Morning walks with Seiko

Today is the 50th day we have walked, each day wearing a different Seiko watch from my collection. I had no idea of the real number of our Seikos; as I sorted through my watch cabinet, repair bench, storage bins, etc they kept turning up. I have been busy ordering parts, changing batteries, fitting straps and so forth. I'm now wearing a 6602 manual wind wristwatch that has been in apart for at least 10 years. It's the same movement that appeared yesterday in my pocket watch. I assembled this last night, put a suitable strap on and it ran beautifully all night. So it's on my wrist today! A glimpse of the watch Having enjoyed the comments about Mount Helix yesterday, today we went to Mount Soledad, the other high peak in San Diego, at its northwest corner. The sky was clear and the views spectacular. Here we are looking south.  A couple minutes later, you can see how the light is changing. Downtown, San Diego bay, the Coronado Bridge -- all places that we have walked in the p...

We drove east today to Mount Helix. This pinnacle just east of the city of San Diego has been open to the public for almost 100 years. Our goal was to be there in time to get a parking space (got the last one) and to see the sunrise at roughly 6:50 (we did). The 1300 foot elevation of the mountain gives us enough height to see all around the San Diego area and down to Tijuana, Mexico. We are looking west toward the ocean in this photo. The amphitheatre was used for "Sunrise Services" on Easter mornings when I was a kid. I can remember coming up here a couple times, roughly 50-60 years ago. We walked around the top of the mountain several times, and as the sun rose and the light increased, each time we could see more. Out in the distance, in the middle of this photo is the spit of land we walked yesterday at the bird sanctuary. Straight out in the middle of this photo is my house. I can't quite make it out (haha). This is the path we took around the mountaintop. It is well...

  We took a bit of a road trip this morning and headed for the very southern tip of San Diego Bay. It was still dark as we passed the Hotel del Coronado. We headed south on Route 75 towards Imperial Beach. I brought my Seiko EL-370 with me. This is an electronic pocket watch (not quartz, not digital, not kinetic, not mechanical). Essentially it's a tiny kicker that keeps a balance wheel moving; otherwise it's quite mechanical. We had about 25-30 minutes before sunrise. We got out of the car and started walking out a long man-made spit of land, reaching out into the shallow salt water.  This one was taken with my iPhone but all the following shots are from my Sony camera. It was very crisp, cool, slightly windy, and quiet. Plenty of ducks in this sheltered bay. It seemed a very long way to the end of the walk (afterwards I measured about 1000 steps on my iPhone). A bit brighter to the south than to its northern side. I know these pictures can't convey the sense of magic in t...