August 2008 Issue | Download the Full Issue

As long as aircrafts have been in existence, people have yearned to experience the thrill of flight.
Not everyone can afford to get a private pilot’s license, which can run from $5,000 to $8,000.
Who at an airshow hasn’t imagined the thrill of barrel rolls, dives, flat spins, stalls, victory rolls and air racing?
Well, it’s really not that hard to experience in the R/C (radio controlled) hobbyist world.
On a tiny dirt airstrip in Bonsall right off Highway 76 you will find the Fallbrook R/C Flyers Club, at the “Bonsall International Airport.”
You’ll find all types of aircraft from Spitfires, P-51 Mustangs, P-40 Tomahawks, to stunt aircraft, biplanes, including rotary wing aircraft such as Huey helicopter gunships, etc.
Members range in age from 10 to 82.
The “Bonsall International Airport” is part of the San Diego County Park System. This miniature airstrip has been in existence for more than 20 years.
The Fallbrook R/C Flyers Club has a membership of over 150 R/C Flyers.
Club President John Aslanian and V.P. Frank Doto are about as experienced R/C flyers as you will find anywhere. They say that their “flyers” come from every walk of life: students, doctors, lawyers, carpenters, aircraft mechanics—virtually every walk of life—all dedicated to the enjoyment and thrill of remote controlled flight.
How do you get started? Do you need a license?
You can get started by contacting local hobby shops and flying clubs like the Fallbrook R/C Flyers Club. Check out their Web site: www.fallbrookrcflyersclub.com.
You do not need a license to fly R/C. There is a governing body for model aviation in the the U.S.: the AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics). The AMA is a federally recognized organization and the official spokesman for all model flyers in this country.
It works closely with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to ensure that radio frequencies are set aside strictly for the use of modelers. R/C aircraft use a simple four channel FM transmitter for most beginners, and usually come with most RTF (Ready to Fly) kits which also include receiver, and servos which usually come pre-installed.
AMA membership isn’t mandatory but one benefit of joining the AMA is the all important liability insurance.
Why liability insurance? Imagine hitting a person, automobile, a window, etc. with an object that weighs anywhere from a few pounds to 10 or 15 pounds with a speed of 50 to 140 mph.
Liability insurance is worth every penny, and most reputable flying clubs won’t let you fly without it for mutual protection, including the Fallbrook R/C Flyers Club. AMA membership also includes a 1 year subscription to the monthly Model Aviation magazine.
John Aslanian advises beginners to start with a trainer airplane. They are not beautiful, and are boxy, but are very stable.
Start with tiny steps, then take bigger and bigger ones. The usual progression is a high wing trainer—then a low wing trainer—then a sports plane with some aerobatics capabilities. Then the really cool stuff.
Don’t expect to learn overnight. Flying R/C models is very much like flying a real aircraft. It IS a real aircraft, just scaled down.
Aslanian advises getting with an instructor before you try flying it yourself.
Why an instructor? Just like flying a real aircraft, pre-flight inspections ensure proper assembly of the aircraft, and that it is visually trimmed.
Your instructor should fly your aircraft for the first time to check for proper performance.
He also needs to explain the flight controls so you know what they are and what they do.
The instructor can also take over in the event of an emergency, which can save you money and bodily harm. Remember this is a real aircraft, just scaled down.
Before making the decision to purchase an R/C flier check out the Fallbrook R/C Flyer Club in Bonsall any Saturday or Sunday morning.
Ask all the questions you like, there is no such thing as a stupid question.
Membership in the Fallbrook R/C Flyers Club is $45 for the first year and $20 every year thereafter. For more information contact John Aslanian 508-954-7589.
Directions to the Bonsall International Airport:
Coming from the North: Go I-15 south, Take Pala Road (76) exit west.
Go 10 miles, you will pass through the town of Bonsall.
From the intersection of 76 and Olive Hill Road, they are one mile on the left if you cross the Bonsall Bridge.
Look for the wind sock.
Coming from the South: Go I-15 north, Take Pala Road (76) exit.
Go 10 miles, you will pass through the town of Bonsall.
They are 1 mile on the left if you cross the Bonsall Bridge.
Look for the wind sock.
Coming from the West: Take 76 east from Oceanside, cross the Bonsall bridge.
They are one mile on the right. If you get to the intersection of 76 and Olive Hill Road in Bonsall you have gone too far. Turn around. Look for the wind sock.

Liberty Quarry (Part I of II)

