10-28-2025 Hike/Walk

Ann's fun day for her birthday (<!>). I'd originally planned on us going out to breakfast but decided to make breakfast instead. Good call. We ended up leaving around 9:00 and driving, through just a little morning commute traffic down to Torrey Pines SB for a walk by the beach. It was foggy the whole time we were walking, north toward Del Mar. Saw a lady guarding an injured Western Grebe until animal rescue could arrive. Was a quiet walk, hoped Ann found it soothing. Not my thing. We drove down to Old Town after that, parked and walked quickly through Heritage Park to see the Victorian houses. Mildly interesting, only two were open in some sense. Learned about Old Town (Thomas Whaley) vs. New Town (Alonzo Horton). Then we walked over to the Whaley House and bought tickets to go through. It was mildly interesting, supposed to be haunted because it was built on the grounds of a gallows. Heard some fun stories from one of the guides before the tour started. There was a cool little courthouse and a theater in the main house, along with an arch said to be on the spot where the gallows was. We walked from there to Flor's Farm to Table, which turned out to be smaller and not as good as its reviews had indicated. Still, it was nice to sit down and get something to eat. We walked through Old Town after lunch, through some shops and looking at the Dia de los Muertos displays, which were kinda cool. Then it was back to the car, ahead of schedule, as I feared would happen. Drove over to PB and stopped at a 7-Eleven to get our free monthly Slurpee and kill a little bit of time, then we drove to the UTC mall and walked around there, including stopping at Uniqlo to buy a top for Emily for Christmas. We people-watched and chatted for a while before walking along this circuitous route to Raised by Wolves, a new speakeasy with a turntable entrance to the "hidden" bar. The interior was suitably cool, perhaps a little dark, and the drinks were fancy and kinda fun. Ann liked it, it was fine with me as well. She wanted to delay driving home during rush hour, so we had dinner at Ramen Nagi, which was really good, the best ramen I've had in San Diego, Still ran into some traffic on the way home but got there in time for Ann to be able to get to bell choir practice on time. I watched the TV in the evening to unwind from the day. For next time, I think I need to add more active or interactive elements to the fun days for her to enjoy them more.