Morning walks with Seiko

Today we continued walking along the harbor, but we went south from the point where I stopped last week. This portion is called the Embarcadero, or departure place.  A Maritime Museum is located here now: I'm wearing one of my Seiko Moonphase watches. My photo archives indicate I bought this in 2004. Gads. I did have to put a new battery in it this morning before our walk. I didn't know this tall-masted ship, so I looked it up when I got home: HMS Surprise began life in 1970 as a replica of the 18th century Royal Navy frigate Rose. During the next 30 years Rose sailed thousands of miles as an attraction vessel and sail training ship prior to her conversion. For the academy award winning film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the filmmakers made a painstaking effort to recreate a 24 gun frigate specific to Great Britain’s Nelson era Royal Navy. The result is a replica vessel unmatched in its authenticity and attention to detail. The Star of India sits alongside t...

Who can remember "the old days" when you walked to the curb or news stand early in the morning, to pick up the newspaper?  I had that sort of feeling this morning, so I walked out there. It was cool and wet. No paper though. :-( In fact, when I went back in and checked my weather station, it appeared that no matter where we went, we would be walking in the water rather than next to it. I took off the Hexagon Seiko and considered a diver or two. We went to the sportfishing basin. As the low rumbling of the day boats filled the air, I considered the irony of excess signage. The only time I ran out of gas in a boat I was towed to this dock to refuel. Humiliating but better than swiming back to the dock. Rural on the river, or industrial on the harbor, there's always something interesting to see on our morning walks. Today it was 70's Polynesian Architecture Or retro Art Deco here  (I thought this island wasn't dredged up out of the bay until well after that era - but...

This morning started off a bit differently, due to technical problems. We had a late start . While looking in the nooks and crannies of my Seiko watch case, I found three candidates for a new battery. So I sat down at my watch bench and opened them up: I can open it, get IN and back OUT in just a few minutes (if I don't drop something or have to fight with a grumpy bracelet springbar) That's good. Now to set the date. Here are all three, date and times all matching to the second -- not so easy to achieve as many of you know.  Now we are ready to hike. We're still in the river valley, but about 10 miles inland, looking for the 5-acre  San Diego River Garden  (which I only learned about yesterday).  This shipping container is the "lobby" of the garden although it is seldom open nowadays due to the lockdown, and never at 7am. There are paths marked out with stones, and many native plants are labeled. The "parking lot" was chained but there's room for a ...