The five residents of the tiny town of Rainbow who arrive for an interview at the Oak Crest Mobile Home Park indicate a rocky hill over their shoulders. “It’s just a mile away, over that hill,” says one. “From our point of view it couldn’t be in a worse location.”
Gary Johnson, project manager for the proposal the Granite Construction Company has dubbed the “Liberty Quarry” has a different perspective. In an interview a few days earlier he commented, “This is an ideal site. It’s high quality rock. It’s hidden from view. We don’t impact residential areas at all. People won’t know it’s there.”
People will certainly know it’s there. If for no other reason than that they have come up with just about every possible reason why, from their perspective, it shouldn’t be there.
The discussion leaves little room for compromise.
The people I meet with, Richard & Nita Delnay, Jerri Arganda, Lynn Davis and Jim Mitchell are from Rainbow Against the Quarry. They are aligned with 365 businesses and non-profit groups and 20,000 signed petitions from residents in Rainbow, Fallbrook, Temecula and Murrietta. They are also allied with larger organizations such as Save Our Southwest Hills.
They aren’t against quarries per se, although they are not big fans of them. “Our problem with this is site specific,” says Jim Mitchell, president of the recently formed Santa Margarita Sierra Club chapter, a division of the San Gorgonio Sierra Club. “Why does it have to be in this location?”
The site is in Temecula, just over the Riverside County line from Rainbow.
It’s a hot political topic in Temecula, with the city trying to annex the site so it can control it. Quarries are usually not sited so close to a metropolitan area.
But Rainbow residents note that it would be closer to them, and that the clouds of rock dust they expect to see boiling over the hill would be blown into their back yards, lungs and eyes, by the prevailing winds.
According to Arganda, the facts against the quarry are the following:
• This hard-rock, open pit mine will operate for up to 75 years.
• The pit will be 1000 feet deep (nearly as deep as the Empire State Building is high) and over one mile long.
• Granite will blast more than 100,000 tons of rock per week.
• The mine will operate 20 to 24 hours per day, 6 days a week.
• 1600 truck trips will be added to I-15 at Rainbow Valley Blvd.
Gary Johnson points to the need for more aggregate (i.e. crushed rock), which is used in construction of buildings and roads. The state uses 6-7 tons of aggregate per person per year.
Johnson also cites the plant’s central location to Riverside and San Diego Counties. The closer an asphalt batch plant is to a construction project, the better. Cold asphalt doesn’t work well.
San Diego County imports most of its aggregate, 10 million tons a year. Liberty Quarry will probably benefit San Diego more than Riverside. It proposes to produce 5 million tons a year. Once approved, it would take two years to go online.
Much would be taken with building a one-mile access road and developing the 30-acre site, building berms on the southwest side so residents 2-3 miles away won’t see it. Another berm will be constructed on the southwest off-ramp of I-15 at Rainbow. Traffic signals will be installed there.
Access will be on Rainbow’s roads. Trucks carrying the aggregate and asphalt made at the batch plants on site will travel on I-15 in San Diego County.
Besides air quality, members of Rainbow Against the Quarry worry about the impact to property values, the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, the Santa Ana–Palomar Wildlife Corridor and the Santa Margarita River.
The reserve straddles the county line, although most is in Riverside County. It is the last inland habitat and wildlife linkage in Southern California between the coast and the inland mountain ranges.
Hundreds of scientific projects go on at the reserve, which has unique and endangered species, such as the Southwestern Pond Turtle, the Least Bell’s Vireo and the California gnatcatcher. The rainbow manzanita occurs in the rocky hills above Temecula, and nowhere else.
The 4,344 acre reserve is a research field station for San Diego State University. It would be the quarry’s closest neighbor.
The reserve’s director, Dr. Matt Rahn comments, “It’s safe to say that we as a university think it’s not an appropriate adjacent land use to what is a top rated outdoor research and education classroom and laboratory.
‘Frankly we don’t feel that a quarry of this size is an appropriate neighbor,” he says.
The land, he says, is pristine and has been maintained that way for nearly a century.
“It’s a window into what Southern California looked like a hundred years ago. We do research of climate change, wildfires, air quality, water quality and endangered species. We have done about 400 or so projects in the last twenty years.”
In the last two years activity has quickened to about 200 projects. It is considered both a national and international resource.
“This is considered a serious concern and puts at risk the operational integrity of what we have been doing for four and half decades,” says Rahn.
“We have had a few projects that have hesitated to initiate projects because of the quarry,” says Rahn. “National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) wanted to establish us as a network site for climate studies, and they hesitated for two years because of the quarry.”
The problem with that scenario, says Johnson, is that the mining operation—like that of Rosemary’s Mountain Quarry, near Hwy 76 & I-15 near Pala, also owned by Granite Construction Co.—but unlike almost every existing operating quarry in the region, will mostly be covered or operate indoors.
Johnson uses the term purveyors of the new and improved always use: “state-of-the-art.”
In addition to stopping operations when winds reach 25 mph, conveyer belts will be enclosed, trucks will be enclosed, and will be loaded in enclosed areas, he says.
“Even though we can produce a lot of material we will have one loader on site and two haul trucks that will haul from the load to the primary crusher. From that point until the aggregate is unloaded it is enclosed inside covered conveyers, or buildings with advanced filters. Essentially it's indoors,” he says.
Opponents fear constant blasting. Johnson says there will be, at most, five explosions a week.
“We can’t do this wrong. There are twenty or more agencies that can shut us down if we do it wrong,” says Johnson.
To read more about the Liberty Quarry from the perspective of Gary Johnson and the Granite Construction Co., visit libertyquarryfacts.com
To read more about what those against the quarry are saying, visit their Web site: www.libertyquarry.com or www.nogravelquarry.com
NEXT MONTH: We explore other aspects of this project pro and con, including 60 doctors who are against it and an epidemiologist who supports it.

