san_diego

Trip to San Diego, Oct. 25-28 2003.

I had a business meeting in Coronado, so we decided to cash in some frequent flyer miles and head out together.

Saturday was a non-day-- I missed the plane (don't ask), and Louise was forced to negotiate a strange location with only Maddie as the navigator. Needless to say, despite beautiful weather they didn't do much exploring, preferring to stay at the hotel pool. I arrived around 8, and proceeded to not sleep, as there had been a wedding at the resort and the drunken idiots were unable to tell one sliding glass door from another, repeatedly thinking our room was somebody else's.

Sunday we woke up bright and early, ready for a full day of activities. Maddie and I went outside to watch the sun rise, and found that there was a huge storm cloud over us. As it got slightly brighter, I realized that the stuff falling from the sky was neither some kind of palm detritus nor the sky itself; rather, it was ash from the wildfires. Sometime overnight, the wind shifted and the fires got closer, and the whole place looked like a war zone.

We headed north to La Jolla for breakfast, reasoning that it would be clearer up there. We ate at a nice place, sitting at an outside table to enjoy the odd red sun and occasionally flapping our linen napkins to clear off the cinders.

After that, we headed even farther north to hike in Torrey Pines State Park. It was clear, so the beautiful views of the ocean cliffs were delightful, but the ominous smoke plumes inland reminded us of what awaited us back in town.

Then it was down to Old Town San Diego, a state park where the Mexican days were preserved. Now it was a lot darker, and the ash was coming down pretty heavily, and we had to stop occasionally to remove cinders from our eyes. But it was a neat little place. They had a Mexican market square, and they had a lot of Day of the Dead stuff-- the Mexican festival honoring their dead relatives, featuring candy skulls (Maddie got to decorate one). That was definitely enhanced by the otherworldly atmosphere.

Note on the photography: the above picture is helped by the flash. You had to keep reminding yourself that you were outdoors, as the smoky sky made everything quite dark, even at noon. The picture to the left is a perfect illustration of how everything took on a sepia tint, perfect for visiting an old-timey place.

After Old Town, we took a trolley to the Gaslamp District (the restored downtown shopping & dining area) for the FallBack Festival. The festival was just folding its tables as we arrived-- a casualty of the falling ash. Neat to ride on a trolley that has Tijuana as one of its stops, though.

Then we headed to Point Loma to do some tidepooling. Lots of anemones, lots of barnacles, few crabs, no starfish.

Dinner was from Hodad's, a famous burger place (GREAT burgers) in Ocean Beach.

The next morning was to be Zoo and Balboa Park morning. We woke to find that the city was essentially closed. We could sit in the smoke, or we could utilize the one highway still open to get out of town. It was time for Plan B... (click for Plan B)