Wednesday, January 2, 2013

San Diego Day 2 (January 1, 2013)

Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Kris and I are staying in a great little AirBnB I found in the Mission Hills area of San Diego. You can't traditionally stay in this awesome neighborhood.


We decided to explore Mission Hills today. Kris stopped for coffee at the little coffee shop across the street.


I peeked in shop windows, enjoyed the fruit trees, and checked out Christmas decorations.




I loved all of the fruit trees!


We then walked to Presidio Park.


In addition to massive amounts of well manicured green space, Presidio Park has the Serra Museum inside which was built to resemble the old mission that once stood there.



It took a long time for us to explore and photograph the park.





After Kris unsuccessfully tried to hitchhike, we walked back to our lodging.


We then headed out to visit Old Town San Diego. The shopping plaza was filled with items from Mexico. There are old adobe style buildings in much of the square, and a museum inside of one of the shops in the Bazaar del Mundo.





On one of the squares stood a guy with a bunch of instruments playing on his cell phone. He was selling cds and had one playing. He stopped for a brief moment at one point to play a bird whistle three times. Classy.

Musician playing the cell phone.
We went to the Mormon Battalion Memorial Visitor's Center.


They have a guided tour. It is the most interestingly and well developed tour explaining boring content I've ever seen. They have interactive movie scenes that work incredibly well with one another and the tour guide.

Interactive wall of portraits

While there we saw a polygamist family with three wives and twelve children. That was interesting. During the tour one poor victim was chosen by the guide to wear the clothes and equipment the Mormon soldiers had to carry.


Apparently public school groups go there on field trips. They did have gold panning and a covered wagon out front.



We then walked to a historic square and heritage park which has several Victorian and other style display homes and a great Jewish synagogue.




Next up, we headed to Ocean Beach. We ate at Pizza Port in Ocean Beach. They had great fountain Dr. Pepper.



We headed down to the very colorful Ocean Beach.


This is where Almost Famous was filmed. A very hippie neighborhood, we saw many interesting characters on the streets and beach.




We walked along the dune and watched the water. There were a surprising number of surfers considering the cold temperatures and large swells.

















On the way back down the street, Kris and I learned that my new hat is giving some people the wrong idea. I was told by a bum that I was the "marijuana girl of his dreams" and "a girl he could take home to mom". Too funny...especially considering what a rule follower I am.








Down another street, we saw a guy cleaning the windows of his music bar. He was such an interesting character, I asked if I could take his photo. He let me. His name is Dave. He and four other Daves provide entertainment at his establishment. They call themselves Dave Sparling presents. Too funny!





I was so engaged in viewing the neighborhood, I almost got hit when walking across the street. Somewhat interestingly, it was right at the spot of a body outline.


After Ocean Beach, we drove around the Gaslamp district before calling it a night and going to Laura and Robert's to do laundry.




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