Today is my 100th blog entry. I can’t believe it. It’s been so much fun keeping track of where we’ve gone and what we’ve done; who we’ve met and how things happened. I am grateful to my friend, Katie, for setting this whole thing up for me. I am grateful to all my friends and family who have been faithful readers. It’s brought me comfort to know that there are those around the country who care enough to keep track of us. Thank you for that!
It also makes me happy to know that I can go back and re-read this in order to reminisce or just to remember things we’ve forgotten! Sometimes, Eric and I will be talking about something and we’ll ask what state we were in when we went to this place, or that restaurant and it’s hard to remember, but I have the blog!
Anyway, we got a very early start today (I’m proud to say!). We had four apartments to look at in four hours: a 10:00am, an 11:00am, a 12:00pm and a 1:00pm. They were in four different neighborhoods, so we had to keep a tight schedule!
The first was on La Jolla Boulevard in Pacific Beach. It was nice, on the third floor, with an elevator. When you walk into the building there’s a small courtyard with a fountain. The apartment was nice, but not too impressive and a little pricey.
The second was on First Avenue in Hillcrest in a beautiful old building. They had a big courtyard with a bigger fountain. The apartment was also on the third floor, with an elevator. It had just been renovated with a completely new kitchen, new carpeting and it had a fireplace in the living room (which we would never use). It was kind of small, and it was expensive, too.
The third was in Clairemont, in a cute little complex with a swimming pool in the middle, instead of a fountain. It had nice landscaping with lots of big trees and even a little lawn in the back. The apartment was nice, with a cute kitchen and it was very clean. It was very reasonably priced.
The fourth was in Pacific Beach in a super-snazzy condominium complex called PLAZA APARTMENTS. They have a circular driveway, so if your limo needs to drop you off, they can drive up to the front door, let you out and then drive back to the street. When you go through the glass doors, there is a huge lobby, with leather couches, snazzy wicker and leather chairs, and floor to ceiling windows looking out on a large pond with a fountain in the middle and ducks swimming around. Eric and I couldn’t agree on whether or not they brought in the ducks, or the ducks just discovered the pond themselves. The landscaping around the pond was beautiful.
Some apartments in the building have balconies that look out on the ducks in the pond. There are three pools and three Jacuzzis (it’s a huge complex), a meeting room, a library, laundry room, etc. The young man who showed us the apartment actually lived there with a roommate (unlike the other places where the manager of the building showed us the apartment).
When he let us in, we saw immediately that the place was a pig sty. I mean, there was junk everywhere. There was also much too much furniture, so it was hard to walk around. He showed us his roommate’s bedroom, which had no furniture, but had clothing in neat piles all over the floor. They ARE moving, so I guess it was understandable. The bathroom in that bedroom had a sink outside and then a tiny room with just a toilet and shower.
He then showed us the galley kitchen, which was filthy. There were dirty dishes everywhere; food and dirt all over the floor. I didn’t want to look too much. I just saw the mess and kept walking.
He then showed us his bedroom, which had a box spring, a mattress, and then another mattress on top of it. I wanted to ask him if he was “The Prince and the Pea.” The bed was about 4 feet HIGH! He was a tall dude – maybe 6’-4”, so I told Eric that maybe it had something to do with him being so tall, but it didn’t make sense at all.
His room was also a pig sty. I just don’t understand how you can expect someone to rent an apartment that’s filled with furniture, dirty, sloppy, and messy. I didn’t even want to stand there, let alone live there! The rugs were stained and filthy. The place was such a disaster. We were out of there in about 5 minutes. We didn’t even have to say anything. I think he knew right away.
When we left, Eric and I laughed about how crazy that apartment was. The only people who would be willing to rent it would be two sloppy, dirty, messy guys just like these, who wouldn’t care or notice how disgusting it was. The rent was very high, I guess because the building was so fancy and had so much to offer, but the apartment was no big deal. If two guys were sharing, the rent wouldn’t be much at all, so that’s probably who will end up there. We didn’t like the layout and the balcony (although we could see the ducks) was tiny and had Astroturf on the floor. The bathrooms were yucky. No normal person (or couple) would EVER live in that place. Meanwhile, we found out that the apartments sell for over $350,000. That's CA-RAZY!
After our fourth apartment we were finished for the day (and were exhausted). We hadn’t eaten a thing yet, so we headed over to our favorite street – Garnet Avenue – to find a restaurant. We ended up at CHINA INN off Garnet on Hornblend Street. It was just okay and I’m sure we won’t be heading back there anytime soon. I don’t know if we’ll find good Chinese food outside New York. It seems like the few places where we’ve had traditional Chinese Food it has been disappointing. I don’t know why.
Maybe I’m spoiled, because I’m used to the way Chinese food is made in New York. I have had pizza and bagels outside New York and have been perfectly satisfied, but the Chinese food isn’t that great. I’m sure if we had Chinese food in San Francisco’s Chinatown, it would have been great (I remember it was on our honeymoon 23 years ago), but we didn’t make it there this trip.
After lunch we headed back to the RV to relax. We watched TV, read, I worked on the computer, and we ended up taking a nap in the late afternoon. We woke up at 7:00pm and, after freshening up, headed back out for dinner. We decided to go to “our place” to celebrate 100 days since we left New York. We also wanted to toast our friends, Elaine and Brian, since today is six years since their first date (which we arranged). They have been married for a few years and are the cutest couple. We love them dearly. Congratulations, lovebirds!
“Our place” is HAIKU SUSHI RESTAURANT, because it is the first restaurant we ever went to in San Diego on our first trip in October. We went there twice in 5 days and have now been there 2 times since we got back on Monday. The sushi is SO, SO good and they are very sweet and friendly.
Tonight is the first time we went on a Saturday night and the place was packed. We started with shumai and edamame and then had three rolls: spicy tuna, shrimp tempura and special lobster. YUM!
We love sushi!
For dessert, we had our traditional Fried Green Tea Ice Cream, which is super delicious!
After dinner we walked around, went into a few shops, and then headed back to the RV. The thing that gets me every time I walk out the door is that it is mid-November and I don’t even need a jacket. It’s funny, though, because I’ve seen girls wearing coats already. I guess, to them, it’s cold out, but they have NO idea!
Eric wanted to get to bed early, since he’s hoping to get a really early start tomorrow to go riding at MISSION TRAILS REGIONAL PARK, which is about 10 miles away.
While he’s riding, I’ll hang around the campground and do laundry. Wheee!
I am hoping that we find a suitable apartment very soon, because it’s not much fun living in the RV when you’re not traveling! We miss our stuff, too! We really want to get our things out of storage. I miss my clothes, my shoes, my purses. I want to dress up again!