Overcast Walk In Solana Beach

My wife and I took our son to soccer practice and then Rubio's Fiesta Salad. Next stop - the beach! We haven't yet gotten into the habit of checking the high and low tide. It was definitely high tide and the sky was gray. We walked about two-thirds as far as last week as the water was rising and crashing on the rocks, leaving us no sand to work with.

We saw half a dozen sandpipers who seemed to be a group and a little later two of them might have perceived us as following them. If they had bigger brains they might have thought, "What do these people want? We take several steps and they keep coming. We can't even be a full meal for either one of them, let alone both of them! Help!"

Marianne and I did manage to get in 2.5 miles by walking the neighborhood when we left the beach. We saw a guy with a bicycle decked out in pink "fur". Last week he was wearing a hat so we didn't notice his matching pink hair. Definitely stood out on the beach. Seemed pretty harmless.

Keep walking, everyone!

Walking Batiquitos and Twitter

My wife and I have been walking at Batiquitos lagoon recently and in case you live in San Diego County or you're willing to come here, remember Batiquitos. I really haven't walked there since I was a kid with my older brothers and there was no Four Seasons or any houses to speak of. My dad used to refer to this as "the slough" and we used to smell it miles away in Leucadia in the 70's. I think that odor doesn't happen as often now, but then, I live farther away from the water as a dad than I did as a son.

Sunday morning we walked three miles and last night at dusk we did two. I remembered back to a time when the falling darkness would have been mucho scary. Lots of people on a Sunday morning. As the stars came out Tuesday evening, not so much - we found ourselves alone for the final leg back out of the dark "forest". Either way it feels good to walk. Maybe we'll walk on the beach tonight. We'll see.

I have been following people and vice-versa on Twitter recently. Some of those folks are walkers, too. It's good to be connected to other walkers, exercise junkies and such so we can keep each other encouraged and motivated. You can click on the title of this post to see my profile on Twitter. I hope to see you there.

Over Two Miles Before 6 AM

Last night I did my Wednesday night tutoring at Reality Changers and I was inspired by the efforts of some of the kids I know. One guy picked up "The Dialogues of Plato" for pleasure reading! Another student has decided to take a trip with People to People's Student Ambassadors and it's exciting to see them expand their horizons. I guess my inspiration carried over to my sleep time and my brain woke up a little after 4:30 thinking about the same stuff. If you are in San Diego or the North Coast portion of San Diego County and you would like that to tutor/mentor senior high students, give me a shout.

After laying in bed for 15 minutes or so I decided to take Mellow for a walk and he was one enthusiastic retriever. We live in a pretty safe neighborhood but it's nice to have a dog with you walking that early. We walked just over two miles while I counted in my head to double check the landmarks every quarter mile. I know from walking the track at Palomar College that just under 500 of my steps is approximately a quarter mile. I got back before 5:45 and surprised my wife with mushrooms and scrambled eggs with Trader Joe's green salsa.

Last time I mentioned "that's another post" and late in the day my wife and I walked two miles at Solana Beach again. This was the same day that I had done the four miles plus earlier in the day and I was a little tired near the end. I didn't quite lift my foot high enough as we were exiting the beach and I ran into the hardest lump of seaweed I ever remember encountering. Almost broke my fourth toe on my left foot and it's a nice rainbow of purple now. That incident on what should have been the easiest walk of the day has me sort of resting my foot. I walked over a mile yesterday and it's not quite as bad today, but it's much more painful when I walk barefooted as I was on the beach. Wear shoes or watch out!

Walking the Dog Four Miles (Twice)

Yesterday I started out for a walk with our dog, Mellow, and decided to keep going. Recently I've only taken individual walks in the one to two mile range, but I decided to be more adventurous. If you know Carlsbad - San Marcos - Vista, I walked down Alga to Melrose and down past Poinsettia to whatever the next street is and back with side trips in my neighborhood. My dog was grateful and my body knew I had gotten some exercise after four miles.

This morning I decided to be a bit more adventurous and walked the same route almost to Palomar Airport Road where I cut through the business park and went back via El Fuerte to Unicornio and then Xana. On the way down El Fuerte I discovered a walking trail that I didn't know existed. The trail is asphalt and it mostly parallels the road but dips into a canyon and that allowed me freedom to let my dog roam a little. I wasn't sure if this was an old dead end that would have me backtracking and I knew I was already past the three mile mark. Would this be an even longer walk than I anticipated? Mellow and I met another guy and his dog along the way and eventually the trail led back up to the road, but not before we noticed the 15 degree (at least) temperature difference at the canyon bottom. This round trip was 4.25 miles. I walked more through the rest of the day, but that's another post.

Solana Beach vs. Encinitas

When I was young I lived with my family in Encinitas and Leucadia. We moved from Melrose in Encinitas to Patty Lane in Leucadia when I was five. We were there until my dad, the country boy from Illinois, thought it was too crowded on the coast. (That was 1976! He "escaped" us to the wilds of Valley Center. Talk about bad timing in the real estate market...long story short...the house he bought for 37,500 in 1968 he sold for 62,500 and within 18 months it had been resold three times. In early 1978 it sold for $198,000!) I remember not making that much of a distinction between Encinitas and Leucadia back then as both had the same zip code. Even today I'm amused and sometimes annoyed at the smaller and smaller areas around here giving themselves a name. (Part of the branding revolution, I guess.) I was a number-oriented kid and still am. I follow politics and I really like FiveThirtyEight.com, which focuses on the numbers involved in politics and polling.

Lately I've been really noticing that my walking numbers have been down. I need to get a new pedometer. You may have experienced this, too. I find that the accurate measurement - that counter you can check whenever you want - really keeps me motivated. Some may say that it's just one strategy, but it is definitely a strategy that works for me. Find the strategies that work for you. The other day I was counting steps in my head again while walking on the beach with my honey.

We had decided to go to Solana Beach because there was no parking anywhere remotely close to Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. It was a hot day, but I don't remember that lack of parking happening very often. (Maybe my dad was right.) Was it the combination of the heat and my quietness (I was counting in my head - mouth closed.) during the first half of the walk that made me see Solana Beach in a new way? Because Moonlight Beach was my default beach when I was a kid, it was the beach I tended to visit even after I moved and still what I think of when I picture the beach in my mind.

Solana Beach at low tide was unbelievably beautiful to my eyes. The flat beach between the cliffs and the ocean reminded me of Lawrence of Arabia, one of my favorite movies. We saw a few sandpipers and other birds. They were doing a dance up and down and my wife wondered if it was a mating dance. It was about 5:30 and the light at that time of day just seemed perfect. I would say that it was the best 2 mile walk I've ever had except for the one on Catalina where I met her years ago, but that's another story. Marianne and I will pay more attention to low tide and we'll be visiting Solana Beach again soon.