Spice Up Your Home

No matter how much you love your home, chances are you imagine parts of it differently. Maybe it’s new curtains in the bedroom, or a new paint color in the dining room.
It’s our nature to desire change for our living space, and it’s nice to freshen things up once in a while. The good news is that it doesn’t have to cost a lot, and often just a few simple steps can make a dramatic difference.
According to Denise Visocky, owner of Pastiche Interior Design, when it comes to spicing up your home, the important thing is that the design says something about you. Any home can have a contemporary, modern or traditional design. What sets it apart is the owner’s personal flair. So whether you hire a professional or not, make sure your personality shows.
“The best compliment I ever received was when my client’s friends told her they could tell she hired a designer, but that it was still her house,” Visocky remarked.
Designer Tip:
Never underestimate the importance of accessories. Decorative additions such as rugs, chair covers, vases, candles, plants, curtains, photos and art can put your stamp of identity on any room.
When designing a space, it’s essential to make sure the room flows and works logistically.
“Form must follow function,” Visocky says. “It has to make sense and have a good design. You don’t want your oven on the complete opposite side of your fridge or you will be doing a lot of running back and forth.”
Contrast:
The contrast of a room can affect its ambiance and feel. For example, a space with high contrast enhances the formality of the room. Often you will see a formal dining room with a light-tone paint color and dark accents in the furniture, molding or decorations. A low contrast space warms up a room and makes it appear more inviting and soothing.
Lighting:
The right lighting can enhance both the feel and size of a room. Make it a goal to include lighting for any mood or purpose. Hanging chandeliers, floor/table lamps, candles, wall sconces and art spotlights provide a good mix and offer a variety of services.
Unity:
Subtle hints of unity such as repetitive patterns can create a unique overall design. If you have rectangles and triangles on your dining room rug, buy sofa pillows that have similar rectangles and triangles. Use common colors throughout your home by starting with a solid color and drawing out punches of shade, hue and color tone.
For Visocky, inspiration often comes from a piece of fabric or art. However, she said the best inspiration comes from meeting and talking with clients.
“You have to listen to your clients. Maybe they have an antique from their grandma that they want to incorporate into the design,” Visocky said. “I get great results because I know what my clients like, what they don’t like, what they want and what they don’t want.”
Visocky owned a design company in Miami for more than 25 years before starting Pastiche Interior Design in 2005. With her East Coast roots, she said she is comfortable doing anything from tropical to traditional design, and can work with anybody on any budget.
“People shouldn’t be intimated to work with a professional,” Visocky said. “We can save you time and money with our experience and resources.”
There is a lot of fun to be had with interior design and it doesn’t have to be stressful. If you decide to freshen up your design this summer, make it an adventure, and remember to reflect your tastes and personality.
For a consultation, contact Denise at 760-470-9354.

10 Places in North County to See Before You Die: Wilderness Gardens

This is part of a series about Ten Places in San Diego County To See Before You Die!
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This issue we visit Wilderness Gardens Preserve, located at 14209 Highway 76, between Pauma Valley and Pala.
One visitor has described Wilderness Gardens Preserve as a “little piece of Eden,” in the midst of Pauma Valley. It’s safe to say that if you are reading this article, you have probably never heard of it.
It is, besides providing the home to six miles of lush, yet relatively flat trails, also of interest to anyone who is a history buff.
The 720-acre Pala preserve contains a mix of diverse habitats including grassland, riparian, coastal sage, oak woodland, and mixed chaparral and is known as a safe haven for migratory birds, including 150 different wildfowl species. There are also bobcats, lynxes, raccoons, coyotes, and mountain lions.
It is considered to have some of the nicest trails in San Diego County.
If you want to know about the history of Wilderness Gardens, think of three periods: That of 1) the Native Luiseño tribe, who lived there for thousands of years from the end of the last ice age, 2) the time of the Sickler Brothers Mill in the 1880s and 1890s and finally 3) the era of Manchester Boddy, newspaper tycoon, and amateur botanist who wanted to turn the land into the “gardens” that gives the preserve half of its name.
The site was once a village of the Luiseño, who harvested the acorns from the live oaks that share the banks of the San Luis Rey River with sycamores.
Hunter gatherers, each year the seasons provided the impetus to migrate between the ocean and the mountains.
They ground acorns on stone matates that you can still see. They put the resulting mush in reed bags in the water to leach out the bitterness, and then baked them into bread, or ate them as gruel.
Besides grinding stones, you’ll also see the native peoples’ presence preserved in petroglyphs, drawings carved into the rocks.
One boundary of the preserve is Mount Pala, which the Indians considered sacred.
There’s an old mill, Sickler’s Mill, one of the oldest in the county. The Butterfield Stage route once ran through the property. A portion of it still exists. That is where the Sickler Brothers established their grist mill, the first in North County—and also built a school house.
The mill—including huge stones brought across the ocean from France, the enormous iron wheel that used the river’s power to grind corn and wheat and the rock foundation—is still there for visitors to see. The school is gone. The brothers operated the mill for a decade—no one ever operated the mill again after they ceased operations.
Several years ago the mill was designated as an historical landmark by the County Historic Site Board.
After changing hands several times during which time a house, barn and outbuildings were added, the estate was purchased in the 1950s by Los Angeles Daily News publisher Manchester Boddy.
Boddy planted 100,000 camellias near the house to please his wife, and because he wanted to create a botanical garden as he had done at the Descanso Gardens in Pasadena. He also planted roses, eucalyptus, pyracantha, holly, bottlebrush, and oleander and installed a pond.
He died in 1967 before he could fully realize that goal.
Over the years the cultivated fields faded into entropy—as all organized works of man eventually do unless maintained. It became less garden and more wilderness.
The camellias lasted for 50 years, until the current drought wiped them out.
The Boddy estate put the land up for sale after his death and the forerunner to the Friends of Wilderness Gardens began raising money to preserve the land. They raised $186,000 and the County used a bond to raise the rest of the $500,000 asking price.
The preserve was not opened to the public until ten years later. Budget problems forced it to close again for a few months until the Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with the Friends to maintain the preserve, with some logistical assistance from the County.
It was closed for much of the 1990s, but eventually the County staffed it with volunteers and finally paid rangers.
Helping to keep the Gardens available to the public are the Friends of Wilderness Gardens, who originally partnered with the County to establish an open space preserve in 1973 —the first such preserve in the county’s history.
Today visitors will see some of the improvements that have been made by volunteers and hired workers in the last few months, including new trees and restoration work on the ponds.
Wilderness Gardens provides many amenities—six miles of hiking trails, a scenic pond and beautiful vistas, and historical and cultural sites. There are also areas for picnics and barbecues.
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For information about Wilderness Gardens Preserve, call 742-1631. The preserve’s hours are 8 a.m.–4 p.m. It is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Hometown Olympians

