My Nieces are So Talented, Part 3

You may already read her blog posts at the Urban Church website, and if you aren't, you should! She writes stories from her life that become like parables to teach others in the church. She writes about things that capture the attention of young people searching for peace. She also helps to edit the web content and the pamphlets that they give out at service.

I had the opportunity to visit Niece A this past weekend in San Diego. My gosh is it nice there! I thought I had no use for anything south of San Luis Obisbo. I am definitely a North Coaster. But I really liked San Diego. I might be tempted to visit there even if I weren't visiting a talented niece!

While there we walked our legs off!! And in an incredibly sweaty heatwave, I might add! We also ate--of course! In the year that she has been there, Niece A has found some great spots for burgers, dessert, coffee, hummus, olives, and pita chips. She lives next door to an Italian market (Little Italy is her neighborhood) and I had a great time browsing in there! Next time I visit, I think we will cook Italian!

Here are some pictures I took (with my phone--left the camera home for trailer documentation). We went to the farmers market when I first arrived and then walked all around to see the downtown area. This plumeria was for sale at the market.
Downtown is really eclectic, with houses and duplexes scattered in amongst the office buildings and businesses. This house was incorporated into the building in order to save it. It is actually attached to the building. Notice that the office windows are open! Wow. Windows that open. I hear they are really part of the "green" movement in SD and this building has won awards.
We also walked down at the harbor. Mom and D would love this! There is a section called The Greatest Generation Walk where they have memorials to different things in WWII. Here is the Bob Hope memorial.

And, this huge statue is wonderful!
After the walk at the harbor, we drove out to Coronado beach for a bonfire held by the church. My first beach bonfire ever! It was really fun. I brought my knitting and had the opportunity to meet many of A's friends. VERY nice people!
The next day I went to coffee at Caffe Italia while she was helping set up for church. What a GREAT place! Old Italian men meeting and greeting, one was holding court at the table next to me and as neighbors went by they would sit down and chat for awhile, often in Italian! Tourists came and went as well, but most of the traffic seemed like locals.

After church, the pastors took us to lunch for her birthday--a Thai restaurant is added to the list of great places to eat downtown! All the church friends were there as a surprise--how nice! Then we walked to Balboa park and looked at all the gardens. (After the youthfulness of church, it was a definite "old people activity" to look at plants!) My pictures don't do justice to the place. I would definitely like to see more of this park, and on a day that isn't over 90 degrees!
There were formal gardens, a greenhouse and an amazing cactus garden!
Another plumeria in the greenhouse. This picture was taken for Mom. I call it Birthday Girl with Plumeria!

While she went back to church for the evening service I took a page from my sister's book and sat on the front porch of A's house once the shade had reached it. What fun! I knitted and watched the foot traffic and cooled off. The girls in the house don't use the porch, but now that my sister and I have both spent time out there, they are starting to see the appeal! We had wine and hummus and enjoyed the coolness compared to inside the house. They usually don't have such heat in SD.

We ended our day with dessert from Extraordinary Desserts. An individual cheesecake for the birthday girl and chocolate almond praline cake called Viking for me. This picture is not very good since it was night, but can you see the meringue topping? It was the creamiest meringue I had ever tasted.
The next morning, she was off to work at her new teller job and I was off to coffee and the airport. The airport is walking distance from Little Italy! It was a great trip!