July 2nd - San Diego to Mexico to San Diego

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July 2^nd

Our Air BnB room was billed as “A room with a view” so naturally when we got up this morning we expected to see the San Diego skyline, and maybe even the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, today was a very rare day in SD. It was foggy, so foggy we couldn’t see past the back yard fence. Cool and dampish was the order of the day.

Rodrigo, our host for the night, had already left for the day and we were alone in the house – trusting fellow. We locked the door behind us and placed it in the predetermined hiding place. After stowing our luggage we headed off in search of breakfast – and we hit a gold mine! We drove to the main street of Lemon Grove and found a small diner in the row of shops that lined the street. The Bleu Whisk called our names and we found a nearby parking place and went in. We elected to sit at the counter since that is where everything happens, the heartbeat of such a place. We both had wonderful breakfasts and joined in on some of the banter that floated around the counter. One thing led to another and we were joined in conversation by John Barrios the chef/owner and his personable wife Lorri who was one of two that waited on the counter customers. She also held down a “real” job with a major airline, working second shift there. The couple treated us as one of the regulars which impressed us greatly. The regulars were “family”. It was a friendly “Cheers”-type atmosphere.

Lemon Grove is known for its lemons (of course). Behind the counter on a shelf was a hotel pan with lemons, one of which was the size of a small soccer ball. We were told that it came from John’s daughter’s tree. The tree produced normally-sized lemons, except for one branch. That special branch produced these super-sized lemons. Seeing that we were interested in this anomaly, he offer to cut the lemon open and give us the seeds so we could raise them ourselves – see, we were treated like family! We declined his generous offer telling him we can’t grow lemons at home. Which changed the conversation to, “You’re from where?” “What are you doing out here?” We chatted a bit longer before bidding adios to all our new friends.

Before heading off for the day we strolled the main street where we found the world’s largest lemon. Of course it was made of concrete, but nevertheless, it was a very big lemon.

Today was the day to visit Mexico. From Lemon Grove we drove to San Ysidro where the traffic was, once again, at a standstill. We found a parking lot (there were many) that looked secure and left our car and walked toward the border. Once through the steel gate into Tijuana; it was a different world. Strangely, nobody asked to see an ID or passport. We were “greeted” by Mexican military personnel, fully automatic weapons at the ready, who stood silently by as we walked past.

Once through the governmental buildings – still without a sign of Mexican immigration representatives- we asked a man how to get to the market. He gave us simple directions and we found the area we were looking for in short order. Many of the street-side stands sold Chinese junk; a few however, sold genuine Mexican made goods that were quite beautiful. We were approached by a few panhandlers, but no more than we find in a US city.

We found the market and browsed through the vendors of pottery, fruits, vegetables, and handmade crafts. We went into the local church where a noon time mass was just ending and headed back towards the border. We stopped at an open-air restaurant for a margarita and watched the shoppers, from both sides of the boarder, pass by. As we neared the border, we were greeted by a well-spoken gentleman we had talked to as we headed toward the market. We promised him we’d stop in his shop on the way back. Well, he remembered us as we approached and he reminded us of our promise, so we walked with him into his shop. He was very proud of the fact that he only sold hand-crafted Mexican silver jewelry. He brought out a number of bracelets, all quite weighty, which we examined. After several “No thank you’s” countered by him reducing the price, I broke down and bought one of the bracelets. It was at a price that if it wasn’t .954 pure silver as it was stamped it was still a nice bracelet and worth the twenty-something USD I spent.

We walked one more block and the real world hit us – the line! We were about half a mile from the border and we saw the end of the que that had formed to cross back into the US. We stood silently in disbelief trying to find another line for passport carrying US citizens (thinking that we were somehow special I guess) but there was none and we were doomed to a line that barely moved for two and a half hours. We started chatting with the young man behind us. He was Mexican but spoke American English. He spent most of his life in Texas and had only moved to Mexico a few months ago. He worked in San Ysidro and stood in this line every day. Although today’s line was a bit longer than normal, his usual wait was about two hours.

Other than wasting time, we got through customs with no problems. We made our way back to the car and headed north to San Diego once more since we really hadn’t seen that city yet. We decided to go to Ft. Rosecrans and Point Loma, a very scenic spot to see San Diego. We were only partially successful in this. Thanks to the wait getting out of Mexico we got to Cabrillo National Monument, the lighthouse at Pt. Loma, 25 minutes after they locked the gates. We discovered, however, the most beautiful National Cemetery we’ve ever seen, Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. Located on a narrow peninsula that is Point Loma, the surgically aligned tombstones overlooked the Pacific Ocean on the west side. The low sun cast a pinkish hue on the normally white tombstones in stark contrast to the blue Pacific below. On the eastern slope of the peninsula the graves overlooked the city of San Diego. We spent over a half an hour meandering through the neatly manicured property, taking photos of the windswept trees and the city below.

As the day got later, we had to head toward our reserved room for the night. It was a little north of SD so as to make our breakfast date with Emma a bit easier in the morning. Of course, we couldn’t go directly there, that isn’t in our nature. We took the scenic route along the coast through some of the swanky beach towns on the well-to-do coastline between SD and LA. Driving through La Jolla we decided to stop for dinner. After finally finding a parking space we walked to one of the many restaurants in the area, but not before we went around the corner to stop and look in the window of the local Ferrari dealer. Kicking the tires was not an option; unfortunately they had closed 35 minutes earlier. After looking through the windows at the more than dozen cars displaying the famous Prancing Horse, we went to the La Jolla Brewing Company for fancy beers and meals that were good but not memorable.

After our dinner, we found our Air BnB stay for the night. The house was in a gated community In Oceanside and required a password to get in. The password had been provided to us and we got through without incident. All the houses in the community were large and expensive looking. Our stop was no different. We found our host to be polite but not overly friendly. We stayed in a bedroom suite, the house’s master bedroom. It was large and quite elegant. The suite had a three-sided fireplace on a partial wall that separated the bedroom from the bathroom. On the bathroom side of the wall was a large soaking tub, which also shared one of the sides of the fireplace.

This brought a long, eventful day to a close and we were glad to have a big comfy bed to peacefully end it.

Don & Jill

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Photos

Comparison
OK, a really big lemon and it's normal cousin brought to us for up close inspection by Lorri Barrios, her husband is John Barrios the owner/chef.

Pottery
Jill inspects one of the large selections of hand-made pottery at the main market in Tijuana.

Mexico
Getting into Mexico is just this easy - walk through the gate.

Going to the U.S.
Vendors block the center lane as cars wait to go through customs to enter the U.S.

Even at 10:00 at night the traffic leaving SD (approaching us) is ridiculous.