Wednesday, January 27, 2016

San Diego, CA - It's All About the Water

Of course, if it’s San Diego, it’s all about the water. Our campground is right on Mission Bay which is a large body of water connected to the ocean by a narrow channel through which lots of yachts, boats, whale watching tours and fishing boats head out to sea. It is just north of the city itself and, when I go out to the beach in the morning with my cup of coffee, I get views like this. The haze over the city, the birds soaring over the water, the crews out practicing and the Bay itself. Is there any doubt why we come here just about every year? The bay is surrounded by parks and we can go either left or right when we leave the park for our daily walk and walk around part of the bay. On the Saturday when we want to leave for our next destination the Mermaid Half-Marathon will go by our campground as the participants circle the bay. Maybe we’ll wait til 10:00 when the Marathon is over.

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We’re only minutes by car from Pacific Beach right on the ocean. We drive a short distance, park the car and then walk the beach. Between Mission Bay where our campground is and the Pacific is a narrow strip of land wide enough for one major street. But, boy, is it lined with rental homes, shoppes, restaurants and anything else a tourist might want. You want a surfboard, you want pre-ripped jeans, how about anchovies and olives for your pizza, or maybe you want an ‘itsy bitsy teeny weenie yellow polka dot bikini’ - ‘you can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant’. Oops, I got mixed up in my song lyrics there. But, the point is, if it’s something tourists want, it’s here.

Of course the Navy has a huge presence here in San Diego. Sometimes we can see the shadows of a ship off in the distance.

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Then between the Bay and the Ocean are lots of tiny walk-throughs like the one Gary is on here. These are also lined with homes, patios, sidewalks but no cars - only for pedestrians. Check out the wet footprints on the sidewalk in front of Big Gar - looks like someone just came from the water. It’s fun to walk around here

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On one end of this sidewalk is this wonderful beach scene: lots of surfers and one guy who decided he could move faster with a kite.

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And, on the other side of the walkway is this Bay scene.

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No matter which way you go, it’s interesting, lively and the views are simply amazing.

We also saw this scene as we circled the Bay. Looks like something right out of sci-fi novels. This guy was bouncing up and down all over the bay. The jet-ski in back of him must have had something on it which generated the air which propelled him higher. You can rent this when you’re in San Diego.

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Lots of activities on the beach, luckily someone got a good picture of Gary and me here. Ha ha.

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One last look backwards before we head back to the RV.

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On the other hand, as beautiful as the Ocean is, it can also cause considerable damage. I’m sure that many of you saw the pictures and videos of sand sliding down the slope under several apartment houses near San Francisco. You could see some of the cement underneath the apartment house since the slope had deteriorated so much. People were evacuating and were told that they had a bit of time to retrieve their possessions. How tragic. I feel so badly for these people. Beautiful views from their balconies and windows but, because of the risk here, the rents were low enough to attract many who worked in San Francisco but could not afford the prices of SF housing.

In 2012 we stayed in a campground just 1/2 mile down the road from these apartment houses. One of them had already been condemned because of prior cliffside erosion. We remember walking the beach below the homes (though off to the side) and looking up to see the underside of the foundation as it stuck out over the cliff.

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Someone (the developer) had put sheets of a covering over the sand on the cliff and had then bored holes into it for rebar and cables to try to hold the cliff together. It obviously didn’t work and here you can see the remains.

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Here’s a Google view looking down on the apartments and you can see the edge of the cliff (the brown sand) right up against 3 of the apartment buildings.

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We were incredulous to see residents walking into these buildings - obviously still living in them.

Even the cliffs at the campground were eroding. Prior to our stay, the spots looking out over the cliffs onto the Pacific Ocean were the choice spots in the campground. When we got to the campground they looked like this:

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One 5th wheel is still on the cliff but all others had been moved, the spots had been blocked off and a fence put up so that no one could walk on the cliff edge itself.

We had one of the most interior spots in the campground so were not worried. This year we made our reservation at this campground, the closest to San Francisco, but, then we saw the recent crumbling of the cliffs and decided to stay in another campground, north of the bay. We will miss this campground with its gorgeous views and ease of getting into the city but are excited about trying another one. You know, we tend to stay in campgrounds where we have stayed in the past - ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ But, on the other hand, it’s always nice to try something new - who knows? We might like it better. The new campground is on the north side of the bay so we will be closer to the Muir Woods, the Point Reyes National Seashore and Mt Tamalpais - a good hiking opportunity.

‘You can’t weigh the facts if you’ve got the scales loaded down with your opinions.’

                                Anonymous

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