so long, solana beach (for now)

So long, Solana Beach, you know we'll return.  So thankful for having found this little seaside community and to have 'learned' it so well.  It will always feel like a place where we can 'set up camp' and feel totally 'at home.'  Gonna miss those train whistles at all hours of the day and night, for sure!

  

Although it's too expansive too capture in one picture, one of our favorite adages, attributed to Albert Einstein, which is part of the sidewalk artistry in Solana Beach reads....."Life is like a bicycle.  To keep your balance you must keep moving."  Yep.

Once the Coaster arrived in San Diego, we called the Harbor Island Hilton and pretty soon the shuttle showed up and ferried us to our 'home' for the weekend.  As soon as we unpacked a very few things, we hit the walking path along the bay across the street from the hotel and this was our view of the city.

Harbor Island boasts the first vertical wind turbine in the U.S.  I know it's probably much less expensive than those beautiful wind turbines out near Weatherford on I-44, but they sure are part of the iconic look of that drive!

 

Later last night we enjoyed a wonderful moonlight walk just across the street from our hotel, with the Bay lapping up on the rock embankment.  The lights of San Diego were beautiful!



The hero of the day was the kind hotel shuttle driver (a fan of The Rock Church), who, although he couldn't drive us to church, did suggest that he COULD drive us to the airport (which was within his legit route) and that would shave 1 1/2 miles off of the 6 mile round trip which he knew we were going to be walking.  That got us off to great start this morning and we thoroughly enjoyed another morning at The Rock Church.

On the way to church we walked over a bridge and had a bit of a 'kayaking daydream' while looking at this lovely, calm inlet.

On the way by to the hotel after church we saw this very wonderful multi-figure brass scuplture garden celebrating cancer survivors on the Spanish Landing portion of Harbor Island.


We spent some lazy time in the hot tub, enjoying some sun by the pool and resting this afternoon.

 We'd heard about a study done recently that suggested that when people post pics of food and events they actually enjoy them less.  So we even discussed this with our very personable waiter, Jesse, at Level C~Island Prime on Harbor Island, and we all decided it was worth the risk.  We shared baby spinach salad with grilled shrimp and lobster truffle mac'n cheese......and (with all due resepct) we think those people who did that study don't really know what they're talking about.  Beyond yummerlicious!  It was a good thing we had a two mile walk to and from the restaurant....it's gonna that (and a whole lot more to work off these delicious calories!)


The skyline, at sunset, from the end of Harbor Island, of one of our favorite cities.  Even though our time here has come to an end, San Diego, you'll always have a special place in our hearts.............Tulsa and family, here we come!

soaking up the sunshine.......

We've used these last two days in Solana
Beach to just soak up the glorious sunshine, walking the beaches and the streets of this pretty little beachside town.

Yesterday (thursday) we walked north to Cardiff-by-the-Sea, which provides a great stretch of beach on which to stroll, after navigating a few hundred yards of using a narrow bike path as our 'sidewalk', and hoping that all those drivers of oncoming cars have been paying attention to all those adds on TV about the dangers of texting while driving!  So anyway, we've been careful to check the tide charts and have enjoyed a couple of great days at the beach and in town.

Steve, the very nice maintenance man, here at Sand Pebbles who repaired Rob's/your dad's luggage last week, has busied himself this week putting up Halloween decorations here and there on the grounds......or else this was a late night reveler who had an unfortunate encounter with a tree after the Jimmy Buffet concert last night......who knows?

And, although we thought we were pretty observant last year, we sure didn't see these multileveled drinking fountains that are everywhere this year.  A very dog-friendly community, indeed.  I'm just concerned some toddler may find his/her way to that low level oasis......but, oh well............

Yesterday we dined on some yummerlicious grilled sandwiches and wraps at the Lockwood Table Cafe and appreciated, not only the practicality, but the artistry of this vertical herb garden on the patio where we were eating.  Looks like simple PVC pipe tubing......mmm....thinkin' we might give this a try in our garden!


This morning (friday) we headed south around some beautiful cliffs and admired some story-telling shells embedded in the ancient bluffs.  Soon we came to Del Mar dog park on the beach and it was even busier than it was the other day when we were there.  It was so entertaining and really refreshing

to watch dogs, of all sizes and breeds, running, playing, chasing frisbees and balls and one another.......I could have watched all day!

