Californians love their cars - and their vehicles give them access to the beach… It might be winter-time but now it’s still time to get down to the surf.

The map below may help locational knowledge…

Any visit to Cal Clan Country must include a visit to Oceanside, just to check out the boats in the harbor, to spot any surf boards and listen to the honking sounds of the sea lions.

Is there anywhere else quite like Oceanside? For sure there’s only one ‘Top Gun’ house

and where else might you see palm trees so very much taller than the traffic lights…?

There was a gathering at Carlsbad one day during Thanksgiving Week, where family tradition decrees that a lunch in a Ruby’s Diner must be had https://www.rubys.com/location/carlsbad/ . Here you can while away the waiting time for your order by watching the miniature train racing around a track high above diners’ heads and by assembling a cardboard car into a 3D shape with its appropriate stickers…

It’s always seems sunny out here in Carlsbad - and to sit in the sunshine with a post lunch Starbuck’s drink was a real pleasure in late November!

“I’m yours all day tomorrow,” said WSU student Cal Gal on the day before Thanksgiving, “I’ll drive us down to Balboa Park.” This was a good plan. Let someone else take the wheel to switch between freeways and cope with the urban traffic.

Balboa Park speaks to all the senses: the backdrop sound from the quarterly and hourly California bell tower chimes,

*California Tower and the domed roof of the Museum of Us*

the buskers (a violinist under the colonnades, a keyboard player outside the Botanical Building),

the smells and textures of the plants,

the stunning and fascinating buildings,

the colours, none more so than in the Spanish Art Center Village.

The Museum of Contemporary Art is closed on a Wednesday but a look at the intricate beaded Christmas decorations in the Tinnken Art Museum was worthwhile.

The fine Botanical Building reopened last December after a refurbishment: the plants and trees are lush and the lathe structure is an impressive sight to gaze upon.

After a taco lunch (at an eatery in the Natural History Museum) Cal Gal and Boatwif headed for Spanish Village - pastel patio slabs all correct.

Large sculptures still in a studio yard.

Textiles and paintings displayed to tempt would-be purchasers.

It was Cal Guy Snr who drove on the next two ventures, first south to the Pannikin (always a second visit made there) and then on a busy Saturday north for about 50 miles into Orange County.

Here is the San Juan Capistrano Mission, the seventh of the 21 missions created by the Spanish in the late 1700s / early 1800s. This beautiful and carefully preserved place is fondly regarded as “the Jewel of the Missions”.

The approach to the Mission is dominated by a view of the large white Basilica, a Roman Catholic church built in the same shape but to a larger scale than the Great Stone Church, which was ruined by an earthquake in 1812, only six years after completion.

The modern Baslica echoes the shape of the short-lived Great Stone Church, ruined in an earthquake in 1812. The Basilica operates as a separate church outside of the Mission grounds. The altar-piece is ornate, there are statues of Catholic saints mounted in wall niches and bright painted decoration embellishes the plaster work.

Back inside the Mission the Serra Chapel must be seen.

The Campanario or bell wall draws the eye. The two largest bells are replicas, while the two smaller ones and the two hanging at a lower level at the bell tower end are originals.

Inside the extensive buildings are the living quarters of the padres and soldiers, religious artefacts from the Mission’s past and celebrated art work. Displays detail the period of secular ownership and the harsh lives of the frontier soldiers sent to guard the Mission.

A couple of Spanish padres aided by half a dozen soldiers founded the Mission: their travel was via boat south between San Diego and Juan Capistrano or on horseback.

It’s odd to consider that nowadays Californians largely “worship” their motorised vehicles, without which the Captain and Boatwif would have seen far less of this astonishing region… Grateful thanks to all the Cal Clan drivers for their chauffeur services!

Checking out some favourite places

Reunions in the Fall