Henry's is opening a new store on El Camino across from the Westfield Plaza Camino Real mall. The store opens at 8 AM on September 2nd with hours 7AM-10PM daily.

The store is in the site of the former Smart & Final merged with the former site of the scrapbook store.

It will be nice to have a nearby Henry's.

The Rosicrucian Fellowship, with International headquarters in Oceanside, marks its 100th anniversary with a three day conference this weekend. There's an interesting article in the North County Times about the group. It's web site is at Rosicrucian Fellowship Web Site

From the north and east, the Fellowship's quite impressive building makes an impressive view set atop the hills off Mission Avenue. Up close, its even more dramatic. Picture

The Journey of Artists program includes a live performance every day from August 9 through September 7th, 2009. Artists vary in their type of performance and background.

The performances will be in the Village Faire Shopping Center, 300 Carlsbad Village Drive, typically beginning at 4 or5 PM

The event is being sponsored by the Medditeranean Cafe and Lynn Forbes Sculpture Studio both in Village Faire.

See more information including the schedule of artists at the Visit Carlsbad Event Information

Or see the PDF of the poster for the event

Art in the Village returns again Sunday August 9th.

While not as big as the Village Faire, the art is more refined and the atmosphere a bit less overwhelming. One favorite from the past is the booth of Thai clay flowers.

Here's a link for more information.

The Womens Club is having a garage sale today 8-1 and tomorrow the same hours. I wonder what kind of stuff will be there.

The Carlsbad Womens Club is located at 3320 Monroe Street, just south of Basswood and across from the high school.

Carlsbad has a Level 2 Water Alert in place.

This means there are restrictions on landscape watering as well as things like car washing.

See the City of Carlsbad Web Site for:

Overview

Detail - The Ordinance

By the same company that operates Senor Grubby's on Carlsbad Village Dr in the Village, Los Tacos is location in the Pacific Coast Center (OK, Walmart center) off Jefferson and the 78. It's in the same strip as Starbuck's, Einstein Bakery and others on the left just after you've entered the center by car.

The special item "California Burrito" is one BIG burrito. I think it's the largest I've ever seen. There's a lot of dough but it holds a lot of stuff as well including, believe it or not, French Fries. Only $5.15.

Ingredients are promoted as fresh and other items look good too.

See the Los Tacos web site for the menu, etc.

Christy Johnson of the Carlsbad Village Association sent out an e-mail blast about upcoming events in the village. One item of interest is the next two Farmers Markets, Wednesday July 15th and Saturday July 18th.

Christy writes:

"Come enjoy Ukelele music and hula dancers, taste grilled veggies provided by Captain Cooks Culinary Academy, Summer Scavenger Hunt and Games and Live Music...in addition to all of our wonderful Farmers Market vendors and their fresh Produce, Flowers, Foods and Designer Crafts."

The Carlsbad Village Farmers Market between State and Roosevelt south of Grand Ave operates Wednesday and Saturdays 1-5 PM.

Still miss Herbert's Autohaus Frankfort service that moved to Murietta a few years ago. I like John and Miguel at Carlsbad Independent and can also recommend Joe and his crew at European Motorsports in Vista, a bit of a drive for me.

Recently, though, when my transmission went out, I found Carlos up in Sylmar to rebuild the transmission for half the cost of installing a rebuilt on locally. I had to have the car towed to Sylmar but it was worth it. Carlos did a great job, fixing some other things as well. For parts and service, I recommend Autohaus America. See Autohaus America Web Site

The Carlsbad Village Business Association presents the Shop Carlsbad Village Web Site

The site has potential but while the e-mail blast provides me current event information, the site itself is stale, not expiring old events or listing the new ones. I guess the outfit needs a web master.

There is a nice listing of the member organizations along with phone numbers and web sites when available. I hope this doesn't open the door to lots of spam for the members.

A Test Only Smog station is located now in some of the space formerly occupied by Gorilla Tool Rental on Oak St. just east of the city works department at the corner of Tyler. I am not sure it's open yet but the signs are up.

The Southern California Astronomers Exposition is Saturday July 11th, 2009 from 10AM-11PM and continuing on the 18th.

On July 11th, the daytime swapmeet activity takes place at Opt in Oceanside and action moves to Palomar College for the evening with a movie and some potentially spectacular views of the sky.

Mini-seminars continue on the 18th.

See details at Southern California Astronomy Exposition

Nearby in San Marcos, Double Tree park provides great view of the surrounding area from its elevation of 1,644 feet.

You can reach the part by car at 900 Double Peak Road or by hiking up a trail.

The park was largely paid for by San Elijo Hills Development

Carlsbad has been somewhat slow in implementing citizen mandate for more trails, particularly ones for serious hikers but with steep elevations and many options, the nearby trails make Double Peak Park a nice reward for a steep climb.

Be careful for rattle snakes and, perhaps a mountain lion.

YouTube Video of December, 2008 ground-breaking event

Trail

As part of Carlsbad Triathlon weekend, there's a community Health and Fitness Expo at Westfield Mall, Saturday July 11,2009 10AM-4PM
See the city of Carlsbad web page for the Health and Fitness Expo