italian ice in kensington

miss being able to grab dessert in kensington (without dining first) since just fabulous closed? there's a new option in town, until dark on the weekends. the owners of flavors italian ice operate an italian ice cart in the parking lot next to clem's bottle shop. they offer a bunch of flavors, including ones you'd expect (lemon, strawberry, cherry) and some you might not (chocolate, watermelon) for prices ranging from 2 to 5 dollars. the chocolate is actually pretty good, with a rich flavor and chocolate chips. the cherry was a bit too, well, cherry for me, but jay's watermelon and lemon combo was refreshing. originally from philly, which is where the stuff's shipped in from, the owners are opening up another location up in carmel mtn. ranch soon.

the cart's a bit hard to spot from the street; they're tucked in the back right corner of the lot just to the left of burger lounge. check them out and keep the italian ice flowing in kensington.

yog-art heading to north park; rubber rose

we stopped by mesh last weekend (where there's some great art on display right now) and after chatting for a bit with the friendly owner, michael, we did a quick north park loop. a banner for yog-art, the tart yogurt place in hillcrest, was displayed across the top of a vacant building on university, just east of 30th. i was wondering if they're moving due to a universal-induced rent boom in hillcrest, or simply expanding, so i called them and spoke with the exceptionally nice owner. she said they are expanding and will be doing a grand opening party in mid-july (hopefully). north park could definitely use some of the delicious tart yogurt served up at yog-art.

we headed down ray street and came across the also-friendly folks at the rubber rose, where they were having an HIV benefit in the parking lot in front of their store. for $5 you got four chances to win a rubber rose-designed t-shirt proclaiming you to be a "master cornholer". you just had to toss a bean bag into a small hole in a large wooden box about 20 feet away. our tosses weren't even close, but we were still awarded a very cool t-shirt each for our efforts. i'll post a pic of the shirt once the dreaded laundry pile is disturbed...

no more rooftop views at st. james hotel

...unless you're a guest that is. what was the best public outdoor view downtown now has a guest key lock on the door to the roof. we used to head up there on the ancient elevator after having lunch at brians, which shares the ground floor with the ramada inn lobby. i can't blame the folks at the ramada for blocking access, but the views sure will be missed.

coming soon: marriott san quentin

(photo from brandon farley's photobucket account, posted on skyscraperpage.com forums)

that's what the head of ccdc is saying about the proposed new marriott ballpark village hotel, adjacent to petco park. from the looks of it, it sure does look like the "fortress" that fred maas describes it as. the towers are generic, bland slabs with no interesting architectural features whatsoever, especially lacking at the top. the hotel walls would shoot nearly 200 feet straight up from the street, which seems to contradict one of the ballpark village's master plan points: "pedestrian plazas and design that allows movement of people through large blocks". and the fact that elevators would take folks up to a fifth-floor check-in desk, surrounded by marriott retail and dining, only reinforces the complete disregard for integrating with the neighborhood (only two ground-floor retail occupants will be in the hotel). architect gwayne pugh sums it up much better than i can at the end of that linked document.



if the rendering to the right is any indication, the architects, johnson fain, can do better than the proposed marriott. this is the columbia square project slated for sunset blvd. in hollywood, and at least shows some attention to distinguishing architectural features.

marriott has to be aware of the ballpark village master plan, so what kind of chutzpah does it take to put forward design like this? i suppose they figure with the kind of tax revenue they'll be providing the city, they can do whatever they want. fortunately there are enough people raising questions about this project that changes should happen. the worst scenario would be one where the hotel budges an inch or so on major design points until they wear down their opponents with twenty sets of renderings. for now, thanks marriott, but we already have a prison downtown.

parklife

while we were stuffing ourselves at the newly-mexican jimmy carter's in banker's hill on saturday, we saw a real estate ad for a condo in the iconic modernist building across from balboa park, 3200 sixth ave. built by famed san diego architect henry hester, the former salomon apartments were revitalized a few years ago. this is one of my favorite buildings in the area, with its distinctive modernist look and floor-to-ceiling windows that put you practically into the park. so we rolled around the corner and up the stairs to a million dollar unit that's been on the market for a few months.

once inside, we were impressed by the sensible layout of the place, with a large, open dining/living/kitchen area, and three bedrooms extending off it. all of the bedrooms feature views of the park, which helps offset the office-size feel of two of them. surprisingly, bathroom appointments felt a bit downscale for the listing price, which could probably use a significant chop if the owners expect to sell anytime soon in this market.

