We had two flights today with a short layover in Oakland. Got to see San Francisco and Alcatraz when we took off for the second flight... the first flight only had roughly 40 people on it, so it was very comfortable with lots of room. This was my first time on Southwest, and I was pretty impressed with their service.
After waiting about a half-hour for our rental car pickup (we were given a bright blue PT Cruiser), we drove north on I-5 to La Jolla (la hoy-a) and got there around 3:30. We were looking for dinner... and we didn't know exactly where to go. I knew I wanted to go to the beach to see the sea lions, so I'm very glad we passed up Subway (which was the first thing we saw) and kept driving until we found a very hip street right near the beach-front park. We ate at "The Crab Catcher" which had been rated in the sky magazine I read on the way down as one of the best seafood places in the country. Well, they were right! Not only were some dishes half price because it was during "happy hour", but it was so good! I had crab nachos and a fish taco and Meg and I shared some cheesy bread. She had calamari and a fish taco. I don't normally like calamari, but I tried a piece or two of it, and it was excellent.
It turns out that right outside the restaurant (there was a fabulous view of the bay) was a walking trail right out on the little cliffs above the ocean. The first thing I saw was all the pelicans... and the other water birds... and then we saw all the sea lions! My! There were a lot of them! We walked back to the car to get my camera and our coats:
And some of the animals:
And us (yes, those are hundreds of sea birds sitting on the cliff behind us):
The light was soon fading... so we figured our way back to I-5 after a bit of guessing, and went straight to Balboa Park. We changed into our play clothes and went to The Prado restaurant and had my favorite salad: mixed greens with avocado, cucumber and tomato. That only took a minute and then we crossed the street and picked up the tickets for the play "Lost in Yonkers" by Neil Simon. What a show! It was about a grown up, German-Jewish family that could barely get along with each other in 1940's New York. It was both hilarious and touching... a real treat. All the actors were quite superior.
Ms. Naughton played an aunt who had a speech problem: she couldn't finish a sentence without sucking in air and becoming quite unintelligible... which was so silly. She spoke with a shrill voice and looked exactly like Betty Roberts. And do I mean exactly! Long brown hair nicely done up in a simple '40's style and pretty, period dresses.
Meg had the thought to ask the house manager to get a message to Ms. Naughton asking her if she would meet us afterwords out front of the theater... so we waited after all had left, and soon a big, black car came to a stop on the street by the theater and I saw a figure coming at us, waving! She was so very friendly, and spoke to us about the play, how hard it was to speak while sucking in air... lol... and about Seattle (she was wearing a hat from Seattle!) and about Remember WENN. She had been to Linda's site, and was glad to hear it was still up and going... she very much wanted to do an out-of-station scene and talked about how they thought Queens could be similar to side streets in Pittsburgh... she said she didn't have a favorite episode, but asked me mine... she said she thought very much like Betty about who Betty should have been with (she said it depended on what episode they were doing :) and she seemed to like the idea of Doug and Betty... LOL! She said she was in California doing a musical when she heard of the cancellation, and that she heard it from Hugh. She also mentioned that she only had a few episodes on TAPE. Sigh. Yeah. VHS. Oh, she also said she had a lot of fun doing the Casablanca episode... making everything look different on the same set and getting to play Ingrid Bergman. :)
Tomorrow we're driving to go see my brother in Yuma.
I'm beyond happy. :)
Jp
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