"Let's get out of town," David said, as the DJP Firm Retreat ended on Saturday. We love San Diego, but the traffic in town and on the freeways is extreme. We headed for Julian, an old gold mining town in the hills northeast of San Diego. We stopped, on our way, at a funky shop to check out the chainsaw sculptures and to buy a bottle of local honey.
We talked with Jonny, who spent a summer interning at the John Deere water division in San Diego. He recommended Julian Pie Company for the best pies anywhere.
The pies were scrumptious--apple for me and strawberry rhubarb for David.
The Julian downtown had a funky, old-time western feel to it.
There was more to see in Julian than we had time for, including antique shops, a museum of gold mining equipment, and a Spanish "sub-mission" a few miles away. This cemetery was quaint, and we wished we could explore it.
We had tickets, though, for the afternoon tour of the nearby California Wolf Center. We listened to a presentation on the gray wolf and Mexican gray wolf which inhabit this area, and the Center's mission to bring wolves back from endangered status.
We "met" several of the wolves which the Center has rehabilitated. The ultimate goal is to send wolves back into the wild.
For supper, we ate fish tacos at "Oscar's," a popular taco shop near Mission Beach. "Be sure to try the red and green sauces," Jonny recommended.
On Sunday, we found the nearest LDS Church to Mission Bay and heard touching stories from a woman speaker whose husband had served all over the world in the US Navy.
We meandered over to Encinatas for brunch at a highly rated French bakery. The salads and croissants were luscious.
We spent several hours at the Safari Wild Animal Park, operated by the San Diego Zoo.
I can't look at flamingos without remembering Dave's reaction to my over-submissiveness to our decorator of the St. George house. He planted a plastic flamingo in the back yard!
We walked several miles past animal displays.
We then took a tram around the "safari" section of the park, as giraffes, rhinos, wildebeests, and elephants grazed in small herds.
Our plane left at 7 p.m., and I wanted to squeeze as many treats into the day as I could. We stopped at the Carlsbad "Flower Fields", where acres and acres of ranunculus were farmed. Brilliantly colored ranunculus are one of my favorite flowers. I grew them along our back fence in Tucson.
Many California counties are more than half minority. I enjoyed watching many families from India, China, and other exotic places enjoying the flowers, including taking pictures of each other in front of them.
Not one minute to waste. It was only 3:30 p.m. when we returned to San Diego, so I convinced David to snooze in the car while I wandered through the six antique ships of the Maritime Museum, along San Diego Bay. My favorite of the ships was a merchant marine ship built in 1843, the Star of India, which carried British immigrants to New Zealand, spices from India to Europe and then was sold and used in the Alaskan fishing industry.
Across the Bay was a Disney cruise ship.
One of the ships on display was a Soviet submarine from the 1970s, at the height of the Cold War. It made me claustrophobic just to look at the outside of it.
Another memorable ship was built during the 1700s, and was used in the movie, "Master and Commander."
Finally, it was time to leave the treasures of San Diego and run for our plane. Luckily, the airport was close to the center of the city, where we were. We could see airliners cruising low over the buildings of San Diego throughout our stay.
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