San Diego

San Diego

Yesterday we did the highway 75 loop, starting and ending in San Diego.  We drove through Coronado, which is actually an island, and Imperial Beach, stopping to view neat stuff and to consume our picnic lunch: barbecued salmon, Gouda cheese, fresh apple slices and crackers.

 

Hotel del Coronado

 When it opened in 1888, it was the largest resort hotel in the world.  Currently, it’s one of the largest and oldest all-wood structures in the US.  Lots of celebrities and presidents and sundry mucky-mucks have stayed here - not including Trish and I and Ranger.  The design is Late Victorian/Queen Anne.  You’ve gotta admire those British queens for their architectural achievements.

 

Surfer Dude at Imperial Beach

We stopped here and had our picnic lunch, sitting on the bench beyond Surfer Dude.  The Dude kinda looks like me don’t you think?  Back before my hair reversed course and came out my ears?  Back when I had fabulous abs, the 6-pack belly?  Back before my wrinkles had wrinkles?  Not so much?  C'mon, use your imagination.

 

 

San Diego Bay Walk

This is in the downtown area, great place to stroll and people watch.  The weird looking trees may be California Buckeye but I wouldn’t bet on it.  Anybody out there know what they are?

Balboa Park

Balboa Park

At 1200 acres, it’s one of the largest and best city parks in the world.  It’s called an Urban Cultural Park which is an apt description.  The San Diego Zoo may be the most famous component but there’s also a mind boggling assortment of other goodies: 15 major museums, numerous performing arts venues, and several impressive gardens, each with a different theme.  Depending on your interests, you could easily spend a week or more here.  If you’ve never been, put it on your bucket list. 

 

International expostions were held here in 1915/16 and 1935/36.  Named respecitively the Panama-California Expo and the California Pacific Intl Expo, virtually all of the buildings were built for those 2 events.  The older group is Spanish Renaissance, the newer group Southwest, architechturally speaking.    

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Yesterday, we visited the botanical building and a few gardens.  Given the pleasant weather, we weren’t inclined to spend time in the museums or other indoor attractions.  Besides, we’re cheapskates; most gardens are free, museums and shows are not.  The pix below include several impressive plants, most of which I’d seen before, few of which I can name.  Most plants have little name tags stuck in the dirt nearby, but I neglected to make note of them.  Shame on me.

 

Lily Pond and Botanical Building

 

Inside Botanical Building, split leaf philodendron or monsterosa plant?

 

I've seen smaller versions of this around LHC.  It's a desert plant, don't know its name.

 

 

I beg your pardon..........

 

 

Willie S said a rose by any other name..........

 

Works for me.

 

This is a petunia.

 

Southwest desert garden, hundreds of fine specimens of cacti and succulents.

 

Sweet Horse Pucky

She: "Oh my God, have you tasted the water?"

Me: "Pretty sweet, huh?"

She: "You kidding? If Ranger found a puddle of this stuff on the floor, he'd roll around in it!"  (I've yet to see a dog that didn't love rolling around in manure, rotting carcasses and the like.)

Sweetwater Regional Park, where we are now sitting in our RV, should have sweet water, yes?  Not!  I can handle it, have drunk worse stuff lots of times and was thankful to get it.  Not so, Trish.  We'll be buying 2-3 gallons of drinking water today.  Okay, I'll admit it: I'd prefer not to drink the stuff either.

This park is near San Diego and we're here because we're spending Thanksgiving with my sons, Tod and Adam, and their family.  They live in Santee.  And, we're going to spend 3 days seeing some of the SDO sights, the ocean front sights in particular.  We drove over from LHC yesterday, will be spending 5 nights here.

Speaking of manure, why is that dog owners must pick up after their dog but horse owners don't?  Across the road from us, in the parking area beside the restrooms, resides a respectable array of horse turds - or apples if you prefer.  Said apples are not in the handicapped parking slot, so neither horse nor owner can use that excuse - not that it would be an acceptable excuse anyway.

