Today is my birthday. Birthday number 73. We’re headed to Baja California, the three of us: my wife Joann, our dog Carson and myself. My birthday wish is to see a rainbow. So, as we are headed south on I5 near Firebaugh, there it is, a rainbow off to the east. That has to be a good omen for the start of our 23 day trip. Of course, we have to find an off ramp to get off the highway to take a photo.
We make our first overnight stop at Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area. Not a bad spot for an overnight given the lack of camp sites along our route. This time of year, finding a site in not a problem, but in summer this can be quite a popular spot.
The next morning, we broke camp and hit the road. We needed to stop in San Diego to renew our passports and since our appointment with the passport agency is on March 8 we discovered that we have an extra day. This gave us the opportunity check out the wildflowers at Anza Borrego. The campground at Borrego Palm Canyon was full, but we managed to boondock at Peg Leg Smith, a popular spot for boondocking, and this turned out to be quite close to some of the better flower displays.
Also enjoying the flowers was this painter Stephen Stauffer who spends his time traveling the country and painting.
From Anza Borrego it’s a two-hour drive to San Diego, where we had booked two nights at Campland on the Bay. Campland turned out to be quite a comfortable place to camp even though it is an RV park.
On the morning of March 8 it was an easy matter to break camp and head to downtown San Diego. We were at the San Diego Passport Authority well ahead of our 8:00 AM appointment, and already there was a line. With our applications submitted we drove over to Fiesta Island where we took Carson for a walk at the Fiesta Island Dog Park and then launched our kayaks for a paddle on Mission Bay. Later in the afternoon we returned to the passport agency to pick up our passports. Rather than go back to our campground for dinner we discovered the Pacific Beach Fish Shop that had excellent fresh fish. Then it was back to camp, to get an early start crossing the border.
