Live from SJ Capistrano...

What you see in that picture is the hub of San Juan Capistrano's history, the San Juan Capistrano Mission. I wish I could say that I took that picture, but it is an internet find, like so many of the images I post here...

As luck would have it, my school district gave us a 4-day weekend because of Veterans Day, which is unprecedented. I was aching for a change of scenery this weekend, but there were a few glitches: 1. Neither my mom nor I wanted to spend a lot of money, 2. She had a Weight Watchers yearly convention today in Huntington Beach (she's a receptionist for them once a week,) and 3. It is easier to take my dog, Bailey, on vacations than leave him behind.

We batted ideas around for weeks and finally settled on San Juan Capistrano, which is one hour south of Los Angeles, 1/2 hour south of Huntington Beach (so my mom could attend her WW convention,) and boasts a dog-friendly Best Western for around $100/night. Considering all of our criteria, we think we did well.

We dawdled a lot yesterday and got into SJC around 4:30pm. The room is simple, but decent, with a few amenities. I cared mostly about internet access, which it has, although not wireless, and the cord provided by the office is too short to reach the desk in the room. Ergo, the bed has to double for a desk. I did find a few unsecured wireless networks (naughty!) but the signals are pretty weak and inconsistent. A signal that was acceptable yesterday was faint and painfully slow today.

Last night we unpacked and drove into the historic part of town, which is a few blocks away, but separated by the overpass to the I-5. Traffic was moving quite fast. We were lucky to find a great parking spot on the street and we walked around for an hour before arriving at our 7pm dinner reservation at the Cedar Creek Inn, the nicest pet-friendly restaurant I could find.

We were seated, along with Bailey, at a table on the outside perimeter of the patio, listened to live guitar and comfortable chatter around us, and enjoyed the pleasant atmostphere lit by strung mini-lights and table candles. The waiters were extremely accomodating, even bringing Bailey a little styrofoam container full of water. My mom and I both ordered salads and they were very good. Mine was a seafood salad, with a generous portion of shredded crab meat on top of the lettuce, along with some scallops and 2 enormous shrimp. I didn't like the marinated asparagus and cucumbers--too vinegary for my taste, but the rest was very, very good.

Back in the hotel room we watched some TV, read, and discussed the current and possible future state of our country. I fell asleep around 11pm, but Bailey woke us up at 2am to go outside and do what doggies do. We bundled up in coats and got a little rained on as Bailey took care of business on some of the hotel shrubbery.

Today I was pretty much on my own without a car, since my mom took it to drive to her convention. After she got dolled up and we took pictures of her this morning, I finished getting ready, said a prayer, and took Bailey on foot over the I-5 towards the old part of town. I needed to find a place to eat that allowed him too. One thing for sure, San Juan Capistrano, in all its beauty, is no Carmel as far as dog-friendliness. I passed the old ruins of the mission, destroyed by an earthquake (or 2) ages ago, and weighed my options.

There are plenty of places for outdoor dining, but few allow dogs in the patio. I understand. I ended up at an outdoor taco stand called Pedro's Tacos, right across the street from the mission. I had seen in on a site listing pet-friendly places, but was turned off by its simplicity. I know, what a snob, right? But after circling around for half and hour and getting more and more hungry, I decided to go for it. I was pleasantly surprised. The food was very, very good and especially reasonable. This meal took the place of breakfast and lunch and did the job just fine. I was a little sad that I was not able to go and visit the mission, since Bailey was with me, but I could see a lot of it from the table where I ate.

I tried to stay out of the way with Bailey, but then a large group of people came and it was hard to keep him from being underfoot. At one point, a young boy--around 7 or 8--came by him and taunted him a bit, provoking him to a menacing bark. The dad apologized for his son, but I apologized for my dog. I had been enjoying sitting and people watching, but it was time to go.

Now it is about 5:50pm and my mom is back from Huntington Beach. I've been in the hotel room since around 1pm, reading, surfing the internet, intermittently taking Bailey out for quick walks, and relaxing. Now I need to start thinking about dinner.

Tomorrow morning we have an invitation to eat breakfast with a friend of my mom at 8:30am. Ooohh... early! But that's OK. It will motivate us to get up and get out of the hotel room, since today was pretty much lost to me since I didn't have a car. The weather is lovely and cool and, despite the lack of adventures, it is still nice to have a change of scenery now and then.