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.
 

More Newbies...

In early May, nine other new inhabitants moved onto the farm. It was made clear from the farm’s website that they were being raised strictly for their meat.

At least their lives had an extra purpose: to provide entertainment for visitors to the farm.

 

New at the Farm...

There were several new developments at our local farm in early July, including bee hives...

…some exotic hens and a rooster...

…two cows...

…and a visiting stork.

Most importantly, it was great to see that the chickens were finally allowed outside for the first time since December; presumably bird flu had finally flown the coop. 

Wonder what the chickens think about sharing their paddock with two dwarf pigs (if you look closely, you might be able to spot Billy under the ramp). 

 

More Namibia...

Ashlynn was thrilled to get to go on a weekend camping trip with her team at Namib-Naukluft National Park. As you can see from the photos, this park is quite desolate as it encompasses part of the Namib Desert (Namib means vast).

She worked long hours, but there was still a bit of time for fun, which included kayaking. 

They enjoyed their final meal together in their cottage. 

Ashlynn was incredibly lucky that her roommate Antonia had a driver’s license, credit card and no plans immediately following their internship so she could rent a truck with a pop-up tent on top of it and all the camping gear they’d need. They spent two days in one national park and then another two in Etosha, Namibia’s largest animal sanctuary. She showed us some amazing photos upon her return of the scenery, their cool tent and all the animals they saw, but failed to send them to me so this one of the watering hole near their tent will have to suffice. 

Getting her out of Africa proved to be quite complex because Namibia became a RED country in regards to COVID-19 while she was there so her flight kept getting changed. I spent much of two days on the phone with the airlines and eventually just gave up on her original routing on Brussels Air and booked her a flight on KLM through South Africa and crossed fingers she wouldn’t get stuck there—which she didn’t.