San Diego Coast Skate San Diego, CA - Aug. 2, 2003

Saturday Aug 2, 2003 Oceanside to San Diego 50 mile skate.

What a fabulous morning for this wonderful annual skate that SDSE has organized for us skaters to enjoy. Our hats go off to Howard who set up the route, including all of the chalked directions on the pavement and encouragements while climbing Torrey. Great job Howard. A HUGE thanks to Carole, Darren and Greg for manning the 3 SAG vehicles for terrific support. Kudos to the cyclists, Donna, Brenda, Cathy, Pat & Mike for the drafting, braking and just taking extra care of the skaters. The SKATERS, you guys are the greatest friends to skate with and make this skate outing so wonderful.

Robin, Lesa, Maryanne, Alice, Lizzy, Brook, AJ, Michael, Brandon, Bob, Rolf, Joe, Rodney, Howard, Luis, Duane, Elliot and yours truly, R O O O ger (AKA Roooooger) A Very Special thank you for Carole who set up lunch for all to enjoy at Baja Fresh in downtown SD. FREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! Wow, what a treat that was for everyone, FREE LUNCH from BAJA FRESH. A Monster Thanks to BAJA FRESH for the fabulous food and drinks to refuel us all.

Oceanside Amtrak station 7 am skaters, cyclists, SAG vehicle drivers were gathering in the parking lot. The sun was shining through the clouds as daybreak was in progress. Greetings, well wishes to all, for many have not skated with each other for along time. Andy had to work this morning but came to wish us all a great, safe, skate. Oh how you could see in his eyes how much he wanted to call in sick this morning and join us. Great job of skating at RAGBRAI Andy along with cyclists, Cathy, Pat, AJ & Mike. You guys are incredible, last week you did RAGBRAI this week SD 50 miler.

7:45 AM off we rolled to Oceanside Pier for a group picture then onto the beauty of this route. Not pictured in the group shot- Robin, Lesa, Carole, Cathy, Brenda, Gregg, Pat & Darren.

Bubbles were flowing from Howard, Bob and myself for I had brought some mini bubble bottles for us to jazz up our parade. Our route headed south along PCH and local roads through coastal world famous cities and beaches of Carlsbad, Leucaia, Cardiff by the Sea, Solano Beach, Del Mar, and Torrey Pines/La Jolla. Oh what a beautiful day of skating this most picturesque route. The sun was bright and warm by now, many cyclists, joggers, walkers, beach goers and surfers were out enjoying this wonderful day in Southern California. Many on lookers enjoyed seeing our parade go by them, yelling out words of encouragement and high fives as we passed them. Folks enjoying breakfast on outdoor patios also were in awe as this very colorful procession of skaters and cyclists passed them by. Boy the food smelled great and we had all we could do to refrain from stopping to join them for a bite. We did push on satisfied to eat our energy bars, fig Newton's, gels and the likes. Some how it is just not the same though. Onward we pushed to the climb of Torrey Pines Hill, a 1.7-mile tough climb in the 11 o'clock bright sunlight. Thank goodness there was a breeze to cool us a little. Then at the top it was regroup, refresh, refuel time. Oh that was a most needed pit stop. At this point of the route you have conquered the most challenging portions and now it is mostly downhill from this point on. The worst has passed, you made it to the easier part. Next up was skating through the beautiful campus of UCSD. I have never skated through this campus before and was very surprised of the wonderful route Howard had chosen for us to enjoy this morning. A very smooth path mostly wooded passing some of the most unique buildings on the campus especially the library that was in the movies, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". We continued on into Pacific Beach, Mission Bay, a huge park on the bay enjoyed by many locals and tourists and locals a like.

We could see Sea World off to our left as we skated to Ocean Beach, Point Loma, San Diego Bay and on into the heart of the "World Famous" San Diego downtown. This is one of the most beautiful places to skate in San Diego for the path along the bay unfolds the beauty of the city's buildings and skyline along the bay. You can look across the bay and see 2 aircraft carriers moored at Coronado's North Island Naval Station, the Coronado / San Diego bridge and all of the sail boats heading out of the harbor. San Diego is truly "America's Most Beautiful City." Our parade continued on into downtown heading for our lunch destination, Baja Fresh. Yes, we were really ready for some solid food intake and drink and Baja Fresh refueled us all with complimentary lunch. Yes, FREE LUNCH for ALL. This fun skate outing was truly a skaters delight with wonderful friends, fabulous So Cal weather, beautiful views, great route (A2A warm up that is for sure) and a free, oh so delicious lunch. What more does one need?!