After a refreshing night’s sleep, we awoke to a deserted house, fresh coffee perking away, and a pile of bagels next to the toaster. All right!

Eventually the rest of the household emerged, rubbing sleep from their eyes in some cases, or running off to work in a business-like fashion in the case of Marshall.

We had very leisurely morning discussing what we would do with the rest of the day. Eventually we settled on: Visiting Fry’s Electronics; a drive out to Coronado Beach for a swim; then back for showers and a change of clothes before going out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant of some repute in the Old Town area of San Diego.

Fry’s Electronics one of a chain of stores, sort of like Costco for geeks. Imagine Radioshack or David Reids only in bulk supermarket form. We got the cables we needed for our new SubWoofer, and a couple of cool music DVD’s too. The others found stuff they wanted too, including a Dance Dance Revolution pad for the Playstation. (I could try and explain that last one, but I think I’ll leave it to experts, and merely say that if you think of Whack-a-Mole with boots and a dance track, you’ll have a pretty complete image.) Anna is a whiz at DDR.

It was fun driving around the freeways of San Diego, particularly with Anna in the passenger seat next to me doing the navigating.

Coronado beach is pretty neat looking, and on this Friday afternoon it wasn’t crowded at all. (Check out http://travel.discovery.com/convergence/beachweek2001/americasbest/coronado.html.)

The Sun was warm, the sea playful, and the breeze obligingly refreshing.

The drive back seemed to co-incide with rush hour, but thanks to Anna’s expert directions, we arrived back at the house in good time.

After showers and a change of clothes, it was back on the road to Casa del Pico for dinner. (See http://www.bazaardelmundo.com/dining/pico.html.) Josh, Anna and myself went with Judy, while L, Derek, and Teresa went with Marshall. That way there was no chance of my getting lost driving around in San Diego, and besides, it meant that if I wanted to have one of their famous margaritas, I could do so with impunity as I would not be driving.

Judy dropped Josh and myself off with directions to the restaurant, while she continued on to find a car park. The restaurant was inside a kind of village courtyard, among a whole bunch of other eateries and craft shops. The bad news: the queue for tables at Casa Del Pico stretched right through the courtyard and out the other archway! The good news: the food smells were great, and we had lots to look at, and anyway, I always enjoy an opportunity to talk to Josh. We inched slowly forward, while other people swapped in and out of their placeholder positions in the queue.

After about 20 minutes, Marshall and L showed up with D&T in tow, but still no sign of Judy and Anna. It was another 20 minutes before they showed up, and while Josh, Marshall, and I held our places in the queue, the others went shopping. The courtyard area was crowded with people, and there was a mariachi band playing somewhere nearby.

Eventually a couple of tables opened up close by, and all eight of us were seated. Was the food worth the wait? I think I would answer a qualified yes. I enjoyed the food a lot, and the experience was good, but I’d still try and hit an off-peak time if I were to go back there. Good company makes a lot of things worthwhile…  Oh, and I can now see why Casa Del Pico may have been rated “the best margarita in San Diego”.