around back is the tranquil pool, which several units open onto with large sliding glass doors. a good chunk of the western sky has been blocked by two new condo projects on the block behind it, unfortunately (including the atrociously-painted trilogy on fifth - light blue and peach never looked so bad). but there was still plenty of sun to soak up in this quiet retreat.

it sure was fun to think about living in a place like 3200 sixth. you'd have to do your place up right - sixties-style with loads of mid-century modern furniture, a classic turntable and a martini glass always within reach. now if those prices were only within reach...

jacarandas in bloom; cnote

driving around this weekend it was impossible not to notice the annual jacaranda bloom in peak form. many of the trees were covered exclusively in purple blossoms that were raining to the ground in the heat. i'm used to seeing them against a cloudy sky this time of year (and it looks like that will be the case this weekend) but last weekend it was just purple on sky blue.









we got those pictures around balboa park, where we were headed for the cnote event at the san diego balboa park art institute. after hitting the preview to pick out the pieces we liked, we came back a half hour early to line up. the line seemed shorter than in earlier years, and less people overall once we got inside. guess folks don't have a lot of money to blow on art given the current economy.





less crowds meant not much competition for the art, and we ended up with four new pieces, mostly abstract or edgy stuff. we even got to meet one of the artists, which was a nice touch.

hot fun in the springtime

it was blazing when we hit north park for its festival yesterday, but that didn't stop the carnies from putting on quite a show. crazy body contortions and trampoline-launched flying kids had my nephew transfixed, which is a pretty rare occurrence. these were courtesy of the isadora circus arts academy, who came around with offers to go to circus camp after the show, and that sounded pretty appealing to my nephew.



other stage highlights included an astoundingly off-key cover of rilo kiley's "i never" and an overly self-absorbed female songstress who implored to all in attendance that there was more to her than her appearance.

we were fortunate to have bought tickets for the city beat brew festival in advance, which was held at the north end of the larger festival. we walked past the same folks who had been lined up for nearly an hour, and who finally got in when we left about a half hour later. tough to stand in the hot sun that long, especially when you find out your $20 gets you 5 measly urine-cup size tasters. no one seemed to be selling beer either, so drinking your way out of your heat misery wasn't an option either. but there were plenty of good brewers on hand, and we sampled beer from alaska brewery, mission brewery, new belgium, nimbus, and firehouse, which were all good.



on our way back to the car we stopped by vintage religion, where a super-friendly staff even let my nephew use their bathroom for a potty break. lots of cool and kitschy stuff, including a nun chuck gun that launches little plastic nuns up to 15 feet.

the food offerings were pretty standard at the north park festival so we saved our appetites for the sicilian festa in little italy, where jay took what turned out to be a super creepy picture (the poster on the left was for raising china earthquake relief funds):



as we walked by the zagarella food trailer, we heard a shout of "$2 for everything!", which included some hefty meatball sandwiches and big servings of greasy calamari. a perfect topper for the 8 different kinds of beer sloshing around in our stomachs. it more than made up for the quiet atmosphere of the festa as it, and a hot san diego weekend, wound down.

we know you better than you know you

If we don't teach them now that marriage is a special relationship between a man and a woman to which they should aspire, in the future the problem won't only be that they don't understand what marriage is – they won't understand the difference between boys and girls, males and females, or right and wrong on much else.

- Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families in Sacramento, a conservative lobbying group

let me get this straight - allowing gay people to marry will cause children to not understand the difference between boys and girls? of all the quotes i've read from the religious right over the years, this one has to take the cake. who can actually hear something like that and take it seriously? unless you lack the ability to think for yourself, that is.

this appeared in saturday's UT article about whether the gay marriage ruling is about civil rights or not. for me, it's pretty clear that it is - my partner and i do not have equal rights to straight couples who have been together for far less time than we have, yet we still have the same or worse tax obligation than they do. feels kind of like we're second-class citizens, actually.

for some local flavor, the article quotes the black senior pastor of the rock church here in san diego, miles mcpherson. mcpherson says gay marriage isn't about civil rights, because he knows gay people aren't born gay. so not only does mr. mcpherson feel his personal religious views should legislate denying rights to gays, but that he knows gay people weren't even born that way. now that takes some big time balls, especially from a guy who himself would have been a second-class citizen in this country less than 50 years ago.

hey miles, let me make something clear for you - as a gay person, i know i was born gay. and just where do you get off telling me that i wasn't? what a surprise to find that the rock's senior pastor is also an expert geneticist!

