No, we did not drive into the ocean and over the edge. We are alive and well in San Diego spending time with our daughter Amy and generally just chilling out, cat sitting and doing “daddydo’s” (like honeydo’s, but it’s daddy who does them). We will be here for a while longer and while we are here visiting, news will be sparse.

Today, however, we took a drive up to Julian, an old mining town up in the Laguna Mountains about an hour’s drive from San Diego. No trip to San Diego is complete without our annual pilgrimage to Julian. The weather was perfect for the drive and meandering around town. Aside from the weather, the beautiful scenery and the delightful shops, the main attraction for us is the Miners’ Diner – one of the very few places on earth where you can get a genuine ice cream soda made from a genuine 1920’s style soda fountain. My favorite (and has been since childhood) is a “Green River” (lime flavored) soda, and even though there are a few genuine soda fountains left in the world, I think the one here is the only one where you can get a “Green River” soda. The food there is also terrific, and they make an outstanding bison burger.

The Miner’s Diner started as a Rexall Drugstore in 1928 and the soda fountain was added in 1929. The building itself was the first brick building erected in Julian in 1885. Julian was founded in 1870 and named after one of its founders, Mike Julian. Shortly afterwards, gold was found in a local creek bed and that started San Diego’s one and only, short lived, gold rush. Since then, Julian has been a farming community and apples, which are crisp and delicious, are its number one crop.

We also like to poke around in some of the shops especially The Warm Hearth where you can find fascinating things you never knew existed, and a trip to the Julian Cider Mill for a jar or two of their lemon marmalade (which is the best I have ever found). Then, of course, there’s Mom’s Pie Shop for a great apple or cherry pie (they have others as well, but apple and cherry are my favorites). Today, we missed out on the pies due to the crowd – the line just to get into the shop was halfway down the street. So, in view of the line and our expanding waste lines we decided to forego today’s dessert. After our shopping and browsing, we headed back to San Diego on Route CA 79 which takes you from Julian along the crest of the Laguna Mountains, past Cuyamaca Lake and Cuyamaca State Park to I8. CA 79 is a winding mountain road with lots of ups, downs and very sharp curves – as the driver, you don’t want to spend a lot of time looking at the scenery. For the passengers, the views are magnificent. In my past life, when I lived in San Diego, we used to come up here often and it was fun reminiscing about old times.

I mentioned above that we will be here a while longer, partly due to the need to take the baby (Miata) to the car hospital. It has been making nasty grinding noises since we left Texas and doesn’t have any problems on the road except when starting in low gear or reverse. Once underway, the noise stops. The diagnosis is the throwout bearing which is between the clutch and transmission. Tomorrow, we have to taker her into the hospital where they will probably replace the entire clutch (along with the throwout bearing). The good news is that we will get to spend a little time with our other daughter who will be returning from Portugal.

‘Nuff for now. Like I said, news will be sparse for the next few days, but will post again if something exciting happens or when we get back on the road.