Quick trip to San Diego

While in Tucson we are fortunate enough to have a place to park the trailer for free at some of Heidi’s family’s place. We are having a lot of fun here in Tucson visiting and checking out the area. Since Tucson isn’t that far from San Diego we decided to leave the trailer in Tucson and take a quick trip to visit some family in the San Diego area. This was going to save us gas and the hassle of dragging the trailer over to San Diego for a visit. Camping in the San Diego area isn’t cheap.

Carlsbad

The drive from Tucson to San Diego takes about 6 hours not counting stops for gas or food. It isn’t a very exciting drive, but we have done worse. Our first stop was in Carlsbad where we spent a few days staying with my Mom at her condo. My brother and his family came over for dinner one night and we got to visit with them. The other nights we had a quiet evening visiting chatting and hanging out. Since my Mom lives in a condo without a yard, I figured Fletcher was feeling a little couped up and I took him to the coast for a long walk along the beach in Oceanside. Dogs aren’t really allowed on most beaches in So Cal so we had to stick to the boardwalk. Still it is hard to complain about walking along the beach during a nice day in San Diego. While I was walking Fletcher, Heidi opted to go for a road bike ride along the coast and the San Luis Rey River Trail. We both had a great day out at the coast.

Fallbrook

After leaving Carlsbad, we headed over to Fallbrook, California. Fallbrook is a cool little town in the hills just north of most of San Diego. It is a large growing area for citrus and avocados. Heidi’s sister lives in Fallbrook with her husband and their two children. They also have a large yard and a dog where Fletcher was able to completely exhaust himself. While the kids were at school Heidi and I went for a bike ride exploring the back roads around Fallbrook. We put together a 26 mile ride with 3000 feet of climbing. Fallbrook and San Diego has been getting a lot of rain storms this year, and this was evident on some of the road on our route. There were a few low spots where a normally dry creek bed crosses the road that were now a few inches deep. There was also a section of road that was completely washed out. The road was closed, but we were able to squeeze by on our bikes.

After a few days in Fallbrook it was time to leave to head back to Tucson. On our way back we stopped off in El Cajon where we lived before moving to Oregon 15 years ago. We wanted to see our old house and neighborhood to see how it had changed. It was a very different place. A lot of it was almost unrecognizable with the new building and growth. Our old house had also taken a turn for the worse. It was in rough shape and looks like it might be a rental house these days. Though I am sure it is worth a pretty penny.