Southwest Swing Day 7

Today we fired up the bike and RODE. No road trip, but a short haul to the Balboa Museum and to Amy and Issouf’s house for some family time. Wind, sun rain and cool weather greeted us at various times. The saying, ‘If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes’ certainly rang true today.
The Titanic exhibit was their big attraction. With the upcoming 100th anniversary of it’s sinking, the tragedy is becoming news again.
Amazing how a few things, put together, caused such a calamity. In their haste to load and set sail, the crew neglected to bring binoculars. A moonless night. Dead calm water. And after hearing from another ship that had stopped for the night due to icebergs, the captain of Titanic continued at 21 knots, almost full speed. And the ship, four days into its maiden voyage, sank within two hours of striking the iceberg, which carved a three hundred foot gash in the side of the hull of the ship that was claimed to be ‘unsinkable.’
The exhibit is compelling, with staterooms made up to original design. Artifacts that crews recovered from the sea floor are cleaned up but left in mostly the condition they were found. And interesting stories of people who survived and others who didn’t, make for fascinating reading.
The White Star Line, who built the Titanic, also built the Olympia, a sister ship. I wonder what happened to that ship? It probably sailed a long, successful lifetime.
We toured the museum and park area, dotted with artists’ shops and trendy little places for crafty people to work together, teach and learn, and sell their wares.
We rode the scooter again and the Little Woman and I walked the beach at Ocean Beach. With waves crashed in to shore, foam scudded across the beaches, and sand drifted throughout the parking lot. Huge waves crashed over the jetty. Stalwart people walked and ran along the beach, and a few strong people struggled to keep aground as they flew their kites.
Sidestepping palm branches, that were tossed to the ground from the high winds, we stopped to visit our daughter and her husband. She’s pregnant and morning sick- although it lasts all day! Laying about and watching TV made for a relaxing, pleasant change of pace. A sudden downpour gave us pause. Do we wait it out, or head back now? We elected to wait and a half hour later made it home relatively dry. Now the drops plop on the roof of the tent, the staccato drumming of raindrops increasing and waning at will.
The weather report predicts improvement tomorrow, so we’ll head out to Palm Springs in search of our friend, Mr. Sun.