So, San Diego for real, plus Tijuana, Mexico

The road trip officially went international today. I drove to Tijuana this morning, drove around for a few minutes, didn't find a thing worth stopping for, and then spent the next ninety minutes waiting to go back across the border. The border cop hassled me for having too much crap in the car, and for having beer in the backseat. I think I've probably just had the quintessential Tijuana experience--minus the donkey shows and vomiting tequila in the streets, of course.

So I'm comforting myself by cooking a big girlfriend-worthy dinner: scallop carpaccio, apple-smoked bacon-wrapped quail with peach salsa, brussel sprouts, and roasted corn, and fresh Rainier cherries for dessert. I'm also going to bust out the bourbon-aged beer I bought in Charleston, along with some of the fancy salt.

San Diego itself has a lot of tourist attractions, but only one or two that interested me. I didn't care about SeaWorld, or LegoLand, or the military stuff. We went to the zoo, which is big and a bit confusing (and expensive! $35 each to get in!), but is one of the best-designed zoos in the world. We wandered through Balboa Park, home to most of the museums, the Gaslamp Quarter, Old Town San Diego, and several of the beaches. The weather took a bit of getting used to for me--granted, I'm not complaining about 75 degrees and ocean breezes 365 days a year, but after four weeks of 100-degree temperatures, 75 feels downright chilly. And the water is COLD. We discovered a great wine bar at the Hotel del Coronado, as well.

California is as laid-back as I've always heard, the produce and seafood are fantastic, there are at least three good theatres in town, and even though the drivers SUCK, it is possible to get around town on a bike or a Vespa. I'm trying to imagine myself living here, and it's getting easier. Granted, the state is bankrupt, I'd have to deal with wildfires and rolling blackouts, and the unemployment rate is 10%. But the unemployment rate in New York is 10%, too.