Destination: Del Mar
On Saturday, rode the Coast Highway south to my Surface 604 dealer in Solana Beach to pick up a new bike battery (bad USB port on the original).
View attachment 150953
Kudos to Surface 604 and San Diego Electric Bike (web photo) for making this warranty swap so easy. Now I can replace at least some of the phone charge eaten up by RideWithGPS without stopping.
From Solana Beach, pedaled 3 more miles south to my turn-around in Del Mar, where all subsequent images were taken. Del Mar is the next beach town north from La Jolla. Together, Del Mar and La Jolla claim some of the best beaches and most scenic coastlines in all of SoCal — with the real estate prices to match. Downtown Del Mar adds a seaside village feel to that mix.
View attachment 150949Doesn't get any more Del Mar than this: On the right, City of Del Mar lifeguard headquarters with standard-issue red Toyota pickup out front. On the left, Poseidon, a fabulous beachside seafood restaurant with badass Lamborghini sportwagon out front.
View attachment 150950
Surf conditions at Del Mar this day. This is an unusually large and fancy lifeguard station, even by SoCal standards. Little oval plaques acknowledge its many wealthy donors.
View attachment 150952Looking south along Poseidon's rear deck with the La Jolla Peninsula in the distance.
View attachment 150957
A shot from that same deck in January.
View attachment 150958No problem choosing an entree when forbidden purple rice is on the menu! And just how did Poseidon get hold of forbidden rice? The waitress was forbidden say.
View attachment 150948
Rail isn't the first thing SoCal brings to mind, but the San Luis Obispo-San Diego rail corridor happens to be the second-busiest intercity line in the US. Just around this bend,
the Del Mar segment runs smack on the edge of a slowly retreating sea cliff. Result: Fabulous scenery for AmTrak and commuter passengers, colossal headache for regional transportation authorities.
The threatened tracks were closed for repairs and/or reinforcements at least twice in the last year alone. As befitting a place as posh as Del Mar, they'll eventually be moved to billion-dollar tunnels beyond the waves' reach.
View attachment 150966
A wave-cut bench a few steps south of Poseidon back in January.
View attachment 150959
Two fine parks grace the Del Mar shore — Powerhouse Beach below the tracks on the north side, and Seagrove Park above on the south. Seagove offers views like this one to the northwest. The white signal post marks the failing track.
View attachment 150964
Of course, into every charmed life some rain must fall. These zillion-dollar beachfront homes a mile north of Poseidon are still under repair after being pelted by rock-throwing storm waves in January.
Every day, I count my lucky stars for our new home in Carlsbad, 12 miles up the coast. But if Del Mar had been affordable, that's where we'd be — not least for the Del Mar Dog Beach, here seen with Roxie legally off-leash last March...
Off-leash dogs are 11th-degree black belts at being in the moment, and it can't help but rub off on the humans around. Add many dogs eager to play, a shallow sandy bottom many yards out, and waves to splash in at a stunning Del Mar beach, and you have a strong contender for Happiest Place on Earth — at least in our book. The nearest off-leash beaches are at least 30 minutes south and well over an hour north.
View attachment 150965
The dog beach straddles the mouth of the San Dieguito River, here hidden just this side of the sea cliffs. Before the rivers draining San Deigo County's west slope were dammed, this was the largest, complete with an impressive gorge carved through hard granite some 20 miles inland. The flow at its mouth, still strong, delivers lots of sand to this and other Del Mar beaches.
Little traffic on the Coast Highway all the way to Del Mar on this beautiful Saturday at 0930 but bumper to bumper much of the way home at 1130. No doubt a taste of what our first tourist season here will be like.