Day 20: San Diego & northward

Another glorious day for taking pictures. The dogs got to dip their toes in the Pacific at the Doggie Beach in San Diego. There are 38 acres of sand & beach just for dogs. Lots of interesting kelp and stuff on the shore that my dogs hadn't seen before. There are all kinds of foreign and wonderful smells for them on this trip. I know they must be glad to be in a sticker-free state again. Nik spends most of the day trembling and whining because he can smell the ocean. All my dogs are crazy about beaches but he's way over the top. Whenever I pull over to shoot something and there's shoreline visible, he starts screaming because he's sure we're all getting out. Very sad and funny at the same time.

I was so busy shooting "real" stuff for the website today that I didn't get many things for the blog. Let's roll 'em:

A recent sculpture by James Hubbell entitled "Pacific Portal" in Shelter Island (San Diego):



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Today, I noticed flowers and trees that I haven't seen in more than a decade (my last visit). All stuff that I grew up with and felt very sentimental about. Pepper trees, myoporum, night-blooming jasmine, iceplant, and of course the California Poppy. There were also these big spreads of purple flowers everywhere that I don't remember. Can anyone identify them?





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A nice Moderne building in Escondido. I don't know anything about it but it deserved to be photo-ed:



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I think this is the tallest liquor store sign I've ever seen (from Escondido):



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It's often hard to tell whether something is old or just made to look that way. This seems especially true in California where there are so many lingering old buildings that have been adapted. Here are three shots of a neat building in San Diego that I think is probably 1960s/1970s.







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And last one for the night: I love this contrast and interaction of the signage at the Wagon Wheel Restaurant in Esconido. They have sort of a Western-themed exterior -- but then there's this Sputnik on the roof which I assume was left there from the previous tenant.