Second half of Grand Ave Bridge sign in Del Mar.

The bridge is now closed. There's a sign in front of it, here it is - the first of 2 parts so you can read it.

This bridge was built in the 40s in Del Mar to give access to the Del Mar Airport, where blimps and submarine warfare planes took off to protect our coast. Later big hollywood stars like Bing Crosby would fly in for vacations, and stay to start racetracks. Finally the landing strip was cut in half by the freeway. See next pic for more info...

flooding next to La Bajada dip in Encinitas, last Monday during our last big storm

Olivenhain Resovoir 3/2004

DCP_4704, originally uploaded by charliewallace.

On the Dam theme, here's a shot of Olivenhain Resovoir, which is just north of Hodges and will eventually be connected. This was taken back in March 2003.
(First test of posting from flickr.com)

Today I hiked down to the dam of Lake Hodges. Looks like about 3 feet before it will be spilling over - quite a change from last summer when it got down to 17% of capacity. This guy in the yelow rain suit zoomed up in a small motorboat, told some people to get off the dam, and appeared to read some info from that white slanted stick-like thing to the left of him in the photo.

Hills west of Santa Ysabel, watercolor effect.

Watercolor version of the Santa Ysabel windmill.

Did I mention that there were *lots* of flowers? These were a few miles to the east of Palm Canyon, on the other side of the town of Borrego Springs.

Er, about that promise I just made that there would be no more bugs? A close look shows that I lied...

There were lots of these little yellow poppies.

Tiny desert flower.

I'm a bit famous with certain people for "flower and bug shows" but I promise this is the only bug!

Due to the wet winter, there were lots of desert flowers! They arrived a bit earlier than usual this year.

Shaft of an old rotting palm frond.

New palm frond, just unfolding.

Looking up from within the palm grove in Palm canyon. These wild palms are native to the area, and sometimes reach an age of 1000 years. There was a tremendous flash flood back in september, a 10-foot wall of water, which wiped out hundreds of trees - over half of the grove - but the oldest, largest trees survived due to deep roots.

Rugged mountain slopes at the entrance to Palm Canyon, in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Due to the wet winter, there's more green than usual.

On a trip out to the Anza-Borrego State Park, we stopped early in Santa Ysabel to visit Dudley's Bakery (famous bread!). This windmill was across the street.

Closeup from previous shot.

Another wave at La Jolla on 7 Jan 05. These photos were about half a second apart. Playing with the new camera's continuous mode...

This wave was just outside the breakwater at the cove in La Jolla. It was a bit out of focus so I used a photoshop watercolor filter to rescue it.

La Jolla, Ca, from the Torrey Pines glider port, taken jan 15 2005.

Detail of cell door at an old jail in Oldtown San Diego. Taken a few weeks ago, Jan 15 2005.

Mexican Eagle - the same species featured in the Mexican symbol of the eagle and the snake. A guy from the San Diego Wild Animal Park said they are more social than most eagles.

Ducks at the San Elijo bird reserve, Jan 2 2005