one of our neighbors is a pastor for the rock church (and has a very similar last name to me, so i need to be really careful that my subscription to latin inches doesn't end up at his house), and it's a reassuring feeling to know these kind of sentiments are just steps from my door. look, the great thing about this country is that the rock's pastors and their ilk are free to think and say whatever they want about the gays, and vice versa. yet somehow religious beliefs are justification to deny the rights of others? in a country with a clearly-defined separation of church and state? now (cue cholo voice) dat's messed up.

when folks vote on the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage this fall, i hope some of them think about the real meaning of statements from people like randy thomasson and miles mcpherson: that bigotry, masked as piety, is alive and well in 21st century america. and that maybe their vote can help end it.

torrey pines

with the weather warming up and the days getting long it was time to hit torrey pines state park for a post-work hike. we took the broken hill trail, which runs from the 101 at the golf course down to the beach. first we witnessed the effect of the impending u.s. open, being held early next month on the links there. the formerly root-infested parking lot has been repaved, large tents abound (press/tournament administration areas?), and security is already onsite at night. plus there's a huge fleet of lexus rx 350's parked in the lot, it being the official car of the tournament and all. the biggest impact was the new fence that had been erected, cutting off the quickest route from the lot to the road - unless you jumped it.



it was strange to be at the beach with no wind, much less temperatures in the 80's in mid-may. we took the trail down to the newly-installed stairs that take you onto the beach. this washed-out part of the trail was closed for over 3 years as the city dragged its feet on making repairs to a severly eroded cliff, caused by the 2004-2005 winter season storms. the new staircase does make a very dangerous part of the trail (think 15 foot drop) a lot safer, and puts you right into the incoming waves at high tide.

swallows buzzed in and out of the hole in the cliffs above our heads, visible in the top right of the first image above. with the sun setting and the waves crashing in, cooling our feet in the 67 degree water, it almost felt like summer was here... at least until the marine layer returns. is this the weather that u.s. open viewers across the country will see in a few weeks, or will it be the usual cool and cloudy weather of early june in la jolla?

busy weekend in san diego

so many things going on in san diego this weekend. first of all, it's going to be hot and sunny, which is a nice change from the may gray normal for this time of year. that should make you thirsty enough to hit city beat's festival of beers at the north park festival on sunday. $15 advance/$20 day of, tickets include 5 tastings from a variety of local brewers. be sure to get some of that lightning brewery beer, this brewery based in the back of a poway warehouse makes some damn good beer. hopefully the north park festival has expanded a bit from the last time we went several years ago, it was a bit disappointing then.

over in little italy on sunday the sicilian festa will be taking place from 10-6. looks like a whole lot of dancing will be going on while you gorge on delicious italian food.

tomorrow is the summer c note (click on the 16th on the calendar) event at the sd art institute in balboa park, 5-8 pm. get over there before 4 pm to preview the art, all for $100/200/300, then queue up and hope no one snags it before you.

finally, check out the new east village farmer's market 8-3 saturday, eighth ave between market and g (thanks city beat). it's little things like this that make new neighborhoods feel like a community.

no gay marriages in san diego for now

just got off the phone with the marriage services folks at the county recorder's office, and they are not giving any estimate on when they will be conforming with state law recognizing gay marriage, announced today by the california supreme court. he said they had been telling people 2-4 weeks, but that they were told not to give that information out (bill horn probably threatened them). hey, if san francisco is telling people they expect to perform gay marriages in 30 days, why can't we an answer from san diego county? silly question, i know.

price center east opens at ucsd

there was a grand opening party for the new ucsd price center east expansion project yesterday, which has been going on for a couple of years behind the existing student center. it's supposed to be the new community center for what can be a fairly isolated campus, and includes new restaurants (not open yet; burger king, tapioca, indian, greek), a performance space, new offices/study areas, lots of computer terminals, and a large staircase that can act as a gathering place.




the interior is centered around a large open atrium, and it was full of students lining up for the free food samples being given out. lots of stairs leading to nooks and crannies ideal for hanging out, studying or napping.

credit should be given for going with an award winning, inventive architectural design, conjured up by mehrdad yazdani, who has some impressive work on his website. he was there but i didn't get a chance to see him. i really like the rectangular block design used, incorporating narrow lines and windows. the north side, pictured above, has its entrance between the two large structures:

the south side of the building features the spacious staircase, which was fenced off - guess they didn't get that done in time for the grand opening party. to the right are the most interesting block buildings, in my opinion:


not bad for a mostly-bland campus, and the students get a long-overdue new place to hang out. will downtown's planners take notice and realize that innovative civic architecture doesn't have to be limited to san diego's universities?

