Up To The Mountains!

Matt came and picked me up around lunch time, so we stopped by a Mexican restaurant in Kearny Mesa that I cannot remember the name of, but it is in the same little strip-mall as the Boll Weevil (Beer and burgers, how can you go wrong?) at Ruffin Road and Clairmont Mesa Blvd.. Oh, I just looked at the BACK of the building on Google StreetView, it is Harvest Mexican Food, if you can imagine.  Anyway, I really loved the taco and quesadilla I had.  Last month at another place a few miles away I had a taco that tasted fishy. This one tasted just fine.  And the quesadilla was fabulous.  Just plain cheese it was, but it was cooked so that the tortilla "bubbles" were nearly burnt, but not, so it had a great taste that, mixed with a chipotle sauce lasted long after I had finished eating.

Well, after the eating we headed up to Palomar Mountain State Park for a little geocaching.  I don't remember ever being here before.  The trail was shady with pine and oak (and cedar!) trees, plus there were tons of ferns..Almost like a Washington forest, but not raining and maybe not nearly as green.

Here we see Matt being stalked by a giant snake!

Here, he is resting beside a tree that I thought was filled with buzzing bees, but turned out to be flies.  And I don't want to know why.

So I climbed up a nearby electrical pole to get this shot of some bird, looks like hawk or something.

I took a bunch of pictures of these butterflies, this was the best one!

I took a picture of Matt at one end of the culvert, and he took a picture of me at the other end.  This is the Doane Creek culvert under the park road.

We found two geocaches along the way.

While resting on the trail at a conveniently placed bench we found (carved with a chainsaw from a log.), a small child approached and asked about my hiking stick.  I explained it was my hiking stick, and showed him where I had carved my nickname, which quite amused him and his companion, presumably his little sister, who was quite precocious and asked me many questions about my nickname and how I got it.

We took the slow road back to the freeway, getting stuck behind a very large truck that may have been carrying oranges.

We had dinner at Panera.  I had broccoli soup and some sandwich that I cannot remember.  And a Diet Pepsi. And an apple, instead of chips.  So there is healthy for you.