Professor Jim Hayes Memorial Bench

If you were a Journalism major at Cal Poly, which I was, then you knew, maybe even feared (he was quite strict) and admired Professor Hayes. He was alternately a reporter, journalist and professor. He knew what he was doing.

And he impressed upon his students the need to be correct with each and every word.

On our last trip up the coast, my husband and I found his memorial bench in a beautiful spot overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Where we sat and contemplated life for a bit.

Omakase

Our retired dentist, who we adore, treated us to lunch at Sushi Ota in Pacific Beach this summer.

We sat down at the sushi bar for omakase, which is a Japanese phrase that means "I'll leave it up to you" from the Japanese 'to entrust' (makaseru).

And we were in excellent hands.

The chef explained each dish, what to eat first and in one case to leave the bones as they would be deep-fried and served in another course!

Try it some time.

Omakase = fabulous experience.

Downtown Portland

Start walking!

...check out the buildings, get lunch from a food truck, try on some Doc Martens, scan floors and floors of books and then buy a few, stroll the waterfront, try a restaurant, feed the ducks, people watch, there are so many ways to fill a day in Portland!

The gentleman who checked us in at the Marriott Hotel said he spent his
entire first year in the city trying a new food truck every day for lunch!

It is so easy to get lost in Powell's from the sheer size
 of the building and the quantity of books on display.

Doc Martens - even come in floral, who knew?

Beautiful path around the waterfront lined with cafes and ice cream shops and this view.

Cool way to promote and take care of electric cars in the city.

What is their story and are they possibly related?

Love the symmetry of fire escapes.

Voodoo donuts, seemed that everyone in town was carrying a pink box,
including fellow passengers on our flight back to San Diego.

Don't forget to look up at all the old buildings.

Good-bye Portland,

a city worth exploring....

Too Pretty...

I love this shower curtain.

It was almost too pretty to be hidden away in the bathroom.

Perhaps spread out as a quilt on the bed? Tapestry on the wall? Rug on the floor?

But then it would have to compete with the rest of our hotel room in Pacific City, Oregon, with this view of Haystack Rock.

And that wouldn't be fair either.

Oregon Coast

So different than what we experience in San Diego.

Less crowded, primitive, often bordered by trees and thick forests, haystacks appear in the distance when the fog lifts.

327-foot-high Haystack Rock in Pacific City

Super Bloom in Anza-Borrego

In mid-March we headed to the desert to see the Super Bloom, which was getting a mass of publicity in the newspaper and on tv.

After a wet winter, 7 inches of rain in the desert, and many years of drought ---- the wildflowers were out in abundance.

Even though we got up at 6 am to hit the road, there were many visitors that beat us to it.

Which is why these first shots are of people taking pictures of the flowers that we were eager to see.

Enough of that, let's check out the blooms.

  

There was also an abundance of caterpillars. 

Big Ones!