Imagine having a dream about participating in the Olympics. Then imagine you have that dream the fist time when you’re a girl or boy of five growing up in North County. Then after years of hard work and sacrifice your lifelong dream is about to come true.
Casey Burgener of Bonsall and Tiffany Snow of Temecula both had that dream and are realizing that dream because this August they are both heading to the Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
Casey Burgener is a 25-year-old weighlifter who graduated from Rancho Buena Vista High School and has lived in Bonsall since he was three. He earned a degree in physics from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Burgener earned his spot on the U.S. National Weightlifting team at the Olympic trials in Georgia this spring, lifting 224 kilograms in the clean and jerk and 180 kilograms in the snatch.
Going into the Olympic competition, Burgener is one of three U.S. lifters in the super-heavyweight class. Even though he lifted the heaviest total weight in the class during the trials, the selection is based on averages from the past three years.
Burgener also works with his father, Mike, a strength trainer and physical education teacher at Rancho Buena Vista High. The elder Burgener runs “Mike’s Gym” from his home in Bonsall, where he trains athletes in the Olympic platform lifts. Casey is also set to start as the assistant strength coach at the University of San Diego in September. Burgener is engaged to Natalie Woolfolk, also a weightlifter training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. They have a wedding planned for November.
Tiffany Snow’s dream of the Olympics wasn’t always about field hockey. She dreamed about playing soccer but a family friend, whose daughter had played field hockey talked her into giving it a try.
Not only did she excel playing a forward position in high school but when it came time to graduate and think about college her field hockey career gave her several scholarship options.
One of them was at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virgina. Old Dominion was one of the highest regarded field hockey schools in the country at the time, having won several national championships in the sport. “I had mixed feelings about going clear across the country to college,” Tiffany told me, “I’m a southern California girl and was hoping to stay closer to home.”
Her mother talked her into going. “My mother was great! My first year she went to all but two home games, and that made the transition from West Coast to East Coast a lot easier for me.”
Tiffany played for Old Dominion all four years of college but at several different positions, two years as a forward, one year at back, a defensive position, and one year at midfield.
In 2000, with Tiffany’s help, Old Dominion won the NCAA National Championship. In 2002 Tiffany won the Honda Award as the nation’s top rated woman’s field hockey player. After college Tiffany, who was a physical education major, stayed on the East Coast and landed a position at Boston University as the assistant field hockey coach.
While at Boston University she tried out for and made the U.S. National team in 2003 but that team did not qualify for the Olympics. Only 12 teams worldwide get to compete in the Olympics. She continued on at Boston University until June 2007 when she left to travel and train with the U.S. National team with an eye toward 2008 and helping her team make it to the Olympics.
In order to make the field of 12 teams the U.S. team needed to win one of two international tournaments.
The first was in Rio de Janeiro in July 2007. These were the Pan American Games where the U.S. team finished second to world field hockey power Argentina. Their last opportunity to qualify was another tournament in Kazan, Russia in April of this year.
When 20 seconds were left in the final game and Tiffany’s team had a comfortable lead was the moment that it finally hit her, “I am going to the Olympics, my team is going to the Olympics!’ and the emotions of that moment remembering my dream and all the hard work just spilled out.”
It was a huge weight for both me and my teammates coming off our chests.” This is the first U.S. women’s field hockey team to make the Olympics since 1996.
There are 24 team members but only 16 go to the Olympics and Tiffany will be playing center forward, an offensive position, and hopes to score many goals for the U.S. Team.
Even though women’s field hockey doesn’t start until about a week after the opening ceremonies, Tiffany will be among the 2,000 U.S. athletes marching in the opening ceremonies parade.
Starting August 8, keep an eye out for Casey and Tiffany and cheer them on!

