Had a very nice mini-vacation in San Juan Capistrano. We hit the road on Friday morning. After locating our hotel, we went for a bit of a drive. Pulled off the side of the road at one part to admire some horses grazing picturesquely in a field, and which of course turned their butts to us as soon as we aimed the camera at them. I did get a couple nice shots. There were some killdeer in the field across the street from them, but I only got three shots, two of which are hopelessly blurry and the remaining one is of the bird's back. Sigh. Did find this amusing speed limit sign along the way, though.
Eventually we ended up at the Caspers Wilderness Park. Very beautiful place, lots of trees & birds. We walked along a trail for about an hour, which while enjoyable was also a bit spooky because of all the mountain lion warnings posted at the park entrance, trailheads, and various other places about the park. Finding a pawprint along the trail didn't help. We saw LOTS of birds, including California quail, acorn woodpeckers, mourning doves, black phoebes, and turkey buzzards. Drove back downtown, walked about a bit, then had a late lunch/early dinner at El Adobe restaurant. Checked into the hotel at 3:00 & spent the evening reading, relaxing, and watching a movie on TV.
Yesterday we went to the Ocean Institute--twice, actually. The first time was in the morning, but we didn't have the camera with us so we went back later on to take some pictures. We didn't go into the Institute itself either time, but instead wandered the beach, breakwater, and gift shop. Got some great shots of a brown pelican sitting on the breakwater about 5 feet from the pedestrian path. Also took a picture of Ralph standing in front of one of the many tallships in the harbor. We would have loved to have sailed on one, but there was some big city-anniversary-hoopla event that afternoon & it didn't look like they were going to be doing excursions that day.
Later we went to the grand opening of "Strands" (a yarn shop) in its new location in San Clemente. It was a nice enough little shop, and I bought a 460 yard skein of merino which will make some lovely socks. I do wish they had a larger selection, but the store is very small and she really didn't have room for much more. The yarns were also sorted by color, and I prefer for them to be sorted by weight and/or brand as to me that makes it easier to find what one is looking for. It is a shop I would definitely visit again the next time I am in the area, though, as the owner was friendly and the yarns she had were quite attractive. Also went to a bookstore as I had finished the one book I had brought with me.
Back to the hotel again for some rest & relaxation, then we decided to walk back up to El Adobe for dinner since we had enjoyed the lunch there so much. Wandered an antique store along the way, and as we were leaving they tried to stop Ralph as they thought he was shoplifting a book--a book which he had brought along with him to read during dinner. Ralph was oblivious but I was able to explain to the shop guy that no, that was his own book & he wasn't stealing it.
Came home this morning rather earlier than we had planned. We wanted to spend some time with the Girly-Girls & took them to the dog park where they ran & barked & had a good old time. We might go to the movies later as Ralph wants to see "Twilight." It starts in 90 minutes, but he's in Computer Game Land & might not extricate himself from it in time to go, so we shall see.
Oh. My. Gosh. Ralph wants to see Twilight? Did you go? You'll have to tell me what you thought of it. Although it is MUCH better if you've read the book.
ReplyDeleteWhat a handsome Woodie. My husband wouldn't even think about the movie, much less read the books. One of the women at work is agitated cause her husband won't read the books and become more like Edward. The rich part I'd like.
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