Desert to Coast - Day 38

We had a wonderful traveling day today. We decided to go by back roads through the Anza-Borrego State Park so that we might see some wildflowers in bloom. We didn't see too many, but it was a fascinating ride.

We drove south along the Salton Sea and then headed west. At that point we got a glimpse of a subculture of Americans who ride ATV's and quadrunners and there were hundreds of RV's out there buzzing around the dunes. Once we got into the park, the ATV's disappeared. The elevation rose from around 400' to over 4,000' on a very twisty road through deep rock canyons. It was austere and remote, but beautiful at this time of year. I don't think I'd want to take the same route in the summer, though. We climbed into the town of Julian and stopped there. It is a really touristy town and it was jammed. They were having their Daffodil Day! So, we stopped at their little Town Hall to see their flowers. We had a nice chat with them about Nantucket's Daffodil Weekend. They were interested as this was the first year of their festival. The town is known for its apples, so we couldn't resist a slice of homemade apple pie at a restaurant that was churning out HUNDREDS of pies. The smell wafted through the whole town.

From there, we drove to San Diego. We are staying at a very nice hotel, Humphrey's Half Moon on Shelter Island. It is more posh than we usually stay at, but Mark got a deal on TravelZoo. It is right on the harbor and has plush gardens and a lovely pool area. We ate at their restaurant, again, very upscale with wonderful harbor views. We had a lovely meal of two appetizers. Mark had a spicy shrimp corn chowder that was excellent and he really appreciated it.

Then, we drove into Horton Plaza and almost missed the beginning of the play, Triple Espresso. There was a lot of traffic in the Gaslamp district and we got there with seconds to spare. Mark ran through the mall ahead of me to make sure to get tickets even though we didn't even know where the theater was. So, we started out with our own comedy. The play was written by three men in the 1990's who concocted it out of their various talents - singing, song-writing, physical comedy and magic. Two of the original actors were in the performance here. We had hoped it would be a good play for some of our Nantucket kids, but it is too based on these particular guys' individual talents to be replicated at the high school level. For one, there would need to be a talented magician. At any rate, we definitely laughed, especially in the second act.