Aunt Karen & Aunt Jemima

This morning started off just like every other morning for me, early morning wake-up followed by a workout. Unlike other days however, I had visitors out on the beach during my run. Monica & Philip got up shortly after me and headed out the door to walk along the beach. I added a few more minutes to my route to catch up and join them for sea shell hunting. They were totally fascinated with the sand dollars still alive and leaving tracks on the beach. Even though they were diligent about only picking up the ones already dead, they still came back to my apt. with 1/3 of a grocery bag full! They soon discovered that mornings on the beach are never dull; they found themselves in the midst of a BUDS candidate class formation run and stumbled upon this really cool sand sculpture of two mermaids.

We arrived back at my apt. with growling stomachs and ready for breakfast. Every summer for the last several years, Philip and Andy have come out to my house, wherever I'm living at the time, for a week each of vacation. One of the very first times Philip vacationed at my house, I fixed him Aunt Jemima pancakes laden with fresh blueberries. For some reason, he thought that was the coolest thing he had ever had and it has become a tradition for him and I. So, being a woman who takes her auntly duties quite seriously, I always have fresh blueberries in the house and Aunt Jemima pancake mix for Philip when he comes to visit. As you can see from the picture, we were so hungry I didn't even get a shower in after my run before I started cooking breakfast! A new tradition was formed however- scrubbing the walls after pancakes! I had put so many plump, juicy blueberries in the batter that when Monica put a fork into her pancake, a blueberry exploded on my kitchen wall! Scrub as she might, my wall still has blue streaks near the table. Philip laughed all morning over this one!

Since the beach was still a little hazy, we decided to leave the rental car parked for the day and took the ferry across into San Diego to walk around a bit. We ended up at the Fisherman's Village for fish tacos and pulled-pork sandwiches for lunch. There are a ton of cool shops along the waterfront, so we strolled along and ended up listened to a South American band that happened to be playing on a little stage. I love the sound of wooden flutes and it just seemed to fit our moods for the day. We stumbled across an eclectic hammock shop where Philip and I tried out a great hammock swing. It was so comfy I started contemplating if my landlord would allow eye-bolts out of the ceiling in my living room in order to hang it in my apt! Monica finally managed to coax us out of the swing and back onto the ferry to Coronado.

The haze had finally cleared, so Monica & I donned bikinis and headed out to the beach to catch some late afternoon rays. We both fell asleep to the sound of waves breaking and seagulls flying overhead. Our very relaxing day ended with another great meal on Coronado followed by gelato at what has become Philip's favorite place on the island!

We're hoping that tomorrow will bring a hazeless day so we can drive up the coast and check out the beach towns along Hwy 101 north.

Family in town!

By the time Monica & Philip's delayed flight finally landed last night I had already had a full on day. I met up with a Navy buddy from my first squadron that I hadn't seen in 15 years and one of his friends and we rode for almost 8 hours! It was HOT out, upper 90s for the whole day. Although they kept jokingly referring to me as the princess of the group, the title was transferred to the guys as they kept whining about the heat! Although sweating buckets and sticky from so much sunscreen, I was perfectly content riding in a tank top (yep, I've got quite the mish-mash tan going on from the last week!) and soaking in the sun. I stayed true to my mantra- I'd rather sweat than freeze any day!

Finally, around 9:30 pm I navigated the rental car through the maze of San Diego airport and picked up the two wayward Cajuns! Although I'm quite content not owning a car, it does come in handy to have four wheels when you have more than one guest in town. Plus, Philip had already stated he didn't want to ride on the back! At 16 years old, he's already 6'3" so he would've looked pretty funny riding two-up anyway (I'm refraining from using the slang term for someone riding on the passenger seat since this is a family-friendly blog!).

We started off the morning driving up to Point Loma, but it quickly became apparent that today was not a good day to stay on the coast. The warm weather we've been experiencing here in southern California mixed with the characteristically cold Pacific water and produced thick fog that reduced visibility to less than 10 miles. No worries, we switched to Plan B and headed south-east towards desert.

After tooling around in the desert heat for the morning, we headed back towards the coast thinking that the fog would've burned off by early afternoon. That wasn't the case as we found ourselves surrounded once again in thick condensation hanging in the air. To Philip's relief, the closer we got to the ocean the cooler it got. What it is with guys and their aversion to heat?! Without bright sunshine beckoning us to the beach, we decided to tour the town of Coronado. As you can see from these pics, dessert crepes were on the afternoon agenda. So for those of you who have emailed to inform me that I've been slacking on food pics, here you go!

Philip opted out, but Monica and I attended the Coronado concert in the park where the San Diego Marine Corp band played tonight. We all ended the day with supper at a great little Mexican restaurant with a stop off at the local gelato shop on the walk home. Not sure what tomorrow will bring, the weather will decide which direction we head.

Biker Babes!

OK, I guess that pig tails and our own bikes take us out of the "biker babe" category! But after rolling out over 500 miles together over the last 3 days, we are feeling a bit sassy!

