March FLEW BY!

March seems like a lifetime ago, but I will try to recap it. 

We started out the month with a semi-Harrier nation reunion of sorts.  It seems like we run into Harrier folks everywhere we go, and we love it ... especially Jim. This time we met with the Ritterbys, whom we've been been stationed with several times throughout Jim's career, and we are also saying so long to the Bedells, who are retiring and packing up the RV to live a nomadic existence for as long as they please. Both of these guys are legends in the Harrier community and since one was in town visiting and one was getting ready to leave town, the planets aligned and we all went out to dinner together! We started the night at a fun speakeasy and then headed over to a fabulous Spanish restaurant nearby. Yum Yum Yum! Love it when a good plan comes together!

The very next week, my cousin Jonathan and his family came into town for Spring Break, and we were able to link up with them for dinner! I haven't seen Jonathan in several years and have never met his wife or kids, so it was pretty cool that we were able to pull this off. They were in town to get some work done on their awesome adventure wagon and were making a trip out of it. Their life plan is enviable, as is the sweet van! Hoping we can link up again in the future!

This next bit consumed more time than you will believe, and I will give you the highlights. At the end of February, someone posted on a Miramar Facebook page that they lost their black and white cat while staying in the Marine Lodge, just around the corner from our neighborhood. I decided to watch for the cat, but didn't think much about it. Fast forward 3 weeks, and I am letting Wes out in the backyard before walking to the O Club to meet Jim. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Wes barreling around the corner, hot on the trail of something black and white and moving fast. First thought is he is chasing the skunk that has been in all of my neighbors' yards. Not what I want to deal with late on a Friday evening. I start trying to catch Wesley, and I see the black and white skunk go flying up a tree and realize it isn't a skunk at all. It is the missing cat!  Now he is 30 feet up a tree in our backyard. 

    

I reached out to the family, and they were extremely happy the cat, Oni, had been found, even though it was in the tree. We spent the weekend trying to convince him to come down, to no avail. Finally with bad weather coming in we decided to allow the fire department to use the fire hose to get Oni motivated to come down, which he did after several blasts only to jump our fence and disappear! Back to square one. The family thanked us for trying and we reassured them that we would continue to look for Oni. While I was pretty certain he would never come back in our yard, maybe he would turn up.  More later. 

  

With the days starting to get longer, Jim decided it was time to crank up the tower garden again. He selected the seeds, started them in the growing tray, plugged in the tower, made sure the water was the correct ph, and happily started fussing over the seedlings as they started to sprout. So far, it looks like everything he planted will make it. More to come.

Scott Wingfield is our first official visitor of 2025! He is in town to watch his sons play in a couple of lacrosse tournaments during their spring break. Jim and I decided to head down to watch a bit of the action as well. We had no idea what was going on, but it really looked like the guys were having fun.  Scott's son Luke is huge! 

We of course had to drag Scott to some  of our favorite places. Dog Park on Coronado and sunset at Del Mar to name a few. Hope to see you out here again real soon Scott!

 

    

The following weekend found us spending several days up at Camp Pendleton at a Commanders Conference. In addition to having conversations and lectures on more important topics, we also found some  time for some  fun, mainly an 80's themed dinner. I am not sure Jim or I ever wore anything like this in the 80's, I felt like we understood the assignment - haha.

    

On to the next event! Jim was invited to do a promotion of a friend's son in Yuma and he happily agreed! We had also been invited to attend a retirement that evening AND the Airshow was going on so we were able to knock out 3 events with one trip! In addition to seeing lots of friends from duty stations past, we also got to hang out with one of Jim's favorite aides, Theresa Neubig, from his stint at USFJ! It is always great to see Theresa, even if I have to go to Yuma to do it - Hahaha. As a treat on our way out of town the next morning, we hit up "Burgers and Beer" for breakfast. Man that place always delivers!

    

    

Next up on the visitor schedule was Joe Beck! He is traveling around the western US, and we were lucky enough to earn a spot on his tour. We tried to give him a taste of our favorite things to do in San Diego as well as the touristy things to do. He was training for the Boston Marathon, so some  of the places we sent him ended up being venues for his training runs and cross training. One of the highlights for Joe was a visit to the world famous "Black's Beach," known for a great surfing break ... and a no-kidding nude beach. Fortunately the beachgoers stayed a comfortable distance away! All in all I hope he had a great time and will come back and visit before we move next summer.

    

    

After San Diego, the next stop on Joe's trip was LA, which was fortunate, cause I was driving up to LA to pick up the girls for Spring Break! He got to hang out with Lilly a bit, get a little tour of UCLA, and go with us to meet Lucy at the bus stop before we dropped him off at his friend's house in West Hollywood. 

