Cabrillo, Petco, and Bears, oh my!

When last we left off, Gill and I were stepping up to the restaurant Shades to enjoy breakfast on the beach. With eggs Benedict, goat cheese, a bloody Mary and Mimosa, we watched the dreaded cloud cover dissipate into what became a beautiful day.

From Ocean Beach, we drove along the coast line of Sunset Cliffs up to the Cabrillo (pronounced Cab-ree-yo) National Monument, where Gill was able to look out over her new kingdom.

And make friends with the locals.

After snapping a sufficient amount of photos and smelling several lung-fulls of that pure Pacific air, Gill and I jumped back into my car, Lady Snaggetooth, and eventually headed off for Petco Park.

We rode the little red trolley to the 1pm Padres v. Cubs game. Gill was in awe of how our airport is in the middle of our city. It truly is spectacular to think that passenger jets fly over us as we commute or as we try to make it through a conversation without the infamous Point Loma pause.

Jumping off the trolley at the Gaslamp stop, we strode up to the west entrance of the park. Gill was impressed by the amount of things there are to do in the park and by the wide variety of local flavors.

Even though she wore her Yankee shirt to a west coast game, we were all able to Root-Root-Root for the Padres, who remarkably won 4-3. Maybe there was some luck coming from that Yankee...

That evening, we met my sister and her fiance at Old Town's Cafe Coyote where we sipped some impressive margaritas and Gill had her first ever fish taco...she is sold on them.

We took the trolley back to the Snaggletooth and head on home. We had enjoyed a full day.

Monday, May 26
On Memorial Day, we decided to go to the world famous San Diego Zoo.

Of the many sights we saw that day, none were quite as impressive as the elephants, which we watched for well over forty minutes.

Now of course, being surrounded by such beautiful and majestic beings, inspired us to find our inner animals.

...and then we took a selfie as such with a natural.

The bus tour that we took was incredible as it allowed us to see the animals that we otherwise would have missed. But it was on foot that we witnessed Orangutan diplomacy.

 
The sudden appearance of unexpected fruit caused for some commotion among the primates. But in the end everyone did get a bite of an apple or an orange.

Feeling sun-drawn and hungry, we left the zoo around 3:00pm to join my family in a backyard BBQ to commemorate Memorial Day.

After the sun went down and the party ended, Gill, my parents and I watched one of my favorite movies, Bottle Shock, starring Chris Pine, Bill Pullman, and one of the best actors of all time, Alan Rickman. The movie is about how wine in California challenged the French vine in the '70s. It's a fun flick and if you're a Californian, it gives you an extra sense of pride in our grapes.

The movie served two purposes: it allowed us to catch our breath and to set the mood for our planned Tuesday adventure - wine tasting in Temecula.

Tune in tomorrow to read about what we sipped!

To see the other side of these adventures, check out Gill's blog, where you'll be able to see even more photos of our travels - http://memoirsofawayfarer.wordpress.com/

Your humble author,
S. Faxon