I forgot to mention something important from yesterday: I visited Univ. of San Diego (I love, love, love snooping around other colleges and universities to see how we size up). Something I love even more is visiting alumni offices. You know, we are friendly folk for the most part! I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Charles Bass, who had been in his new position as alumni director for a whoppin' 3 weeks! His picture wasn't even up on the website yet. He comes to SD from Villanova - poor thing, had to leave Philly for So. Cal. Before that, he was at U. of Denver and U. of Tulsa, his alma mater. We visited Tulsa last summer (where we had that delightful dinner with Paul and Maryanne Dentiste - oh what fun that was). Charles was so kind and fun to talk to. He engaged Julia about her college search. When she mentioned Hendrix, he said his dad was an alum! Small world - he's from Little Rock! Made me feel even more of a kinship with Hendrix, which we really liked when we visited last summer. Good community and academic vibe. Anyway, the connection with Charles, I believe, will be a good one. We've already connected our colleagues to each other as both schools are moving from one online community platform to another this summer! I know he is someone I can call on in the future.
On to today...plain and simple, we needed to abandon the city and the crowds, even beach crowds. Don't get me wrong, the beaches are beautiful, but alas, the water too cold. And my daughter needed to get outta town in a big way! I'm glad she was clear, because we headed for the hills, the horses, and the mountain air. Only 1 hour away, and we were elevated into country that I daresay looked a little Wyoming-ish! We visited a town called Julian, which is an old mining town. The drive was spectacular. Rugged mountains, pine trees, crystal clear skies, 81 degrees. We strolled through town and ate a sandwich, chatted with the locals, had a piece of pie. Ahhhhh....can't take the NC out of the girls. Felt like we were back in Mount Airy or maybe Sheridan, Wyo. We started breathing again.
After lunch, we drove to Cayamaca Lake and State Park, where we proceeded to take a 2 hr. hike around the lake. We saw deer, and herons, and a nest of herons! We stumbled on a horse camp which made us drool just a little (ok, a lot). It was good for our souls to be outside, up and away from the city. Hope it will have a long shelf life as we turn our attention to LA! We are both nervous about navigating there and staying for 6 days. How will we do it? Hopefully the kindnesses of Guilfordians will ease our city anxieties.
Tomorrow, we head for Carlsbad. It'll be dinner with Hannah Sherk's ('11) parents in Encinitas. Our connection to Hannah is sort of delicious: she was one of a group of Guilford women who took a cross country bike trip 2 summers ago down the east coast. I was sort of tracking them and pointing them in the direction of Guilford alums along the way. They got into some big storm systems in the Kitty Hawk area, so naturally I sent Frieda Harris '01 to their rescue! They ended up spending days with Frieda in Grandy and having a great time together (how could you miss with Frieda?). Anyway, Hannah was then at St. John's in Santa Fe, but later transferred to Guilford, and now has graduated. I met her parents at graduation, and we made a date then for this summer. Now, it is tomorrow!
Hoping for restorative sleep for me and my lovely assistant.
I think we were looking for some Quakers before we even realized it at this point! Some simplicity and some quiet. We needed to look within and then also found that in the conversations with alumni.
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