We continued south on this beautiful, wide expanse of beach ~ a three hour walk in all ~ until we arrived at a greenspace in Del Mar called Powerhouse Park, where we sat for a while in a shady area enjoying the antics of what looked like a beginning surfers class.

 

We enjoyed a moolight walk last night so much that we're going to head out for another tonight.  Plus, we hear there's going to be a partial eclipse that is predicted to be easily seen in this area.  And based on the temperatures we're hearing about back home, we're soaking up every minute of this wonderful warmth that we can!

 

Our bags are packed and we'll say good-bye to Sand Pebbles tomorrow morning and take the Coaster into San Diego and check into the Hilton on Harbor Island for the weekend.

We've made an interesting, fun discovery on this trip.  Historically, we've failed to make time, when we've been at a resort, just to lay out by the pool and read, talk, and soak up the sun.  Now this has partly been because our focus has been to get out, see the sights, explore the city of our destination.  We also try to be careful about excess sun exposure and 'getting a tan' has never been high on our lists of priorities.

But on this trip we've come back on several days, after having walked our 6+ miles, either in San Diego or walking north to Cardiff-By-the-Sea or south into the village of Del Mar and enjoyed the sweetest time out by the pool.  We've been careful to wait till after the high risk hours of 10am-2pm, in fact, we usually have caught the last few rays of warmth before the sun dips below the treetops.  And now that fall break is here, we'll probably have more than a little bit of competition for those poolside chaises for the rest of our stay.

We were just marveling last evening, as we walked to Fletcher Cove for sunset (stopping by the post office to drop of postcards for Silas and Kady), what a blessing the discovery of this particular beach community has been for us.  It's so totally do-able without a car.  It's true that for the 14 days we will have been here, we have had the use of a car for 4 of those days, but that was for events and activities well beyond the reaches of this area.  So thankful for legs and feet that work the way they're designed and there's nothing like depending on one's own ability to get you from here to there and back to fill you with an on-going sense of gratitude.

Our last ROUND TRIP (from Solana Beach into San Diego) was a couple of days ago.   It was Keith and Laura's wedding anniversary and we thought it only fitting that we should celebrate FOR them with a meal in the Little Italy section of downtown.  I mean they love pasta, we love pasta, who doesn't love pasta?  So we enjoyed the busy activities of the Embarcadero once again (never gets old) and were glad to see the the 25-foot statue both called 'The Kiss' and 'Unconditional Surrender' had been returned to its pedestal in Tuna Harbor Park next to the USS Midway after a year of refurbishing.

It was fun to just watch various couples and groups positioning themselves, some successfully, some hilariously, to have their pictures made in front of the statue.

Naturally, it reminded us of that brisk October Sunday morning in 2003 when we went with Tim and Allyson to meet the camera crew from Community Spirit magazine for a cover shoot.










We thoroughly enjoyed the music of the 'buskers' (sidewalk musicians) along the way, dodged our fairshare of skateboarders, and wondered (thankfully) that with the numbers of seabirds swooping overhead during our various jaunts, we haven't been 'hit' by their wayward 'deposits'.  (hope I haven't spoken too soon!)

When the thought of that pasta meal began to occur to us more frequently, we made our way back toward the USS Midway and our crossover to the downtown area, stopping by another awesome brass sculpture entitled The Homecoming......

 

We got confirmation from a 'local', a lady in a visitor center booth at the Santa Fe Station, that what we'd read on Trip Advisor and Yelp about a place in Little Italy called Buon Appetito was the place we needed to target.  So we headed that way, with great anticipation.

 

 

 The streets of Little Italy were a mix of quaint, old world and modern....open air markets and stalls, lots of mid-afternoon dining and examples of folks who really seemed to feel 'at home' here in this little bit of 'home away from home.'  It was also fun to be surrounded by so many conversations in a language with which we have no familiarity at all.

Even once we were seated in the small restaurant and had interacted with the wait staff all of the conversations around us and among the wait staff were in Italian.

And the reviews on Trip Advisor and Yelp fell short of describing how wonderful the food was at this little place!  Oh My!  We had two ravioli dishes: Rob's/your dad's was filled with salmon and mine with lobster.....and these little heavenly 'pillows' were floating in the most decadent cream sauce, his with peas and mine with asparagus.  And, of course.....the bread.....and the wine....and the shared tiramisu......my.oh.my.......just throw us in a wheelbarrow and roll us back to the train, please.

