Our friends Mike & San live in Redlands and our neighbor is cleaning out her house in Redlands for rental. Today, Elly wanted to check out the thrift stores in Redlands, and to visit the the Thursday evening Downtown Market Place, and to help our neighbor move some of her stuff back to Murrieta.
The thrift sores were good, we bought a few items, but the Cancer Society Discovery Store had the best furniture and items if we needed more stuff for the condo. We bought a couple more items at the Goodwill. Afterwards we went to the Downtown Market Place. It was not as good as we expected.
Redlands Downtown Market Place every Thursday 6-9PM
The Obligatory Street Musicians at Every Fair
Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs
Hot Dogs from Detroit, NY & Chicago, WOW
I didn't take the Test! I'll leave it to fate.
We thought the Temecula Farmers Market was way better, better food, nicer people, better produce. We then went to our neighbor rental, loaded our car and headed home. I don't think we will be vivting the Redlands Market again since the one in Temecula is so close.
Today we joined Tony's family for their annual Father's Day picnic at Riverside's Rancho Jarupa Park. I think this was the second time the had this celebration. Tony has a large family with I think 4 brothers & 1 sister. It was a nice warn day in the 90's and Tony picked a perfect place in the park under some shade trees for the picnic.
Picnic at the park
Everyone brought something to eat, Tony made his fabulous ribs. There was fruit salad, macaroni salad, Mexican shrimp ceviche (I didn't get any) and all the snacks, cakes and watermelon you could eat. Tony even gave us some ribs to bring home.
Meghan & Elly at the picnic
After eating we played in the annual "everybody plays" softball game. Both Elly and I actually hit the ball on all of out times up at bat. My team lost 11-6 due to the "under-30's" on Elly's team. I think I forget how to run! I took this little video at the end of the game. It was supposed to be a photo, but my alternate camera was set to "movie". So you get a small movie instead.
After the ball game we ate some more and sat around and chatted. We got some good leads on interesting places to visit in Southern California from Tony's brothers We are look forward to following up on them. Meeting Tony's family today was great,. It was nice chatting with Tony's father. He is around 85 and seems to get around well. Tony's siblings were also very nice and welcoming even though we are not really part of the family. It was a very nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon with Debbie's & Tony's family.
We went to the San Diego State Fair today. Its like the Big "E" in Massachusetts, but a little bigger, especially in the food department. "June Gloom" has settled in at the coast all month long, Except for last Sunday when we went to the beach. The weather was overcast 65-75 degrees, perfect day for the fair, the alternative could have been baking on asphalt in 90 degree heat. Tickets were $4, courtesy of Albertson's Supermarket, would have been $13 at the gate. Parking at the fair would have been $10 for the day, but we parked off-site (1 mile down the road) and took the fair provided shuttle right up to the main gate. (saved our walking energy for the fair). We arrived a little early and waited for the fair to open and for Debbie & Tony to arrive.
Waiting for the Fair to Open. Line is on the right
The fair opened and we had to go through security and metal detectors, just like the airport; but not the body-scanners. Right inside the gate was a Beach Boys cover-band playing all their hits. See the movie below:
The rest of the fair was your typical State Fair with large buildings with vendors selling everything from Jacuzzi spas to Sneakers or Teeth whitening. You could sit in a chair for15 minutes with this ultraviolet mouthpiece in your mouth and get your teeth whitened. You could get your spine adjusted by a chiropractor, get a massage from oriental massage experts, or buy some kitchen appliances such as the Vitamix, Veg-o-matic, etc.
There were flower shows,
Farm animals,
and of course, a bevy of gastronomical delights such as chocolate covered bacon, deep fried twinkies, deep fried butter, deep fried Klondike bars, and deep fried Kool-Aid. It seemed you could get any food you wanted, as long as it was deep-fried!
It seemed like the only exception to deep-fried food was barbecue. They had hot dogs, sausages, half-chickens and of course the staple of all state fairs, the ginormous, enough for a family of 4, turkey leg.
Huge Turkey Legs on the grill.
I opted for the grilled corn-on the cob, at least those were normal size!
Steve eating grilled corn
Elly tried the fried zucchini, I think you got a plate with a whole zucchini, cut lengthwise into quarters and batter fried. I though it was just OK.
