We've landed in a new village. Actually, it's a big town of patched together villages. All together it's 1.3 million people. This is San Diego. It is such an interesting town. From my early, cursory observations, this is a meld of three cultures: Anglo, Hispanic, and Asian. This makes for colorful neighborhoods, and some very different shopping experiences.
Here's an example: We live next door to the "Fashion Valley Mall" - oh, and it's an outdoor mall; it's true, the weather is perfect here. The anchor tenants to fashion valley are Nieman Marcus, Bloomingdales and Nordstrom. Now, I may not shop in these stores, but I do know what they sell, and it doesn't get any more Anglo than this.
Drive less than a mile and you find an Asian supermarket. The entire back wall of the full sized grocery store is fish: swimming, or on ice. This is the only place since New Orleans where I've seen heads on shrimp. There were three long cases of frozen fish in front of the live and iced fish. I guess it goes from swimming, to on ice, to frozen. Most of the frozen stuff was sans heads. The Thursday Farmer's Market in this shopping center certainly has an Asian flavor - literally - with veggies I don't even recognize.
Around the corner from the Asian Market is my new library. (Yes, I found the library the third day I was here.) Across from the library it is a tienda - a store selling Hispanic products and foods. I thought there was a lot of Mexican food in Arizona. Nope. This corner of California is crammed with taco stands, food trucks selling enchiladas, and mom and pop Mexican cafes.
We've already sampled the beach when Cody came for a visit before he starts at Berkeley. We spent the day at LaJolla, waded in the beach at Torrey Pines Reserve, visited the Lajolla Historical Society, and had dinner at the LaJolla Fish Market - you pick it; they grill it.
Our first outing in San Diego was to 'Old Town' which is literally the spot where the mission and the fort were started by the Spaniards in 1769. Pretty typical for Spanish America. Nothing is really left of that time, so the city fathers rounded up buildings from the early to mid 1800's and they've recreated a 'living history' sort of place which is pretty light on history and heavy on commerce. However, it was interesting place to start to get the feel of this place.
Finally, we headed to Balboa Park for the day - most famous for being the site of the San Diego Zoo, but we are saving the Zoo for after Labor Day - after back to school for the kiddies. The rest of the park is filled with museums, the city's botanical garden, a phenomenal rose garden, and a great outdoor 'band shell' for concerts. We had a wonderful day there, and could easily go back for another day before we even think about the zoo.
As always, it's all about the pictures.
https://goo.gl/photos/rfR4DTLXe3DmV3tP9 (LaJolla and Torrey Pines)
https://goo.gl/photos/iJnfD7CYLNaYUczo8 (overview - Balboa Park)
https://goo.gl/photos/Cba9eknLR3xNxHZJ6 (for the flower people - really great pix of roses)
