the Poorman

One of our water polo friends invited us to join him for the Poorman triathlon, which is organized by one of his friends whose last name happens to be "Poorman." It's a pretty informal event; you don't even have to sign up. You start at Poorman's house and ride your bike 25 miles to Torrey Pines. Then you run 5 miles on the beach to La Jolla Shores. Then you swim 1 mile across to La Jolla Cove. Then you turn around and do the whole thing in reverse.Our water polo friend said that it is customary for people to pick and choose which pieces they want to do -- you certainly aren't required/expected to do the whole thing. In fact, most of the guys there were hard-core cyclists who didn't even attempt the run or the swim.
I thought it sounded like fun, and, for once, Jason got to be my cheering squad. I knew going in that the swim, unfortunately, was out. I got kicked at water polo two weeks ago and my rib is still tender, especially when trying to swim. So I planned to do the initial bike, both legs of the run and then see how I felt and decide whether to attempt some of the ride back.
Then the weather gods sent San Diego some record heat. We heard on the news that the record high for Oceanside that day had been 78 and they were forecasting it would reach 95! I know, I'm from Phoenix -- 95 should seem cool to me, but it wasn't what I wanted while trying something like this. It was about 90, even at the beach, so I had to make sure to stay hydrated.
The initial bike ride went well, although I was slower than the guys in my group. It isn't a timed event, so they didn't really care. The first leg of the run was miserably hot. That section of beach, Blacks**, has steep cliffs, so you can only run on it at low tide. Luckily they time the event accordingly. But, the cliffs kill the breeze and turn it into a humid mess. I was a bit faster than the guys in my group this time, so I guess it all evened out. The run back was better thanks to a slight breeze.
When I got back to the bikes, the guys in my group (who had done the swim and then hitched a ride back to the bikes) said it was too hot and they weren't going to bike back. I was ok with that and called it a day, too.
25 mile bike + 10 mile run = not bad

**Blacks beach is a nude beach. It hadn't occurred to me that that's where we were until we were running along and I saw this guy and did a double-take (of course, then I immediately wished I hadn't). There were a lot of nude people (mostly men) at the beach, most of whom really shouldn't have been. Among the activities I saw that I really didn't need to see were nude surfing, yoga and paddleball!

Pizzeria Luigi

Pizzeria Luigi is one of the closest Diner, Drive-In and Dives to us and this summer we've gone a couple of times. That's partly due to its proximity and partly due to the fact that they serve good, cheap pizza. Some of their combinations are a little strange, but all the ones I've tried have been good.
-Jason

Big Bear

Last week we celebrated Labour Day by camping at Big Bear Lake. Since our schedules are still fairly flexible, we were able to camp Monday night. This was a plus, since the campground was full up over the weekend but practically deserted Monday night. It made for a lot of solitude, even though there were some cabins not too far away. Everything was pretty quiet. Our campground was at the base of a ski resort, too, but that didn't cause too much trouble at this time of year. We got to test out our stove, and it worked perfectly. But we built a campfire too, so of course we had s'mores. And we discovered a new game, Farkle. It is a variation of Yahtzee, and it's a lot of fun.
We enjoyed being up there, although it was still a little warmer than we had been expecting. We did do a couple of short hikes and had a nice picnic by the lake. On Tuesday morning we walked around the small downtown, but it was almost like a ghost town it was so quiet. There was hardly anyone around and most of the stores were closed. When we did find a candy shop that was open, I was like a kid in a...well, I got some snacks for the drive home.

-Jason

Lawn bowling

We took a free lawn bowling lesson last week. There is a lawn bowling club in Balboa Park and I discovered that they offer a free lesson to beginners. Since I have a family history of lawn bowling, I thought we should give it a try.
We went over Friday afternoon. It was a pretty warm day and there is no shade on the lawn bowling rinks, so that was a little unfortunate. We had fun, though. It didn't take too long to get the hang of it. The main difference between lawn bowling and something like bocce ball is that the bowls are weighted on one side, so they curve. I sent one bowl in completely the wrong direction when I misjudged which way I was holding it, but other than that we acquitted ourselves respectably. We also had fun, so maybe we'll try it again sometime.
-Jason