After sampling the local cuisine, we wanted a little culture, so we walked over to the arena to watch part of the horse show. We watched a few contests, "under-11 Walk & Trot", "Walk-Trot-Canter", but the most interesting was the "Driving Sport & Pleasure". It was darker inside and the horses were moving quickly, so the pictures didn't come out well.
The winner of the Driving Sport & Pleasure Category
We had to leave the arena a little early to get a good seat at the next "high-brow" event: The Swifty Swine Pig Races!. We got there just in time to secure a good seat in the packed grandstand,
The Pig Race Venue
There were three races followed by the swimming pig.
Next we decided to go see the "Our Body: The Universe Within" Exhibit. It is a traveling exhibition that features deconstructed human bodies and human organs. Another piece of this exhibit is currently showing in Burlington Vermont at the Echo Lake Aquarium. Cameras were not allowed in the exhibition hall so here is a video about about this exhibition (I think this is the Vermont one).
This is the one we saw.
It was very educational, and I even got to see first hand what ribs and other bones I fractured when I fell off the ladder 1 1/2 years ago. I would recommend that you go see this exhibit if it come to your area.
After the exhibit, we decided that we needed to find Debbie's daughter and her friend who planned on waiting 4 hours in line to see the Demi Lovato Concert. Go figure! After locating them in one of the three massive lines filled with teenagers (thanks to the cell phones), setting up plans for picking them up after the concert, we headed over to the beach house for a few hours of relaxation away from the crowds and the cold. It was starting to get chilly and windy. Remember, "June Gloom". After visiting for a while, we left for home. Plan to see them again this Saturday at the Father's Day picnic. Another fun packed day in retirement!
Debbie & Tony rented a place in Del Mar right near the beach so they invited us down for the day at the beach. We took the back roads to get there as recommended by our neighbor (who happens to be from Haverhill, MA). It was a nice pleasant drive around the Lake Hodges Reservoir.
Lake Hodges Dam
We also passed through the town of Rancho Sante Fe. This is one of the most affluent towns in the United States. We stopped downtown in the very cute town center. There must been at leat 7-8 Real Estate offices. Most houses advertised in the windows were in the $1-4 Million range! Hereis a sample of the real estate listings in the area.
Rancho Sante Fe Center
We took another recommendation from our neighbor and ate lunch at Milton's Deli. It was the first Jewish Deli I found out here in California and reminded me of Rein's Deli in Vernon,CT. Another link about the Deli here.
Milton's Deli, Del Mar, CA
Right near the deli was the San Diego State Fair. (I think its like the Big E in Massachusetts) We will be going there Tuesday with Debbie & Tony. I will post more info after we go there.
We got to Debbie & Tony's place which was only 4 houses from the ocean. You could see and hear the ocean, but you couldn't get there unless you want to cross the railroad tracks and fall off a cliff!
Beach & cliff at the end of the street
So we went to Powerhouse Park a few blocks away that had a grassy area and a beach! More photos of the park can be seen on this website.
Google map view of Powerhouse Park
It was a real nice area with many families. It wasn't too crowded despite it being a weekend and the weather was fantastic. I even went swimming in the ocean, but the waves were really powerful. Enough to knock you off your feet!
Beach looking South
Same spot looking north
We also went for a walk along the shore where it becomes rocky and where the big cliffs were.
Heading south down the beach
If you like watching movies, here are two I took at the beach.
HINT: Remember that you can watch these in full screen mode by clicking the full screen symbol in the lower right corner of the video when it is playing. it looks likes this
Here is the beach at Powerhouse Park.
Here is the walk south of Powerhouse Park.
After the beach, we had a a great dinner and playing a new game called "Things" with Debbie & Tony. It was a great day in the sun.
PS: It turns out that the lady that owns the house that Debbie was renting just returned from the Fairfield University Graduation!. She grew up in Fairfield, lived down by the Fairfield Boat Marina, and graduated Roger Ludlow in 1968. Small world!
We went to the Keys Creek Lavender Farm today in Valley Center. It's near the Mt Palomar Observatory, but we will save that trip for another adventure. Since we went on a weekday we had the entire place to ourselves.