baguette express opens in city heights

baguette express, serving vietnamese banh mi sandwiches, has opened its second franchise location here in san diego after starting out in san bernardino. it's in the old arby's on el cajon blvd. smack in the middle of crack ho central, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the great value this place offers.

we stepped right up to the counter, all ready to order, only to realize that the online menu is specific to the san berdoo location only - no 8" sandwiches, and no snow bobas either. that's ok, they still have some decent spring rolls and tons of banh mi sandwiches on freshly-baked baguettes. i got the express special, which consists of a variety of meats - mostly vietnamese ham and bbq pork (thanks, mmm-yoso). the pickled carrots, radishes and sparse mayo-like coating of egg yolk/butter made for a tasty sandwich, but it's the long light and flaky baguette that really gives you value for $3. jay's cajun shrimp baguette was delicious, like a trip to new orleans via saigon and paris. the menu is certainly not limited to vietnamese mainstays - you can get most any kind of sandwich with the french/viet twist described above.

fortunately we beat the rush - it was about 5 pm and the place became absolutely slammed with a line nearly out the door, comprised mostly of vietnamese. clearly the word is out in the neighborhood. after we observed several patrons leaving with multiple baguettes, we purchased our own - a 27" baguette for one dollar! beat that, vons. i also grabbed some taro chips from the extensive selection of asian snacks, and a tapioca/fruit/jelly/shaved ice concoction for dessert. now if they could just replace all the arby's in san diego with banh mi shops...

bike sharing - why not san diego?

new bike sharing programs are underway in several european cities - among them, paris, with over 10,000 bikes at 750 stations across the city; tel aviv, and amsterdam, of course. in the states, san francisco's program is currently grinding its gears, but dc's BikeShare start date is imminent, with portland not far behind.

what is bike sharing? there's a good resource at the bike sharing blog, but basically it involves renting bikes from various stations around a city for an hourly or daily fee. clear channel (ugh) is providing support in the dc and sf programs so they can extend their billboard advertising to bike rental stations.

in san diego i'm guessing the most sensible places for such a program would be near trolley stops downtown, and along the major bus lines in hillcrest and north park. but you'd have to actually have a program in san diego for that to happen, and googling "san diego" and "bike sharing" returns unrelated results only. guess it's time to send an email to the city...

given san diego's dry and temperate weather, is there a better place in america for a bike sharing program? i spent much of today out on my bike, and it's a breeze to get from kensington to hillcrest to downtown, etc. bike-friendly streets with moderately-paced car traffic, and plenty of worthwhile diversions. get people out of their cars, extend the reach of the trolley by increasing riders' options for getting to/from it, and get some exercise in the socal sun. granted, san diego is a pretty canyony place, but you also have plenty of flat areas (downtown, beaches), or moderate grades (downtown to hillcrest, for example).

of course, a program like this is going to cost money. and given the recent reaction of san diegans to potentially having to pay for their trash collection like everybody else in the country ("i demand to continue receiving services i don't pay for!"), it's an uphill struggle to raise revenue to support a bike sharing program, which are rarely profitable. of course, building freeways isn't profitable either - except to the oil and car companies. here's an idea - in addition to whoring ourselves out to someone like clear channel above, how about going around with hands out to some of the major employers in the region, asking if they would support a program that would benefit their employees mental and physical health, not to mention the region's air quality? every bike trip is potentially one less polluting/carbon dioxide-emitting car trip.

i can't see a downside to this program, but then i'd probably be called a socialist by the typical conservative san diegan. of course, the typical san diegan is overweight, overstressed and spends an hour in traffic every day. like they're thinking straight anyway. ;-)

a dish-astrous evening

we've been wanting to take our neighbor keith to dinner for a while now - he's been a good friend since we moved to kensington in 2000, and recently he watched our house and taxied us to and from the airport for our dc trip. dish at universal in hillcrest had opened about a week ago so we made reservations and dropped in friday night. slick design, warm colors throughout and the place was bustling. too bustling, it seems, since our indoor reservation turned into an outdoor one - alone in front of universal on a breezy and chilly evening. lesson learned - if they can't accommodate the reservation you made, walk. we didn't, unfortunately.

our server was very friendly however, and my stiff drink (unfortunately named "ambisextrous" something) took the edge off. we put our order in and waited for our appetizers... and waited. eventually they moved us to another table not quite as isolated as the first, where they struggled for the next 10 minutes to get the heat lamp working. we appreciated the effort but at this point things were certainly not off to an auspicious start.

