Off to California

We are less than 40 days from departure on Phase 2 of our Great Loop adventure, which is approaching quickly. Thankfully, Dragonfly is mostly ready for cruising, and our to-do list isn’t nearly as long as last year’s was.

We’re visiting Kathleen’s sister Mary and her husband Tim in their beautiful home in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA. Named after the capital city of Wales, this lovely beachside community of less than 12,000 is also home to Minnesota-native Marion Ross, best-known by our generation as Marion Cunningham in Happy Days, and by our daughters’ as Lorelai’s grandmother in Gilmore Girls. 

We spent time enjoying the attractive beachside town, including San Elijo State Beach and Nature Preserve. We also spent two afternoons at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, an amazing in-water display of 500 years of seafaring history. We toured a deep-diving submarine, a ferry boat, luxury steam yacht, Vietnam-era swift boat (with two former crew giving tours) the USS Midway aircraft carrier, and several tall ships, including the world’s oldest active sail ship, a replica of a 16th-century Spanish galleon, and the 24-gun navy frigate used in the film Master and Commander. 

Touring and learning about sailing ships is a favorite activity. It’s pretty remarkable how large portions of the world’s population developed independently for more than 40,000 years, separated by massive bodies of water, and have only come in contact in the last five centuries. It was the sailing ship that spawned the worldwide migration of people, technology, plants, animals, agriculture, germs, language and belief systems in what became the greatest period of change in human history. We love stepping aboard a ship, learning how the crew lived and worked and imagining the small part that each played in world history. Fun fact: To rid their stored provisions of pests, sailors placed dead fish on top of food sacks to draw out maggots.

San Elijo State Beach

L to R: HMS Surprise, ferryboat Berkeley, steamship
Medea, submarine Dolphin, last operating Vietnam swift boat 

HMS Surprise from Master and Commander

Aboard The Star of India

USS Midway foc’s’le, capstans & anchor chains

Flowers are everywhere in Southern California 

Birds of paradise in a neighbor’s yard

Scenes from San Diego

Encinitas Community Park

Bonus Question: Which two planets in our solar system have no moons?

Post title reference—“Off to California” is the name of a popular, traditional Irish hornpipe.

Map link to Cardiff-by-the-Sea: https://maps.app.goo.gl/nN6XJFq5ZowTA3Jr5?g_st=ic

Bonus Question Answer: Mercury and Venus have no moons. Mercury is too small and too close to the sun to have the necessary gravitational pull to hold a moon in orbit. Why Venus is moonless is not fully understood. Fun fact: Venus rotates in the opposite direction from most other planets, including Earth. On Venus, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.