San Diego

 

A belated recap of our weeklong trip to San Diego to visit Ron and Kathy! We had a wonderful time, though I confess to being a little nervous about it beforehand. There's a big generational gap between us and them, and the most time I've spent with them are long, wine-soaked dinners at their house in Fairfield (Sean, of course, is more intimately acquainted with Ron from their 2019 camino journey). They were really wonderful hosts, and had thoughtfully planned an itinerary that included downtown in the afternoon (I am a talker, but Kathy is a talker, so this silent time was very much necessary).

                                               

Kathy and Ron properly live in La Jolla, a fancy subdivision of San Diego. I was surprised to learn that San Diego is full of very steep hills and canyons -- their house is on "La Jolla Mesa," and the neighbors on the opposite side of the street have views of the Pacific (with the corresponding property values). Their house has no views, but as soon as you're on the main street, there's an incredible view onto the coastline below. Down by the water, there are many hundreds of sea lions, as well as many thousands of pelicans. I was delighted by them at first (very Jurassic Park looking!) but oh my god, the smell was intense and unrelenting.

Seeing the Pacific, with clear skies to the horizon, was really something. (Technically I've seen it in San Francisco as a kid, but with the fog you couldn't see much!) Sean said it was like looking at the edge of the world. The power of the waves coming in was also a reminder that, although we live on a body of water, Long Island Sound is still a sound at the end of the day, mostly placid! And even our East Coast beaches don't really compare to what you're seeing out there. Truly majestic.

 

Here we're at the Maritime Museum, a flotilla of linked ships from Age of Exploration caravels to merchant steamers to the USS Dolphin, the last diesel sub. That's where we're standing above left. Very cool to have gone into a sub, but so claustrophobic, damn those poor sailors. At right, Sean and Ron are looking their piratical best. Unfortunately, Kathy suffers from intense motion sickness, so she noped out at the very first ship (which included a guide who demonstrated the utility of sea shanties for timing pulls on the ropes!)

Here we're at the Salk Institute, after our tour of Louis Kahn's iconic building overlooking the Pacific, as hang-gliders sailed past in picturesque fashion. My hair is flat as hell because I had been forced to borrow a sun hat from Kathy. I was not prepared for the strength of the sun at a lower latitude! It was our good fortune that this was our only cloudy day, because we were outside on this tour for 90 minutes in full exposure. 

Note: the concrete walls of the building were insanely smooth to the touch; the guide (a former New Haven surgeon, retired to SD) explained that Kahn had the architects shake the concrete forms to remove air pockets much more than would be typically done for this kind of work.

This was taken at their "local" Italian spot in La Jolla. I gained a better understanding of what "generational wealth" means when Kathy explained that her mother and uncle purchased the commercial block on which this restaurant sits in the 1960s as part of a real-estate 1031 exchange after selling farmland further north. Her siblings share it now, while Kathy got the house (and with Prop 19, her mom's level of taxation). Her dad also worked in the defense industry. It helps to have $$$ and to hold onto land!

On our way home, tired but happily not sunburned. We flew Breeze out of Bradley, and had first class seats on the way there, which was fantastic. Sadly, those seats had already been booked for the return leg when I bought our tickets in April, so it was back to simply "extra leg room" seats, sigh. 

Kathy and Ron encouraged us to come again, but as much as it was lovely to spend time with them, and the weather was phenomenal...I did not "fall in love" with San Diego. I missed the lushness and green of the East Coast immediately! I've never loved desert landscapes, scrub brush, canyons...not my scene. Give me a good oak tree any day!