Pio Pico in Jamul, CA (Jan 10th - 19th), 2011

We landed at Pio Pico Thousand Trails Campground which was about 20 minutes east of San Diego in the town of Jamul.  It was out in the hills where we had no cell phones nor internet service.  But we loved the area and the weather.  Sunny, high 60's and beautiful mountains all around us.  And of course the Border Patrol traveling up and down the trails in the mountains and on the area roads.  Lots of them.  We were only about 20 miles or less from the border of Mexico.  The campground was huge so we chose to camp at the back of the park so we could walk Buddy up and down the hills which we loved.  He had his freedom and loved to investigate the new area.  We traveled to San Diego a few days; we loved the town.  It has so many great restaurants and had many people walking through town.  Definitely was a happening town.  We had dinner with some good friends Norm and Sheree who relocated from Lake Orion to Del Mar which was a very nice town along the ocean.  Again we found out about a dog beach along the Del Mar ocean side which Buddy swam, chased dogs and just had a grand time.  We visited Chula Vista Olympic Training Centers which is one of 3 in the U.S.  There was an Olympic mile long sidewalk that we could walk along and see where they practiced soccer, BMX course,  softball, track and field sports, and with cricket and archery practice that was going on at the time of our visit..  It was a very nice park with room for more sports. On another day we visited nearby LaJolla a town along the ocean that had kayak trips in the ocean to the caves and a great snorkeling park.  It was rather late in the day and the tide had gone out so it was not a good time to kayak up to the caves so we had to pass.  It was 83 degrees and instead we walked along the ocean side in town and watched the sea lions beach on the rocks that jutted out into the ocean.  The waves were pretty big and it was another nice town to visit.  Since San Diego is known for it's great zoo, we had already visited the zoo twice before with our kids when they were little so we passed it up on this visit.  We could love staying near San Diego because it had great weather and some neat towns to visit.   But with Mike's brother Gary coming in for a visit to Las Vegas, we decided to head there.  But we will be back to San Diego someday and extend our stay.  Especially in the winter months.