Sunset - Torrey pines

The Hybrid has made the travel possible. I have the Honda hybrid but I am hearing good things about the Prius too. The civic is a little larger.

Torrey Pines sunset

I have more pictures coming up soon - maybe tomorrow.

Sunset at Torrey Pines

What is on the other side of this ocean?

Beach at Torrey Pines

The US Open took place above the hill here. Tiger Woods won. The path down to the beach is a good workout.

Tiger Woods, US OPEN

This is Black's beach which is the beach beneath Torrey Pines. The US Open was held here a week ago. I was here two days after the Open ended. They were still tearing down the tents, etc. It is a good hike down to the beach. Tiger won the US Open but has to take a few months off for knee surgery. It was only 95 degrees here but the humidity from the ocean was noticable. This is just outside of San Diego.

Wind Mills by Palm Springs

The wind always blows here so there are about 1000 of these wind mills producing electricity. It was 115 degrees the other day in Palm Springs. It is kind of like living in an oven. When you turn off the air conditioning or are working outside you bake. 100 is a cool day here but the evenings can be pleasant.

Honda Civic Hybrid

I bought a Honda Civic Hybrid and with gas prices of $4.75 a gallon in CA, it is a good thing. I am getting 40 MPG with the air conditioner on and going 70 miles per hour. It is a smooth running little car. I could not have afforded this trip with my old Jeep. I park this one when we go camping in the back woods.

Hemet, CA

This is the Inland Empire. It is about 100 degrees daily. It cools down to about 75 to 80 at night. The sage brush is drying out. Did I mention that it is hot.

111 degrees

I drove to Palm Springs and it was 111 degrees. I then went back to Banning and it was a cool 104. The hills are drying out fast. The spring was wet so there is quite a bit of grass to dry up and create a fire danger.

hiking scene

This is a typical hiking scene in our camp area. We hiked up the stream bed so it is green. We had a 3 year old and a 5 year old hiking with us and they did the entire hike by themselves. They needed help over big logs and massive rocks but the kids were great troopers and took it one step at a time. I am quite impressed.

No desert camping!

We decided not to camp in the desert - too hot. It was 110 degrees at 10 AM when we did a temp check of Anza. That is way too hot. Remember: I spent 3 months recently in below zero temperatures. Where we camped the low was 65 and the high was 85 - tolerable.

We camped by this little town.

They had a festival too. We got some ice cream and ice and headed back to our little hiding spot.

Mosquitos

There was a big enough stream and stagnant water to produce lots of mosquitos. We had to put on anti mosquito juice again and again. The mosquitos are small compared to Alaska mosquitos. The CA mosquitos do eat well though. This picture is looking west to LA.

Camping in Southern CA

This is a daughter and a grandson when we were camping and hiking in Southern California. We were about 90 miles from LA. We got a site with no other people around - pretty amazing.

Bye Anchorage

This is another past midnight shot. Float planes are big in Alaska because so much of Alaska is remote. This is in Anchorage, by the airport.

Portland: We have had clouds and rain much of the time that I have been here. It actually seems colder in Portland than it was in Alaska. I am enjoying hanging out with family at this point. I am getting ready to do some traveling here in the northwest and then on to the deserts of California.

Moose in Anchorage!

It was light until past midnight. I could not sleep so I went to get something to eat at 11 PM at night. I got 2 blocks from the motel and I saw this moose eating his dinner. This is in Anchorage.

Anchorage

I saw this vehicle flying down the street in downtown Anchorage. I like less traffic in Anchorage. West coast cities have much more traffic.

I am in Portland being a grandpa. I guess I am switching gears for summer.