California Dreaming, Day 7

Today, we had a big break between interviews and so we took an extra long lunch break and drove to Old Town, San Diego. I enjoyed using the filters in my camera app. Some sightseeing shots:

Since today was also my last day of recording in California, we decided to live up the rest of the day and after everything was packed and put away, we took the short drive to Sunset Cliffs, CA to enjoy a nice sunset. Some shots:

I love this shot of Alex in silhouette. Totally jealous that we couldn't replicate it with me. 

This is a horribly drawn K & Y within a heart. Cuz I'm sappy like that. 

All the fresh air left us starving and so we met up with Alex's friend Billy and headed to Phil's BBQ. We had to wait about thirty minutes in a line that snaked around the building, but it was completely worth it. Waiters would come out every once in a while and provide people with an onion ring to make the wait bearable. At Phil's, you order at the counter, pick up your food and stuff, then hope to try to find a place. I realize that most "tasty" BBQ places do this. Because I felt adventurous I went with the pulled pork, and a ginormous order of fries to share with Alex.

To boot they had malted vinegar, which was amazing. It took forever to eat this, and both Alex and I gave it a valiant try. I did eat more than he did, and I had a great time rubbing it in cuz ha ha! Reminded me of my High School years at Church, where on Saturday nights our idea of fun was daring each other to see who could eat more, or the spiciest thing, and stuff like that. I always won at the eat more contests, because Mama didn't raise no fool.

Now to get ready for New York! This trip was exhausting, everything from my thumb being hurt to the time difference from NY, which made phone calls to Mi Cariño short and unfulfilling. I'm glad that this is my last recording trip of the year!

California Dreaming, Day 6

Some travel days, I'm not in the mood for anything. Today, I ate in my room and watched episodes of Gilmore Girls. Here's a picture of a piece of art hanging on the office building where we worked today.

Far Out, Dude

Sorry I'm late in posting. Life got busy!

In any case, next to last day in San Diego, the sun finally makes an appearance. I decide to go surfing.

Let's just say I won't try to do that again until I lose a couple of pounds. Lifting me up to get on top of that board? Hard. Standing up on it? Even harder. Didn't even manage to do that. Of course, the surfing occured without any formal instruction and Coronado Beach, although gorgeous, was super full with the creepy crawlies, i.e. algae and some purple floating things that could only be Jelly Fish, so I was a little bit apprehensive.

All in all, fun was had. And I crossed off one more item on my "30 things to do before I'm 30" List. Huzzah.

In-N-Out Burgers

Had my first In-N-Out Burger, for lunch, today.

They're worth the hype.

Latte mi corazón

Needed a severe morning pick me up before work today - Sunny San Diego has unfortunately not been as Sunny as it usually is. I had been looking forward to this trip a lot - perfect weather San Diego and all that - and I am not going to say that the Universe has conspired to enforce some serious global warming this week in this part of the world just to mess with me because I was looking forward to this trip... but I think the Universe conspired to enforce some serious global warming like behavior this week in San Diego just to mess with me. Not that we're letting this slow us down - my sleeping fits do that enough already - but we went to get ourselves some cafecitos at this shop one of our participants owns in El Barrio. The shop's name? Latte mi corazón. Go ahead, groan if you'd like, but it's too cute to not give into it.

Latte mi corazón is actually set on someone's house  - the front/side part of their house. Which is a good thing to know ahead of time because we drove by it once before we realized that it wasn't just someone's front yard/terrace. I like the homey feel to it, for sure.

Walking in you find tables and seating area before going inside the actual cafe part. The walls, (like any self respecting coffee house) were lined with paintings and art for sale.

The other side was chock full of Mexican Caravelas. It looked better than it sounds, specially with the plexi-glass like walls.

Our Barista, David, helped us make a choice. I went for the Café de Olla, and Carolina went for the Meximocha. Café de Olla was freaking delish and it comes with canela and piloncito and for once I drank a coffee drink without adding mountains of sugar to it, and so I say, good one!

David's gaydar must've been on because he was soon talking to us about his boyfriend and about friends and sugar daddies and the San Diego Pride Parade and the New York City Pride Parade and what not. He was adorable and I wanted to take his picture but I did not want to freak him out, so I didn't. I'm also pretty sure he thought Caro and I were together/together, since he kept trying to tell us which Dyke places to visit and that "no one would bother us." We laughed at that.

We sat outside to enjoy our drinks plus some breakfast pastries, listening to Mecano and los Aterciopelados, and Shakira, and Carolina and I went over one of my favorite subjects, that subject being that Spanish music really doesn't work well in translation - and as she talked about explaining to her girlfriend J. what the words to the Mecano song "Aire" meant, I once again felt very lucky and glad that mi Cariño needs no translation.

Sleeping Tours

Not very often do I get a local (that I actually like) to get to show me and my co-facilitator around when we travel. And this one's a psychic, to boot! Last night Carolina and I were chaperoned by Irene, who is all kinds of sweet. She drove us down to Old Town in San Diego, to eat at the aptly named Old Town Mexican Cafe and Cantina.

We began the night by admiring the ladies that work towards the front of the restaurant, who are kneeding masa to make fresh tortillas for our meals.

We started with some House Margaritas and your ever present chips and salsa. For my main meal I chose to eat the Carne Asada Tacos.

The tacos were tiny - and that was just the right size. The corn tortillas are so filling and thick! My tacos came with salsa verde and beans, and I have to tell you, simplicity made all the difference. I ate those babies and was soon ready to be rolled back to my hotel room. I wholeheartedly recommend this place - they had a mariachi trio walk around playing songs on request. And Michelle, our cute server, was super efficient. Service makes a difference, y'all!

Irene, however, offered to take us back through "the scenic route." I do not know how scenic the route was because after I sat down, Irene handed me her shawl so that I could cover myself and then I promptly fell asleep. I woke up a couple of times during the tour - saw the Coronado bridge in its full night time glory. Then I fell asleep again but woke up in time to marvel at the pretty houses in El Barrio and to gawk at the wonderful building that houses the police station one of our participants founded. A period of sleeping followed that and then we stood in front of the San Diego Trolley, where I remember Carolina asking many, many questions. Eventually Irene realized I was tired, and still in NY time, and thus drove us back to our car so that we could head towards the hotel.

So last night two things became apparent to me: I eat a lot of Mexican food. Specially when out on the road. And two, I have the gift to fall asleep and wake up very quickly. Like I can be fully conscious and aware and talking one second and asleep the next. Maybe it's a superpower. Yeah.