My friend's Retirement Dinner at Parma Cucina Italia + dessert at An's Dry Cleaning

My good friend and colleague Mr. TJ finally retired!

Work hasn't been the same without him (insert crying emoji here).

An's Dry Cleaning Gelato

Our pre-anniversary dessert would be at this establishment on Adams Ave....

located in between  Hawthorn Coffee and Tajima Ramen...

Thai Joint on Adams

After our drinks from City Heights Coffee House,

we made our way to Normal Heights. There is a small strip mall that was recently changed up...

Cafe 21 with Astroboi + Hawthorn Coffee, Mission Thrift Store and the Incredible Cheesecake Company

Fall break is for meeting up with friends...

in this case, Astroboi and with his choice of breakfast venue...

The Antique Row Cafe sign + Drinks from Hawthorn & Better Buzz

It's nice when you can count on your neighbor as a good friend and as one willing to try new places...

Well, new to her but not to me, but still, an adventure...

Bigfoot sighting in Normal Heights

It would be remiss of me NOT to post this awesome find..

After leaving Blackmarket Bakery, KD needed to drop something off at a local Fed Ex and in doing so, we traversed down Felton Street to get back to the freeway...

Stops #2, 3, & 4 - Brunch @ Et Voila French Bistro, Coffee @ Hawthorn and dessert @ Black Market Bakery

Another downpour occurred while en route to Normal Heights. We made it safely, thanks to TORC's calm driving skills.

I got splashed while taking this full on shot of the Jimi Hendrix mural, near the corner of 30th and Ohio Street...

Coffee revisits: Cafe Virtuoso, Hawthorn, Moniker and Butler's

Just a consolidationm post of recent revisits to various coffee places...

Cafe Virtuoso in Barrio Logan is one of our favorites.

You may want to try this place in the near future especially since it is literally a few steps away from the new (and not yet built or opened) Roscoe's Chicken and Waffle...

The Incredible Cheesecake Company revisits

We didn't have to walk too far to get here...

It was good since we parked right around the corner.

Thank goodness I found my coupon so we could make use of it today...

Ch-ch-changes...in North Park + Poke One n Half + Dark Horse & the Prince mural once again!

My sister called me up earlier today wanting to have lunch. TC was off early from practice so off to North Park we went. Apparently, there is a newish poke place there now..

My nephew drove and parked near this wall (the "North Park" mural on the side of a furniture store).

The blank slate straight ahead used to have street art on it...

"Dearly Beloved" Prince mural, Normal Heights

Over on Adams Avenue...

a few steps away from the Normal Heights sign was...

Brunch @ Hanna's Gourmet + lemonade coffee @ Hawthorn

Yesterday Bert and I had some free time....

TC was once again, doing her volunteering gig so off to breakfast we went...

Blackmarket Bakery fail, so Plan B - Return to Antique Row Cafe, Normal Heights

I read online that Blackmarket had their soft opening yesterday. Since I was not able to go, I thought we could go there early on Saturday...

Their website lists their hours at 7 am - 7 pm.

We found out it was not to be...

S3 Coffee fail, so Plan B was take the long way to Subterranean Coffee Lounge

 I felt like a doofus...

Assuming that S3 Coffee was open on Sundays for some reason. I could have checked the four letter site and gotten my answer right then and there, but no.

The dark interior told us the same.  We drove all the way out here and our original plan for coffee was dashed, But not to worry since Plan B was up my sleeve...

Farewell to the Ice Cream Man @ Mariposa

Last week I got a sad text from Cathy of mmm-yoso.

Mr. Dick Van Ransom-Magana, owner of Mariposa Ice Cream in Normal Heights had passed away...

Antique Row Cafe with MFH + Prince sidewalk tribute chalk art

In keeping with my birthday month celebration...

I met up with my good friend MFH for breakfast in the Normal Heights area (although Yelp lists the location as "University Heights")...

to a restaurant neither of us had tried before on a stretch of Adams Ave known as Antique Row...

Sabuku Sushi

It was the day before Valentine's and we just enjoyed our coffee mocktails a few doors down at Hawthorn...

After waking past this painted utility box, we looked to the right...

and thought we would stop in for a few rolls...

The Milk Bar + coffee from Streetcar, 2nd dessert @ Mariposa & more...

During Spring break I took TC and  friend out to lunch and dessert. Lunch was pretty basic (sushi at Junz). TC had been wanting to go to this new place ever since reading "Ms. Darlene's" Zagat article about flavored milks.

Then when we saw photos from "Ms. Kirbie" and "Ms. Mary", we HAD to go...

Return to Hawthorn Coffee

Yesterday, we dropped off TC to go on a retreat with her youth group. It was right after school so we had the whole afternoon and weekend ahead of us. We had to circle around the block a few times before finally finding parking near a cremation place (yeah, wtf).

I was so glad it was a Friday...

Glo mural in Normal Heights

Mural by artist Gloria Muriel (aka Glo) as seen on Black Friday....

(as seen in my post, "En route to Normal Heights with commentary" Nov 2015)

during our foray to Golden Hill earlier and Normal Heights later that day...