Friday June 13.

We wake up early, and he still can’t believe we are in San Diego. We arranged for a hotel and rental car the rest of the weekend but were riding with Val to her work in the morning. She teaches 4th grade in La Jolla and has only 2 days of class left. After dropping her at school and grabbing Starbucks (it is me after all), we head to downtown La Jolla, and the cove at the shores. I show him all the fun places on the cute streets lined with coffee shops, boutiques, and surf stores. We park and walk to the cove and Seal Beach. It’s early so all the babies and mom seals are still lying on the beach. It smells terrible, but is something to see up close. We walk along the shore for some exercise then head for the next stop.



PB….short for Pacific Beach. I love to visit PB. I lived there for 1 year and that was enough for me, but it’s the best people watching in San Diego. Seriously. Although now that they banned alcohol on the beach, it is more family friendly and less Girls Gone Wild. I take Chris to Kono’s for a breakfast burrito. It’s a PB cult legend frequented by locals and tourists alike. The line was about an hour long (normal) so we pass on breakfast, and look in some shops and walk the pier instead.



We decide to go to Old Town. This is something that every San Diegan does with any visitor. It's an area that has historic pueblo adobes, and the history of the city’s origination. It’s also home to some great Mexican food. Old faithful being OTMC complete with women in the window making fresh corn and flour tortillas. Delicious. Until one has had Carne Asada in San Diego they have not had Mexican food. This is only my opinion. I pointed out to the Texan that queso is Texican, not Mexican. I love it, can’t imagine life without it, but living in a CA border town for 4 years I had never even heard of it until I moved here. We stuff our faces and move to the next part of town.



On our way to the hotel I take a detour to one of my favorite parks of all time. Balboa Park. It's huge, and filled with things to do. The zoo, and live music, the Prado, the gardens. I think it's a great place to get lost for an afternoon. We have limited tome so I try to show Chris all the places I miss the most.



We are staying in a wonderful area downtown. We can walk to anything from the hotel, and are directly across from the USS Midway. There is something about boys, and aircraft carriers. Chris automatically begins to sing “danger zone” from Top Gun when he stands on the balcony viewing the ship. They did film most of that movie around San Diego so it’s only fitting.



We had arranged to meet Val and Brian at his barbershop in the East Village and walk to dinner from there. We change, clean up and make our way to the other side of downtown. Brian owns 2 barbershops in San Diego, and not the fluffy kind. The old skool, straight razor shave barber shops. He opened the East Village Lefty’s almost a year ago and I hadn’t seen it. It’s amazing. He has a view into Petco Park, and is in the middle of a very hip part of town.



A few doors down from his shop is a restaurant called neighborhood. It’s upscale bar food. All I have to say is HEAVEN. From the sweet potato fries, to the jalapeno Mac and cheese and the Marsala mushroom and steak burger…wow. A wonderful evening with very special friends, but we have to wake up early to get Chris to the US Open so we call it a night, and return to the hotel.