Lavender Farm Store & Distillery
They had many fields of lavender and walkways among the lavender fields, but truth be told, I was not that impressed. It was beautiful and we had a nice time walking & talking with Mike & San, but I am glad it was free!
Lavender Field
Lavender Display Outside the Store
Steve & Elly in front of a large bougainvillea archway
Another Lavender Field
Elly sitting for a photo op in the lavender field
The best part was the lunch at the Yellow Deliowned by the Morning Star Ranch/Twelve Tribes Commune. Their farm was right next store to the lavender farm and the deli was right down the road. We had a great lunch sitting outside under the California Oak trees with a nice breeze.
We went to Fallbrook again, this time to check out the Thrift Stores. Nothing to write home about there. But while we were there we saw this great mural on the side of a building that looked just like an old postcard.
Mural on Building
If you don't believe me, look at the photo below.
Side of building
Here is another picture of downtown Fallbrook.
Main St Fallbrook
After we left Fallbrook we took a long trip out by Lake Henshaw. We were wondering why we saw no boats or houses on the lake, we thought maybe it was privately owned, but we later found out its a reservoir.
Here is a panorama shot I took of the lake:
Lake Henshaw Panorama, Click to make bigger
Or you could just watch the movie.
I also took this movie driving down the road near Lake Henshaw.
It was a fun trip and we got to see some real nice scenery., but there is absolutely nothing out there! Some of it looked like mid-west prairie lands.
Elly just loves club soda, seltzer water, sparkling water or any
water with bubbles. We used to buy it by the case and then had to deal
with the returns. SodaStream came out with this home carbonated
beverage machine but it cost $99. We decided to pass on getting one
until we found one at a yard sale for only $40. t also came with two
water bottles, a 33 oz full CO2 tank and a full smaller 14.5 oz tank. If I bought it all on the SodaStream web site it would have cost $144.93.
Our SodaStream Machine
SodaStream Canisters
But here's the gotcha with the whole Soda Stream thing. The threads on the Soda Stream tank are proprietary which means they cannot be refilled at a place that sells CO2. (i.e. welding supply stores, paintball stores, beer brewing stores, etc). The valve on the SodaStream table also has an "anti-refill" valve on it just in case you could figure out how to adapt normal CO2 tank to fill the SodaStream tank. Soooo! you have to go to a store like Bed Bath & Beyond to exchange the empty tank for a full one. That costs $15 for the small tank and $30 for the large tanks. Some stores also don't carry the large refill tank.
SodaStream Threads
After doing a little bit of internet research, I found that you are paying $15 for $4 worth of CO2. There is a whole sub-culture of people finding ways to refill their SodaStream CO2 tanks rather than paying the $15. Most ways include defeating the anti-refill valve by using a dremel tool to carve slots to let the CO2 in and buying an adapter that lets you refill the tanks at welding supply or paintball stores. This setup costs over $120 and seemed a little complicated to me.
I chose the easier alternative, adapt a paintball tank to the SodaStream. I bought a paintball tank and adapter on the Internet for $95 including shipping & tax. The tank is a 20 oz tank and with the adapter fits right in the SodaStream machine. Plus it costs only $4 to have the 20 oz tank refilled at the paintball store!
Paintball Tank
Paintball Tank Threads
Paintball tank with adapter
Now for the math. First I got the machine, two bottles and two tanks for $40, it was a great deal anyway. You could probably get the same machine with the small tank for around the same price on eBay now.
The total cost of this conversion setup was $99.00. Since I can refill the tanks for $4 for 20 oz instead of $15 for 14.5 oz; the cost per ounce of CO2 is 83 cents less this way than using the SodaStream tanks.
SodaStream with paintball tank
At that cost difference, it will take me 6 refills to recoup the investment in the conversion equipment (6 refills x .83 cents x 20 ounces = $99.60). If you add in the cost of the machine itself, it will take me about 9 refills to pay for the entire setup. Then I get seltzer water for almost nothing!
Plus we buy Blueberry and Raspberry syrup at the local fruit stand and make Blueberry or Raspberry soda for $5.29 for 33.8 fluid ounces of syrup. SodaStream sell their flavoring syrup for $6.99 for only 25.4 fluid ounces, plus I don't think they even have Blueberry or Raspberry flavoring.
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