We parked at the edge of the park and took a trolley bus in, getting a reasonable overview of what the park held as we went. Our first stop was the botanical garden, which houses a variety of hothouse flowers and plants, most of which were in beautiful bloom for us. After an hour or so I tired of picture taking and settled down by the Koi pond to watch the fish and the people. By the time Larisa found me I was so relaxed that I was a breath or two from snoring. We wandered on, stopping by the photography museum (closed on Monday, alas) and hitting the rose garden and succulents gardens next. The roses were in bloom and amazing in their color and variety, and the succulent garden took up a lot of my time - I just like cacti and their cousins.
We then strolled over to the Spanish Village Art Center. The village consists of a couple hundred artists working in just about any medium you can imagine. They create and sell their artwork, and it makes a fine thing to see if you're a tourist who is just wandering around. We were. Some of the art was visually fantastic, especially the sculpture and photography. Other art was the kind of stuff you get when folks stop thinking. There was much more of the former though, and all in all we had a wonderful time chatting up the artists and shooting the occasional picture.
Tired after a day of walking around, I decided to take Larisa to Harney Sushi in Old Town San Diego. Set up cafe style, with a sushi bar inside and a small patio outside, it was billed as the best of the best for fresh fish, so how I could not take Larisa there? The service was downright bad, but Larisa says that her sushi was fantastic, and I'll say without reservation that the chicken teriayki was the best I've ever had, anywhere. The real bummer was that the sushi bar and kitchen didn't communicate, so my food came out about 15 minutes before Larisa's, so that I was almost done eating when she was just starting. Larisa griped at the waitress, who was so poor at her job that she didn't actually understand the problem - she thought Larisa was upset about having to wait for her food, not because we had come to eat together and weren't able to do so - and seemed prepared to argue about it. In the end, though, she offered us free dessert. We got chocolate lava cake that came out warm and fresh baked with some sort of foamed fruit cream. The cake was great, the cream stuff tasted weird but was actually very complementary to the cake. So in the end, great food but horrible service made for an okay dining experience.
I'll admit that there is a part of me that still wants another crack at the chicken teriayki before we leave.
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