This spoon is the last thing you will ever see. All your life has been in vain...because I have a spoon. And you will die.Feb 25--A Tale of Two BeachesThe previous night we talked with my parents on Skype, and my mom informed Hunty that she had permission to beat me upside the head if I didn't take her to the Hotel del Coronado beach. I considered this to be undermining my authority, as just a few hours earlier I had stated that beating someone up didn't require permission. (No seriously, we talked about this.) Nevertheless, today we decided to go around to see some beaches.
First up was the beach outside the swanky Hotel del Coronado resort. This involved driving over a long curvy bridge to get to an island just off the coast.
It was a good bridge. Awesome view. The beach was beautiful white sand and pretty and clean, with only a few cigarette butts. After sitting and enjoying the beach for a while, we went back and walked around the hotel. Turns out there are a lot of little fancy expensive shops connected there, and quite a lot of people go there just for the sake of being fancy for an afternoon. It was all really expensive and though we stopped and stared at a bunch of stuff, never ended up buying anything. And all for the better.
Outside of the hotel.Huntyposery, the beach, and the hotel.Frazeposery, the beach, and the hotel. After that, we went to a different beach, which my great uncle had recommended. It was distinctly less snooty, but still quite a nice beach. Of course, we immediately abandoned it and went to Wendy's, because why not. It was somewhat windy and the car was parked in a paid lot, so we decided we might as well walk there. We do this kind of stuff a lot.
After that we headed back home and lazed around for a bit, before going to a local church that does a monthly folk dancing session with my uncle and aunt. It was the kind of thing that you go to for the sake of irony and then end up genuinely enjoying.
Feb 26--A Walk in the ParkSo the house we were staying at is within walking distance of Balboa Park, a large and very pretty park with a number of museums and displays and other stuff scattered around, so we decided to take a walk there. Hunty took time out of her busy schedule to curse all of the hills that infest San Diego (she had already done this several times, but it was apparently worth repeating), but we made it through the walk alive nevertheless. There were a lot of very attractive plants, most notably agave and agave-like shrubs, which were in bloom. They get this massive tree-like stalk six or eight times taller than the plant itself, and then apparently die.
These things really were spectacular. My uncle gave us free passes for the art museum in the park, but we quickly got sidetracked by all the other things there. There was a cute little cluster of artists' shops dressed up to look like a Spanish village. A lot of the art was quite attractive, but all of it was expensive.
I liked the multicolored street. We got to see a botanic garden with various orchid displays and some carnivorous plants (A sign said, "Do not touch the carnivorous plants, anyone found touching them will be fed to the plants"), and a fine art museum other than the one we were looking for, with some spectacular classical paintings on display. There was still more at the other art museum, but I think Hunty got more from that than I did. It all kind of blended together for me.
Flowers at the botanic garden.A bit more of the garden.Nifty painting.Another nifty painting. Hunty could tell you more than I can, probably. Finally, we went around to see more of the park in between all of the museums. There was a performance of an outdoor organ--they do shows every Sunday--and afterward spectators got to peek into the organ pipe room. Man, those things are impressive. There was a Japanese garden we didn't go into, and a garden called Zoro Garden which we did. Hunty was extremely happy about this last bit, three guesses why.
We headed back the way we came after that. We managed to see everything for free, except for the tea Hunty got. When we got back to the house, we helped pull up some weeds, which amounted to rendering an entire patch of lawn completely bare. Because if we're going to be guests, we might as well be useful.
I always liked organs, it seems like it would be a real thrill to play one.Photographic evidence of Zoro Garden.A moth we found on the way back. Cute little thing. For dinner we made a...thing. A concoction, one might say, with pork chops, because we were told we should use them up; and egg batter, because that's how Hunty cooks meat. Then topped it all off with cheddar cheese, because we felt like it. It was not one of the healthier things I've ever cooked, but man it was good.
Feb 27--The Haunted CampgroundThis day was mostly dedicated to driving. We headed out somewhere around late morning. One day we
will get better about leaving early. First we did our laundry and had breakfast at a '50s-themed American diner, the third that Hunty has been to on this trip. After that, we drove and drove and drove northward, with the intention of moving toward Fresno. It started raining a bit outside of San Diego, and went on and off for most of the time we were driving.
It looked like this most of the way. Then night fell.
Well, dang.
We stopped at a campground outside of some town, looked around and found out that we could stay at a cheap motel for not much more money. So we asked the lady at the desk if there were any other campgrounds farther on, and she told us of one another 30 miles onward. Since we have no sense of danger or immediacy, we headed boldly onward.
We pulled off the highway onto a dark stretch of road. After driving for several miles, we only saw one car, going the other way. And then, out of the darkness, loomed a shocking and grotesque figure, several times larger than a normal human being. Our blood turned cold, heartbeats quickened. The ghostly glow from the car's headlights illuminated the figure further, and we saw...
...It was a painted wooden figure, advertising Calico Ghost Town.
Which appeared to be some kind of tourist attraction. But this looked to be the correct site for the campground, so we turned in. The retractable barrier that goes up and down was in the up position, and no one was waiting at the toll booth, so we got in without paying.
It had all the makings of a horror movie.
It was by now thoroughly dark. We managed to find a campsite, and found out that a park ranger supposedly comes by to collect the camping fee each night but hadn't done so this time. It was very windy, but we managed to get the tent set up by the light of the car's headlights and creative use of some rocks to weigh it down, and went to sleep. It remained windy all night long.
Feb 28--Ghost Towns and Unpaved RoadsWe woke up to a bright, clear day. This was going to be our lazy day, definitely and without a doubt. Absolutely. Yep.
Well, it was still windy. But I was going to make pancakes if it killed me, so I set up the camp stove in the lee of the tent (whoo, I've never gotten to use that word before), mixed up some pancake batter, and went to town. Best pancakes ever.
Seriously, they were.Our campsite for the night. After eating, we broke camp--the tent was difficult to take down because of the wind, but it was still easier than setting it up--and set off. We drove to the ghost town itself, which was something of a Theme Park Version of a ghost town but still rather informative. We went through a self-guided tour of an actual mine tunnel dug by some guys who got tremendously unlucky with their chosen spot for digging, looked around a few shops, and finally left. Technically there was supposed to be an entrance fee, but we got there after dark the night before with no one watching, and we didn't get stopped on the way out. We keep managing to do these things for free, one way or other.
The ghost town. It was pretty much all like this, with half cute kitchy little shops and half historical buildings.Fraezposery. The other photo was even worse.Huntyposery works much better. So, we had a plan. We would drive up northward to the east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and take one of the roads cutting through the mountains to get to Fresno. But for today, we would just drive a little bit until we found another campground. That's it. Not a lot, maybe just an hour or two. Then we'd have the rest of the day to be lazy. Well, we finally got started on driving at around 2 PM.
Five hours of driving later, we set up the camp by moonlight in blustery wind. Again. This time, we drove up the highway a ways until we found a road leading off of it that was free of Civilization, then found a dirt road leading off of that. (A guy at a gas station suggested we do this to find good spots to camp.) We went down that road until we found a place to pull off the path, and a flatish patch of bare ground to set up the tent. Because we Do Not Learn From Past Mistakes.
Well, that's not
quite true. This time we set up the tent so that the door faced away from the wind. This meant that we could crouch just barely inside the tent and cook dinner on the camp stove while being shielded from the wind by the tent, and shielding the stove from behind with an umbrella. It was pork with egg mixture again, this time with ramen, cooked on a camp stove, eaten hunched at the entrance to a tent at 9 PM in roaring wind. And it was one of the best things I've ever eaten.
Oh dear gods this was delicious.And a close-up.