Bees!

Our final Southern CA noteworthy event comes with a story better told in person. It involves Bob and some local beehives that had been, unbeknown to their owners, taken over by killer bees... we'll let the pictures tell the story.













Notice the rapidly increasing number of bees - the end result was several hours trying to escape the bees, multiple stings especially around the ankles and 2 days of recovery while the swelling reduced enough to walk!

Interesting tidbit: a paste of baking soda and water helps reduce swelling when you don't have any clay handy.

Labor Day visitors

Our friends Logan & Heidi decided they needed a sun break from the SF summer fog, so flew down for the long weekend. I think we actually saw more of San Diego while they were visiting than we did the rest of our stay! We did introduce them to the joys of juicing and sent them home with a box of citrus, so they had a true taste of our life in SD.



We took them to the beach and the Farmer's Market, of course, then to the famous San Diego Zoo...









and to the USS Midway docked in downtown San Diego.



They also got to join us for our first (and so far only) trip south of the border for Sun. morning meeting - that was an amazing experience we heartily recommend... unfortunately we didn't take pictures.

Besides picking fruit...

we also spent some time at the Farmer's Market...





some time with the animals (dog, cats & ducks)...





Did I mention we enjoyed the fruit?? And we made some REAL ice cream - or rather, Kat did with a little help from Daddy and Bob.

North for a family reunion

We took a quick excursion north to Montana, to attend a family reunion, supply the San Diego Hinkles with some citrus (it's a hard habit to break) and to take in some gorgeous scenery!

First Scenic view - Yellowstone National Park at dusk, when the animals come out to play.




Then onto the reunion...





And some fun with the nieces.



Second Scenic view - Mission Mountains, MT.



Citrus delivery, a quick visit to "the Cabin"...



and wildlife viewing of various types.





Third Scenic view - Ross Creek Cedars, MT





Fourth Scenic view - Hwy. 95, Idaho



Fifth Scenic view - Hwy. 97, Oregon



Sixth Scenic view - Mt. Shasta, California



Quick stop in SF to pick up June and then onward to...

Seventh Scenic view - the Pacific Coast Highway/Hwy. 1, CA.







Eight (and final) Scenic view - Coronado Island, CA and the Hotel del Coronado





As we were relaxing at a sidewalk pizza stop in Coronado, we happened to witness the Coronado Sandman at work on one of his sand paintings. It was too dark for a picture but was a very cool finale to our trip.

Did we mention fruit trees!?

There are many things to appreciate about southern CA - the weather, the beaches - but I think we can safely say that our experience was truly enriched by the produce, namely the fruit trees that are many on the Diaz/Gibson properties. The bounty was truly amazing to those of us used to the sparse fruit offerings of the northern US!









There are orange trees, which means fresh OJ in the morning! Of course someone thought to encourage a little entrepreneurship with that morning OJ...







Then there were the peaches...



AND the peach pie!



The grapes and grapefruit...



the pomegranates for pomegranate juice...



the basil for pesto...



and the lemons for lemonade. Between the lemons and the grapefruit we had a massive juicing event, even breaking out the Sunkist commercial juicer!

South once again

With much assistance (I'm sure all of it helpful) the Hinkle clan embarked on their first summer adventure to Montana, leaving us in charge of the house, the dog, the cats, the ducks AND all those fruit trees!