A Rare Opportunity in Upscale Hidden Meadows

Nestled in the gentle mountains of North San Diego County lies Hidden Meadows.
With one of the most prized and ideal all year round climates in all of Southern California, Hidden Meadows has become one of the most secluded and upscale communities in the San Diego area.
It has become the home of many writers, artists, business executives and retirees. It is a friendly and very private country village with an 18-hole golf course that meanders through the center of this beautiful gem.
The atmosphere of Hidden Meadows exudes a relaxing, carefree lifestyle that is so cherished in the hustle and bustle of the California lifestyle.
A rare opportunity has presented itself with the aid of Prudential Realty of Escondido, “Team Troika.”
On a secluded hilltop, with one of the most spectacular views of Hidden Meadows lies a 2.3 acre, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2559 sq. ft., beautifully landscaped home.
With a swimming pool and Jacuzzi, surrounded by flowing bougainvillaea and fruit bearing plum trees, in addition to a 1200 sq. ft., 2 bedroom, 2 bath detached guest home, this home is a real opportunity to enjoy this tranquil village.
This single level well-maintained home features a formal dining room, separate living room with fireplace and family room with French doors opening to an expansive patio. The approximate 180 ft. crescent shaped driveway, with the guest house having its own driveway, truly enhances a home one will appreciate.
To see this beautiful home, located at 29040 Meadow Glen Way West, in Hidden Meadows, contact Team Troika at 760-877-8777.
Tanya Orlova with her daughters Tatiana Lovie and Yelena Orlova make up “Team Troika Realtors.”
With many years in the local real estate business, they have established themselves as some of the most professional and well informed Realtors in Southern California.
They also cover Riverside, Orange and San Francisco counties.
As your local Realtors they provide the most specialized real estate services available.
Their primary goal is to keep buyer and seller informed of the most up-to-date trends in the marketplace.
Utilizing the latest statistics for our local area enables Team Troika to educate both buyer and seller. This allows them to make the best informed decision and achieve their goal through “Team Troika’s” diligent hard work and dedication to their clients.

Fallbrook Pops Concert Will Feature An Americana Theme

The 23rd annual Fallbrook Music Society’s Symphony Pops concert Aug. 14 will feature the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Randall Craig Fleischer, with a distinctly Americana, distinctly patriotic theme: “Sing Out America!”
Guest conductor Randall Craig Fleischer is currently music director of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic in Hudson Valley, New York and has been music director of the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra; and artistic director/principal conductor of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra.
The concert, which will be held lakeside under a nearly full moon at the Grand Tradition in Fallbrook, will begin with Veterans of Foreign Wars marching in with a presentation of the colors.
The orchestra will perform each military service anthem in the Armed Forces Salute. As each service is recognized the flag representing that service will be lowered. At the end will come the Star Spangled Banner, followed by America the Beautiful and Stars and Stripes Forever.
But before that the first half of the concert will include classics of Americana such as Over the Rainbow, Come Rain or Come Shine, Caravan and A Gift to be Simple from Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland.
The second half of the program will include the main title music from Star Wars, Henry Mancini’s arrangement of La Bamba, Turn the Beat Around, Let It Be and one of the most famous songs from musical theater, Music of the Night from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera.
Vocalist Doug LaBrecque, accompanied by the orchestra, will sing This is the Moment, Let It Be, Come Rain or Come Shine and Over the Rainbow. LaBrecque has been a soloist with orchestras including the National Symphony, the Chicago Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic.
According to Brenda Montiel, president of Fallbrook Music Society: “Following last summer’s very successful event, we want fans of all types of music to experience the power of a live symphony concert. This annual summer concert gives area residents an opportunity to hear this remarkable symphony orchestra live, and right in their own backyard.”
In addition to satisfying your appetite for American standards, you can also satisfy your taste for good old American cuisine.
Barbecue picnic dinners will be catered by Sweet Lumpy’s BBQ of Temecula. Dinners include a choice of barbecued seasoned beef, pulled pork or smoked chicken, cole slaw, potato salad and baked beans, cornbread, chocolate brownie and a choice of beverage—for $19 per person.
You can pre-order the complete barbecue dinners or bring your own food to picnic on. You can also buy drinks at the concert.
You are also invited to bring blankets and low chairs for lawn seating or reserve a table for 4, 6 or 10 people through the Fallbrook Music Society’s box office.
Tickets for the event are $25 adult and $5 for children 12 and under. Concert and barbecue dinner tickets may be purchased at Major Market in Fallbrook, online at www.fallbrookmusicsociety.org or by calling (760) 451-8644.
Sponsors for the concert include Bill Horn, San Diego County Board of Supervisors, and Silver Sponsor, Bank of America Investment Services, Inc. The Hegardt Group underwrote this year’s program. For more information visit www.fallbrookmusicsociety.org.

