I didn’t post yesterday. We were up early and prepared to hit the road to San Diego.

Thursday was a laid back day. Donna rode her bike down to the Emma Wood State Park and back. I watched dolphins in the surf.

If you look closely, you can see the dolphin. Click on pic to enlarge.

Later I rode the scooter to Ventura. The old downtown area looked nice and there were people on the street. We didn’t see very many people on the streets in the northwest. The only way to get from Rincon to Ventura or to Carpinteria to the north is via US101. I wanted to buy a few things at the store, so I had no alternative to blasting down the freeway.

We walked on the beach in the afternoon. Donna prepared Dijon-Glazed Flat Iron Steak which I grilled for dinner. It was tender and tasty! She served it with a side of sauteed veggies.

It wasn’t as rare as it looks in the photo.

Friday morning we pulled out of site #16 a little before 9am. Even though we would travel less than 200 miles, I knew it could take five hours or more. Our route took us down US101 to I-405. Near the junction with I-405, the traffic slowed. It was stop and go for about half an hour. The traffic started to flow again around Santa Monica.

Our set up in space #16

There aren’t any rest areas or good places to pull out until you are south of Camp Pendleton. We stopped at the rest area there, just north of Oceanside. I’ve driven this stretch of road hundreds of  times, but this was the first time I’ve pulled into this rest stop. It’s large. There are three buildings with restrooms. There’s a walking path behind the buildings with an ocean view.

Traffic on I-5 was heavy in north San Diego county. We arrived at the Mission Bay RV Resort around 1pm. We had to drop the trailer in a lot behind the office. This was a little tricky as I had to maneuver between cars. It took a lot longer than I expected. This is the first time we’ve dropped the trailer in eight weeks of travel.

The RV resort is a large paved area with 260 full hook-up sites in the middle of a mobile home park. This mobile home park is somewhat upscale. This is the result of the price of real estate on Mission Bay. When I was in high school, we used to come down here in June to watch the Unlimited Hydroplane Gold Cup races on Mission  Bay. The RV resort didn’t exist back then.

We were backed into our site and hooked up in no time. This will be a new experience. We’ve booked a full month. This will be the first time we’ll be stationary for 30 days since we hit the road.

Later, my youngest daughter Shauna visited us. She’s a grad student at Cal Western School of Law. She drove us to Old Town. The Old Town Mexican Cafe has some of the best authentic Mexican food. The tortillas they serve are made onsite. I had the chili verde and it was delicious.

Shauna doing a balancing act

After dinner we relaxed and watched a couple of movies on TV. Today we’ll do some housekeeping and grocery shopping. We’ll also do some biking around the bay.