eventually our apps came - decent crab cakes and a tasty mixed greens salad. as i took my first bite a cloud of cigarette smoke enveloped the table from the smokers seated directly next to us at the fire pit. entree-wise, the crusted albacore was perfectly seared but sported a very salty crusting. jay's pork schnitzel was a new entree for us in san diego and measured up to what we had in vienna years ago.

we'd also ordered a potato torta which was MIA. finally our server showed up and we alerted him. it arrived well after our meals were finished and was good but nothing spectacular. he dropped off some dessert menus, then a solid twenty minutes passed as we waited for him to return. needless to say, dessert wasn't ordered.

i know the place just opened, and i'm willing to give it another try, but i was looking forward to experiencing the interior of dish and instead got an unappealing cold evening on the patio. i should note that after asking, we were given the option of waiting half an hour for an indoor table, but my dining companions passed. in any event the place just didn't feel ready for prime time yet.

the outdoor bar and club feels like they're ready though - the bar was filling up as we left with a previously unseen hillcrest mix of hot girls in cocktail dresses and 20-something gay guys. the club hadn't filled yet but the rear dance floor was already kicking to the nearby dj. the club's interior - dark, a bit big - works, but had nothing approaching the wow factor of stingaree, for example (stingaree is run by the same owners). considering the place was built from the ground up, the layout could have been better, with separate areas like the lounge more clearly defined. the modern look employed by the common wash area outside the bathrooms is creative though.

it'll be fun to come back on a warm summer night in a couple of months after the kinks are worked out and hang at the outdoor bar. until then we'll remember our dish-appointing experience with dish-may (sorry, i couldn't resist).

sdlookup.com forums

i was perusing the san diego foreclosure lists on the team aguilar website and looking up the mls info for some of the properties on sdlookup.com when i stumbled across their very good forums. lots of interesting discussions about the status of individual condominium projects - price cuts, foreclosures, sucker buyers, and detailed info. about the quality of the units.

from reading the forums, the general feel is that we haven't hit bottom yet price-wise, given the number of foreclosures out there and that price recoveries often lag foreclosure number peaks. one positive sign is that some projects (aria) are beginning to cut to price points that will enable break-even on unit rental. however, given the difficulty of securing loans, particularly on second homes, it might be the developers who end up renting out the units (hello, smart corner), thereby cutting the value of your purchased unit big-time. probably best to see how the market moves before making your own move, if you're looking to buy.

another good resource is sdcondo.com's downtown condo listings, where you can sort by building name. 37 units for sale in electra?! this is the luxury condo project that finished earlier this year and everyone dumped their units onto the market. prices still seem high, especially when you consider the outrageous HOA fees here. electra might just be the poster child for what happens when flippers try to flip one property too many.

madge headed to petco

ut street says madonna will be playing petco on november 4th, her first san diego appearance in 23 years (wow). this is the first concert at petco since the rolling stones show in 2005. let's hope madonna has more than 5 songs in her this time, unlike her 2006 coachella "performance".

considering the dreadful state of the padres (4-17 in their last 21 games), the city should try to maximize use of petco through concerts and other events to get some extra revenue - i'm not spending a dime on that team until they at least make an appearance of trying to improve the team (impact roster moves so far this year: none). it's interesting that there's been no shows there since 2005. now if they could just figure out a way to incorporate petco into street scene's hopeful return to downtown...

springtime in dc

it's been 12 years or so since i spent time in dc (save for a trip to nasa hq 18 months ago for work), when i used to visit friends there during my grad school days at university of delaware. we made the trip this past weekend to see our friend who moved back there from san diego, and to experience the city from a different perspective from the one i used to have. more precisely, to get a feel for what it's like to live there rather than what it's like to get plastered there. and it's always fun to see how san diego stacks up.



upon our arrival at dulles airport i was amused to see that the oversized humvee-like people transporters still ferry you from the eero saarinen-designed terminal to the departure gates. yet these are finally on their way out, to be replaced by the aero train next year, pictured here. and there are plans to spend 5 billion dollars to extend the metro rail service to dulles. granted, millions more people travel through dulles vs. lindbergh, but our airport agency didn't even consider rail of any form during its recently-approved "makeover" which apparently consists of widening harbor drive and building a new parking garage.



ok, airport gripes out of the way, we settled into our friends' house in arlington and took a lazy walk through old town in nearby alexandria that afternoon.

later, we enjoyed some excellent sushi at spices in cleveland park near georgetown.



