Saturday, Feb 8

We started today off exactly the same as we did yesterday, with breakfast at Breakfast Republic.  This time I had Mr Presley French toast (pb and bananas with bacon). Also very yum! Rob had his same order of bacon and then we walked to Lucky’s donuts for him to get a couple of donuts.

Our next outing for the day was to meet up with a friend of ours, Christine, from Boston who moved out to San Diego about the time Rob & I moved to Asheville.  We met her at Torrey Pines State Reserve. We, along with a lot of other people hiked up the hill, stopped at a few lookout points, and then down to the beach and back along the water to the parking lot.  At the first lookout point we spotted several dolphins making their way south. Rob got a good look with the binoculars. The scenery was really nice, with great views from the cliff tops up and down the coast.  We spent a lot of the time catching up with Christine. It was really great to see her after these several years. The walk back along the beach was just possible – the tide was going out, but at times some waves came in pretty far, so that we had to scramble onto the rocks below the cliffs to avoid the waves.  For the most part, we tried to stay out from the cliffs because rocks and debris often fall from their sandstone heights. In fact, as I posed for a photo in a little alcove under the cliff, I felt a small sprinkle of tiny rocks fall on my arm. We quickly took that photo and moved back away from the cliff, although nothing larger followed the sprinkle.

When we reached the parking lot, we parted ways with Christine and headed downtown to check out the Gaslamp District.  So named for the gas lamps that are still to be found. Today it is a several block area that is comprised mostly of restaurants and some shops.  I was hoping for more shops and less restaurants, so I wasn’t very impressed. We did, however, have some great ice cream at the Ghirardelli shop.  I had a raspberry sundae with house made hot fudge sauce and Rob had chocolate ice cream in a chocolate dipped waffle cone. Yum!

After the Gaslamp District we headed toward the water of the Bay just a few blocks away and stumbled across the Seaport District.  I found the Seaport much more lively and interesting. Here we found the shops (mostly touristy shops, but not just run-of-the-mill tourists shops) and still more restaurants.  There was a nice path along the water’s edge that we walked. The marina is there, so we ogled at the expensive boats in their moorings.

By this time, we’d walked nearly 18,000 steps for the day and our feet were getting tired, so we got in the car and headed for home.  We relaxed for a bit, then had dinner in the house. After dinner, the sunset looked kinda cool, so Rob suggested that we take a little walk along the boardwalk.  We haven’t been out after dark yet, so we set out to catch the last of the sunset and just take in the vibe along the boardwalk on a Saturday night. It was only 6:00 so there weren’t too many shenanigans yet, but the bars along the beach were packed and plenty of people were out walking.  Rob remarked on the number of couples sitting out on the beach. Sure enough, as far as the eye could see, all the people on the beach were in groups of exactly 2. The tide was out, so the waves were quite a ways out from the lights of the buildings, but that just made the white of the breaking waves stand out in a really cool way.  Our final tally step tally for today was 22,633.

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