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Terry Ambrose

Writing is like a good barbecue sauce, if it ain't bold, it ain't worth doing.

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You are here: Home / Archives for San Diego

San Diego

Friday Fotos – Balboa Park water feature at visitor center

March 1, 2019 By Terry Leave a Comment

Visitors to Balboa Park who stop in at the visitor center are sure to notice the water feature in the center of the courtyard between the El Prado Restaurant and the visitor center. The park, which has at times been called “The Jewel of San Diego” is truly that. This water feature is just one of many that enhance the beauty of the grounds. Centrally located, and with its gentle water sounds, the courtyard is a great place to hang out for a respite from a hard day of sightseeing!

If you come to San Diego, the park is definitely worth a day trip. It has museums for every interest and, even if you just want to hang out or walk, it’s a gem.

More San Diego photos

The figurehead on the prow of the HMS Surprise

The HMS Surprise is a replica of the HMS Rose and was used in the film Master and Commander

Sail Bay nearing sunset

The colors were mostly grayed out by the overcase skies, but the sun was still making a valiant attempt to shine.

The main mast goes up a long ways!

Just imagine trying to climb those ropes on a ship that's moving all around.

Morning at the Oceanside Pier

A lone man waits for the day to begin at the Oceanside Pier.

Beneath Oceanside Pier

Here's a view of the Oceanside Pier I'll bet you haven't seen.

Oceanside Pier looking back toward shore on a foggy morning

The fog was think on this particular morning at the Oceanside Pier and even though it was after 7 am, the lights were still shining bright.

Sidewalk dining in Carlsbad

Sidewalk dining is common in Carlsbad. The heaters protect against the evening chill or when the fog rolls in.

Cottages over the water in Pacific Beach

These cottages are built on the pier in Pacific Beach. They're vacation rentals, so anyone who wants to "live the life" can do it...for a price!

Looking back toward Pacific Beach

Looking back toward the town of Pacific Beach and those cottages!

Winds of Change - Kites Over Vista Public Art

The Kites Over Vista public art program brings many one-of-a-kind sculptures to City of Vista parks.


Filed Under: Friday Fotos Tagged With: Balboa Park, San Diego

Photo Post – Sail Bay Sunset

September 5, 2018 By Terry Leave a Comment

As the day drew to a close, we caught this Sail Bay sunset. It wasn’t quite time for sunset yet and the colors were a bit grayed out because of the heavy cloud cover, but it was still gorgeous!

Click here to view more from my Destinations photos portfolio.

Filed Under: Destinations Tagged With: Day Trips, San Diego

Photo Post – Pacific Beach pier looking back toward shore

September 4, 2018 By Terry Leave a Comment

We did our jobs of exploring the pier and walked out to the end of the Pacific Beach Pier! It was a bit chilly, but not too bad!

Click here to view more from my Destinations photos portfolio.

Filed Under: Destinations Tagged With: Day Trips, San Diego

Photo Post – Pacific Beach cottages

September 3, 2018 By Terry Leave a Comment

Pacific Beach is a fun and funky little beach town – and it has these awesome cabins for rent!

Click here to view more from my Destinations photos portfolio.

Filed Under: Destinations Tagged With: Day Trips, San Diego

Discovering Julian — a trip to San Diego’s mountains

January 22, 2017 By Terry 4 Comments

Discovering Julian

Last winter we became intent on discovering Julian, a small town located in a remote section of San Diego County. Julian is at 4,000 feet, well within a snow zone between the Cleveland National Forest, Mt. Laguna, and the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. It was an El Nino year and the weatherman was forecasting storms, storms, and more storms.

The shaft goes on and on

The mine is about a mile long altogether. It's a long, dark walk.

Entrance to the High Peak Mine

The entrance to the High Peak Mine is the beginning of a journey not recommended for claustrophobes!

Panning for gold!

What mine would be complete without a way for the kids of all ages to pan for gold.

Where the rocks and slurry came to their final journey.

This machine is huge! It's where the rocks were broken down to reveal the nuggets.

Equipment, equipment, equipment!

This old mine has equipment everywhere. It hasn't been used for years, but it gives perspective.

The Julian Gold Rush Hotel was our home for two days.

The Julian Gold Rush Hotel is a beautifully restored hotel with friendly service and small, but comfortable, rooms.

The wood stove in the hotel lobby was pumping out heat!

This old wood stove was going 24x7, providing heat for the lobby and helping to keep this area cozy.

Julian Museum carriage

The old mail carriage at the Julian Museum. It may be old, but it's in great condition.

Yikes — enough to curl your hair

Okay, ladies, enjoy the comforts of today's beauty parlor and be thankful this is a thing of the past.

 

 

Snow warnings

Prior to leaving, friends warned us to, “take chains.” Despite that we hadn’t owned a set of chains or snow tires in nearly twenty years, we chose to go ahead. We made reservations to stay at the Julian Gold Rush Hotel. Then, we watched the weather reports every day with crossed fingers and a lot of trepidation.

As our trip dates approached, our confidence grew. Snow wasn’t going to impact our “discovering Julian” trip—most likely. It took us a couple of hours to make the drive from home to Julian, so we had plenty of time to kill on our first afternoon. Our first order of business was lunch, but that was a bit harder than we’d anticipated.

The weatherman was wrong. There was no snow in Julian. Consequently, the crowds weren’t as heavy as they could have been. There were many people in town for lunch on our first day. It was Sunday and they’d all come up from San Diego to play in the white stuff at higher elevations. The reason they came down was for lunch and, of course, apple pie.

