A Foodie Tour of Tijuana...

Despite nearly 30 years of socializing with Hashers, I am still continually blown away by their kindness and generosity. Case in point: Grassy, who is the GM of Tijuana H3 and someone we barely know, gave Veronica, Brett and Siena an insider’s tour of the city—the same city where Jimmy and I hosted a party for 35 guests the night before our wedding, but we’d now be too afraid to visit on our own due to increased crime. Grassy picked them up in his car after they took the tram down from Chula Vista and drove them into Mexico. Due to COVID restrictions, they technically weren’t supposed to enter the country and had a lame story prepared about going to a dentist just in case they were questioned. Their first stop was the beach to see the border wall itself, which Jimmy and I have never seen.

They were impressed with the many murals along the Mexican side of the wall in Friendship Park; apparently the other side is much more barren.

He took them to a very local taco place where they were the only gringos. Veronica said it was fun watching the tacos being cooked in the open kitchen. They were very fresh, tasty and only $1 each.

The next stop was a food hall, just like in London or Amsterdam with more touristy prices. 

The main shopping area looks much more festive than I recall. The market was already closed by the time they got there.

They also enjoyed watching churros being made by a street vendor, one that Grassy said was the best.

Then he walked them past the strip clubs, which they declined entering. In TJ the sex workers walked the streets looking for clients, which was interesting for Veronica to compare to the Netherlands. Once their tour was done, they hopped back into Grassy’s car. He had a fast pass for easy entry back into the US, but it didn’t cover passengers. So he dropped them off near the border to walk across and then picked them up on the other side and drove them back to their car. They had a great day! We hope to be able to play tour guide for Grassy someday and are extremely thankful that he didn’t sell the kids to sex traffickers. 

 

Further Adventures in San Diego...

Veronica is fascinated by the story of mine and Jimmy’s early days as a couple and had asked for a list of places we used to frequent. She and Brett enjoyed having a drink on the terrace at Casa Del Rey Moro at Balboa Park, where we enjoyed a brunch with friends and family the morning after our wedding. 

Here is Veronica’s other effort to recreate an ancient photo of me in a courtyard of Balboa Park. 

Jimmy and I once took a photography workshop at Balboa Park, so just love that Veronica and Brett are so into photography as a couple.

Incredibly, neither Jimmy nor I have any memory of ever seeing this amazing tree in the park...

…which looks like an alien landscape. 

While this charming photo might look like it was completely staged, Veronica assured me that she and Brett really do love to just plop down in random places to read. 

They also enjoyed visiting the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles...

…going on the wooden roller coaster (dating back to 1925) at Mission Beach...

…and seeing a San Diego Padres game at the stadium that also didn’t exist when we lived there. Veronica was disappointed when the Padres failed to score even a single run the whole game. 

They attempted to watch the Euro football finals at Shakespeare Pub, where Jimmy and I had dinner on our first date, but folks had been lined up since 5 a.m., so they watched the UK lose to Italy in penalty shots at a sports bar instead. 

They also missed out on going to The Waterfront, the dive bar where our first date started and where we hosted our wedding rehearsal dinner, but didn’t miss out exploring Coronado on a tandem bike. They cycled around the island, passing the base where Jimmy was stationed when we met before ending at Hotel Del Coronado.

An especially cool experience was visiting the Birch Aquarium at Scripps with Siena to see the 35-foot long mural that she had been commissioned to paint using her own photographs from diving for reference. 

 

July in San Diego...

July was full of adventures for Veronica. The first adventure was with Brett’s twin sister, Siena, who took her scuba diving at La Jolla Cove and La Jolla Shores, which was great fun. Two sea lions even swam next to them and they saw some dolphins on the surface.

The following day, Siena and Zach joined Veronica and Brett for a San Diego H3 Friday night hash trail near Balboa Park.  

None of our old hash buddies were there, but Veronica was happy to run into Grassy Ass, who we’d met on the Eurohash cruise in Scotland in 2019.

Whereas we used to carry flashlights on all of our evening hashes and never knew what we’d encounter on trail, these guys had been warned to bring headlamps since there would be tunnels.

We used to go through lots of tunnels when we hashed in San Diego, many of which we couldn’t stand fully upright in, but we didn’t have cellphones so never could take any photos along the way. 

