One of the most popular RV parks in the DoD system, Fiddler’s Cove is in the middle of Coronado Island, about 3 miles south of the iconic Hotel del Coronado, a National Historic Landmark and one of the few surviving examples of the wooden Victorian beach resort. We’ve stayed at iconic beach retreats like The Del – The Breakers in Palm Beach, FL, The Villa in the Villas, NJ and as much as we enjoy those experiences, nothing compares to having your own waterfront condo with all the comforts of home. A bonus for boaters and boat watchers like Eric, … Continue reading Good, good, good vibrations

Booking our own episode on Beachfront Living, we skipped the bargain hunt and reserved 14 nights at Silver Strand State RV Park with a premium waterfront site – the most expensive of all the sites on this trip at $65 per night. Two miles up the road and closer to downtown Coronado, we tried to get into military campground Fiddler’s Cove on San Diego Bay, but it was totally booked. We knew Silver Strand was a partial hookup, meaning electric and water but no sewer, but to be right on the Pacific Ocean? We would happily sacrifice. Much to our … Continue reading Movin’ on up

All good things must come to an end. In the two weeks as residents of Mission Valley’s Admiral Baker RV park we biked 300 miles, summited three mountains, toured 10 museums, invaded three beach towns and earned our San Diego bike warrior wings. Ready to move we spent Sunday and Monday checking out. First we checked out of Lowes with a power drill and compass saw. The dimmer switches are illuminating, but to finish the job there was the square peg in a round hole issue. No problem for Mr. Handy. Checking out also means chores. While we keep up … Continue reading Checking Out

In the words of Culture Club’s Boy George, “Do you really want to hurt me? Do you you really want to make me cry?”  Then buy me the 7 day, 16 museum Balboa Park Explorer Pass.  Signs and banners everywhere extoll the ONE PASS for all 16 museums. If the signs don’t convince you, the pricing structure will. Each museum has an entry fee of about $20. All 16 are $50 for the day. All 16 are $60 for the week. $129 for the year. See what they did there? We went for the week pass and caught 10 museums … Continue reading Balboa Park Culture Club

The I-8 cuts San Diego in half with its 12 lanes of high-speed traffic.  Each day we search for roads (other than QualComm Blvd} that cross this highway without it being a white knuckle adventure. Most of the time, however, we are depending on hand signals, the yellow vest and yelling to navigate traffic at the on and off ramps where the bike lanes disappear. We’ve achieved road-savvy status. Shifting from nature to nurture, we decided to give our brains a workout with 16 museums in 7 days for $59. The Balboa Park Explorer Pass. We’ll take two, thank you! Yesterday’s … Continue reading My Way or the Highway?

After 10 days of biking, hiking and touring San Diego our bodies feel the use. It’s not really aches and pains. Sore hasn’t set in and deterred us from activity. We don’t know the right word, but it’s the aftermath of exerting energy beyond our comfort zone and feeling it all over. Hobbling is involved, in a good way, and it works itself out and we keep going. With 3 days left in Mission Valley, we decided to lean into the used feeling and bust out another peak, this time the shortest one with the steepest grade, Kwaay Paay (Kway … Continue reading Kwaay Paay it Forward

We’ve finally adjusted to west coast time, coffee at 6:30, dayplanning til 7:30, rewiring the electrical circuits by 8:30. Betty has a curious lighting design – a mix of undercounter and decorative fixture halogens, fluorescent industrials and incandescent spots. 18 lights in an 8×14 room. For most people, on and off works. For us, finding the right mix for varying situations at different times of day and night has been challenging. Puzzling needs bright, non glare. Reading requires luminous but not interrogating. Sopranos binging prefers moody dim. Lighting re-design is not as easy as taking out the old bulb and … Continue reading Viva Fortuna!

Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that we are not on vacation – just full-time livin’ in an RV. Fourteen days into our west coast expedition and we could only count one day of downtime where we weren’t hiking, biking or accumulating some write-worthy experience, and that was the day it rained. Even though it was mild and sunny, today was take-a-break Tuesday. Relax, Hang around. Do something that didn’t involve a summit or city sweep or both. Laundry and chores were an obvious choice, but we tend to stay on top of it because it’s hard to trash 250 … Continue reading West Coast Chillin’

La Jolla is 90 minutes and 20 miles as the Como flies so it was surprising when Eric said, “Let’s go to La Jolla today.” But, with an ebike everything within about a 25 mile radius is within our reach. From Baker, that may not get you to LA, but it covers all of San Diego metro. A brisk, windy 60 degrees and 40 miles round trip, we debated under/outerwear and took off on the San Diego River Trail. We opted for a workout rather than a high speed run, so we kept the Como’s in eco (manual) for much … Continue reading Voy a La Jolla

With seven days left at Admiral Baker and the likelihood that we will not soon return to the Mission Gorge neighborhood, we’ve decided to slay the east side, starting with a 4.3 mile hike to the 1,593 foot highest point in San Diego, with views from Mexico to Orange County. Eric mapped this entirely uphill route to tour east side neighborhoods and approach Cowles Peak from the backside service entrance. Riding up Navajo Road, Cowles Mountain looked down on us as we navigated the long circle to the southside.  The Como’s are e-bikes that draw current from the Lithium-Ion battery … Continue reading Howl now, brown Cowles