San Diego day two

We woke up and headed to Old Town to walk around a bit in the historic district, the first area settled by the europeans in California. It's very quaint and slightly tourist trappy, but parts of it retain their old feel of times long past. We went into a few shops and walked around a bit. We walked past a restaurant where women gathered over a big table rolling out tortillas for the breakfast meal.

Then we headed to the edge of little Italy, the oldest continuous neighborhood in San Diego to Extraordinary Desserts for their European Breakfast. http://www.extraordinarydesserts.com/ The owner is a San Diego native who is a french-trained pasty chef. She has a huge array of every delectable sweet known, and they make what they feel like that day. You walk in and see a huge case of some of the most gorgeously decorated cakes, tarts and torts I've ever seen. It was a quite impressive display.

We met with my friend's friend and her family. A beautiful 7 year old fashionista with light auburn hair just like her mom, and a three-year old boy with hair in big blonde curls. The breakfast spread was impressively laid out and extensive. They had the best granola I've ever had with lots of nuts and dried fruit. Smoked salmon, several kinds of fresh bread, pastries, cheese, veggies.. and a nice but small sampling of little desserts to tempt the palate. Mmm...Her friends were great and I really enjoyed getting to know them.

Then we headed out to Balboa Park, a huge area of parks, gardens, restaurants and museums. We planned to go to the Museum of Man, but after driving for at least 20 minutes through parking lots to find nothing at all for open spots, and several close calls with aggressive drivers cutting us off to try to gain better positions, we decided to give up gracefully and move on.

Instead we went to the Marston House, which was lovely! It's a 1905 arts and crafts house owned by George Marston. His daughter, Mary, lived there until her death, and donated it to ensure it's preservation. It wasn't one of the nicest homes on the street, but most were sold for the land. There's even a large apartment complex right across the street! The gardens were beautiful and on a 5 acre lot. The house is huge, even by today's standards, and boasted quite a few bathrooms with running water and electricity, walk-in closets, and amenities that seem rather modern. There were also several screened in porches and areas built to take advantage of the air flow to cool the rooms.

We walked through a park for a bit and headed back to the room to relax for a bit. We had plans to meet my friend (who lives in SD) at Lips, the ultimate in drag queen dining. http://lipssd.com/ What a hoot! The gals were fabulous an the one that waited on us was done incredibly well. It was 'Show tunes Sunday' so we got to hear some great tunes! I did this once at Jacques on Boston and it was so much more tame. The gals entertained us with very off-color hilarity before the show even started. The food and decor were surprisingly good. It was so wonderful catching up with my friend. She had never been to this place, but had been to one similar before. Fun night for sure.

The table next to us were a bunch of 'golden gals' as one of the performers called them. One, Kay, was celebrating her 75th birthday. Another kept going up on the stage dancing, and a third was a rockette in NYC 65 years ago! Bless her heart! Kay shared with us that she and Rebecca, in a blue sequined shirt, who kept going up on the stage to give the gals tips, just lost their husbands. I commend them for getting out and living life! And in such style, so to speak.

Last night in SD before heading home to the desert. Hell, as I call it this time of year! Ick. Can't wait to see my furry babies though, so looking forward to it. And on Saturday I get my latest foster, a boy named Donovan who I'm going to spring from county and the 'e' list (euthanasia), which he's bounced off and on of. Saving a life.. that's what it' about! So, a lot to look forward to in going home. Tomorrow am we're going back to Hillcrest, the 'gayborhood' to a restaurant called Snooze. We may meet up with my friend's friends that we saw for breakfast today.Probably will head out after. Cheers!! I'll be in Philly in July and then *Yellowstone* in September, so you'll have some more adventures before the year is through! Goodbye for now.