Old Town

Good morning everybody! I'm sure y'all are checking our blog as soon as you get up in the morning, so I felt that was appropriate introduction. Anyway, things are going well here in San Diego. Work is great and weekends are better. We're enjoying exploring the area. We always set out with some goal, and often don't make it because we run into other things on the way.

For the past two weekends we have set out to see Cabrillo National Monument, but haven't made it either time. It's out on a point across from Coronado Island and it's rumored to have an amazing view. Yesterday, on our way to Cabrillo, we stopped for a late lunch in a part of town called "Old Town." We ended up staying there for much of the afternoon. Old Town was supposedly the first settlement in the San Diego area. It has an old school, courthouse, bank, church, etc., complete with mannequins of some of the founding fathers. Aspen commented that the sherriff had the "most life-like hands" she had ever seen on a dummy. I made some apparently inappropriate comment, then she advised me that the nearby iron jail cell might become my new home. We visited the old Catholic church next, which was interesting. While the church was pretty typical of any small Catholic church you'd see in Latin America (or near Latin America), it still displayed true American entrepreneurial spirit with coin-fed electric candles by the Virgin Mary.

While the "old stuff" in Old Town was fairly interesting, the reason we visited was for the food. Every other storefront in Old Town is a Mexican restaurant. We ate at one called Coyote Cafe, which boasted the best Mexican food in San Diego (Although Fred's Mexican Cafe directly across the street had a similar sign). The food was good, but the best thing was the women wearing Mexican huipiles at the front of the restaurant making fresh, hot tortillas. It's not unusual to get hand-made corn tortillas in a lot restaurants nowadays, but these were hand made flour tortillas about a foot in diameter. I haven't seen those since my two weeks in the Yucatan in 2002.

After dinner we visited an art gallery featuring paintings of scenes from famous movies. I wanted to the get the Golem painting for our living room, but Aspen didn't feel it would go with our decor. We visited a pirate shop containing swords and corn nuts where Aspen asked my opinion on a certain teacup. I advised her that boys have no opinion on teacups, and we moved on. We walked past the most haunted house in some geographic area (the world maybe? I don't remember.), and finally to Korky's Ice Cream and Coffee where we ended our visit to Old Town. Well, I could write more on our adventures, but I've probably lost most of you by now. I hope all o' y'all are doing well, and hope to hear from you soon.

Murry

PS - A prominent sign at The General Store proclaims that they only allow 3 students at a time. Just in case you need to plan accordingly.