San Diego

 I started the trip with a minor fail at the airport. Seems my checked bag had gotten too heavy so I transferred some items to my carry-on….and forgot that included my Swiss Army knife. So $25 later, it should make it back home before I do (they said to expect 3 weeks so it’s not like I could mail it to myself in San Diego). Oops. I then took the obligatory picture of my feet at PDX, and had a very pleasant flight to San Diego, enhanced by the fact that the middle seat was empty. I arrived and got my luggage and car without incident. 

It’s been a long time since I’d driven in Southern California, and it was a bit of a white-knuckle drive using several freeways to get from the airport to Lake Miramar where I met Sarah Wotruba and we had a wonderful walk and talk. We’ve known each other since college and while we don’t talk often, we’re always able to just pick up where we are and have a wonderful time together. She indulged me by agreeing to stop a couple of times to find caches, we got caught up then had fro-yo before I headed north to Marla’s place where I spent 4 nights. 

Yes, TheOtherMarla (her new caching name). We figured out we’ve known each other since I was 12. Although we chat a few times a year, we probably hadn’t seen each other since a quick overnight visit in 2016. We truly did to more than just eat, but we had a tasty Mexican dinner Thursday, bought bagels Friday (the last one was breakfast today), went to dinner with Sarah and her husband Peter and also Claude on Friday, had breakfast with Tom and James (geocachers) Saturday, celebrated her birthday at a restaurant above a Lexus dealership Saturday, and did tepanyaki with her extended family for a family birthday on Sunday. 

Marla lives with her sister Melissa who I’ve heard lots about over the years but hadn’t met until Saturday. Melissa has a very cute dog named Einstein who fortunately has hair not fur so did not bother my allergies. For those keeping score at home, Einstein is definitely  a boy dog as I noticed when he was very submissive and laid on his back for his stomach to be rubbed. We got to walk Einstein more than once each day, including a long walk on Saturday after it stopped raining….saw lots of cute snails including some with white shells, some impressively long worms, but no banana slugs. I even did a solo walk with him on Sunday. Einstein was very hopeful and leaped onto my bed one evening before I informed him “no doggies on the bed” and tried encouraging him to get off but eventually had to lift him down….and he was so hopeful he tried a repeat performance after an overnight bathroom break, with a similar result. 

Marla and I took advantage of nice weather Friday and she found her first cache as well as a nice adventure lab looking at murals near US101 in Carlsbad where Einstein was in his element as he got to sniff quite a few other canine posteriors. 

Saturday was impressively rainy with flash flood warnings broadcast to phones during our breakfast. After breakfast Marla showed me her office (which had some fun toys that I will need to let Vanessa know about for her classroom), then after a break in the remain when we walked Einstein, we had a low-key afternoon where we watched the Iowa women’s basketball game.

Marla, Melissa and their mother had theatre tickets Sunday so I was on my own. Fortunately, Sally Swire reminded me her brother is down here so I met Seth and his wife Niloo for what we intended to be a Mexican lunch but apparently the restaurant was closed for Easter, so we improvised. Most importantly we had a chance to catch up, realize that Niloo and I were likely in some classes together as she graduated from UCSD a year before I did and was also a psych major. Small world. After lunch I had some time so I wandered down to UCSD to explore (ok, truth be told there was an adventure lab on campus that called my name). 

My cup is full from the chance to reconnect with so many friends who live in San Diego. Today I drove up to the LA area where I also have social events as well as time tomorrow to explore some old haunts.