The Art of English Riding

“W hen you are on a great horse, you have the best seat you will ever have.” -Sir Winston Churchill
Just about a quarter mile north of the Valley Center Cemetery on Miller Road you’ll find the Shady Glen Riding School.
Here you’ll see English riding instructor Robin Buddecke riding his thoroughbred Bridgette, working her through her paces and witness the love of this man for the horse, which in turn makes every move so effortlessly as though observing a very graceful dance.
They are as one, in perfect harmony going through each pace and hurdle with precision and grace.
This is the art of English riding.
English riding is a term used to describe a style of horseback riding that can be seen throughout the world. There are many variations of English riding, but all exhibit a flat English saddle without the deep seat, high cantle (or saddle horn) seen on western saddles.
These unique saddles were designed to allow the horse to move in the most optimal mode for a given task, from classical dressage to horse racing.
Bridles also differ in English riding. Many variations of bridles are used depending on the type of discipline. Most feature some type of cavesson noseband as well as closed reins, buckled together at each end, which prevents them from dropping to the ground should the rider become unseated.
The minimum standard attire for the English rider is boots, breeches or jodhpurs, a shirt with some form of a tie, a hat, cap or equestrian helmet and a jacket.
There are many different styles to this equestrian style of riding. The basic style version requires riders to use both hands on the reins, versus the one hand as seen in western style riding. The distinct and frequently used “post” to the trot (rising and sitting in rhythm with each stride of the horse) makes this riding much different compared to the more familiar western style riding.
In Europe English riding competitions are second only to soccer in popularity. They are considered the prime events of the rich and famous. In America you will find participants of all different ages and from every background performing and competing.
The cost of horses used in English riding varies from the average of $3,000 to several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Horses used include every breed from Paints, Arabs, Morgans, to Thoroughbreds, etc. Riders range in age from five years into the 80s. Often you will find mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters and sons and mothers riding and competing.
Three Olympic Equestrian disciplines take place in various venues: Dressage, Jumping and Eventing.
Dressage
Dressage is the systematic training of a horse to carry a rider with ease and grace.
In competition dressage exhibits and demonstrates the level of training the rider and horse team have accomplished.
Only the most advanced and cultivated riding skills are undertaken at the Olympic level. It has often been described as having the symmetry and grace of ballet on horse back.
The first Olympic dressage competition was in 1912, but the sport is centuries old.
Five FEI (Fédération Equestre Internationale) judges seated in various positions around the arena score the competition. Scores are based on accuracy and brilliance of each required movement of the assigned test and rated on a scale of 0 to 10. Horses and riders compete at the highest level of dressage. Grand Prix, Kur or freestyle is a dressage test choreographed to music.
Scored on accuracy of movements and artistic impression, the highest score wins.
Show Jumping
Show jumping tests the ability of horse and rider to jump over a series of obstacles inside a ring. They encounter many tricky turns and colorful obstacles as well as the preset course of 10 to 16 jumps that are up to 6.5 ft (2m) high or wide.
These courses test the mental and physical agility of horse and rider, who must finish within a set time with penalties for rails knocked down and other faults.
Scores are based on number of jumps knocked down, falls, touches, refusals to jump, and time penalties. The rider with the fewest penalties wins. Ties are broken by jump offs.
Three Day Eventing
Eventing is described as the testing of skill, versatility, courage, and endurance of horse and rider. The three-day event comprises three disciplines: cross-country jumping, dressage and stadium jumping.
The cross-country phase is held over a course of natural and manmade objects. There are usually up to 40 objects over a four-mile course. Scores are based on refusals, coming under or over a set time and falls of the rider.
Watching Bridgette and Robin is like watching poetry in motion.
I heard it once said and I don’t recall who said it, “to understand the soul of a horse is the closest we humans can come to knowing perfection.”
If you are interested in English riding lessons call Robin Buddecke at 760-749-9439. He has been riding since age 11 and offers complete service from boarding to training. He can be reached at Shady Creek Ranch, 13855 Shady Creek Rd., Valley Center, CA. 92082.

Pala Opens New Fire Station

The proceeds of gaming bring many things to the residences of the Indian reservations that are fortunate enough to have them. The proceeds of gaming are helping the members of the Pala Reservation to be able to sleep just a little more securely, knowing that they are protected from fire by a state-of-the-art fire station.
This is especially important as more members return to the reservation and more and more homes are built there.
The $8 million fire station, located at 34884 Lilac Extension Rd., has taken over two years to build, and took two years before that to plan. A grand opening was held at the end of July.
The 45,000 square foot facility includes a 23,000 square foot garage, and a two-story building. The second story is primarily sleeping quarters and restroom facilities.
The first story is larger and includes the engine bay, common work area with mechanics and personal protective equipment storage, family room and administrative offices.
The garage will house a 100-foot ladder truck, Type One structure engine and Type Three brush engine, two water tenders, three chief’s vehicles and one utility pickup.
It will also include a training classroom that can be utilized as an emergency operation center and a four-story training tower with live fire burn rooms.
The nearest training facilities like it are in San Marcos and Heartland, an hour away.
During an emergency, the operation center could be used as an incident command post by up to 50 personnel from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), CalTRans, the Sheriff’s department, or any other agency.
The Pala Fire Dept. was created 30 years ago with two firefighters working 40 hours a week and staffing a 300-gallon quick attack unit. In 1980, a volunteer program was formed. This has grown over the years until it became a 24/7 operation staffed by full-time professionals.
There are 30 full-time firefighters, including a chief, assistant chief, battalion chief, six captains, six engineers and 15 firefighters, and 15 reservists.
These days they answer about 600-700 calls a year, serving an area of about 20.5 square miles, 13,315 acres and a population of 650 people. You might wonder why that small of a population would generate that kind of call volume, until you realize that the mega-casino at Pala is part of that area, as well as Hwy 76, which has increased its traffic volume about threefold in the last few years.
At the same time the Pala Fire Department has mutual and automatic aid agreements with surrounding and nearby fire departments such as Cal Fire, North County Fire, the Rincon Reservation Fire Department and Valley Center Fire Protection District.
The firefighters have recently been fighting some of the hundreds of fires that have been raging throughout much of the state.
The Type Three brush engine was recently deployed to Tulare/Kings County and Ventura County with four members of the department who battled fires for over two weeks.
These men and women consider professionalism to be of the utmost importance. The entire department maintains California State Fire Marshal certification and they help educate the public through lectures, school programs and a newly introduced newsletter.

