Baja Bound
This is our last full day in the US before heading across the border. I feel both excitement and apprehension as I imagine what the next two months will be like. I’m glad we gave ourselves two weeks to enjoy the journey from Portland and leave ourselves some margins in case anything goes wrong. Last week the battery light came on letting me know that alternator needed to be replaced. I decided to save myself a few hundred dollars and replace it myself. With the help of a couple of YouTube videos I had it up and going in under 3 hours. What a relief to hear the engine turn over and the trouble light go off! Then, we got an email from the Baja property owners letting us know that someone accidentally caught the property on fire and the 5000-liter water tank and pipes were destroyed and needed to be replaced. Keeping our fingers crossed that it's up and going by the time we get there on Friday.
These incidents have not prevented us from having a wonderful time in California; enjoying San Francisco on the 4th, visiting my daughter and her family in Simi Valley, my Uncle George in Beverly Hills, the warm beaches, amazing parks, and glorious sunsets. Linda enjoyed her first time at Sea World and even got me to go on a couple of the rides. As with any large wild animal, we felt compassion for the orcas raised in captivity, especially the males with their flaccid dorsal fins. The Shamu performance has been replaced by an “Orca Encounter” which now has more of an educational focus with just enough action to keep the kids engaged. No more of the killer whales are being raised at SW. In a few years, they will all be gone. Given the plight of Keiko (of Free Willy fame) who died of pneumonia shortly after being reintroduced to the wild in Iceland, this seems like the most humane approach.
I was even more horrified when I saw, "child swap" signs posted at various locations around the park (see photo below)! I know that parents can sometimes become exasperated, but this seems a little extreme! It isn't legal in Oregon. What a relief to find out it was just an area that allows parents to take turns riding with their children. One parent can wait with the child who is not riding while the rest of the family boards and rides. After they exit the ride, the remaining parent can board the next available seat. What a good reminder not to jump to conclusions!
Balboa Park in San Diego is home to the SD Zoo as well as numerous gardens and museums. We happened to come on the second Tuesday of the month which granted free access to the Museum of Photographic Art (MoPA) with its remarkable exhibition of Sebastião Salgado: Genesis. The rooms full of B&W photographs capture striking images of the landscapes, seascapes, animals and peoples that have, “so far escaped the long reach of today’s world.” My patience has been tested a few times on this trip through the modern world; like waiting two hours for pizza delivery that never arrived, being told we needed to come back to the motel because they didn’t have any record of us paying for a second night, being put in a hot room with an A/C that didn’t work on a 109° day, and missing smoke alarm, and an Uber driver that inexplicably cancelled our ride to SF. We commonly end our days verbalizing the things we are grateful for. More than ever, I am grateful for freedom, beauty, and the people back home I miss so much already.
