Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Short Day Trips over the 3 Day Weekend


If you follow my blog you know that one of my favorite places are the Tide Pools in Corona del Mar. My kids take me there every Mother's Day, but the weather was so glorious over this last weekend that I asked Jimmy to take me to the beach, after doing a bit of garage saleing that morning (mostly we were at Mickey D's tasting their new oatmeal, not as good as Jamba Juice though LOL) Fortunately, he enjoys the Tide Pools as much as I do so off we went. It was perfect there, not too warm or cool, just right. We laid out and soaked up the sun for about an hour and then we explored the pools.


I was surprised by how many people were there doing the same thing, kids were playing in the surf, divers were out in the seaweed clumps (yuck), and lots of fishing and pleasure boats too.

The tide was out so we were able to walk amongst the sea creatures and observe. The pools are policed, you aren't supposed to remove any rocks, shells, etc., but that's way too hard for me. I took home a piece of beach glass, and Jim found a rock in the shape of a heart. He stained it mahogany when we got home, shellacked it and put it on display over the fireplace, alongside our other treasures. :) Couldn't resist taking a shot of this sand castle below, the tide hadn't gotten to it yet. I loved how it was totally decorated with beach wood and shells.

And just look at the patterns in the sand below, they looked like leaf shapes that day. Soooo Cool! That was Saturday morning.
Sunday morning Jimmy asked me if I'd like to take a drive down to Fallbrook. I had heard that it's somewhat of an art community, so of course I wanted to check it out. Let's Go!!

As we were driving south on the 15 towards San Diego, the hills just kept getting more and more lush. Everywhere you looked it was breathtaking. Above is the Fallbrook off ramp. You can see how green everything is.

We got there at lunchtime, so we were definitely looking for a fun place to eat. It was blazing hot, so to cool off we went down this little walkway, above, and found the cutest place to eat called Le Bistro, below. They were serving Sunday brunch and it was delicious. I would recommend this spot.


After lunch, along the main drag on Main St., we found the Fallbrook Art Center. It's a combination arts and crafts gallery, right up my alley. They have an area where they showcase local artists and their art work is for sale. The main show this month was High School Student Art from the neighboring areas. This watercolor/pen and ink truck above was done by high schooler Chandler Lowe, grade 11, from San Pasquel High. It was my favorite piece in the show. Below were several mixed media deconstructed books from Mission Vista High, grades 9-12, all anonymous. I thought they were a really clever assignment, something I'd like to try with my 2nd or 3rd year 3-d students.

These mixed media paper mache' hand sculptures were also pretty darn amazing, the top one done by Shannon Claque, grade 12, from San Pasquel High. Jenna Hansink, grade 10, from Vista High did the one below.
And then the last piece that really caught my eye was this woven basket form, made by Janetta Bracey, grade 12 from Vista High. She used painted acrylic strips that she wove together. Another great idea to teach from.
On our way home from Fallbrook we still had some time so we stopped off at Old Town Temecula, founded in 1859, (below). What a fun stop that was. Like an old west town with lots of great shops and places to eat. We discovered that it's also a biker town, cuz of the huge Harley store where all the bikers show off their rides. I saw so many chix on bikes, it was way cool. I think I want to learn how to ride. Jim has a bike, I think it's time he taught me. Whatcha think????
I wanted to shoot more pix of this place but my memory card was full. So maybe next time.

No comments:

Post a Comment