Santee, California

We are staying at Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve while we’re visiting my sister and her family in the San Diego area.

The preserve is “an award winning, 190 acre Park and Campground surrounding seven scenic lakes filled with recycled water.  The Park provides a safe and tranquil setting for camping, fishing, picnics, fitness, bird watching, boating, biking and special events in a natural environment.”

It’s a very nice park with lots of families staying for a weekend getaway close to home. I’m intrigued to see what it looks like on Monday morning.

There are lots of RV and tent sites, but there are also a few cabin boats and lake shore cabins on the lake.

It must be a good place to stay because our neighbor Joe and his wife have been here for five months! They are from Massachusetts and are visiting their children who live in the area. The park told Joe they can stay one more month and then they have to leave because California will want them to establish themselves as residents then so they can collect income tax. 🙂

I’m always on the lookout for vibrantly colored flowers.

The park has extensive covered storage for recreational vehicles, and all that storage is covered with solar panels. The park generates 50% of its own power usage. That’s for over 300 sites and all of the auxiliary buildings. Impressive…

The street lamps have their own solar panels.

The park is a bird paradise. Here are a a few of the birds that I saw…

A variety of ducks.

Ducks, coots, blackbirds, sparrows, and finches eating their morning breakfast at the Bird Seed Cafeteria. 🙂

A lone osprey keeping watch.

 We were surprised at how many people fish the lakes. Within three seven lakes are channel  catfish with the largest at nearly 40 pounds, bass over ten pounds, and rainbow trout. All lakes are frequently stocked so that fishermen are tempted to return frequently.

It’s been a great spot for us to visit the San Diego area from…