Rio Rico Restaurante y Cantina

When you step through the doors at Rio Rico Restaurante y Cantina, you can’t help but smile. It just feels fun.
In addition to the colorful, yet traditional Mexican décor, there is festive music, a friendly staff, and an incredible outdoor patio with great views.
Perhaps this was the intrigue that lured Chris & Jacqueline Pierson to buy the restaurant. Original owner, Cynthia DeCindis, opened Rio Rico in 1991 when Bonsall’s River Village Center was first built. The Piersons took over ownership on June 1, 2008.
“It’s been great,” said Jacqueline. “We’re taking it one day at a time and learning new things along the way.”
For the Pierson family, owning a restaurant makes sense. Jacqueline is a chef, and Chris has a financial background. Their husband-wife relationship also makes a great business partnership. This may explain why their other venture, Pampered Pets, is so successful.
Owning a doggie day spa in Fallbrook actually helped when it came to purchasing the restaurant.
“It’s every chef’s dream to own his or her own restaurant,” Jacqueline said. “With Pampered Pets, we already knew the Fallbrook/Bonsall clientele, and we knew the village was a good location.”
The couple did have a few hesitations about the restaurant industry, but felt the River Village Center had a good vibe.
“There is a nice energy and community here,” Chris said. “We don’t compete with other restaurants in the village.”
DeCindis said she knew instantly that the Piersons were the right people to take over the restaurant.
“I’ve owned the restaurant for eighteen years. It’s my baby,” DeCindis said. “But after I met Chris and Jackie, I just knew they were going to be the next owners of Rio Rico.”
With a menu inspired from the gardens, the seas and the ranches of Baja, Mexico, the Piersons aren’t changing much in the kitchen.
“We’ve tweaked a few of the recipes and brought in some of our own ideas,” Chris said.
He credits his wife for freshening the presentation of the food.
“She takes an existing dish and makes it look a little more fun,” Chris said. “It’s the same great meal, just presented differently.”
In addition to keeping the same menu items, the Piersons have also kept all the employees —some who have worked at the restaurant for more than ten years.
DeCindis hired bartender and manager Sergio Estrella 18 years ago. He is still there dishing out smiles and making one of the meanest margaritas you’ll ever find.
“We’re lucky because a lot of our employees have been here for a long time. We’ve probably learned more from them than they have learned from us,” Jacqueline joked.
Although some things may be the same, the Piersons have made a few changes.
First, there is the homemade tortilla bar.
“My mom comes in on Friday and Saturday evenings and makes fresh corn and flour tortillas,” Jacqueline said. “They are so good!”
Then there are the dance lessons. From the Salsa to the Cha-Cha, a professional instructor shows how it’s done. Lessons start at 7 p.m. every Tuesday and cost $10 a person. Dancers are encouraged to linger around after the lesson to practice their steps.
“Our goal is to grow the current business and add some nightlife,” Chris said. “We’ve got the dance lessons, we made a new drink menu and eventually we even plan to turn the bar into more of a sports bar for events like Monday Night Football.”
The Piersons are also creating a catering menu, and are collaborating with personal trainers to create a light menu. DeCindis is in the background every step of the way.
“I’m here to teach them about my experiences,” DeCindis said. “There is no way you can read about this stuff in a manual, and the three of us enjoy each other. I think they appreciate my years here, and I just really appreciate their love for Rio Rico.”
Rio Rico Restaurante y Cantina is located at 5256 S. Mission Road in Bonsall, and is open daily at 11:30 a.m. For more information, check out their new Web site: www.rioricocantina.com and www.rioricocatering.com, or call 760-945-1250.

Vinz Wine Bar: A One-Stop Shop!