Sweet dreams are made of this;)

 

Deja vu

Well, last year's blog post of Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012 indicated  that we set an alarm (on vacation? what?) so that we could make it to the 8 a.m. service at The Rock Church http://www.sdrock.com in San Diego.  The church, which has an affiliation with our church's mission's sending organization arm, Believer's World Outreach, had been in the news in San Diego, apparently, because the needs for parking for the 20,000 worshippers that attend every Sunday (5 services) exceeded the space provided in their huge parking lot and were spilling over into the surrounding neighborhoods and commercial spaces. Well, our aspirations weren't as aggressive or noble this year: we made it into town for the 12 noon service.  We were once again blessed with a primo parking spot, the service was wonderful, the hospitality exceptional and we were glad we were there. In addition, who should we see, but our own Debbie Tietsort of Believer's World Outreach, out here for a missions conference!  She said when she saw us, she stopped and thought to herself,  'Now, where am I?' 

The area that this huge church occupies and the surrounding acres full of shops, restaurants, and offices was once the site of the Naval Training Center. It was sold and became largely commercial property sometime in the '80s, but this was where your dad (Rob) spent Christmas 1968 (his first time away from home) in enlisted boot camp. Many of the walks and buildings and gardens are the same (but have been maintained/renovated) as were there then and even before so there's lots of history here. So naturally, we walked and walked and walked......and, if you really concentrate on this picture, you may be able to see Seaman Recruit Searcy OR Tom Cruise (remember the scene   from 'Top Gun'?) walking this promenade.......

So we once again enjoyed grabbing a Starbucks after church and walking the many promenades, enjoying the sunshine, reminiscing, and even happening upon a mariachi festival in one of the many greenspaces which now occupy the areas where the seamen recruits formerly marched to cadence.

There's even a Trader Joe's here now so we browsed there a while and picked up some tea to brew.  (I've been introduced, while out here, to hibiscus pomegranate tea and I'm gonna be 'on the search' for this till I can replicate that flavor.)

One stop that had made it toward to the top of our 'to do' list was a visit to In-N-Out Burger.  We'd heard so much about this iconic place and we knew we'd need some 'snackage' in between our smoothie in the morning and our dinner cruise, which wasn't to 'set sail' till 7p.m.

So we made sure the address of the closest In-N-Out Burger was logged in the Garmin the night before and we set our course for the source of the culinary fixin's for a picnic at Shelter Island.

 

And let me tell you......it's ALL THAT and a bag 'o fries!  Neither one of us are 'fast food burger fans' so when we endorse a burger (we had to wait for it, the lettuce was very crisp and the tomato tasted like it was from our garden!) you gotta know it's not your typical burger.  Yummers!

 

So we enjoyed our picnic at Shelter Island, a place so special to Rob/your dad as that's where he drove to for lunch every day, to park, facing the bay and open his can of tuna or eat his pb&j and do his Bible Study during the '74-'76 time frame when he was stationed at a  naval facility on Pt. Loma.

 

We walked and walked and walked and just enjoyed the beautiful afternoon so much.  Then we changed into our 'business casual' finery (yes, in the car, on Shelter Island, in the daylight.....no, not gonna elaborate on that here.....or anywhere, for that matter) and secured another amazing parking place just two blocks from the check-in point for our dinner cruise aboard the Lord Hornblower.

The dinner cruise was wonderful.....the food, the ambience, the energetic dj and fun music and, of course, the spectacular city lights.  Between each course we left our table and went topside to enjoy the lights, the reflections on the water, and cuddle in the increasingly cooler night air.  It was, all in all, quite a memory-making experience.

 Laura and Allyson, you guys may remember, on a visit here, naming the Coronado Bay Bridge the 'necklace bridge.'  We always think of that when we see it.  We've never seen it from this vantage point, though.  It lived up to your name for it even more.

This morning we used the last few hours of our rental car privilege to transport us to Mission Bay Park where we walked a brisk 6-7 miles and enjoyed the sunshine and the antics of kayakers (jealous!), sea-doo 'hot-doggers', and wind surfers.  And while we were at Mission Bay Park, we 'carpe diemed' the opportunity to do something that you pretty much have to wait until a school day to do:play on the swings!

Turned in the car this afternoon, ate here at the condo and then laid out by the pool in the afternoon sunshine (and both of us fell asleep with books in our hands!)  Good day!!

