Monday, December 31
My original intention in going to San Diego was to show my family some of my old haunts as well as seeing some of the tourist sites. With the family already anxious to head home, I trimmed the list to three: San Diego Zoo, Coronado Beach and the San Diego Chicken Pie Shop.
We were able to get to the zoo shortly after opening and saw nearly everything that we wanted. I even rode on the “Skyfari” with the rest of the family to get us to the exit when everyone was dead tired. It was terrifying for the first half of the ride but went by quickly once I could see the end of the line.
After the zoo, we zoomed over the Coronado Bridge to the beach where the boys literally dug in for the remaining daylight hours. We watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean before dragging the boys to the car where they changed back into their street clothes while I held my hoody around them.
We drove back into town and nearly drove past the “new” location of the Chicken Pie Shop (they moved shortly after I left San Diego in 1990). Graham thought it sounded like a terrible idea until he took his first bite of their trademark pie. Unfortunately, they had raised their prices since the last time I had been there in 1990. back then you got the chicken/turkey pie, whipped potatoes and gravy, roll, vegetable and dessert for $5.25. Over the last 17 years, they had raised the price to $6!
We drove by my old apartment and stopped at “my” old Ralph’s grocery store for champagne and Martinelli’s. Otherwise, I hardly recognized any of my old stomping grounds and even got lost in my old neighborhood. During the half hour drive back to the Poway Ramada, I realized that I now understand the phrase “You can’t go home.” It’s never the place that you remember. Everything changes including the people.
We spent the last hour of 2007 begging our children to let us off easy by celebrating the New Year early, but they insisted on staying up until midnight. We toasted to our good fortune and everyone collapsed in bed by 12:05.
