Old Town San Diego and the beach

San Diego’s “Old Town” was settled in 1769 and was California's first permanent Spanish settlement. Considered the birthplace of California, Old Town was thriving in the mid 1800s.  But then it had a string of bad luck that included an earthquake, floods, fires and a small pox out break.  So San Diego's downtown was moved a few miles south, where it still is today.  
 
In 1968 the state of California established Old Town State Historic Park to preserve the buildings and heritage that characterized San Diego from about 1820 to 1870.  On Thursday, we visited Old Town where we walked, browsed, bought some olive oil (and did an olive oil tasting -- the first time we’ve ever done that), ate fudge (why is it that fudge stores are in every tourist area everywhere?) and had lunch.

Afterwards we went to San Diego’s Navy exchange and commissary.  The exchange is the military’s version of a department store; the commissary is the grocery store.  I did some Christmas shopping; now I have to figure out where to stash stuff in the rig. I don’t need to hide gifts -- I just need to put them somewhere where they won’t get walked on.

On the way home we took a wrong turn and ended up going back on Naval Base San Diego via a different gate.  Cooper went Cujo at the gate guard who checked our military IDs, which got us stopped.  Seems dogs are not allowed on that part of the base.  The guy with the gun was very nice once he found out our goal was to turn around and find the freeway. 

Yesterday we went to Pacific Beach, which is north of Ocean Beach (where we went Wednesday) and has a very nice boardwalk plus beaches for walking and people watching.  So we did just that.

Today, I think, is going to be a football-watching/cleaning/reading/laundry/make-a-pot-roast-stay-close-to-the-rig day. 

Jim with a poster advertising a beer he tried at the Coyote Cafe in Old Town.  It had a little too much of a peppery kick for him. I tried it and it made my throat burn.

Bev in front of some Old Town San Diego greenery.

Jim says he does not want to live where they do traffic reports on Saturdays. So that crosses San Diego off our "lets buy a house here" list.  That and probably housing prices.  Also, is California the only place that refers to its freeways as “the freeway number," as in "the 8” or “the 5”?

I was on a Pacific Beach pier when I took this photo of a surfer catching a wave.

Jim took this wide shot from about the same spot. The pier we were on actually had vacation homes on it.