteered to do some data entry for an organization called Girls on the Run. I took a couple of walks around the RV park and mostly read a book on my Kindle. I retrieved the Weber Q grill and stand from our trailer in the storage lot so we could grill steak for dinner. Then I went to the Offshore Tavern and Grill for happy hour and met up with my pals there – Bob, Tye and Tim. We caught up and of course I entered the football pool.

On Saturday morning, Donna and I rode the Spyder downtown to the Little Italy District for the farmers’ market. We always enjoy farmers’ markets and the San Diego Saturday market is a good one.

Farmers’ market on Cedar Street

We strolled through the four-block section of Cedar Street and had food samples. We weren’t really shopping for anything, but we ended up buying a Greek-style eggplant and yogurt dip, baguette, smoked gouda cheese, uncured salami and two kinds of sausages from The Meatmen, a bomber bottle of Modern Times blood orange gose beer (brewed in Point Loma), plus pomegranates and kale. We like the smaller Tuesday farmers’ market in Pacific Beach too.

Ozark the cat has really taken to her window mounted bed. She slept Saturday afternoon in it, but the sunshine must have bothered her eyes.

Ozark the cat shielding her eyes

Donna had volunteered to work from 2-4pm at the Girls on the Run booth that was set up for the Esprit de She race on Sunday so she rode her bike over there. While she was out, I made a run to the store. One of things I like about the west coast is the availability and large selection of craft beer in 22-ounce bomber bottles. We found plenty of craft beer in New Mexico, Colorado and even Wyoming but you had to look for it and generally it was only available in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles. In California, Oregon and Washington you’ll find good selections in just about every grocery store.

Islander IPA from Coronado Brewing Company.

We snacked on the food we bought at the farmers’ market for happy hour, then Donna made turmeric chicken with bone-in chicken thighs. She served it with Israeli couscous and steamed green beans.

Turmeric chicken thighs

Donna had her alarm set for 5:30am Sunday morning. She was entered in a 5k race at South Shores Park on the south side of Mission Bay, just east of Sea World. Her plan was to use a City Bike to ride to South Shores Park – the race was scheduled to start at 7:15am. City Bikes are rental bicycles found in various locations in San Diego. The bikes are electronically locked in bike racks. You pay five dollars for half an hour – the machine will release the bike and record the time. When you return the bike at any City Bike rack, it locks in the rack and records the return time. There’s a rack of bikes just outside Mission Bay RV Resort, about a quarter mile from our site.

It had rained overnight, but no rain was falling when Donna left just after 6am. She had to take a towel along to wipe down the City Bike seat – and my headlamp as it was still dark. She was able to ride a bike path all the way to the bike drop-off, then walked another 1/2 mile or so to South Shores Park.

The start of the race was delayed until 7:45am. Donna ran a good pace – 9:48/mile and nearly met her goal of finishing in under 30 minutes. She finished in 30:25 and won the woman’s 50-59 age group.

I spent most of the day watching football. I was getting excited about my chances in the football pool. I picked winners in 10 out of 13 games played on Sunday. I ended up in second place though – the winner also picked 10 out of 13 but he ended up with 84 points to my 80. Oh well, there’s always next week.

Wipe Out IPA from Port Brewing Company

On Sunday evening, Donna made a marinara sauce from scratch and served sweet Italian sausage with marinara over goat cheese ravioli – we bought the sausage and the ravioli at the farmers’ market.

Swwet Italian sausage with marinara over goat cheese raviola

Sweet Italian sausage with marinara over goat cheese ravioli

I have a few errands to run today and I need to get cracking on next year’s health insurance plan. This afternoon I’ll probably play pickleball at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. Donna is working on a new book project that will occupy much of her time as she needs to meet a mid-December deadline.

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Author Archives: Mike Kuper

Pack My Bags

Breaking the Routine

The Irish Room

Not Gourmet

Grocery Stores

Donna’s Packing

I Am Just a Cowboy

San Diego Routine

San Diego Spring Tides

Run, Donna, Run

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: