RN: We said “good-bye” to Mom today and headed south to La Jolla, which is near San Diego, to stay with our good friend Mark.  Mark and I were in the same lab at UCSD for grad school in the late ‘70’s and we have stayed in touch all these years despite our separate wanderings all over the US. He shares our love of good food, both in terms of finding outstanding restaurants and in preparing great meals.

FE. The area in the flatlands east of La Jolla (Kearny Mesa) is ethnically diverse to an extent that we can hardly imagine, coming from Cape Cod. Here is a partial list of businesses in the little mall where Mark took us for lunch. By the way, the f on Mark’s shirt refers to f-stop, we both love photography and I am learning lots from him.

and a shoutout to one of my favorite movies

But we went to “El Viejon”, hands down the best Mexican seafood place I had ever been (both the octopus and shrimp tacos are out of this world).

RN: The tacos were deep-fried and surprisingly good (not something for every day consumption), but the clams were my favorite. We’ll have to come back later for their seafood tower.

FE: their chopped giant “Chocolate Clams)” were the stars of the show

Across the street we go, to O’Brians, to wash it all down with some “Pliny the Elder”.

RN: And for Rae, Strawberries and Cream Cider (I know it sounds yucky, but it was good and not sweet!)