She may not look like much, but she’s got had it where it counts, kid.

Not unlike McArthur, I have returned. After a searing two-week campaign in the Mojave it is good to be back to the (relative) comfort of northern San Diego County.

I have a big post brewing for this holiday weekend - federal government employees still observe Columbus Day - but I’ve not yet had time to fully conceptualize it. Instead, I offer you the latest from the lens of my camera, photographs from my last field operation in the desert.

Check this space for action this weekend. Have fun, be safe, and enjoy the radience of autumn.

Grams, my paternal grandmother, loved San Diego.  When I was growing up, every so often she’d head out there on a vacation or to a food service convention, and when she would come home I always knew she had a blast.

Part of the attraction for her was nostalgia, I think.  She left home (Fountain City, Wisconsin) and a good job with the telephone company to take a vacation to visit my grandfather, who was in the Navy and stationed in San Diego.  They weren’t married at the time, but they were when the time came for Grams to return to Wisconsin and her job.  She didn’t go back until Gramps was discharged a few years later, and in many cases I think Grams viewed San Diego as the place where she came into her own life.

Grams liked San Diego for other reasons, too, reasons I didn’t understand until this last year.  I’ve never cared for Southern California; the congestion on the roads, the self-absorbed population, the too-hot climate all turned me off early on.

Somehow, completely against my line of thinking, San Diego’s managed to carve out a fond place in my heart.  It’s a spectacularly beautiful city, especially at night.  The downtown area’s the one of the best I’ve ever been in, not only in the United States, but in the world, especially if you’re hungry or looking to be entertained.

I’m not going to trumpet the merits of San Diego, however.  I’m just going to link to the beautiful photos I’ve collected and let them do the talking.  If you’ve never visited out here before, don’t waste any more time.  It’s more than worth it.

And that’s coming from a guy that hates Southern California.