Monday, March 17, 2014, Happy completely open park day

Park Aide Carol is a wild woman, and was all decked out for St. Patricks day today, so I donned all my green clothes and we took this picture by the kiosk during a lull in the Monday morning traffic.

 

Today was the day the park opened up all campsites - 222 in all.  Quite a difference from the slow days in January when there were only 50 open for campers. 

We worked the Monday morning shift.  Here is Mike raising the kiosk flags in the morning.

Even though Mike grew up in a strictly polish neighborhood which did not acknowledge St. Patricks Day, we went out to D Street for dinner and a green beer to have an early Birthday celebration.

We are continuing to plan our route and stops for our upcoming road trip to Michigan in May.  We made contact with our Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids people and have several visit on the calendar

 

March 12, 2014 Happy Birthday, Fritz

 

Once a year tradition, in honor of Fritz, we have a meal out at Mac Donalds.  This year it was a lunch instead of dinner, and in Carlsbad instead of Auburn, and there were only two of us instead of three, but the sentiment was the same. 

 

Sat., March 8, 2014 - Wendy and Dustin come to visit

Today was a no-camp host Saturday, the weather was beautiful, and we had chance to visit with my new sister Wendy who lives in Lewiston, Maine and was here in San Diego to visit her son, Dustin for his birthday.  They arrived at the park about 1:30.   We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, went for a beach walk, and visited in our side yard before they moved on.  Mike and I took good advantage of the rest of the sunny day and had a simple dinner home tonight.

Fri. Mar 7, 2014; celebrating Dad's birthday one day early.

March 8, Dad Tomczak's day of days, and the day we always remember him with a dinner of polish sausage and sauerkraut.  Mike made Sunbutter power balls for dessert. We discovered these healthy and delicious treats during our 15 day clean eating program last month.

Sun. March 2, 2014 - Visit from Curt and Sarah

Curt and Sarah are back in the US from a two month trip.  They made it as far south as Veracruz Mexico before deciding to return to the US to drop Curt's car with friends in Phoenix ( they took the Greyhound from Phoenix to San Diego on Saturday.)  We had a nice evening at home with Chili and salad for dinner,  and looked at their camera pictures on the computer, then early to bed. 

Today we had breakfast smoothies with pineapple juice Curt brought from Mexico and watched them pack for the trip to England

 

Then we said goodbye and took them to the Oceanside Greyhound station

for the first leg of their long trip.

Fri., Feb. 28, 2014 - Real rain

"They" have ben talking about the coming rain for almost a week, and it really did arrive on Thursday night and rained hard much of the day on Friday.  Windy, too.  Treated our side garage like a sail and lifted it off its nailed down position and pushed it downwind a few feet.  We ended up opening all the

windows and raising the back wall so the wind could blow through. 

Not quite the seas we saw in Oregon last February, but still nice to see them get rough and high.

Wed. Feb. 26, 2014 - Camp Host meeting with Chris and Lisa

We are one of four sets of camp hosts who are on duty year round.  Currently, two couples are from the Southern CA region ( they can easily go home on days off if they choose) and another couple came to the meeting because they live in the area and host at another time.

After the meeting, Mike took me to Mary's house - Wednesday nights is turning out to be a regular overnight visit.  Tonight, because the meeting went to 6:30, I barely made it in time for the top 13 American Idol performances.  Mary became an American Idol fan a couple years ago, and is helping me become one also.

And we still had time for Spanish lessons.  Yo hablo espanol!

Mon., Feb. 24, 2014 - Beach run and farewell to Cam host friends

We made it back to South Carlsbad State beach in time for Sunday morning work.

This afternoon I went for a beach run in the sun

This is the base of the deck overlook nearest our campsite - this used to be a stairway until it got reclaimed by the sea.  And here is me chasing my shadow in the late afternoon sun.

 

Then we met up with Pete and Nancy for dinner at D Street in Encinitas

They are done at this park on Feb 28 and are leaving for a three week trip to Nepal.

Fri., Feb. 21, 2014 - And another thing!

Client visits and personal errands in Auburn and Sacramento are the order of the day

for Thursday and Friday. 

             We were happy to take a break and have breakfast with co-worker Laurie at Katrinas.

                                                                     Goofy as ever!

We spent the nights with John and Chris Boykin.  Friday night we had a fun evening in at the Boykins with Jenny and Pat for dinner.  Dang!  I forgot to take a picture.

Wed. Feb 19, 2014 - Camarillo comrades

We are headed into a 4 day weekend so we left the park after our morning shift and drove north through LA for a layover in Camarillo at Roger and Michal's house.  Roger had a delicious scalloped potatoes dinner waiting for us and we brought salad to share.  This morning, Roger made fresh squeezed orange juice to send us on our way with a taste of the local citrus.  Delicious!

On the road again - without the motor home again for a 4 day trip to Sacramento, Auburn, we got to Connie's house in time for another delicious dinner - this time scallops in a yummy sauce.

Mon., Feb. 17, 2014 - The morning shift details

If it isn't going to rain, then we might as well enjoy the weather! 
Here is the Monday morning view to work: moonset over the Pacific

and the office before the other people arrive.

Our day on the morning shift begins at 6:00 when we make a pass through the campground to confirm all the cars are registered.  Then another pass at 8:00 to make sure no RV is running their generator before the appointed hour of 10:00 AM.  Next, we check in with the park aide at 9:30 to help with the people needing to register from last night's late arrivals.  Then we go back hone to be on call if needed until noon when we make our last rounds.  This time we confirm those schedule to check out are actually gone or leaving. Finally, we work the kiosk while the aid goes to lunch. tough work, but someone has to do it.