the next day we did a quick trip to west virginia so jay could knock off his 48th state (look out north dakota and alaska), then checked into our free sheraton hotel (thank you starwood points) just across the river from dc in arlington, and conveniently located to the pentagon city metro station.

finally we were able to really explore the urban side of dc, empowered by the extensive metro. we jumped on and within minutes were in dupont circle, surrounded by hordes of people out enjoying one of the first warm weekends of the year. restaurants with packed patios lined the streets. we walked from there to adams morgan, which skews much younger (and straighter), enjoying the tree-lined streets and incredible architecture surrounding us. is there another u.s. city that can rival the range of architecture the dc offers? street after street of brownstones, historical buildings and embassies, and large, spectacular structures abound in these neighborhoods and in georgetown. it made me think of the controversy over the kensington terrace project and how it supposedly doesn't fit the character of the neighborhood. well, at some point these structures didn't fit their neighborhoods either, but they seem to have turned out ok.

dupont has plenty of gay clubs to choose from, and unfortunately the crowds never showed up at apex, where we avoided the tired trance music, retreating to the near-empty back room where obscure 80's videos played (what's up with that creepy nu shooz video?). we manged to salvage the night by enjoying the much more interesting hip hop being played at the nearly all-black (well, except for us) fireplace bar down the street. no queeny twinks here - the thug look and acting like you're on the DL seem to be the norm.

while i wish san diego had some of the benefits that dc's larger size and higher density provides, it wouldn't be fair to skip the negatives, like the fact that much of the city is pretty rough. we had a taste of this on the way home on the metro, where we accidentally took the green line to southeast dc at 2 in the morning and sat in an empty station for 20 minutes waiting for the next train to take us back. topside wasn't really an option at that hour/location.



we hung out on the mall the next day, hitting the national gallery after getting shut out on tickets for the monument and holocaust museum. it's huge, so we just walked through the modern art section, where i really enjoyed works by jean dubuffet and romare bearden, especially the latter's "tomorrow i may be far away", shown here.

the mall was sun-drenched, including the new WWII memorial in the foreground below, the design of which had to not block the line of sight between the washington monument and lincoln memorial, which delayed the project:

that night we headed up to baltimore to see some friends there - more on that in another post - and for our last day in dc we took in a baseball game at the new washington nationals ballpark. they've basically wiped out this whole area of dc to build the stadium and to redevelop the area, petco-style (including the gay bars concentrated here - they have until october to re-open under their grandfathered liquor licenses, according to the photographer for the metro weekly we met). except it's on a way bigger scale that petco and east village. all around are piles of rubble, a huge new federal DOT building, and plans galore for new construction, including the dc yards mixed-use project. they appear to be following the successful model of urban redevelopment spurred by a new sports stadium that's been employed in many other cities, with baltimore's camden yards being the first example.





the stadium itself is unremarkable - polished and new, but with no distinctive features like petco's western metals building. "bland" was the washington post's take. it could definitely use some landscaping (give credit to petco on that one), a more open face to the city, and some views of the river to the south. but it was nice to see a team with an actual offense composed of young, fast players - as opposed to the bunch of slow, unproductive and overpriced old-timers we have roaming the outfield at petco.



after the game we headed over to georgetown, making our way through the crowds to the river, where rowers passed and the kennedy center gleamed downriver in the afternoon sun. we were a bit disappointed in the late night dining options that night, but it was a sunday. we couldn't get a half smoke at the legendary ben's chili bowl, since it was closed, ditto for the best falafells in town at amsterdam's in adams morgan. just down the street however, the diner, packed at midnight, did serve up a tasty cubano pork sandwich. we wrapped up the night at atlas, which was celebrating the return of the sunday night lizard lounge event. whatever it was, it turned out a pretty big (and young) crowd for a sunday night, spilling out onto the front patio.

we lucked out with fantastic weather during our stay in dc - sun-filled days with no rain, amazing for dc in spring and a big improvement from the may gray we came home to. spring and early summer is a pretty special time for dc, where the tree lined streets shade the cobblestone sidewalks and varied architecture under their canopy. it's been cemented as my most livable city on the east coast, but as much as i love what it has to offer, the cold and gray days of winter are an inevitable part of living there.

modernsandiego.com

still in dc but i stumbled across modern san diego while reading an old article about the salk institute addition controversy. there's a modern building map that blows away my lowly irving gill map. lots of good modern architecture resources on this site.

heading back to san diego tomorrow (monday); i'll post some pictures and thoughts about urban dc then hopefully.