Day 69: Retreat, Continued

Our Ash Wednesday Retreat at the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia included a set time for meditative prayer, and I settled in this corner of the courtyard, basically the same place I took the photo for the previous day. I sat on a blanket under this tree and near these flowers.

Such a lovely place to pray and be silent with God....

Day 68: Ash Wednesday Retreat

This was my view from a bench in the retreat courtyard of the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in Oceanside, the largest of the California missions. My dear friend Carmen and I attended an Ash Wednesday Retreat at the mission that focused on silence--God's silence and our silence. We were given time to wander the grounds, find a place, and spend time in silence with God. We finished the day with Mass which included the Imposition of Ashes.

Such a lovely day, and such a wonderful way to spend Ash Wednesday.

Day 7: At the Mission



Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, CA



On the face of the Mission front....

Our family met our good friends the Cox family at the Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside so that B can do his mission report for his California History course at Class Day. This mission, about an hour and fifteen minutes from our home, is the largest of the 21 California Missions and is nicknamed "the King of the Missions."

I posted my two favorite photos here, one a side view of the mission, including the door to the old cemetery next door to the mission, and one of the statue on the outside face of the front of the mission. We had a lovely time with some lovely people!

At Taco Bell

While running errands after church today, we stopped by Taco Bell for lunch. The restaurant was very busy, so we waited a long time for our food. And Benjamin decided to make his own Taco Bell version of a "house of cards" while waiting....

Timothy's 15th Birthday

T opens a gift from Mum and Dad--a new chess set!

Cliffs of La Jolla overlooking tidepools

Boys checking out tidepools

Elizabeth finds a hermit crab

Four kids at tidepools

Looking into a tidepool

Towards Pacific Beach Pier

Timothy catches a crab

Timothy discovers a giant limpet

Tidepools

Timothy happily celebrates his birthday

At Point Loma Preview Days

Last week Elizabeth and I attended the Preview Day for Point Loma Nazarene University--I'm an alum (1988, BA in Literature) and starting teaching there when Elizabeth was four months old. Some of the professors remember her from her baby and toddler days and both the Lit Chair and the Journalism Dean both want her to be in their departments. She's decided on Journalism for now and is very much looking forward to living on campus in August.

Elizabeth next to clock tower outside Commons

Cooper Music Building at left, looking down at Salomon Theatre

Golden Gym and Pacific Ocean

Sign for Literature Department--my old home and Elizabeth's new one as she plans to major in journalism

Main pedestrian thoroughfare at PLNU

New Theology Department

Sign in front of Study Abroad Office

View of PLNU dorms

Entrance of PLNU overlooking Pacific

Sunset at PLNU from Cooper Music Building

Writers Symposium by the Sea

Another Zoo Trip

After T's early orthodonic appointment Tuesday, we decided to not waste our gas for a ten-minute check up and to proceed on to Balboa Park. When we realized that the only free museums this Tuesday were ones we weren't interested in, we decided on a short trip to the San Diego Zoo. On our last two trips, the Zoo happened to be quite crowded, but this morning the Zoo was quite sparsely peopled. Finally, we had a clear shot at the Reptile House before making quick visits to the meerkats and otters in the Children's Zoo. T took the first three shots; I took the final one. Enjoy!


Iguana in the Reptile House


Desert Tortoise in the Reptile House


River Otter under water -- not easy to catch these guys in motion as they move FAST!


B sitting in the window welcoming a River Otter moving his way.

Trip to the San Diego Zoo

To celebrate J's birthday and our last day of school, we took a trip to the San Diego Zoo. It was unusually crowded, so we decided on a bus tour rather than pushing the wheelchair all over the zoo which is rather hilly and therefore difficult for wheelchairs (and even more so for the people pushing them). It was a lovely day, even though photos were difficult to take from a moving vehicle. Plus, when on a zoo bus, one is attempting to take photos while level with the walking patrons' heads, some of which were not able to be edited out. (GRRRR....) So here are several of the best photos, and my favorite is on my Meditative Meanderings site.

Yay! School is out for the summer!

The Heart of the Park

I spent all day either working with photos and blogs from T's birthday yesterday or grading essays for Class Day tomorrow, so I didn't take my camera out of my purse at all. So enjoy another Balboa Park photo that I named "The Heart of the Park" -- looking from the Timken Art Museum to the Museum of Modern Art with all of the wonderful Spanish architecture and capturing the center fountain turn-about (and the very annoying news truck!).

Tuesday: Balboa Park

For T's 13th birthday, we drove into the city to Balboa Park for an art museum children's workshop with some other homeschoolers in the morning and a trip to the San Diego Zoo in the afternoon. We had perfect San Diego weather for the trip.



All four kids pose in front of the Botanical Building where we later ate lunch with the homeschooling group and the boys played a raucous game of "Capture the Flip Flop" (kids learn to improvise when flags are not available).

