OFF TO THE CITY

Friday, May 5 aka Cinco de Mayo

For our final morning at the Bahia, we chose to get room service. The order:
1 American breakfast (scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns & toast) w/grapefruit juice
1 American breakfast (same as above but w/bacon and oj)
1 Belgian waffle
1 Order French toast
Decaf coffee
Tea
What was eaten:
Bryan - 1 sausagey American breakfast, everything but 2 pieces of toast
1 Belgian waffle
Entire glass of grapefruit juice and 1/2 a cup of tea
Jill - 2 pieces of bacon, 2 of the 4 pieces of French toast, some of the hash browns, 1 piece of toast, most of the oj and 1/2 a cup of coffee. I know, I know, there are starving children everywhere. Score one for Bryan.

Gluttony aside, we moved into the sloth period, laying around reading and watching old Cosby reruns (2 different episodes on 2 different channels). We had to check out by noon and we didn't intend to leave the room until 11:58.

After packing (why does one always end up with more crap than she came with?), we accomplished our goal, arriving in the lobby at noon. I got a chance to thank the nice concierge who had given us directions to the library on the 1st day. He said that I was one of the happiest people he'd seen to which I replied that I had a lot to be happy about.

We got a cab to the Gaslamp Plaza Suites where we were going to spend the next leg of our trip. We were able to check in early, but our hints about being on our honeymoon were less impressive to the desk clerk here who simply handed us the key to our intended room and wished us a pleasant day. Our room was pretty nice and as it was on the 9th floor we had a great view of the city and part of the bay. All of the rooms are named after authors and we were in the Flaubert room down the hall from the cummings, Dostoevski and Hardy rooms.

Our first order of business upon getting settled in our new digs was to take a nap. Somewhere on this honeymoon, we morphed into an 80-year-old couple who can't seem to go 3 hours without a little "time-out" rest. Around 3 PM, we made our way out of the hotel, mailed some post cards at a shady post office, after walking through the shadiest open mall in Southern Cal. We had heard that SD had a lot of homeless people, but there were also a fair share of people talking to themselves, wearing strange, or better yet no, shirts, and just generally existing in their own realities. I tried not to get touched or grabbed as we walked away from the mall toward the Gaslamp trolley stop.

We bought 2 round-trip tickets so we could get to Old Town. No one ever checked or asked for our tix (either way) so we figured that only tourists like us buy them - everyone else has a commuter card.

Old Town was just that - a replica of SD before it grew into a thriving metropolis. We walked through the town, stopping at the Wells Fargo office, the old courthouse, the dentist's office (creepy), theh candle shop, tin maker's, general store, candy shoppe and gem shop. We realized that SD really isn't that old. Most of the history starts in the 1850s and the people involved in a lot of the stories that we read lived into the 1930s. Coming from New England, this all felt like a fresh story. We visited the Thomas Whaley House, which is considered THE most haunted house in America. It was both the first 2-story house built in the area and the first brick one. We didn't see any ghosts or feel any presences, but it was interesting to see that the house had a theater on the 2nd floor, in addition to bedrooms, and a large courtroom. Since it was the biggest house around, it was used by the community. Being hungrier than we were historically-inclined, we quickly made our way through the rest of the house and then got our butts across the street to the Old Town Mexican Cafe (another Wally recommendation).

OTMC was delicious - smooth margaritas and yummy salsa, but since the bar area was so crowded due to Cinco de Mayo, after we ate we headed back to the Gaslamp district. We also needed a nap. Seriously.

We watched some baseball, leaving when the Mets/Braves game was in the 14th inning and the Padres/Cubs game was in the 7th. We made our way across the street to the Gaslamp Tavern, where we scored prime seats at the outside bar. We were drinking our beers and watching the Padres when the night took an unexpected, and devastatingly awkward, turn. A guy sitting next to me decided to strike up a conversation. His name was Paul and he was a little drunk, which we didn't realize until we really got talking to him. Normally, we like drunk people, and when Paul bought us a shot, we were ready to be his friend. Then, he moved a little closer to me, like, if he got any closer, he would've been in my lap, closer. And he started asking us a ton of questions abot why we'd decided to get married, how we knew it was right, how much money we made. All of this was due to the fact that he claimed to be crazy about his girlfriend, who apparently lived in Key West, and we was trying to figure out their future. Seemed nice, but at this point, he pulled out his cell phone and started showing us pictures of her, some a little less appropriate than others (which he winkingly told Bryan he'd show him later). Then he put out his hand and said that his name was Paul and we knew it was time to get rid of him. We mentioned that we were going to head to the next bar, an Irish pub of some sort. Paul declared that he would come WITH US and that we could hang with him all night. Luckily, he also decided that he had to go to the bathroom first. When the bathroom door closed on him, my normally non-plussed husband looked at me, panic in his eyes, and said, "Let's go. Right now. Otherwise, we're never going to lose this guy." I was convinced. We tore out of the bar looking for another in which we could hide. Since we'd mentioned wanting to go to an Irish pub, we knew we couldn't go to one, so we turned down a street and came across a very friendly looking bar, one in which we could see that the Padres game was still on. Hilariously, this bar was a Hooters. So, that's how I went to my first Hooters.

It turned out well. Bryan and I compared waitress butt as we drank a beer and watched the extra innings of the 0-0 game. The Padres won in the 11th adn Hooters erupted. We decided to make our way to another establishment. I had realized when we sat down at the Hooters bar that I had left my credit card at the Gaslamp Tavern to hold our tab, so we had to swing by there again. We did and without incident; Paul was gone. At this point, it was past 10 and the bars were filled to capacity with long lines at the doors and covers for the privilege of buying a $6 beer. We had lost our cushy seat and now wandered the streets looking for an adequate substitute. We ended up at Xavier's, a faux-mod bar with a Hollywood movie theme (film reels on the wall and Hollywood stars in the floor tiles presumably with staff names, all superstars, I'm sure), bought some overpriced drinks and watched the people walk by. Across from Xavier's was a TGIFriday's with some kind of club above it and an Ole Cafe with a 2nd floor. About 1/2 way through our drinks we noticed that the TGIF club had live women dancing in the windows, beautiful women with long, lithe bodies and form-hugging white outfits. We sat mesmerized. Then Cafe Ole pulled a screen over its 2nd floor windows and had the form of a woman dancing suggestively. All of this made me want to dance myself; Bryan said that it just made him tired (at the thought of so much dancing - it had been several hours since our last nap). We left Xavier's and moved next door to a little Mexican cafe, Alambre's, where we ordered the House Huge margarita, which was truly bigger than my head. I had to use a token to pee, Bryan watched a woman get thrown out and after determinedly drinking 3/4 of that limey deliciousness, we took our buzz back to the hotel for some shut eye.

Back to Bryan for our Saturday, May 6th adventures in Balboa and Petco Parks...