Moved to Oceanside

May 15 and 16

Wednesday

Lynne and I went for an early morning walk, while Jack and Marc worked. When we got down to the ocean, the tide was out, and lots of surfers were in the water, so we decided to walk on the beach. It was great--cool, pleasant, nice breeze blowing. We even saw some tidepools exposed, with sea anemones and mussels in them. We ran into a couple of Lynne's friends from her walking group, also enjoying a beach stroll.

Back at the house, I did some laundry and we started packing up everything for our move up to Oceanside, since we've mooched off of Lynne and Marc long enough. We say our farewells, for the time being, as we'll be seeing them again before we leave the San Diego area. It's been a wonderful visit! Now we're going to mooch off of our friends Cindy and Tom...

They live in Oceanside, the town we used to live in from 1988 to 1995. It's gone from primarily a Marine base town, with lots of tattoo parlors and bars, to an upscale beach town, with new hotels and nice condos. The beach is wide with good surfing and boogie boarding, and it has a cool fishing pier with a 1950s diner at the end of it. Fire rings on the beach are lit with campfires at night. It's a nice place. Cindy and Tom live just a few blocks back from the ocean. When Cindy bought the house originally, it was one story, but they've built an attractive second level that gives them a sweeping view of the ocean.

Since it's a week day, Cindy is at work, at BMT-Scientific Marine Services in Escondido. We arrange to meet her, Jack's fishing buddy Bud, and Bud's wife Justine at the office for lunch.

The new BMT-Scientific Marine Services offices.

We all go out to a nearby Mexican restaurant and catch up on everything. Jack and Bud are making plans for their upcoming fishing trip, with departure scheduled for Friday. Bud is very busy at work, and says that every time he takes a vacation, he has to work 60 hours the week before to get everything done, and then 60 hours the week after to catch up!

Poor Bud, trying to get ready to take a vacation. Too much stress!

Cindy in her office.

SMS is hopping, with plans to expand into adjacent space. It's hard to believe it's been 21 years since the six original founders, including Jack, started this company. This is the third or fourth building they've been in, and it's pretty fancy.

After lunch, Jack and I go back to the office building and find a couple of empty desks and work on our respective projects, until Cindy is ready to leave work. We follow her home, stopping at an Indian restaurant to pick up some food for supper. Her hubby Tom is already at home when we get there, and we spread the food containers on their patio table and have supper al fresco, enjoying the ocean view. Nice! We're so glad our friends have such good taste in houses and ocean views!

Carol and Tom in the living room.

We visit for awhile, have some homemade cookies (thanks, Cindy!) and ice cream and blackberries, and then head off to bed and/or blogging.

Thursday

Tom ends up staying home from work today so we talk with him for awhile in the morning. We haven't seen each other for a couple of years, so we have a lot to catch up on. Bud told us yesterday that we should have lunch today at Stone Brewery, a microbrewery near the office that is in an amazing building surrounded by gardens. It's actually a tourist stop--buses bring people here from all over for their tour. I guess the beer is the main thing to most people, but we tried their homemade root beer and it was great. Quite a place!

Lunch at the Stone Microbrewery and Bistro.

A stroll through the gardens of the  microbrewery.

Jack and I both worked all afternoon at the office again--it's quiet and they have good wifi. Bud is still hunkered down, trying to get ready for tomorrow's departure. We left the office about 6 pm to drive up to Cindy and Tom's. When we arrived, we all decided to walk down to the beach and have sushi for supper. It's  a little over a mile, and made for an exhilarating walk. Sushi was good, then we scoped out the street fair which goes on here every Thursday evening--got some kettle corn and hummus, and Tom got himself a funnel cake. Walked onto the pier and watched a lone surfer, surfing in the dark, right next to the pier pilings. ??? Pretty good surfer though.

Tomorrow Jack heads out on his fishing trip, leaving me behind to keep up this blog all by myself!