La Jolla Shores and Blacks beach

Now we have a few mornings that are not so grey, I went early to LaJolla Farms Road and walked down to the beach, and then back up the Scripps oceanography Institute, and then another day back up via Gliderport.

The days were clear and beautiful, with the usual surfers making the steep trip down to the beach, and I was surprised at how flat and level the beach is at lower tide. The sun coming up over the cliffs was just spectacular and as usual very photogenic ❤️❤️

The trip along the beach to Gliderport was equally unbelievable with the tide out at least 100 yards exposing flat and even Sandy Beach



George Floyd protests downtown

As the terrible news about George Floyd sparks protests around the world, San Diego protesters have generally been peaceful and numerous, but police headquarters is sealed off one block all around with lots of cops hanging out outside

I took a walk downtown around police HQ, and along Broadway, and took pictures of all the businesses that have put up plywood in preparation for any trouble. It was a pretty surreal sight to see groups of protesters coming back from various rallies, as well as creative things going on, including spray painting of murals, and broadcasting music.

Definitely disturbing to see armed soldiers outside the halls of justice, although they were more interested in chatting with pretty girls walking by. Unbelievable that this is America 2020.

Cuyamaca Peak hike 0220

Decided rather late to head out to the Cuyamaca state forest and hike the second highest peak in the area.

As always we balked from paying the state park fee, but because there was no good phone reception and I couldn’t figure out an alternative hike, we bit the bullet and paid!

Alltrails app suggested we take the Cuyamaca Peak trail via the azalea glen loop, 1600′ ascent, approx 7.7miles… The area suffered from a massive fire in 2003 and while it’s growing nicely, the stark white black and gray skeletons of trees are everywhere, including many charred scaled trunks and stumps

The hike itself was not strenuous, and went through some beautiful scenery with tall trees and bushes and small stream cutting across them. We hardly saw anyone, but were happy to have taken plenty of water. As we climbed higher we found ice on the shaded side of the trails, and D decided to cause trouble by picking a snowball fight, which is never a good idea… part of the reason why it’ll be called the ass kicking hike!

We were pretty tired by the time we got near the peak, but pushed on up the last tarmac road leading to the communications towers at the top. The view from there was fantastic, with multiple layers of mountains in the distance hidden and partly obscured by low cloud and mist



From the top, we plug it back down the service road, which was chewed up by the SDG&E work that’s been going on to build what looks like facilities near the top.

By the time we got back down, our feet were aching and we had covered just over 9 miles.

The beautiful weather and views definitely made it worthwhile, and we jumped back in the car, listen to the book on the way back, D had a quick nap before a client, and I jumped in the hot tub to soothe my aching feet, followed by an excellent hazy IPA by abnormal