The corner of East Grand Avenue and South Kalmia Street in Escondido is a very historical block. Starting with a bustling steakhouse in the 1970s, the corner has been home to a variety of different businesses, and is now a bustling, new wine bar.
Vinz Wine Bar is a one-stop shop offering food, wine and retail sales. It officially opened Feb. 29 and has since become a popular spot, turning first-time guests into regular customers.
When the office space at 201 E. Grand Avenue became available, Vinnie Griffin saw an opportunity to explore his passion for wine and entrepreneurship. Having been in the wine sales industry for years, he had established a solid reputation with wine distributors, and fine-tuned his palette for good wine.
Opening a wine bar on the busy corner was an easy decision for Griffin because he already owned Continental Deli, which is right next door. Continental Deli has been a staple on Kalmia Street since the 1990s, but got its origins in the 1940s on Escondido Boulevard.
“The deli is one of the oldest operating businesses in Escondido,” Griffin said. “I took it over around 2002.”
With deep Italian roots, delicious family recipes and a love for food, the deli gave Griffin the opportunity to showcase his knack for cooking. It also came with a retail liquor license which was the perfect pairing for a future wine bar and bottle shop.
The first thing you’ll notice about Vinz is that it is 100% non-intimidating. It’s warm, inviting, friendly and unpretentious.
“We’re just a wine bar,” says Griffin. “We have great wine, good food and great prices.”
Add to that a comfortable vibe and a fun, sophisticated atmosphere. Inspired by wine bars as far away as Oregon, Griffin has assembled a simple, classic wine bar that serves tasty wine and memorable food.
My meal started off with several sips of a delightful Stephen Ross Pinot Noir. Then the Maria Continental Salad arrived. This salad is loaded with seasonal fruit (mine happened to be blueberries and strawberries), mixed on a bed of greens with roasted pine nuts, feta cheese and a creamy balsamic-basil dressing.
Griffin’s signature lasagna came next—a timeless and traditional family recipe. You’ll want to start sneaking in on his family celebrations once you taste the homemade Ricotta cheese on this dish.
However, you don’t have to go the entrée route with your wine. There are plenty of other items on the menu: soups, salads, sandwiches, and of course several meat, cheese and fruit platters.
One item of interest is the Antipasto martini. It’s your typical antipasto, except all the ingredients are tossed together inside a large martini glass.
“It’s different, and people just love it,” Griffin said.
I finished dinner with some gourmet Norman Love Confections. Chocolate and wine…a true indulgence, and less expensive than you might think.
“You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have good wine,” Griffin claims.
With a small selection of draught and bottled beers, Vinz Wine Bar features small wine producers and distributors that you might not normally find mainstream.
“We might do some of the bigger, mass-produced wines, but I like to stick with small distributors and boutique wines,” Griffin said. “Our wines could come from anywhere, Tasmania, Georgia, Russia and local wineries.”
Griffin has tasted every wine, both on the bar menu and in the retail shop, because it’s important for him to offer wines that go well with or without food.
“I want people to be able to come in and enjoy a simple glass of wine, or come in and enjoy a nicely-paired meal with a glass of wine. The beauty is knowing which wines do both,” Griffin says.
Vinz Wine Bar has made big steps from opening day. They already provide music and entertainment, and according to Griffin there are many other things in the works from wine tastings, culinary and winery guests, food pairings, wine flights, and even a dog plate menu for customers who bring their pets and sit outside on the patio.
For more information on Vinz Wine Bar, check out their Web site at www.vinzwinebar.com, call 760-743-8466, or stop by 201 E. Grand Avenue, Ste 1A in Escondido.

Twin Oaks Golf Course

So you’re a once a month golfer carrying a 20 handicap and you’re tired of playing with your friends who have 6 and 8 handicaps on courses that are far better laid out for their handicaps than yours.
Well, I have good news: at Twin Oaks Golf Course in San Marcos everyone can be sufficiently challenged without beating up on the high handicapper.
Twin Oaks is a 6,535-yard championship layout from the back tees and 6,146 yards from the whites, the 13 plus handicap tees.
This course has plenty of terrain but it’s not overdone, undulating greens, water on eight holes and doglegs. But it also has on many holes generous landing areas off of the tee, and the fairways are wider than trying to put a thread through the eye of a needle.
The course has strategically placed fairway bunkers to gather erratic tee shots and the greens are true and well maintained, some of the better greens that I have played in San Diego County.
Twin Oaks is managed by JC Golf, which manages several courses in the area including Temecula Creek.
The first hole will give you a good idea of what is to come. It’s a par 4 344-yard dogleg right that has an elevated tee box. This hole has a generous landing area off of the tee and it’s a good opportunity to par or better to start your day.
Just when the 13 handicapper thinks it’s his kind of course, number 2 provides a rude awareness that this isn’t just a walk in the park.
Number 2 is a relative short par 5 at 475 yards, but you must be straight off of the tee and on your second shot also. There is no room for error on number 2. It is the number 1 handicap hole, pretty early on the course, but nonetheless it’s there and you must play it. And so it goes the rest of the course, target golf on some holes, generous landing spots on others, something for every talent level.
Although there is water on numbers 3 and 5, water really doesn’t come into play until number 7, a pretty little par 3 at 170 yards from the backs and 142 up front.
This hole has plenty of water and is well bunkered left and behind the hole. A fun hole to play, the real challenge is to stay dry.
On the front 9, number 9 was my favorite hole; a slight dogleg left it measures 370 and 353 yards. Be careful of the fairway bunkers on the right and you’ll have a great look at a small undulating green with again plenty of water trouble if you don’t choose the correct club and execute the shot.
The best advice I had all day was from the starter who told me to use one club more on numbers 7 and 9. JC Golf does the same helpful exercise on Twin Oaks that they do on all their courses; they mark the flagstick location with different colored flags, gold, white and maroon. They also have yardage markers along the cart paths that will assist you in club selection.
Several of the holes at Twin Oaks run adjacent to a natural wild life habitat. If you’re a bird watcher bring along the binoculars, but check your scorecard periodically to maintain your maximum pace of play.
You can use your JC Resort card on this course. It gives you bonus rounds for golf at the other JC Resorts in the area, including Rancho Bernardo Inn, Temecula Creek, Reidy Creek, Oaks North, Arrowood and Encinitas Ranch. Check out their deals at jcgolf.com
By the way, at the half or at the end of 18, stop in at Stixx Café; they have the best hot dog that I have had in years!
To setup your tee time at Twin Oaks Golf Course, call 760-591-4653 or visit www.jcgolf.com/courses-twinoaks.php.

The Boulevard Magazine
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688