Veronica was excited about celebrating her first Fourth of July in the US since she was little. Things have definitely changed along the waterfront since we lived in San Diego as this giant kissing statue (Unconditional Surrender based on the famous photo from V-J Day in 1945) wasn’t there until 2013...

…and the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier decommissioned in 1992, wasn’t converted into a museum until 2004. They clearly had excellent seats for the fireworks and the ship made for a nice backdrop. Seeing this photo brought back memories of when Jimmy made special arrangements to take me on a tour of the USS Independence.

No visit to San Diego is complete without giant margaritas in Old Town...

…or a walk at Torrey Pines. I was so touched that Veronica recreated an old photo of me, even down to wearing similar clothes. Clearly safety standards have changed over the decades.
 

Where It All Began...

On June 21, Veronica and Brett flew from London to Los Angeles, where they were picked up by Brett’s family and driven to their home in Bonita, south of San Diego. 

The following day, they were thrilled to get the first of their two COVID-19 vaccinations.

How great for Veronica to finally get to spend time with Brett’s twin sister, Siena.

They hung out for more than one month in San Diego, where Jimmy and I met nearly 30 years ago. Here they are in front of our old house on Aragon Drive. While it hadn’t changed from the outside, we saw photos on Zillow that show that the interior had been significantly upgraded. Whereas we lost money on it when we sold it in 1996, it’s now worth over four times as much. 

How ironic that there a cross street named Veronica. 

That same day they were went on a hike with our old SDH3 friends Nancy and Dan and their son Julius, who was visiting from Washington. 

In a small world moment, Brett and Julius recognized each other and realized that they’d attended the same summer camp years earlier at UC San Diego. 

Jimmy and I always loved California street fairs, and Veronica and Brett loved the one they went to in Ocean Beach.

Brett dared to take Veronica out for some driving lessons.

Brett bought a large format camera much like the one that Jimmy owns.

Comes Too Soon and Moist Incest went to a Mission Harriettes H3 trail in honor of Pride, which ended at Pacers Showgirls, a strip club.

I was impressed to learn that she made an announcement to see if any old timers remembered Opee and Tuna and Innuendo stepped up, whom we saw during our last visit in 2016. 

 

Attempting to Recreate a Moment in History...

On  March 25, 1996, Kathy and Phil hosted a farewell party for me and Jimmy. In addition to haring a hash and having a great dinner, we had an incredible photo shoot in their living room including some kooky shots on their staircase.

Twenty years later, we made an attempt to recreate one of our favorite photos. Even without our dear friends Sharon and Brett, we had a difficult time lining ourselves up correctly, but still had fun trying.

Luckily a neighbor came over to capture all of us in our best attempt to recreate that moment in our combined history, which turned out extra special since Ross and Ashlynn joined in. Thanks to Kathy and Phil for a great party, and Dan and Nancy for a great weekend.

Hash Horrors Meet...

To be honest, Ashlynn wasn’t thrilled about the idea of going to Kathy and Phil’s since we thought she’d be the only kid there since their 17-year-old son Ross was supposed to be umpiring a baseball game. Luckily his plans changed and he was home. While I wanted Ashlynn to meet my friends, what she really enjoyed was spending the afternoon with Ross and his sweet dog.

I thought it was very sweet when Ross invited Ashlynn to go along with him to hang out with his friends that evening at a park and offered to drive her back afterwards to Dan and Nancy’s. Ashlynn found the entire experience quite interesting, especially since she’d never actually hung out with a group of American teenagers before.

20-Year Reunion...

Dan, Jimmy, Dick, Mike & Phil

After a morning spent visiting an excellent special exhibit about whales at the San Diego Natural History Museum, we headed to Kathy and Phil’s for a gathering in honor of our visit. We had last seen most of these folks at their house in 2007 and it was so great that we were all able to get together again. It was amazing how little everyone has changed over the years, which is another good sign that hashers tend to age well.

Carolyn, Melissa, Debbie, Kathy, Jennifer & Nancy

Although Carolyn and Debbie were attending a scrapbooking weekend, I was thrilled that they were able to sneak away for a few hours to see us.

It was especially nice having a chance for a nice long chat with Debbie, who used to be my neighbor and was my maid-of-honor...

....and with Kathy, who was my boss in my previous life. As my hash mother and my daughters’ hash grandmother, she was responsible for me meeting Jimmy. It was so great seeing how truly happy she is.