La Jolla, Balboa Park, More Improv, April 6, 7

  Today we met Frank and Linda for lunch to celebrate Frank's birthday which is tomorrow. We went to Trilogy Sanctuary, a totally vegan/vegetarian restaurant on a rooftop with a yoga studio. So, while we were eating, there was aerial yoga going on as well, which was a bit weird. We all had different dishes. Linda had a "perfect" taco; Barbara had portobello taco; Mark had a beet salad and Frank had a vegan "cheeseburger" which he did not particularly like. The rest of us were happier. We also had an appetizer with cucumbers, tumeric hummus and quinoa tabbouleh. It was quite pricy, but everything was made there. It was nice to have lunch with Frank and Linda; conversation is always good.

Lovely rose at White Sands, La Jolla

Trilogy Sanctuary, La Jolla- Frank's birthday lunch

    We then had a quiet afternoon with a nice walk around the bay and along the beach - our "regular" walk.
    In the late afternoon we went into Balboa Park to Panama 66, an outside eatery/bar where we heard jazz. The young trumpeter who was featured is only 17 and still in high school. We only heard that his name is Cameron. This is a free series of jazz on Wednesdays called the "young lions" which features up-and-coming musicians. We weren't able to go last week, so were happy that we were free tonight to attend. We had appetizers and listened.

Balboa Park at dusk

   Frank said that he had heard good things about Rain at the Old Globe, so we wandered over to see if there were tickets for the performance. There were, although they were at the far side, so not the best views. And, we had to crane our necks to see the upper part of the set. The set was amazing - 3 stories of a hotel in Pago Pago in the 1920s - all see-through rooms. The play was based on a short story by Somerset Maugham. And, the whole set rotated which was quite remarkable. But, we did not really like the play itself. The actors were very experienced, most with Broadway credits who had amazing voices. But the songs were unremarkable for the most part, although the lead, "Sadie" had the best ones, in our opinion. Sadie was played by Eden Espinosa who played Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway.  This was the world premiere of the play and we suspect that it will never hit Broadway.

Set of Rain

  The next day we had a relaxing day, partly because it was raining. We did errands in the morning (got gas, did laundry, had lunch at a good chain called "Noodles and Company")
   In the evening we went back to the National Comedy Theater and saw a long-form improv show starring Michael Maury and 6 other talented actors. The theme for the month is post-apocalyptic and the suggestion from the audience was related to "gymnasium" so the troupe chose athlete's foot as the cause for the demise of most of the human race. The troupe portrayed a group of people on a quest to get to golden California to be saved. It was amazing to watch their clever instantaneous thinking. Very funny and enjoyable.

    Afterwards, we went with Michael to a nearby restaurant and chatted for an hour.