The girls decided to come home for spring break this year and we couldn't have been happier! They planned on doing some camping with their friends in Joshua Tree for a couple of days but I had them home for the weekend before that happened. We arrived home later than we thought after leaving LA so Ben was in charge of ordering dinner - Pizza! I think he was the one who was surprised though - but the size of it! Wow! I guess we have a few meals covered by this thing. It was HUGE!

    

Jim, currently on his way to Melbourne, Austrailia until the end of the week, was sorry to miss the house being full of kids again. With the camping beginning on Monday, I suggested to the girls we check out the flower fields in Carlsbad. A spring fixture for the last 60 years has become part of the San Diego local heritage. The biggest draw is the 50 acres of Giant Tecolote Ranunculus flower fields. It is a sight to behold. These pictures don't do it justice! I had been reading about this for a few weeks and was pretty sure the girls would be interested in checking it out with me.

    

    

As mentioned earlier, Jim is in Australia this week. He attended the Avalon Airshow near Melbourne, and attend an international security symposium.  He said we need to add Melbourne to our bucket list and he described it as a beautiful, artsy town with great architecture and tons of history.  Apparently he managed to squeeze in some  work while visiting this amazing city ... I'm not so sure. He was impressed with the prominent "Shrine of Remembrance," originally built to honor Australians who served in WWI, but is now a memorial to all Australians who have served in any war.  With a relatively small population of only 26 million, the Australians have made extraordinary contributions to the Allied war effort over the years. 

Someday we want to visit Melbourne for the Australian Open ... we'll see. 

    

    

Jim rolled into town just in time for my birthday! Ben had a track meet in Point Loma so we decided to go watch him and head to dinner down there. Worked out perfectly if I do say so myself! Sure is nice to have everyone home!

    

Of course the togetherness was short lived. I got the kids up early and we hit the road. Originally this was a family trip, but Jim had a conflict and the kids said they still wanted to go soooo, sorry Jim! Our destination was Death Valley National Park. All of the National parks are on our bucket list, but this one in particular was in high demand. We have been close enough to it when we lived in Yuma, but couldn't plan a visit during the right season before. Now was our chance, I am so happy the kids felt the same way.

It is the hottest, driest and lowest National Park as well as being the largest in the contiguous US. The geological highlights include Badwater Basin (lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level), Dante's View, old Borox mining operations, surprisingly amount of both plant life, birds, mammals and FISH (the mud pups are beautiful but teeny)! We saw all we could see in the two days we were there. With the exception being the mysterious sailing stones at the Racetrack - a dry lake bed known for the moving rocks that seem to move on their own accord. We stayed for the sunset, but decided against staying to star gaze mostly because we didn't have a great idea of how long it would take us to get to our off-site hotel in nearby Beatty.

    

    

    

Upon our arrival at the Death Valley Inn, I left the kids in the car and checked in. As I was walking back to the car, a rather large animal, what I thought was a dog, was walking steadily towards me. It wasn't until he had me pinned up against my car that I realized it was a hungry donkey! I alerted the kids when I started yelling as he butted into me repeatedly. The kids scrambled out to take pictures and proceeded to follow the donkey to our room, where it stopped to investigate a trash can and busted up a parking lot party in full swing just by walking into their midst!

The next morning, I was greeted at the door by a very friendly cat who ended up taking a few steps into the room. Best way to get my kids out of bed early! As we pulled out of the driveway, another donkey came strolling by. According to the front desk staff, there are about 800 wild donkeys burros, as they are called around these parts, that commonly wander the streets. The herd dates back to the mining days of the area. The original burros were set free when the mines closed and up until recently most of them probably lived within Death Valley National Park, but since they were ruled non endemic, they have been removed. The main draw for the burros is the close proximity to the headwaters of the Amargosa River, which is their main water source.

    

On our way back into the park we stopped to top off the gas and realized we were "close" to area 51. And when I say close I mean we were in the general vicinity. We figured this out because we kept passing billboards with aliens. Since you can't actually visit Area 51, we decided stopping here was the next best thing. We also passed by the Big Dune Recreational Area, which went a long way in explaining why everyone in the hotel last night had either trailers full bikes, razors or both. 

 

Our last day in the area is when we actually saw the mud pups and the mining operation site. We also checked out some  vistas in the park and then proceeded to drive through it on our way back to CA. We originally had hoped to stop by Red Rock Canyon State Park, but that didn't happen on this trip. Another night in a somewhat questionable hotel, we stopped by Van Nuys to drop Lucy off at the train station so she could get back to school. Our next stop was UCLA for Lilly's drop off. Usually I have to drive home after these drops off by myself which is as sad as that sounds. But today - I had Ben! So thankful we have another year of Ben before he too flies the coop.

    

Ben and I arrived home just in time for him to change clothes and I dropped him off downtown with Jim to catch a Padres game vs Atlanta! Jim scored two tickets for the Military Opening Day. The Padres host several Military Salutes during the season recognizing the different military branches.  Male bonding at it's finest, and a win for the Padres! 

That's all for March folks! I need a nap.