Soaring on a Sunday

 Afraid to fly 

by Kim C. Martin Photography (with permission)

The girls and I just got back from a couple of days visiting friends up in Sacramento. We had a great time hanging out with our good friends who drove down from Oregon to meet us half way. We mostly just hung out and enjoyed our friendship, but also got to go see The Secret World of Arriety, the new Myazaki film by Disney and Studio Ghibli (makers of "Spirited Away" and "Ponyo"),  based on the story "The Borrowers", a family of little folks that live under the floorboards in a beautiful little garden cottage. We all really enjoyed it, and I especially loved the music, as well as the beautiful animation. It just came out Friday, so if you get a chance, I do recommend seeing it.

Back to Soaring over San Diego. It looks like it was a beautiful weekend out and lots of great things to do. Sorry we missed the Avocado Festival in Balboa, I hope some of you were able to make it and enjoy the many samples of guacamole they had available! Yum, has me in the mood for some yummy guacamole and chips.

Here's some other great things going on this week in San Diego;

Tuesday, February 28th, Resident Free Tuesday at Balboa Park. San Diego Air & Space Museum** (See Special Information at bottom) San Diego Automotive Museum (last admission 3:45pm) San Diego Hall of Champions SELECT House of Pacific Relations International Cottages.

February-March, Wildflowers in Anza Borrego are starting to bloom. This week the barrel cactus, verbena and desert lily have started to bloom. Check out the website for flowers reports.

March 1-May 13th, The Flower Fields in Carlsbad opens this week. Come see the ranunculus, enjoy a hayride, pea mazes, activities for kids and more. Don't forget your camera for some wonderful photo ops while there!

March 8th-18th, Family Screenings at the Latino Film Festival, San Diego. Family Film passes now available thru 3/11 or until supplies last.

March 17th and 18th, 9am-5pm. Herb Festival, Spring Plant Sale and Tomatomania at the San Diego Botanic Gardens in Encinitas. (coupon available on their website). Also, on Saturday only, from 1030-noon is a childrens activity where kids will learn how roses are used in cooking, perfume and for nutrition. They will make a rose-inspired bracelet, rose petal potpourri dream pouches, or wild Irish paper rose in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

Saturday and Sunday, March 10th and 11th, 10-2pm.  Vallecito Days, Anza Borrego Desert Park. Experience  life on the 1860's frontier. Dress up in 1850-60s attire.


This week's featured photo is by my online photographer friend, Kim C. Martin. Check out more of her amazing photography on her Facebook page, Kim C. Martin Photography. 

Keep Soaring & Landing Safely,

in Beautiful, Sunny San Diego!

Your Soaring Mama, 

Mandy

Desert Flowers at Palm Canyon, Anza Borrego

Two lovely, unschooling lady friends of mine and I planned a photo-taking trip out to Anza Borrego to see the wildflowers in bloom. Up to the last day I really wasn't sure if we'd see very many, as last year I made it too late and didn't see many at all (but did see a lot of caterpillars and visited the awesome nature center!). But, oh, were we lucky! Beautiful wildflowers everywhere! The ocotillos were in bloom as well as many low laying desert wildflowers throughout the Anza Borrego campground area. We had headed out early and decided to do the 3 mile round trip hike up to Palm Canyon. I now know for sure why it's called Palm Canyon. So amazing and a bit unusual to see these magnificent palms at the end of our journey, at the end of trail.



The jutting rocks with bursts of yellow wildflowers shooting out like fireworks was so magnificent to see while hiking up the Palm Canyon.



I think the ocotillos will always be my favorite though.....



More photos from the day can be found here. If you'd like to make a trip out to Anza I recommend checking out the wildflowers report here.

Happy Soaring!

Mandy