San Diego - Touring Shelter Island, March 6

The clouds were supposed to come in this morning with rain developing. It didn't happen and the sun came out with only a few clouds. Ray decided to visit Shelter Island and walk/drive around for pictures. It's not really an island but more of an isthmus.

Shelter Island:

An Island Born from Human Ingenuity.  During World War II, the San Diego Bay had to accommodate larger ships, so the bay was dredged, and the sandbank was built up – eventually, more than 20 feet above high tide, and Shelter Island (after being developed through the 1950s) was born.

Now it hosts lots of hotels and marinas. We drove to the  far west end of the spit and worked our way back east. 

This palm below is a white flowering bird of paradise (Strelitizia Nicolai if you want to get technical). The plants are near the Japanese Friendship Bell portion of the Shelter Island Shoreland Park at the end of the spit.

There are lots of sculptures along the waterfront. At the west end is the Japanese Friendship Bell, cast by living National Treasure (as designated by Japan), Masahiko Katori. Yokohama is the sister city of San Diego. 

Inside views of Shelter Island

Lots of huge yachts.

Huge resort hotel on the left with groomed sand.

Heading east the next sculpture is  The Tunamans Memorial.

Next on the list is the Pacific Portal is a sculptural gazebo,

Outside harbour view from the gazebo.

Back mid-island at the entrance is Ocean Song in front of the Humpghries Half Moon Inn.

The best part of today's adventure is seeing the USS Tripoli leaving the harbour. While Ray scrambled for his telephoto lens back at the car, I managed to take the pics he wanted with my phone. He wouldn't have made it.  USS Tripoli (LHA-7) is the second America-class amphibious assault ship built for the United States Navy. On 7 May 2012. It carries Osprey and attack helicopters.

A "two thumbs up" picture

The Harbor Patrol escorting the USS Tripoli out of the harbour.

We'd picked out a restaurant for lunch, but it did't open for half an hour. So we went exploring and found a wonderful path in front of some spectacular houses, Bessemer Path.

Peeking through a fence. lol

A hedge of birds of paradise.

Now that it's open, time for lunch at the Bali Hai Restaurant. It has a gorgeous view over San Diego Harbour. 

The restaurant was upstairs.

Very Polynesian design.

Ray's non-alcoholic pina colada and my the Mr. Bali Hai,

One drink was all I needed. lol

The also have well known all alcohol Mai Tai, which they will serve you two of. Our shared appetizer to sample all of their appys. Delicious.

Tuna Poke, Spinach Lumpia, Coconut Shrimp and Beef skewers.

Here's the views from the restaurant. You can see the clouds are backing up now. The picture below shows the Coronado Bridge behind the aircraft carrier.

USS Carl Vincent R and USS Enterprise L

Star of India at the Maritime Museum

When we exited the restaurant, it was completely cloudy. We certainly lucked out on our morning. By 4:30 it started raining.

Thursday morning I woke up late as I'd been woken up late last night. Our alarm at the house in Lake Cowichan went off and they didn't get ahold of us so called Jason, who called me. Apparently our bedroom motion detector went off. After waking up our neighbour to check that the bedroom window wasn't open. All the doors were secure and this window is 2 floors up. After finding out the window was not open and nothing else had triggered, I called ADT to call off the guard coming to check and turn the alarm back off and reset. It's probably a spider on the sensor. Our housekeeper will stop by this morning to check. Of course that meant I didn't fall back asleep for 2 hours.

Thursday, the sun came up for a bit and then the clouds came in again. Supposed to have a few showers in between some sunny periods. We ended up with no rain, but some really heavy black cloud cover in the afternoon. Ray took me out for a short drive and then we spent the rest of the day at the coach, doing laundry etc.