Julian apple pie

For those not in the know, Julian is famous for its apple pies. It’s also one of the few places I can go and have gluten-free apple pie. All I can say is OMG—so good.

Oddly enough, everyone in the restaurant seemed to know each other. We soon discovered a San Diego ski club had decided to invade Julian for the day. At least they were friendly—and there was pie left.

We walked to the Julian Pioneer Museum, where we learned the story of this small town and its development. They have a number of very cool antiques from days gone by, including one of the first permanent wave machines.

After the museum, we walked to the Julian Gold Rush Hotel. Perhaps you’re catching a theme here. When staying in Julian, pretty much everything is within walking distance. The main street is flat, but the further out you go, the more likely it is there will be a hill to navigate. Some of the hills can be nasty, but we could have avoided the worst if we’d planned our route a little better.

High Peak Mine

On our second full day, we visited the High Peak Mine. Again, we walked. This was kind of another mistake because the mine tour is about another mile on top of the walk from the hotel. As near as we could tell, we were the only ones to walk to the mine. Everyone else drove in. Walking through the High Peak Mine wasn’t difficult. However, it gave me a strong appreciation for the difficulties early miners faced.

The photos taken were all taken with my iPhone 5s. I hope you enjoy!

Filed Under: Destinations Tagged With: San Diego

Bonnie ZoBell discusses ‘What Happened Here’

November 8, 2014 By Terry Leave a Comment

Final Cover What Happened Here 1-10-14Sometimes, writers must go in search of events to incorporate into their work. For San Diego author Bonnie ZoBell, however, fate sought her out and shaped her writing. For this interview, ZoBell, who lived in San Diego during the 1978 crash of PSA Flight 182, discussed how that event influenced her life.

ZoBell lived in San Diego’s North Park at the time of the crash. She said, “I was an SDSU student living in an apartment on Texas Street, on the other side of the neighborhood from where the crash occurred. As I left my apartment that Monday morning heavy Santa Ana winds were blowing through the streets. I looked up and was stopped by the huge black plumes of smoke that had taken over the skies. The neighborhood was too dark and smoky for it to just be a house on fire.”

One hundred and forty-four people died in that disaster, including some that had been on the ground. ZoBell said she heard about the crash on the radio. “That part of North Park was cordoned off from people driving by to look. There were even reports of people stealing jewelry off the bodies that lay on the ground. It was all over the news, and most people knew someone who lived in North Park. I now live in a cottage only feet from the crash site, so that influenced my writing of the book, too.”

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As a result of that tragedy, ZoBell has incorporated a recurring theme of perseverance into her stories. She said, “You can fight and make your existence what you want it to be without letting the bastards get you. You can’t let your ghosts dictate your whole life.”

In addition to that theme, ZoBell also draws on her feelings for San Diego. “I love San Diego and have lived here most of my life,” she said. “My grandfather was one of the original oceanographers who helped start Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Tourists come here for the beaches and good weather. People leave because of the congestion and conservatism. But San Diego is so much more than all that. It’s full of all kinds of nooks and pockets of beautiful and varied landscapes and kinds of people.”

ZoBell, in fact, is a wealth of information about San Diego. “Wyatt Earp owned an oyster bar downtown in the late 1800s,” she said. “The Spanish priests left mustard seeds behind so they could find their way back from walking Southern California establishing missions. These mustard flowers now thrive and bloom all over. In my childhood we still found arrowheads made out of obsidian. Jewel resided here as a teen and lived out of her car while singing in area coffee shops and making a name for herself.”

ZoBell also said, “My focus on the PSA crash has to do with my love of the history of the place and wanting to understand how that kind of catastrophe affects regular people. I did a lot of research for ‘What Happened Here.’ The interesting thing is that if you look up the crash online, you find some articles and blogs that have hundreds of responses from readers from then and now that are enormously moving and telling about how various people reacted.”

Both ZoBell and her friend Melanie Peters were so moved by the event that they created a mini-documentary, interviewing neighbors about North Park and how they were affected by the crash. That video is available on YouTube and is called North Park Eclectic.

Above all, ZoBell is interested by people. She said, “I find human beings fascinating, their many strengths and flaws, which especially surface during conflict. I want to see what they’ll do under duress, and often even I am surprised. People are so utterly complicated, and as much as I can, I get them into scenes to see what they’ll do in the world, the better to see what we’re really made up of.”

One of the things ZoBell did to research “What Happened Here” was to learn more about San Diego surfers. She said, “Researching hardcore surfers and surf lingo offered a lot more humor. I had no idea! And then my brother and my brother-in-law, both surfers, got into it and really helped out. Who knew that if a newbie makes some horrible faux pas out in those waves and then a seasoned surfer paddles over to him and says, ‘Chicken or beef?’ what he’s saying is, do you want to run away scared or fight each other?”

More information and events

For more information about Bonnie ZoBell, visit her website at bonniezobell.com.

On November 12th at 6:30 pm, ZoBell will read from, discuss and sign “What Happened Here” at the North Park Library, located at 3795 31st Street. There will also be a showing of “North Park Eclectic.”

On November 20th from 5-7 pm, ZoBell will lead the discussion following a showing of “Return to Dwight & Nile: The Crash of PSA Flight 182.” This event will take place in the San Diego Central Library auditorium at 330 Park Blvd., San Diego.

Filed Under: Author Interviews, Books - Featured Tagged With: interview, San Diego

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