While Jimmy and gang were swimming, Julius and I wandered over to the children’s pool. At one time it was a popular place for children to swim, hence the name, but now it’s a popular place for California sea lions to gather. We weren’t lucky enough to see a whole gang sunning themselves on the beach like we have in the past, but we did see several seal pups playing in the water. Veronica and Ashlynn also went in search of seals while visiting the beach in Half Moon Bay with their grandparents.
One of the things that Jimmy has missed since we left San Diego was meeting friends for a swim at La Jolla Cove, so he was thrilled when Nancy organized a swim for him. Jimmy especially enjoyed swimming through the cave along the cliffs. Julius and I didn’t join them for the 1-mile swim, but Suzy Q and hubby Jeff did, then joined us afterwards for fajitas and margaritas at Jose’s, another one of our old haunts. That evening, Nancy and Dan hosted a dinner party and we enjoyed seeing some more old friends.
One of the things that has always amazed me about hashes around the world is the wide variety of occupations that hashers have. While mere mortals might view hashers as truly sophomoric, most hashers actually have incredibly respectable jobs. Over the years, we’ve met lawyers and police officers (which both come in handy when the hash runs into trouble), doctors, computer nerds, biotech researchers, accountants, an opera singer, artists, real estate brokers, a rocket scientist and professors. Debbie, above, works at that insurance company with a gecko as a mascot. Other hashers work at such diverse places as IBM, Duke University, the US Navy, the Dutch Special Forces, and the International Criminal Court. There’s no contest, however, when it comes to the most surprising occupation we’ve encountered at any hash. Above you’ll see Captain Zero, who we’ve known for years. He’s ex-military intelligence and a retired mortgage broker, but now spends his time starring in porn films as Dave Cummings. At 67, he claims to be the oldest porn star in the biz. He was quick to point out that Debbie and I were too old to be in one of his films, although, I assure you, we hadn’t volunteered; at least he didn’t object to being photographed with us. Guess there’s life after retirement after all.
No trip back to San Diego would be complete without doing a SDH3 hash since that’s where we met. The weather was fantastic and the setting beautiful as we wound around Mission Bay. While Jimmy intentionally ran the eagle trail which took him entirely around the bay, Dick, Dan, Nancy and 10-year-old Julius ran the longer trail by accident. I stayed with Debbie and we walked the turkey trail which took us around one of the resort islands and along just one side of the bay. The trail ended on the patio of a beach house right along the boardwalk with an incredible bbq dinner (a big improvement over the old days when we’d arrive dead last and go hungry). We went to Sunday’s bike/run hash in Carlsbad because it was Jimmy’s 200th SDH3 hash and he was supposed to be presented with his 200-timer pewter mug (not sure why they’re still keeping track of him), but unfortunately the mug didn’t make it to the hash.
Of course, we had to go to The Waterfront, the dive bar where we had our first date and wedding rehearsal dinner. As with much of downtown San Diego, it’s been upgraded since we moved. Apparently all the fancy condos being built around it have changed the clientèle and it’s been yuppified with outdoor seating, fancier beers and lots of flat screen tv’s. We were definitely older than most of the crowd and enjoyed the shocked looks when we said that we’d had our first date there over 15 years ago. We also couldn’t resist having an afternoon snack at our favorite dessert place, Extraordinary Desserts, which has a new outdoor patio and was just as great as ever; luckily some things don’t change--they still use real gold flakes to decorate their chocolate.
It’s been 6 years since we were in San Diego, so we were curious to see how things have changed. We spent an afternoon driving around some of our old neighborhoods. I was disappointed to see that Rubio’s Fish Tacos, Roberto’s and College Restaurant all near SDSU were gone. The first apartment I lived in 1983 didn’t look any different other than the above “No Soliciting” sign. Perhaps that was in response to the quadriplegic who used to rent out his room by the hour to El Cajon Blvd working girls. Sadly, our old house looked like a total wreck as seen below. Apparently the new owner never bothered to take care of it despite the fact that it’s tripled in price to approx $375K in the 11 years since we sold it.
For the first time since Veronica was born 10 years ago, Jimmy and I had a whole week with no kids. While we’ve had separate vacations over the years, we’d only been away together for one weekend. We were truly thrilled when Dad and Ann volunteered to look after the girls. We debated our options of exotic locations, then decided it was time to visit our friends in San Diego followed by 3 nights alone on Catalina Island. We kissed the girls good-bye just a few days after we arrived in Silicon Valley, caught a flight to Santa Ana and drove to San Diego in this spiffy PT Cruiser (oops--forgot to take a picture cruising along the ocean). We drove down the Coast Highway and stopped for lunch at a great Mexican restaurant overlooking the cliffs of Laguna Beach. We were happy to be staying with Nancy, Dan & Julius Diehr, who had joined us at the Chateau in April, in their historic North Hills home where they’d recently finished an awesome addition. We went out to dinner our first night in Balboa Park.
