Stay-cation LA to San Diego

First.... Nothing to do with our trip... Just want to show Shannon that Dad is wearing the t-shirt that you and Grant brought to him from Australia. It's now his favorite one and very comfortable.

Now... about our 2 day staycation train trip to San Diego. On Thursday, July 29th, the Dodgers were playing the Padres at Petco Park in San Diego. What a great excuse to take a short 2-day vacation. Carl and I and Betty and Brian packed up a backpack with a few items and caught the early train from Claremont to LA Union Station. From there we boarded the Surfliner to San Diego. I have always wanted to do that, so this was the perfect reason to.

At the end of this blog is a condensed movie video of our adventure, but first a few photos.

From the train window we all spied two huge piles of chopped wood and thought of Shannon.

A lifeguard shack at San Clemente beach.

Our seats were three rows up from the field directly in front of third base. If you enlarge this picture by clicking once, then again you can actually see Carl standing and buying a bottle of water from the vendor guy. Carl is wearing black pants and white shirt.

Our travel buddies, Betty and Brian. Brian put this entire trip together, thank you!

The Geico Gecko mascot, a colorful guy.

It was a sell-out crowd of 42,000 people. Dr. Oz threw out the first pitch.

After the ball game (Dodger's lost) we walked to DeMedici Italian restaurant in the GasLamp District of San Diego, just a few blocks away. We enjoyed delicious food, great service in a very classy place. After dinner we walked down 5th Street, which happened to be full of party-ers, just like Las Vegas - but San Diego on a Thursday night. We stopped at the GasLamp Strip Club for a drink. Nobody stripped, it's a restaurant and bar and they serve meats that you cook for yourself on a grill. I think it means a strip of meat. The bartender, who Carl had the hots for, poured a mean drink. She was very cute and was wearing fishnet stockings and short shorts. We walked back to our hotel by 11 or 11:30???

The next day we took the train to LA and visited Olvera Street and our favorite Mexican restaurant. Ate lunch and enjoyed a Margarita.

Here we are in front of all the trinkets for sale.

We cannot get near LA without stopping at the Frolic Room.

The Pantages Theater outside entry. In the old days, the Academy Awards were held here.

Across the street is the W Hotel, were the Hollywood elite hang out.

This is the Fullerton train depot. We sort of got on the wrong train at Union Station and it was headed back to Oceanside, so we got off in Fullerton, waited a bit and caught the next train back to LA. Caught the 8:05 train to Claremont and made it home.

Now for the video. It's about 6 minutes long, so if you have nothing better to do for 6 minutes, I hope you enjoy my handiwork.

Thanks for looking and "PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS"

Kathy