 

 

 

got some practice in being flexible today.....

Gosh, we're glad we hadn't planned an extended day at the beach or a trip to San Diego today.  As a matter of fact we were 'staying close to home' because we were going to pick up a rental car at noon since we have tickets for a dinner cruise in San Diego tomorrow night and it won't return to the pier until after the Coaster has made its last run for the night.

So we were just being lazy by the pool, soaking up some Vitamin D and reading when the sound of a woman's voice calling, "Mr. Searcy, is there a Mr. Searcy here?" roused us from our relaxed state.  It was the manager of the resort telling us that there'd been a mix-up and we'd been told (in error) that we'd be in the same unit for the whole two weeks.  She was very apologetic, but said that our new unit was ready, she'd bring us the keys and a cart and we'd need to pack up and move immediately.  Well, okay.  Not the way we'd planned to spend our day, but, as I said, at least we were here and not covered in sand on the beach or 25 miles (and a train ride) away in San Diego, right?

So, I'm guessing, we were out of condo #123 and carting our stuff over to #216 (yep, we'll get some fitbit stair credit the next week, for sure!) inside of 15 minutes.....no 'careful' packing this time....just throwing anything that looked familiar into whatever bag we could.  So we say 'goodbye' to one sweet little condo that we've really enjoyed for this first week, but, on the plus side we're saying 'hello' to another sweet one with a balcony overlooking the pool and a nice breeze flowing through. 

So once we got unpacked and 'resettled' we got our grocery list together and headed out to resupply for this next week, grab a yummy sandwich and discover a heavenly drink (hibiscus pomegranate tea...oh my!) and buy our tickets EARLY for the 5:00 showing of Captain Phillips.  We niavely thought (you know what's coming, don't know?) that buying tickets two hours early for a 5pm show would be the smart thing to do.  Well, it's a good thing we are 'flexible thinkers' because we were getting ready to find out that the 5:00 show, the 7:30 show, and the 8:45 show were sold out.  Would we like tickets for the 11:00 show?  Yeah, well, no, but thanks anyway.  So the good Captain will have to wait a while for us to see his story play out on the big screen.

Lucky for us, we knew of a bakery just a few doors down that had some mighty fine brownies, so we secured a couple of those (could definitely fall into the category of 'comfort food'), motored back to San Pebbles and brewed a couple 'o cups 'o joe to enjoy them with.

When the sun had dipped below the horizon, we put on our sweatshirts and walked to the beach just to drink in the early night view of the waves and be thankful.

 

 

The hot tub was a great place to be with the contrast of the cool night air.  We talked about our plans for tomorrow: the 12 noon service at Rock Church in San Diego, picnic and walking on Shelter Island (where Rob/your dad used to go to eat his can of tuna for lunch when he worked at a naval facility on Pt. Loma), maybe a visit to the campus of my alma mater~SDSU, more walking on the Embarcadero and then a dinner cruise on the bay under the stars tomorrow night.

redefining 'art'

Emily Freeman, in her book, A Million Little Ways, asserts that since we're created by The Master Artist to 'do good works' and glorify Him, then what He's gifted us to do, from our jobs to making a pb&j to teaching a child to tie her shoes to listening when a hurting friend pours out his heart to 'swiffering' the kitchen to mowing the lawn....well, it's all 'art'.  We just have to think about it with a new perspective.  I haven't read the whole book (only devoured the first two chapters on our Barnes and Noble date yesterday~yeah, not afraid to admit that I'm a 'cheapskate' that way!) but the whole idea has capitivated me.  Maybe 'art' needs to be redefined in your life......I know it does in mine.......I'll be working on that, starting right away.

Speaking of 'art', there are plenty of expressions of the more traditional versions here in Solana Beach and since we crafted our day around getting in our 10,000 steps on a good walk from here to Cardiff-by-the Sea Beach Park and back, we thought we'd share some of what saw on our journey.

Yes, there is a 'Welcome to Solana Beach' sign, but we liked this one better!

 

 

 These two murals are outside a gallery on Cliff Street.

Mosaics in the benches & sidewalks..... & an artist's interpretation of palms in metal...

 



Boardwalk art with a Longfellow quote:  "Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind."

 Oh, and this......yes, indeed it qualifies as 'culinary art'......our first fish tacos of this trip......yummers.....won't be the last, that's a promise!



