We are now pretty well acquanted with the city of San Diego.   The commercial galleries we have seen have a lot of dayglo colored oils which people must like here.  We went to another play last night called Love Negotiated (opened on Valentines Day).  Not my favorite of the trip, but amateur comedy of the “Friends” sort is not my favorite.  The audience loved it though.  I preferred the Mamet play.  We are bus “experts” now, and are coming to know some of the street folks who sometimes live a bit riding around on the bus.   We went to Coronado island yesterday.  GREAT beach.  The downtown area reminded me a bit of La Jolla.   Today we are going to try the zoo.   Tomorrow it will rain all day.  Naomi and Erick will arrive in the evening. They are currently in Las Vegas taking in some shows, including David Copperfield.  No images right now as they take a ton of time to process on this ol’ laptop.  Maybe I’ll take the time to try and do that this evening.  I’ve got a lot of great photos.  The Natural History museum had a some superb stuffed critters, but all of the Balboa Park museums are fairly small it seems.

We’ve done a fair amount in the past few days.  I went to the San Diego Museum of Art and spent the morning while Rebecca met with a colleague for lunch.  We went to the Russian Ballet last night at the Balboa Theatre (Swan Lake).  We also took in a play the night before and have another scheduled for February 14th.  We also went to an interesting film festival near Scripps Institute (which was a long bus journey).   Getting around on the bus is still an entertainment.  Everyone talks a lot and has been very helpful.  But it takes a long time to go any distance.  We also visited “Old Town”, the original center of San Diego, and the start of the mission trail.  It is a little village that has been turned into a touristy shlock area, but still has much of interest and GREAT Mexican food.  We’ve ended San Deigo’s drought.  It’s been RAINING, but there is enough sun to keep us happy.  Temps in the low 60′s.  I’m not posting pics at the moment as I have an old version of photoshop on this ancient laptop, and it defaults to an even more ancient operating system when I open it up.  Very CLUNKY!   Maybe I’ll take the time later.

Today we took the bus and trolly to the Chula Vista Nature Center (click on the text to see the Center and read about problems) in Chula Vista California, clearly an area in financial distress. Chula Vista seems a world away from the not too distant Lo Jolla, with its Lamborghini and Jaguar sales offices. We saw no real restaurants in Chula Vista on the route we took, only fast food, donut and hamburger places, bars, used car lots and quick stops. Whereas La Jolla was mostly white, Chula Vista (near the border with Mexico) was mostly Mexican American and African American. The nature center was clearly in need of maintenance and repair, with garbage and refuse in part of the marsh. It is likely to be closed in June, said our bus driver, because there are not enough funds in the city budget to keep it open.

The bus ride was punctuated with a very loud and violent telephone conversation we heard one half of, (our seatmate was shouting at someone on her cell phone, someone who said he was going to shoot her). It is obvious that life for many on the bus is difficult, as I noted in a previous post. So we are experiencing a wide range of social and economic environments on this trip so far. It rained today. That was a major story on the newscasts!!! Hmmmm.

I took some pictures at the Nature Center but they are not superb. I may post some later.

Spent yesterday riding all over town on the bus, and visited the “shoreline” around the Naval Base. The bus is filled with older, very less affluent folks, many with walkers, canes, wheelchairs, and other helpful devices. They all are chatting amongst themselves about financial difficulties. There are also very young people riding the bus -those without cars. A very diverse group of blacks, latinos, Chinese Americans, and very few caucasians like us. We got senior rates for a whole month riding the bus at $17 (a month pass card). Riding the bus we see so much more of the life of the city than we would see riding around in a car from place to place. Everyone on and off the bus has been very helpful, giving us tips and suggestions for travel and sight seeing. That’s been nice.

The only close grocery store is Whole Foods, and I tried to get “non organic” food, which is about half the price of “organic” food. The cashier rang it all up as organic, so we have to go back to get a refund. There are no sugar free foods in Whole Foods for us diabetic folks, but lots of space for homeopathic nonsense. It’s my opinion that stores like this cater to mystical minded folks who believe in remedies without any evidence for their effectiveness. Using adjectives like organic and whole and natural etc., is enough for them. The foods are very good. But the prices are very high. I didn’t see any of the folks who ride the bus shopping in Whole Foods.

The picture is of Rebecca at the foot of the statue near the Navy base. The statue is based on the photograph taken of a celebratory couple(nurse and sailor) at the end of WWII.

Today we went to LaJolla on the bus.  It was a very interesting trip for many reasons.  Bus riders are mainly quite young, or older (like us) and  less well off than the  drivers of the cars on the road.  We had a great time at La Jolla.  It is a very wealthy community, reminding me very much of Los Gatos or Hillsdale up north.   Finally found a painter, a  talented fellow by the name of Paul Strahm (you can see the beginning of his underpainting in the picture in this post (along with two pictures of happy Rebecca at the beach).  You can visit Paul’s website at wwwPaulStrahm.com.

Today we are off to the “beach,” and need to sort out the bus routes to get there.  Living without a car is interesting.   San Diego is not Paris!  Or Oaxaca.   It’s got great weather, but we still have to find more of interest.  The condo is SMALL, but nice.  My IPOD died.  Booooo.   Maybe more comments at the end of the day.

Temperature today was about 80 degrees. Walked about 3 miles from our condo to downtown and the ocean. The city in the afternoon seemed rather vacant and spread out. Much to learn yet, as this is only our first day. Weather is wonderful, but we’ll have to learn more to see what we like about the city itself. The Russian Ballet is coming next week, and we may go. Saw only two galleries of art on our long walk today, but lots of bankrupt banks, real estate agencies, dental clinics, and restaurants.  It is clear there is a recession here.  I may be able to post pictures, but we are still getting stocked up and oriented to do much else for the time being.