San Diego Trip, Day 7

Yes, as of tomorrow afternoon we will have been here a whole week! We have had a very fun and relaxing time so far exploring, biking, (eating), operating with no schedule, and generally enjoying having all three of us "off" and together every day.
Today we were gearing up for an ambitious ride: 10 miles down the strand and back--wow! The weather, however, had other plans. After an overcast arrival, we basked in two days of sun here before the skies turned cloudy and have resolutely stayed that way. Several southern CA residents we've encountered joked that we "brought the weather down" from Oregon with us, each comedian thinking his material was both hilarious AND original. Har har. When this happens, we grit our teeth and make the correction that actually, it's currently 80 degrees and sunny in our hometown. Translation: What the frick is your problem, San Diego? You would not think that a late-July summer vacation in SD would involve planning around rain, but this morning when we got geared up for our marathon ride adventure, we rode about two blocks before we realized that the morning "mist" was so heavy that we'd be drenched in a matter of minutes. We headed home to wait it out, but when the mist thickened into an actual drizzle, we moved on to Plan B. This turned out to be going to downtown SD, walking around the Historic Gaslamp District, and going to Horton Plaza shopping mall to buy Alton a new sweatshirt (because, silly us, we thought one thin little hoodie would be enough for the trip!).
Our first stop was Starbucks, where we sat outside and admired passing bitty, crumb-eating birds while Alton munched a bagel. After awhile, he decided that HE wanted to be the one to leave a treat for his feathered friends, so he prized a small chunk off his bagel and left it on the pavement a little ways away from our seats. After a minute of watching, he had a "taker"! A small hopping bird who made a valiant effort but could not finish Alton's generous bagel crumb. Below you see Altie the Birdwatcher.

We then moved on to our original destination: a children's clothing store for Alton's new sweatshirt, so that he is not wearing the same sandy, food-decorated one every day! (Our pictures from the trip are starting to look like they are all from the same day! Or at the very least, like we never change his clothes.) He poses for you in the new duds.

Then we were ready for a stroll around the Gaslamp, which today is home to more shopping, restaurants and bars, and is only steps away from the San Diego Convention Center, which this weekend is hosting the International Comic-Con! In case you are unfamiliar, Comic-Con is a conference celebrating the "popular arts," as their advertising banners proscribed, including everything from comic books to sci-fi to all manner of gaming. Yes, some of them dress up. We were hoping desperately to run into a Darth Vader on the street or something, but the most we saw were groups of three or four people wearing t-shirts with sayings of various dorkitude. (I assume that since most of these shirts were selected to be as thematically nerdy as possible, it is not an insult to refer to their self-inflicted fashion decisions as "dorkitude.")
At any rate, no Sith Lord costumes for us, but we did run into a small courtyard with a statue of "Bum," who was a sort of happy-go-lucky ownerless mascot dog of San Diego in the 19th century. Alton thought he looked like fun.

We grabbed lunch and headed home for Alton's nap, plotting that we'd "best" the weather by going to the beach anyway, in the afternoon when the overcast cloud cover is at its warmest. Well, it was comfortable enough to be on the beach, but the water was unfortunately too cold for anything. Alton and Andy tossed the frisbee on dry land instead.

After their display of athleticism, Alton was ready for snacks, and devoured the strawberries I'd brought along. Note his little strawberry chin underneath his capacious sun hat.

We eventually meandered home to fix dinner in our beach cottage, where we enjoyed hamburgers, roasted potatoes, and sauteed zucchini we purchased yesterday at the farmer's market. Yum! Tomorrow's plan: another concert in the park, this time in Balboa Park with my cousin Louise!