Yesterday, we rode up the coast on old Hwy 101 to Oceanside. We had to take the interstate north to get around the PGA tournament that was going on at Torrey Pines, but after that it was beach riding most of the way. In true California weather fashion, the closer to the beach you get, the colder it is! It seemed so backwards for us to be in long sleeves and coats as we cruised up the coast yesterday and then in tank tops and sunscreen as we headed east and inland today.

Even though Bridie was a winter sport athlete, we share a love of hot weather. We were determined to rid ourselves of the chill from the beach, so we headed for the desert today. We rode twisty, winding roads up through the mountains. It's amazing how quickly Bridie became comfortable with navigating the sharp turns! We started off slow at first, but once she got the rhythm of pushing and leaning into the turns, the pace picked up. As the afternoon wore on, we dropped into the desert and the temperature soared. We rolled through Borrego Springs around 2:00 p.m when the temp hit 110 degree F! With relative humidity under 20%, the hydration stop at a local gas station proved to be just what we needed! After consuming lots of fluids and allowing enough time for both us and the bikes to cool down, we set off back into the mountains toward San Diego.

Anyone reading this blog that knows me can verify that I have a horrible sense of direction. As you can imagine, me riding lead was like the blind leading the blind! Even with the map, we stopped often at road junctions to verify we were on the right path! I'm sure I added on many miles to our road trip due to detours, but since we were just out to ride it really didn't matter! One of the things I love about hanging out with Bridie is that we just roll with the punches together. We always seem to be able to turn a detour or unexpected change in plans into a new adventure- perfectly matched travel buddies!

After riding around on 883 cc out here, she's already concerned that the 250 she left back in New York will no longer suffice! Unfortunately, the riding she did out here will have to hold her over for the rest of the summer. Her former life as a competitive speed skater has taken a toll on her body. She had to cut her vacation out here short by a day to return to New York for her fifth surgical procedure in as many years. A few bottles of wine and several hours of conversation later, she's ready to face the last of the remnants of her former life before moving on to a professional career outside of sport. It's never easy to close the door on one chapter of life and move onto the next, but with a newly earned college degree and a bit more experience under her belt she feels like she's ready.

Tomorrow I will see Bridie off at the airport and get ready for my sister Monica and her son Philip to come out here on Saturday. We'll see what adventures their visit brings!

Catchin up on two weeks

The month of June has been reserved for visitors to the Karen B&B here in San Diego. The first of my scheduled guests is my friend Bridie who arrived on Friday. Even though I'm almost 15 years her senior, we've been sharing adventures ever since we became friends during my USOC internship 5 years ago. The last time I saw Bridie was in MA at the wedding ceremony I performed for Deb & Karin last fall. She's just graduated from Cornell University and is taking a little vacation time before joining the rest of us in the rat race of making a living.

After hearing that I just upped and took a motorcycle safety class on my own a couple of years ago, Bridie decided to do the same and ended up buying a 1995 Yamaha Virago 250 shortly thereafter. Although she rides her bike quite often during the warm months, New York isn't conducive to year-round riding in order to gain experience. Up until today, her longest time in the saddle was 70 miles or just a couple of hours. When she decided to come out here for a weeks' vacation, she tossed around the thought of renting a similar small bike to scoot around on. Needless to say, I steered her towards at least an 883 HD Sportster, which we picked up on Friday. We rolled around locally for the afternoon to allow her to get used to the bike, then went for a full on day of riding today.

After only a day of riding, you would think she's been riding a "bigger " bike all her life! It was so much fun to look in my rear view mirror and see Bridie grinning from ear to ear as we navigated winding valley and mountain roads for much of the day. We took off this morning from Coronado and headed south-east on Hwy 94. After checking out the border at Tecate (we decided not to go down to Mexico today), we stopped in Campo for a great roadside diner lunch.

From there, we took S1 Scenic Byway to the heart of Cleveland National Forest- Mount Laguna. I had been up to this 6000 foot road known as Sunrise Hwy before, but it was a totally different experience during this upper-80s degree day! There were a ton of bikes out on the road today skirting the eastern edge of the National Forest with hairpin turns overlooking the California Desert. It was pretty technical riding, but Bridie held her own as we maintained a steady pace on the uncrowded mountain roads.

After exiting the National Forest, we descended into the historic town of Julian where we stopped to stretch our legs. The main street was lined with bikes of every make and model with folks strolling along the streets enjoying afternoon refreshments. We popped into a local "soda fountain" where I enjoyed a delicious chocolate shake! I was able to alleviate some of the guilt over this indulgence by reminding myself that I had worked out for over an hour this morning before we set off on our road trip (unlike Bridie who decided to catch up on some beauty sleep)!

After 5 hours in the saddle and over 175 miles clocked on the odometer, we rolled back into Coronado to celebrate the day. We stopped off at my favorite local wine shop and picked up a tasty beverage for the evening. We packed a little picnic basket of crackers, cheese, humus, fruit and wine and headed to the beach. We hung out there for a few hours catching up while snacking and enjoying some great wine. The day was perfect- adventurous yet relaxing! In typical Karen fashion, we have no plans for the rest of her time here in Southern California, but we have no doubts that the next few days will involve some two-wheeled adventures. We'll start off tomorrow morning with a cup of coffee and the map spread out on the table. Who knows what the day will bring. . .