Weekend in San Diego

Nope, no beach time, but a very San Diego weekend nontheless.

Saturday was all about downtown and baseball. It started in the early afternoon with Jr Padres photo day. This was a much smaller version of the main photo day, but we can never get enough. Luckily there were a couple of players participating who had not been the first day. No Piazza which we did not expect anyway, but still a lot of fun espcially when three relief pitchers came out and just started playing frisbee together in the background. Just boys in aduly form 🙂 Here is Alex with Jake Peavy who is our premier young pitcher.

We then walked from Petco to a restaurant in the Gaslamp district of downtown (technically, Petco Park is on the edge of the Gasplamp) to have some dinner and watch the local radio sports talk guys do the Padres pre-game show on location. Two former Padres players from the 70s are on this show and Alex has met one of them before. Plus, this is the radio station that his football coach runs so we like to support them. Here is Alex keeping tabs on the guys while they do the show:

Alex is hiding behind the railing 😉
It was great just sitting on this sidewalk patio having dinner at Rockin Baja Lobster just two blocks from the ballpark, listening to the radio show and watching all the people go by. Downtown San Diego is such a cool destination now. It has really come alive, with many more residential properties and some really awesome restaurants. And, of course, baseball! When we went on the behind the scenes tour of the ballpark last week, the tour guide pointed out all the new construction going on. A Hard Rock hotel, a new Hilton resort, and more condos. Who knows? When I am ready to retire I may have a very hard time choosing between a condo by the beach in Del Mar, and a condo with a view of Petco! Oh hell, if I win the lotto, I’ll get both! (uh huh, sure)
After dinner we walked right back to the ballpark for the game which the Padres won. Fireworks afterwards and it was all in all a great day downtown.

Today Alex went back with his dad (to the game with my tickets of course). He will be gone for just a couple of days since Erik is leaving for another trip to Europe on Wednesday AM. Timing was perfect as I had two tickets to the Del Mar racetrack today. Not just any tickets though – it was a private party in one of the luxury boxes that my friend puts on for her real estate clients. I always “buy” the tickets at the Powerhouse Baseball silent auction item. The party is catered with a very nice buffet line and open bar. The view from the room is gorgeous. Ocean view to the west, valley views leading to mountains to the east, and this glorious racetrack down below. Where the turf meets the surf indeed! Of course we are useless at betting, but hey, it was a nice afternoon out with my honey! We did bet a couple of times to no avail, but I love watching the horses. It was a gorgeous day too. No more energy sapping humidity. Just blue skies and sunshine and coastal breezes again.

Oh yes, and my PC finally died. 4.5 years old and I was trying to limp it through until next year, but it wasn’t meant to be. I broke down and used my Dell credit account to buy a new one. At least I only needed the CPU and no other peripherals. No interest for 18mos which gives me plenty of time to pay it off before any fees hit. Alex understands that this is essentially his b-day present as the newer machine will allow him to play better games (he was going into Nick’s room to play some of them the last few months since mine was so slow). Sigh…I shall be making payments on credit accounts for a few more years. Such is life.