Day 5 - San Diego

We began the last day with a delightful presentation, "It's a Matter of Taste," by two chefs. We sampled a variety of delicious foods and learned some things about contrasting tastes. Afterward, we strolled around Old Town and bought a few souveniers. Our flight, later in the afternoon was a little late so we got to Denver about 11:00 P.M. The Exploritas trip is a thumbs up for us and we will do another.

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Day 4 - San Diego

We started the day with a narrated cruise of San Diego Bay. The harbor area is impressive with a strong Navy presence. We saw numerous Navy ships being tended in their docking areas as well as pleasure craft. What a busy place!

After lunch in lovely Seaport Village we took a guided walking tour of Little Italy, ending the day with wine tasting and dinner at a very popular Italian restaurant. By the way, the weather during our entire trip was beautiful.

Day 3 - San Diego

Our Exploritas group spent the day in Balboa Park. In the morning we had an excellent guided tour of the zoo where we got to go behind the scenes in the elephant and giraffe complexes. We spent the afternoon on our own visiting museums, botanical gardens, and wandering the immense grounds. One day gave us a glimpse of all the park has to offer but one would need several visits to see it all. Many of the buildings and other features date back to The 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition.


Below are some photographs taken in the afternoon, inside several buildings and outside in the gardens of Balboa Park. The architecture and huge variety of plants are impressive and beautiful.

Day 2 - San Diego

The day's activities began with an award winning video on Chicano Park. Salvadore Torres, artist and activist, answered questions about San Diego's Hispanic community before taking us on a tour of Chicano Park and the murals of Barrio Logan.




We lunched at Coronado Ferry Landing then took a docent tour of the fabulous Hotel Del Coronado. The gorgeous hotel and grounds face the Pacific Ocean separated by a wide sandy beach. The interior is luxurious. Our docent was a good story teller and regaled us with tales of a few of the more famous guests of the hotel as well as it's history.

Day 1- San Diego

Our first full day in San Diego began with a trip to Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. Our guide was a geology and plant expert who led a narrated hike. We saw spectacular scenery and were fortunate to find this a particularly good year for wild flowers.








After lunch in beautiful La Jolla, we had a docent tour of Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It included an hour long "Ocean Discovery Workshop." My favorite was the seahorse exhibit, "There's Something About Seahorses" which includes a seahorse nursery.

Spring Snow

We woke up to heavy snow and several inches already on the ground. March is our heaviest snow month so I'm not surprised but I am slightly dismayed. We have to drive down the mountain to Denver International Airport day after tomorrow for our flight to San Diego. From past experience, I'll predict that the roads will be clear, either because of our excellent snow removal teams or Mother Nature. The first snowplow just cleared Ridge Lane as I write this.

Our flight to San Diego begins our Exploritas tour, "A Toast to the Best of San Diego." This will be our first experience with Exploritas and we're eager to see how well run it is. I'll be taking lots of photos and posting when I can. Today I'll be organizing and packing, taking knitting and quilting breaks as needed.

Quilt Group

I belong to several quilt related groups and I love them all. Today was Friday PM Quilters. As the name indicates, we meet every other Friday afternoon but I like to think the PM stands for "Perfectly Marvelous!" We take turns hosting the group in our homes. All but two of our members live in Estes Park. The two who don't, used to live here and have moved to Loveland which is about thirty miles down the Big Thompson Canyon road, a curvy, winding, "follow the river" road. Today we met in Loveland - eight of us. We each bring a project on which to work and, while we are all quilters, many of us also bring knitting, embroidery, or other needlework. It's always a treat to see what everyone else is working on. We stitch and chat from one to three then have dessert prepared by our hostess - it's always something delicious!

I took my camera intending to take photos of our group but completely forgot until it was time to leave at four. So, the only photos I took were of the spring flowers blooming by the front door. Those of us in Estes, are envious of our lower altitude friends because spring comes much earlier at 5000 ft. elevation than 8000 ft. elevation. No flowers blooming here yet, unless they are indoors. I am lusting after blooming flowers which I won't be able to plant until June 10 (our last official frost date.) I'll have to be content with plant catalogs and photos of my deck garden from years past but it's hard to wait.

Winter Picnic

One of my favorite things to do on a sunny winter day is to take a picnic to Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. This was a perfect day for it so we packed some sandwiches, chips, fruit and cookies, picked up Mom and set out for the park. It was gorgeous and we found several others there picnicking, snowshoeing, skiing or hiking. Most of the picnic tables still had snow but we found one in the sun that was clear and we set up our humble feast. Immediately, a Steller's Jay and a Gray Jay came to beg. The Gray Jay was clearer the bolder of the two and flew right down to the table to steal a bite. Sprague Lake was covered with ice and snow. Here are a few photos.