Following the Barkers

Following the Barkers

Monday, November 29, 2010

Oceanside, CA

 From the Southern California Beach Club, Oceanside, CA N33º11.567’ W117º22.918’

Friday November 19, 2010

It is still cloudy and windy. At about 10:30 we drove to Long Beach to visit with Todd and his family. We had lunch at their house and visited until supper time. We went to Tony Roma’s and had a lot of leftovers. We left directly from the restaurant to go back to Oceanside. It was great to visit the grandchildren, Emma and Wyatt.



Saturday November 20, 2010

It was raining this morning. I took Gerri’s car and did four caches between the heaver rainfalls.

We had the leftovers from Norte for supper. It rained off and on all day, sometimes heavily.



Sunday November 21, 2010\

Nothing to do today except drive back to Las Vegas. We took our time loading up, By the way, it is still raining.

The trip home was uneventful, except we sighted three deer on the hillside east of the interstate as we went through Dana Point. We were on the interstate and nearly past when we saw them, so it wasn’t possible to stop for photos.



Another good trip. Of course the highlight was visiting with family

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Oceanside, CA

From the Southern California Beach Club, Oceanside, CA N33º11.567’ W117º22.918’

Tuesday November 16, 2010

It was overcast this morning when we got up. Last night the news reported that no flights could land at San Diego’s Lindberg Field due to fog.

While Glenna and Gerri lounged around, I checked out a bicycle from the resort and rode around the area picking up six caches. According to my map there are about fifty on the San Luis Rey River Trail. I think when we come to San Clemente next year, I’ll bring my own bike and try to do those from the start of the trail to the ocean. It looks like about ten miles with a cache at every allowable interval.

We had dinner at the Norte Mexican Restaurant next to the Carlsbad Inn. This is our favorite Mexican Restaurant in the area; It used to be named Fidel’s Norte. Same great food.

Wednesday November 17, 2010

I went caching again today on a bicycle. We had plans to leave for a visit to Gerri’s cousins, Bill and Arlene in Dana Point, so I had to be back at 1 PM. I did get three caches; they are now further from the resort. We arrived at Bill and Arlene’s at about 3 PM and socialized until about 5. We watched the sunset, nothing spectacular. It was a big red ball that went down behind some hills. It’s really odd; at the resort in Oceanside we look right out over the ocean for sunset, in Dana Point the land curves and it seems like we are looking north for the sunset. At Oceanside we look west to the ocean, in Dana Point the ocean is south and a little east because of the curve in the coast. We then went to dinner at Sonny’s in San Clemente. Sonny’s is our favorite Italian Restaurant in the area. Guess what dinner is tomorrow?

Thursday November 18, 2010

Gerri and Glenna went to the base for shopping and I checked out a bicycle and went geocaching. I found seven, ending up near the Jolly Roger at Oceanside Harbor. There was one I couldn’t find. I saw on the logs that Bill and Elaine had found it in August. I called them, but no answer. By the time Bill called back I was headed back to the timeshare. They are insane Francisco, and were walking across the Golden Gate Bridge when I called. It was too far to go back, but Bill gave me the info on another one that I went back to and found.
My Sunday sunset picture

I have logged today’s caches via my new GPSR and the Spot Communicator; I also sent a status report to FaceBook. I’ll see how that works. The only problem I have found so far in logging caches is that I have to go back and log the travel bugs.

After shopping at Pendleton, Gerri dropped Glenna off at the timeshare. When I got there I was told about an open house in unit 305. Glenna and I went there and socialized with other owners until Gerri joined us after that we went back to our own unit. Tonight dinner will be left over’s from the last few nights. Then TV and internet until bedtime.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Oceanside, CA

From the Southern California Beach Club, Oceanside, CA N33º11.567’ W117º22.918’

Sunday, November 14

We traded a timeshare week to stay at the Southern California Beach Club in Oceanside, California. We didn’t really start getting ready to go until Sunday morning, the 14th. We left Las Vegas at about 10AM. Traffic along I-15 was moderate until we got to the back up for the agricultural check station at Yermo. I don’t understand what they are looking for anymore, they seldom stop anyone. Must just be a state job maker.

When we crossed the Mojave River, just before Victorville, Gerri remarked how tall the trees in the river bed were getting and that there seemed to be a lot more than in the past. Must have been a wet year, there was even water in the river. We noticed the same thing when we were near the Santa Ana River.

We got to the Condo about 3PM and checked in. We immediately appreciated the warning that the parking garage was very tightly spaced. Gerri’s Lincoln seemed even bigger in the garage. We got in to our unit and settled in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset. As usual Gerri got the best picture and posted it on Facebook.


We went to dinner at the Rockin’ Baja at the Oceanside harbor. The three of us shared two orders of fish and chips. As is our habit we had another exciting evening; TV, computers and reading.

Monday, November 15

Another typical day for the Barkers, sleep late. Except this time we have a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean off our balcony with the Oceanside Pier just to the north.

About noon I decided to walk to a couple of nearby Geocaches. I exited the apartments onto the Strand and walked north. Before long I realized I should have taken the elevator and exited on Pacific Drive. Now I had to climb a long flight of stairs to get on the level of the cache. When I arrived there was an urban nomad camped near what I read as ground zero for the cache. I waited awhile and decided to go to the next nearest cache. On the way back the nomad was still there. During the afternoon I checked back three times and he was still there. About 4 PM I checked and he must have gone to a soup kitchen, the coast was clear and I found the cache easily. Only two for the day.

For dinner we decided on Chinese but there were no nearby places that delivered. We ordered from a restaurant in Carlsbad. I maneuvered the car out, picked up the food and squeezed back into another parking spot.