Picture Time: SAN DIEGO

***Once again, the internet is conspiring against me. With the unforunate connection we have here in Stockton, it took me about 10 minutes PER PICTURE below to upload. This being the case, I was NOT able to get to Disneyland, Thanksgiving or the REST of Cerritos.

Between shows on Tuesday will hopefully allow me to do some more. ENJOY this....

So we're going back a week or so here. After Lancaster...which was a blink...we headed way South to do a show in Poway, CA. Poway is about 15 miles outside of San Diego...and although we only had about 36-40 hours on the schedule there, I intended to make the most of it all!

A good friend of mine from DC, Tom Benson, recently moved to the OC...and because he was going to be home the next weekend when we were in Cerritos, he decided to come down and party it UP in San Diego with me. It was great to hang out with Tom. We went to see 'The Wiz' at La Jolla Playhouse (which was a fun show...a little uneven in some categories...but ultimately pretty cool to see....), went to dinner with an old Boise roommate of mine, Gabe Beal and his friends (who all live in La Jolla now), spent all day Saturday kicking around San Diego and seeing the sights, Tom came to the show in Poway, and then we drove up to his place in Newport Beach and had dinner with another DC friend, Alyssa Whitby and her boyfriend, John.

It has been awhile since I've had a chance to hang out with Tom, and we had such a great time doing the San Diego scene. PLUS - Tom is one of my friends that enjoys food as much, if not more, than I do...so getting out and eating and eating WELL is always a good time with him. We FINALLY had a chance to get the fried macaroni and cheese at TGIF that we've been talking about since they came out, we found a bang-up place for breakfast called Harry's in La Jolla where Tom actually had....wait for it....bacon pancakes, with pieces of bacon IN the pancakes AND a side of pancakes (BRILLIANT!), we had Ghiradelli chocolate sundaes, we had amazing hamburgers with FRIED EGGS on them at Red Robin (complete with bottomless fries? Life is great....), and as a farewell to our weekend, we washed it all down with a Sunday Brunch at Pei Wei - which is the fast food outlet of PF Changs. So as you can all tell, FINE DINING is alive and well in the greater San Diego/Orange County area!

Thanks TOM...and San Diego.

Stay classy.

G

L: Gabe, Me, Tom and Gabe's peeps hanging at TGIF after The WIz. We eased on down the road...right to the magic of the fried mac-n-cheese. R: Tom, Me and Gabe strike a pose.

A moment of silence, as I remember my amazing breakfast (PECAN PANCAKES) at Harry's. Yeth Pleath....

WHAT kind of Mormon goes to San Diego and DOESN'T see the Mormon Batallion in Old Town San Diego? Not THIS KIND! Post Harry's, Tom and I beelined to Old Town to figure out just exactly WHAT the whole deal was with the Batallion. And if I told you here, you would't go find out for yourself. So I won't. Hate to spoil the surprise!

Um....here's the street fair that was going on. Not sure WHY I took the picture...and we bought nothing here. Although Tom did consider picking up a bonsai tree. BUT....he didn't....

Some various shots of the historic section of Old Town. Feels like you are right there, doesn't it?

I liked this line of palm trees downtown San Diego.

I dont' know WHY...but on this day, I TOTALLY dug the diagonal crossing idea we encountered in San Diego. So much so that I snapped a picture of it. I'm worried about me and what entertains me these days.

Spent some time shopping in this cool open-air mall in downtown, and while I was looking around, I noticed SOMETHING that didn't look right.....

and so I snapped a picture. I mean - STAY HOME and lay out by your pool. WHO goes to the mall to lay out by the Sharper Image? Weird.