"It never rains in Southern California"

And so go the lyrics of a song made popular by Albert Hammond in the early 70's and during our move out here, at the beginning of our San Diego adventure in November 1972, we were singing along with this song as it blared on the radio of our brand new Olds Cutlass Supreme, as we envisioned a place where rain and cloudy skies were rare.

But the weather turned cool and rainy today and it actually felt good to put on sleeves and jackets as we headed out for awhile before the downpour.  Apparently the cooler temps and rain are only to last through midday tomorrow and, indeed, are still a big news item around here, as they were when we lived here.  This is the first measurable rainfall they've received since July 26!  Lots of advisories on local news about taking extra care in driving and stuff. 

We used the last few hours of the rental car time we had (from yesterday's LA trip) to go to a Barnes and Noble for what we thought would be a 'reading and coffee date'.  But it turned out to be just a reading date!!  What?!  No coffee shop in a bookstore?  What were they thinking?  But, as usual, we had a great and productive time anyway (oh, and we snagged a brownie and an oatmeal cookie at a bakery on the way back to car and brewed our own cup 'o joe once we got back 'home').

Discovered a new author I think I'm gonna love: Emily Freeman, author of A Million Little Ways.  Kim B. and Ronna E. you guys MUST check her out!  Soon!  Let me know what you think!  We also found Tom Rath's Eat, Move, Sleep and are looking forward to seeing what we can incorporate from this jewel into our lifestyle!

Well, our day trip up to Burbank yesterday was so fun and certainly met every expectation we had. 

Our admittance letter to the Jay Leno taping advised us to arrive by 2:30 for the 3:45 taping, but did not say how early we could be admitted.  It did indicate that even holding the letter did not guarantee admittance, so we  reasoned that 'the earlier the better' just might pay off in this case.  And we were right!

 

We got there at 11:45 a.m. and were the 9th and 10th in line.......a line that eventually, by 3 p.m., grew to exceed 350 people in length.  The NBC pages were personable, humorous and informative in their presentations......very clear about no drinks (even water), no gum, candy, cameras, you name it....nothing was gonna be happenin' once we were inside.  They were also very clear that if you were observed taking pictures, security would be called, and you'd be detained until all the pics were deleted from your camera (and we witnessed that very thing happening just three seats down the row from us after the taping).  Okay, so no funny business.

But there was plenty 'o funny business happening while we were in the audience waiting area prior to the taping, thanks to two characters: 82 year olds Dodger Dave and Peanut Ronald, peanut sellers (since 1959!) at Dodger's Stadium.

Talking a mile a minute, a wealth of baseball and Hollywood trivia, they've personally 'met' everybody who's anybody, Dave (on the right) will play in a ping pong tournie in Vegas in December (really?) and this was their 100th Leno taping.......I don't think any of us around them cared if half of what they said was true or false, they were just so darn cute and hilarious.....and the pages were going right along with them.  Definitely made the 3 1/2 hours we sat there in line pass quite quickly!

The only other bit of information we received during this time outside (under typical balmy conditions) was that the temperature inside the studio was kept between 60 and 65 degrees so if we 'had a jacket in the car, now would be a good time to go get it.'  Uh, no.  That wasn't going to be happening for me.....my closest jacket was in the condo which was a 2 hour drive south.  Lesson learned ;)

The excitement factor really ratcheted up when we were ushered into the studio and seated on the second row!  First row seats were 'taped off' for VIP's ~you had to know 'someone'.  (Now, please don't misunderstand: we know plenty of  'someones' and we wouldn't trade the 'someones' we know for any other 'someones'.  Our 'someones' just don't happen to be connected to NBC.....and perhaps,come to think of it, that may be one of the reasons that they're our 'someones.')

 

Jay came out before the show in his signature chambray shirt and jeans and interacted with the crowd and allowed three different guest groups to come up and have their pics taken with him.

 

So.....second row seats aren't bad at all and they secured us the privilege of being among those invited up to the stage for the "high 5'ing" portion of the intro.  

Yep, that's Rob/your dad on the far right (thank you, ally and tim for capturing this image for us!!)  We didn't get close enough for actual 'high 5 contact' but it was fun just to run forward and participate!  We're thankful for the opportunity as it played out!

 

There was, of course, the gregarious guy that came out to 'pump up' the crowd with jokes, applause practice, when to stand, when to sit, when to 'whoop' and holler, etc.  That was fun.  One thing that really blew us away, because on the regular show we see you don't get to hear the band that much, is how great they are and how much fun they seem to be having doing what they do.  That was really a highpoint.