Ranger wouldn't take a dump on the pavement, knows it wouldn't be the right thing to do.  Granted, dogs are smarter than horses.  Maybe dog owners are smarter than horse owners, too.  Or, maybe horse owners just don't give a shit.

2 More Laws

Just remembered another couple laws I'd love to see enacted and I'm betting 99% of all Americans would love to see them, also. 

First: Campaigns are limited to the 30-day period immediately preceding the election.

Second: Political ads are totally banned on radio and television.

These should be made into law at all levels of government.  No matter the level of government, we elect people to do a specific job.  Is campaigning one of the tasks listed in their job descriptions?  Darn well shouldn't be.  Are they performing well and in a timely manner the tasks that are part of their job description while they're on the campaign trail?  In some cases, I'm sure they are.  But I fear that in many cases, they most definitely are not.

It may come as a surprise (it was to me when first I became aware of it, some time back) that my 2 proposed laws have been the law of the land in the UK for some time.  This brief article from the Chicago Tribune, dated May 14, 2010, describes the UK process.

Last week, Conservative Party leader David Cameron ousted Gordon Brown as prime minister of the United Kingdom. On Tuesday, Brown resigned his post and Cameron moved to No. 10 Downing St. The campaign lasted one month and virtually nothing was spent by either campaign, compared with U.S. standards.
The national election in the U.K. should be a wake-up call to Americans.
Campaign spending in this country is out of control.
In the 2008 presidential race, the candidates spent a total of $1.7 billion, double what was spent in the 2004 race. In the U.K. election, a spending cap of 20 million pounds, about $33 million, was imposed on each of the major parties. Of course, campaigns there are less expensive partly because of a ban on paid radio and TV advertising or any ads on matters of "political or industrial controversy."

This article was reprinted without permission, which means I'll probably go to jail.  But hey, no sacrifice is too great for my faithful readers!

Elections

My BS-ometer is particularly sensitive to election campaign rhetoric.  The needle wavered in the red zone (Danger!) for several months prior to election day, even banged against the right hand stop (Overload! Abort!) a few times.  It was a great relief to view the campaign in the rear view mirror and see the needle back in it's normal range.

If you're thinking I'm not very politically oriented, you'd be correct.  In spades.  Campaign ads, especially on radio, inspire an instant gag reflex and a desperate lunge for the off switch.  On the other hand, I take my rights of citizenship quite seriously, carefully study my voter's pamphlets and always vote.

Political polarization in voters has ramped up significantly in recent years.  It worries me and I have to admit that I really don't understand why it's happening.  I suspect that it's a reflection of the attitudes and actions of congress itself, which has lost focus and has its priorities totally bass ackwards: 1st - self, 2nd - party, 3rd - constituents, and finally, running a distant 4th - country.

I'm a centrist, fence sitter, independent.  I vote for people based on their track records and capabilities, parties be damned, and I really don't understand how anyone in good conscience could do otherwise.  It's ludicrous to believe that any party, be it republican, democrat, green, libertarian, tea or rastafarian, always has the one best candidate for the job, always has the best agenda.  Party animals, who are you kidding; yourselves maybe?

There are a couple political things I care strongly about:

     1.  There oughta be a law!  A law that states congress gets the same social, health and retirement benefits as everyone else, nothing more, nothing less.  As it now stands, congress members have it made for life the minute they're elected.  They're totally insulated from several issues that are huge to the citizenry.  "Sure, let's cut social security 30% so we can declare war on _______ (insert Mideastern country of choice, preferably one that produces oil)!  The cuts won't affect us anyway."   

     2.  The electoral college is absurd, has been extraneous for several decades, and should be eliminated.  How the devil can we call ourselves a democracy when it's possible for a president to be someone other than the people's choice?

 I'll close with a little prayer.  The prayer is not directed to Allah, JC or Mohammad but rather to those we've allowed to become living gods right here on earth: the members of the US Congress.

Lead us not into polarization,
And deliver us from your evil, selfish actions.
Amen.