A Tale of One Restaurant

Well gang, I'm here blogging to you direct from sunny SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, on my previously announced relaxing, thought-focusing, pre-retirement vacation! Yes, as hoped, I've managed to scrounge up the time to send a nice "hello" to you all, and even include a few photos taken from today's R&R activities.

So anyways, here we are, my travelling companion and I, our first full day in San Diego. Monday, April 27. Hmmm...what to do, what to do, what to do? Well, this being a beach town, why not head to La Jolla, and sample some local seafood, we thought. Hey, great idea, we thought. So, we schlepped over to downtown La Jolla this afternoon, and decided this place on Prospect St. looked interesting:


The Crab Catcher is an interesting restaurant, architectually. Like most of the buildings on the west side of Prospect St., it's on a steeply declining bluff, which is nice in that it gives them the potential for picturesque sea views. So, the buildings tend to be built down rather than up. The street level of the CC building seems to be offices and/or adminstrative space; the restaurant itself is two flights of stairs below. Here's a view of the patio area, from just past the street entrance:


Remember that infamous coastal marine layer Brent and Grant had apologized for to Harlow and Joe exactly two years ago? Well, fortunately for us, it had managed to burn off for us a shortly before we arrived, making it a beautiful sunny afternoon...yet not too hot, temperature in the high 60s I would estimate. Given the amazingly pleasant clime, the urge dine outdoors on the patio was irresistable, so we did. Here's a shot taken looking back up; notice that a whole battalion of police could be hidden in those offices above, ready to storm down, guns a blazin' if need be:


We had a nice view from where we sat:


Here's the menu. My travelling companion and I both kinda felt kinda furtive being here today for some reason, so we both got the "James Bond Martinis." I ordered the crab cakes; my friend the fish and chips:


...and I must say, everything was delicious! The service was excellent too. No complaints, except to say it might have been a bit pricey ($20 for crab cakes, for example). But hey, that beats $3000 for lamb I guess. As we finished up, we raised our Martini glasses...a toast! To...justice. "To justice!" we cried. And smiled. :-)

After that satisfying meal, it was time to walk off some crab. So, we left by the rear door leading from the patio:


...which led further downward to a narrow street right by the ocean, perfect for crab-walking-off. I forget the name of this lane but it was very scenic; perfect for getting things off one's chest I suppose (assuming you had something to get off your chest, of course):


Lots of interesting coves along the walkway:



Now this is interesting; we soon came upon the infamous seal pool that I recall DeWayne had mentioned here, in some odd connection, a while back. Here was the first "marine mammal" warning sign, Dink Flamingo could use one of these signs as a backdrop in one of his "Active Duty" videos perhaps:


Here are the seals. Wow, we thought, this was kinda cool! You know, you see animals in zoos and in captivity all the time, but this was more interesting I think; these were indeed wild animals, that could come and go as they please:


Here's another sign, turn's out it's "pupping season." And unfortunately no, we did not actually see a baby seal come a puppin' out during our visit:


OK, funny story: Now, the public can actually go down on this beach, where the only thing seperating you from the seals a few feet away is a rope; the signs specifically allow you do do this on condition that you do not pass the rope or in any case touch the seals. But oddly, we noticed, no one was taking advantage of this option. Everyone seemed content to just look down on the seals from above. Strange, we thought.

So, we thought, eh, what the heck, lets get a really really closer look. BIG MISTAKE! I tell you, once you go down the stairs and near the ground level of that beach, the smell of seal poop is OVERWHELMING! We beat a hasty retreat back up the steps. I'm not sure, but I believe one or two of the seal spectators above were sniggering at us...

Here's a shot of a lone seal on a rock, on the other side of the jetty:



Here's a closer shot of the seals, from the jetty. The baby seal in the lower center was so cute, waddling towards us, almost begging to be photographed...we named him Brent:


And that was pretty much our day. Now lets see, tomorrow is April 28...I bet you'll never guess where we are headed tomorrow! Nope, you'll never guess! Not in a million billion trillion zillion years! ;-)