T enjoyed his birthday very much; you may see more details of our day at my Meditative Meanderings blog. I also have additional photos on my 365 Extras blog.

Friday: Life's a Beach

As long as we were stuck at the beach, unable to drive home because of snowy and icy roads blocked by stranded and crashed cars, we decided to go on a walk along the boardwalk in Pacific Beach. So while the snowplows growled and rumbled up in the mountains, we enjoyed scenes like this after the storm:



This view looks south; on the left you can see the Pacific Beach Pier on a glorious day after a rare San Diego County blizzard in the inland mountains.



This view looks northward, catching the lifeguard tower flag and the many homes crouched on top of the Bird Rock area, just south of La Jolla. Such a beautiful day made it difficult for us to think of driving home to snow in a few hours.

I have additional beach shots on my 365 Extras Blog if you're interested.

We ended up coming home to very little snow -- most of it had melted as temperatures climbed into the mid-50s. It was difficult to believe that temps had plummeted to 16 degrees overnight.

Friday: Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright

This tiger has always been E's favorite at the mall's indoor carousel, but every single time she's ridden the carousel, someone has snatched the tiger before she has. So she's never ridden him, beautiful though he is. I love his snarl and claws -- beautiful!

Tyger, Tyger burning bright
In the forest of the night.
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
-- William Blake

Thursday: January in Southern California

Aren't you East Coasters a wee bit jealous of January in San Diego County? Yep, temps in the high 70s forced me to turn on my car's AC today on the way home from shopping. Alas, a cold Alaskan storm is on its way by Tuesday, and much rain and possibly snow will be our lot by Tuesday. But until then, we'll take sunshine and palm trees. Julie -- these palms are for YOU, girlfriend!

Thursday: Class Day

This is the main patio at our Class Day venue: Del Cerro Baptist Church in San Diego. On the level below are two playgrounds and a volleyball court along with a dozen classrooms, and on this main level are at least a dozen more classrooms. There's even a third level up the stairs from the patio where some of the high schoolers have their classes. It's a great place for Class Day, and although Class Day is a lot of work for all involved, the kids really enjoy it despite their initial reluctance. E is taking biology lab and self-defense, and the boys are taking art and PE, plus B takes science, J cooking, and T chess. And I teach two high school writing classes: Intermediate Writing (college prep high school expository writing) and Advanced Writing (honors/AP high school expository writing). Class Day has become a welcome change in our schedules every other week, and we're all enjoying it more than we thought we would.

Warm Winter Weather

Such a lovely day! I drove around El Cajon today with the A/C on. El Cajon (Spanish for "the box") is the town where Keith works, where I grew up, and where we went on our first date. This photo was taken from the top of Grossmont summit looking east into El Cajon valley, surrounded on all four sides by mountains, hence its name.



I took this photo around 2:30 PM on our front porch. It was a HOT one today -- a real respite from the winterish rain, hail, and highs in the 30s this weekend and the same coming next weekend. We opened the windows to heat the house this afternoon ... natural heat always helps with the propane bill. :)

Monday: Up a Tree...

We stopped by one of our favorite city parks for a quick picnic lunch between dentist and optometrist appointments. T was quickly up this huge tree as soon as he swallowed his last bite of sandwich.



This is the tree that all three boys were climbing -- its size is really something else, especially if you notice that those two dark things at the trunk of the tree are J and B as they prepare to join T up in the branches. BOYS!

Our "Baby"

I can't believe that the "baby" of our family will be turning eight next month. B was so cute yesterday at Taco Bell, our usual after-church stop.

Upcoming Parade...

As E and I drove around town today, shopping thrift stores for Halloween costume stuff after she took the PSAT, we drove down Main Street in El Cajon, the suburb of San Diego where I grew up (and Nikki lived here, too, as a child).

El Cajon's Mother Goose Parade is second only to the Rose Parade west of the Mississippi. Obviously, preparations for the 61st Mother Goose parade, which takes place on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, are well under way. In addition to the annual fun of having my dad, a Toastmaster's member, as one of the twenty microphoned parade announcers along the route, my siblings and I twice appeared on floats sponsored by Der Wienerschnitzel -- lots of fun memories. But now the population of El Cajon has grown so much and therefore the parade route is soooo crowded that I've never taken the kids. We have our own little parade in PV which we vastly prefer, especially since I'm not willing to stake out a curb along the Mother Goose route at 7 AM (for a noon parade) on a Sunday morning....

Wednesday: College Avenue

I had the wonderful (cough, hem, hem) experience of having 90 minutes of dental work done today. As I drove away from the office, I saw the palm trees against the clouds and pulled over quickly to capture it. After the fog and rain of the early morning, seeing the clouds break was lovely.



After taking the photos of the palms, I turned the Corolla onto College Avenue and drove through the traffic around SDSU, a campus of 35,000 students where my parents and grandparents attended.