

It's always surprised me to know that there are mountains, not hills but honest-to-gooness montains, just east of the flat, hot, highly populated areas in Southern California. I've heard of Big Bear, where you can go skiing within an hours drive of where people are basking in the sun at the beach, but I've never been there.
Well ... it's true! We traveled to the Thousand Trails park called Idyllwild. It's at 6600 feet. What a pretty drive!
I think this can honestly be called a 'Campground'. Lots of pine trees, big sites, nature trails, and cool air. We woke up to 56 degrees! In fact, I'd say that a lot of these sites were better used by tents! You had to be pretty adept at handling your rig to get parked on these hills!
With all these trees, we were a little worried about getting our satellite Internet. As it turned out, we got on thru the trees just fine. We also had the best cell signal that we've had in the last month! Go figure - our most remote location all month and the best signal. Perhaps this sight at the entrance to the park would explain it.
see more photos on our web album.
"... I am right behind you in my car as I type this on ca-371. If you're not online right now you aren't as much of a geek as me. (you have been outgeeked) ..."
Last week we drove to La Jolla and scoped it out for launching and paddling kayaks, saying we'd come back this week. We did it! So many times we've said we'd 'do that later', and never do. But this was just too good to pass up!
It was a gorgeous day. The drive was a little less than an hour from our campsite at Ramona.
You drive right on the beach to launch the kayaks.
You gotta watch the video to see how we had to paddle thru the surf to get out. It was actually very little surf, but compared to what we're used to in Fort Lauderdale ! Watch out. Luckily we don't have video of when we came back in. The surf dumped us both! First time I've ever flipped the kayak.
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After getting out, it was pretty calm going over to the caves. You could even see the kelp and the bright orange Garibaldi fish in the chilly water below you.
Here's Jim braving the caves.
I've certainly seen plenty of seals before - but not paddling close enough to pet them!
I just can't imagine how much money it takes to live here!
Do I feel guilty for taking a whole day when I should have been doing web work and bookkeeping? Yes. Would I do it again? Yep.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away!"
We gave our last seminar at Pio Pico on Thursday. It was on Managing Digital Photos with Picasa. Suprisingly, none of the 3 attendees even had a digital camera. But, they'll be a big step ahead when they do get one!
Even though the seminar is not hands-on, we demonstrate every detail. We take our digital camera to the class and snap a few photos - transfer them to the computer, rename them, organize them, fix 'em up, email them, upload them to a web album and back them up. All using Picasa. Damn, I love that program!
The camera is not always kind when we snap these quick shots. In this class, the photos of me and Jim make us look positively crazy. I think they're funny. I hope I'm not scaring away any future students by posting them here!
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The weather has cooled down substantially. We left the A/C off last night and opened the windows - waking up to 69 degrees!
But, what I'm referring to in my title is this *cool* place called La Jolla.
We saw a brochure about kayaking in the ocean to some sea caves. We checked the map and realized it was only an hour away, so we thought we'd check it out. What a gorgeous day!
We found the place on the beach where people launch kayaks. But, we decided to come back another day to go ourselves. The wind was picking up, and we had to be back in the park by 3 to do our seminar. So, we went for a walk down the beach.
We 'hid out' most of the day. Kept the blinds closed and the air conditioning on - luckily the electricity held up. The news coverage from San Diego area reported several areas of power failures today.
We did get out this morning for the swap meet. We only sold a couple CDs, but it was good to get some practice, we might do more 'booths' in the future.