Christmas in San Diego 2006

It is good to be back with dear friends

20061230

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The Experience

Christmas crept up on Kathleen and I without much warning. Both of us had been very busy with work and the calendar caught us. We decided at the last moment to head back to our place in San Diego for the Christmas Holiday. This turned out to be an excellent decision as we were able to reconnect with nearly all of our good friends at lunches and dinners. As usual, the weather in SD was outstanding. Sadly, I had forgotten how nice it can be in the middle of winter. The photos below are what we saw.

Work interceded on my travel plans and a couple of days before our trip back to SD, I had to return to Manhattan. Above is a time exposure of the view from the apartment on Chambers. Note the trail from the aircraft. This photo was taken with the Leica M8 by putting the camera on the window sill on a box of kleenex and using the timer to eliminate shake.

I have always liked the view toward the WTC area. The crater can be seen on the right as can the crane..

Our trip to NY was planned on very short notice and therefore by boss offered me a ride on his Falcon 50 jet. While returning to Seattle, I caught this photo of an oncomming jet several thousand feet below us. Note the contrails from each of the engines. We estimated the closing speed to be over 1,000 miles an hour.

This is my boss's Falcon 50 after its cosmetic make-over. Note the new paint job and the vanity tail number. His son's company is called Fortuna and the tail number is 42NA. This is one fine ride.

And speaking of fine rides, here as a shot of my Unimog 1300L in my driveway. Since all my vehicles are in Seattle, we have to use the 'mog when we are in town as there is no other way to get around. It still gets attention and respect anywhere we go.

A view of the moderately crowded driveway.

A San Diego sunset as viewed from my back yard.

My best friend Kai Serrano moved to Santee and got this really nice place with a really big lot. There is plenty of room here for him to do "wrenching" on his trucks. Here, Kathleen catches up with Kai. Note the large parking area to the right of the house.

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We were invited to Kai and Tina's home for Christmas Eve dinner. Here the team drinks a few cocktails and exchanges views about the world.

Kai cooked an awesome prime rib on the bbq. It was excellent.

Kathleen plays santa.

I played Rudolph. Interesting to see what a couple of cocktails will cause folks to do.

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Kathleen had bought a plasma ball. It produced interesting plasma trails when you brought an object close to the sphere.

We got a chance to meet my long-time friend at the Posideon in Del Mar for brunch. Here Steve checks out the lay of the land from the Del Mar lifeguard tower.

Kathleen and Steve mug for the camera.

A view of the beach in Del Mar.

A view of Torrey Pines and Black's Beach from south Del Mar.

San Clemente canyon looking east as seen from our house.

Another view of San Clemente canyon, this time looking to the Northwest from the house

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Kathleen, Jeff and I visited the Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma. This is the old lighthouse on Point Loma.

The view from Point Loma is awesome. This is looking to the east toward San Diego Bay. Note the quantity of boat traffic. The object in the foreground is a floating drydock for submarines at the Ballast Point Submarine Station.

Downtown San Diego as seen from Point Loma. Note the boat traffic in the channel and the jetty that was built around the 1900's. Also note the blimp in the distance. The Holiday Bowl was underway.

The Cabrillo Monument. Coronado shores is visible in the distance.

Note the interesting erosion patterns in the cliff.

This is an observation pill box as part of Battery Ashburn on Point Loma. During WW1, the Navy had these observation points built into the cliffs and then camouflaged too look like regular rock formations. The observation ports are closed with steel plates now.

The Point Loma tide pools. Note the boats in the kelp beds. They are fishing for dinner.

Here is a view of the Navy's facility that is used to train dolphins for warfare.

Here is a view of the current lighthouse right at the point of the Point Loma penninsula.

This is a remote controlled set of cameras that are used to observe the boat traffic into the channel and San Diego harbor.

Kathleen and Jeff with San Diego in the background.

We had a great time on this trip. We got a chance to see only a few of our friends, but since we have been out of town for so long, this was the best that we could do in such a short time. The weather was awesome, so what else is there to say?

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