 

During commercial breaks, when the cameras pulled back, there was a 'flank' of 6-8 security-type personnel standing, with their back to the stage, facing the audience, carefully scanning the crowd for cameras, water, gum~all those items we'd been warned about before coming in.  Periodically, you'd see one of them speak into the tiny microphone that looked amazingly like a shirt collar and a colleague in the audience would swoop down on a careless audience member and confiscate a water bottle, Milk Duds, or force the deletion of contraband pics from a phone.  Some people never learn, right?

 

Rob/your dad loved discovering the technical and logistical aspects of putting this show on, at least those that were apparent to us, as observers......even down to how we seem to have been carefuly 'placed' in the audience, not just 'filed' in as we were in the line out in the 'holding' area.  So it was great piece to add to our collection of experiences, one we'll always remember.

 

 

Afterwards, we headed to Arnie Morton's Steakhouse, a TripAdvisor favorite which was about a quarter mile walk from Studio 11, where we had reservations for dinner.  Although our reservations were for 5:45, we were seated promptly when we arrived at 5:00 and I recalled an episode of 'All In the Family' when Edith served Archie dinner at 6:30, to which he exclaimed, ruefully, "Ahh, we're eatin' at movie star time!"  This is definitely a place where movie star sightings might take place, but the early hour insured that wasn't going to happen.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner, treating ourselves to petit filets, which we seldom do......these were perfect!  The sun had set when we left Morton's, and there was a chill in the air signaling the cool/rain front that was coming in as we were heading back to the underground parking garage where we'd left the car.

My hat's off to Rob/your dad for his navigational ability in unfamiliar surroundings (our kids definitely got that from him) and his driving ability on the highways and biways around the country in our travels.  We share the driving, but I know he ends up doing the 'lion's' share of it.  However, the intensity of the drive to and from Burbank yesterday just elevated the joy I experienced in seeing him enjoy the sights of the countryside, both on the train from Dallas to San Diego and on the Coaster back and forth between San Diego and Solana Beach.

 

"would you like a ride?"

Saturday afternoon, while walking back to the hotel from the Embarcadero in San Diego, we were asked by one of the many young men who pedal the bicycle touring carts in that area if we'd like a ride.  It was our pleasure to decline because we truly enjoy the walk and the ability to do so and enjoy it and we hope that we can continue to do so for many more years.  Sometimes it becomes a game or a challenge to us to see how high we can get our FitBits to register after a day's activities.

We'll this kind of vacation really lends itself to that kind of experience and so we're taking full advantage of it, only renting a car twice, for specific scheduled evants at distances that can't be traveled on foot.

We headed out this morning, toward Fletcher Cove, stopping by the post office to mail Silas his birthday card.  We neglected to check the tide charts once we got to Fletcher Cove and just began our walk south, observing a couple of surfers and an adventurous kayaker having success with the mid-morning waves.  That 'neglecting to check the tide charts' thing really came into play when we noticed that the water was boxing us in closer and closer to the cliffs.  Finally realized we'd begun our walk during high tide and would not be able to make it all the way to our destination, which was Del Mar, via the beachfront.

 

So, undeterred, we climbed the next set of beach access stairs up the cliffs to street level and continued south.







Soon we came to a sight that would make anyone smile: the Del Mar Dog Park, where dogs were enjoying the surf, chasing sticks and one another, generally just enjoying this beautiful day.

We continued on into Del Mar, looking for a place for a small snack....maybe coffee and a pastry.  But the further we walked the hungrier we got  (blamed it on the ocean air!) and soon we knew that something more substantial would be happening as soon as we found a place with a view.

 

So it was called Poseidon and it was perfect and we enjoyed every bite (crab cakes, clam chowder, AND dessert!)  That fueled us for our walk back 'home.'  On the way, we stopped to pick up the rental car that Rob/your dad had reserved earlier.  Then we headed out to pick up groceries for the rest of the week.

 

Tomorrow we'll leave at ten for Burbank.  We're holding passes for the taping of the Jay Leno show at 3:45 and, hopefully, the earlier we get there and get in line the greater the likelihood that we'll actually get in.  Really looking forward to that, as Rob/your dad is a big Leno fan!  It's gonna be a great day!