Holiday drinks roundup

A few more days and 2017 will be over...

Which brings me to this compilation post featuring holiday drinks...

Churros el Tigre, San Ysidro

Since we were in the area, I headed down Dairy Mart Road and hung a left at Camino de la Plaza. I wasn't sure if it would lead me to the outlets down south. While on the way, TC and I could see the hills of Tijuana...

I hadn't ever driven this stretch of road before to get to the outlet but luckily it led me to the right place. I wanted us to try a snack at this kiosk...

Fish Mart

Lunch today was at a place I'd seen before but never paid much attention to.

My hairstylist recommended it as well as my sister...

Lunch at Kanpai & drinks at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

During Spring Break, TC and I went to one of our favorite places...

located at the corner of Third and Palomar in west Chula Vista, good ole Kanpai...

La Bodega, San Ysidro

Before heading down to the San Ysidro Outlet, I took a detour on a street that ran parallel to the I-5...

I guess I never noticed the store before but something caught my eye as I sped past, then I recognized the name of the place...

More Kinder Sorpresas at Neighbors

A few days ago, I was back in the old 'hood doing some errands after an appointment. This is the east end of Del Sol which is around the around the corner from Dennery Road (home of the Otay Mesa Walmart and AMC)...

See the bridge? That's the 805. The road never used to go beyond that. That's where my good ole' dad taught me how to drive eons ago. Until they built the Walmart in the area that we used to call "The Pits" (where BMX'ers and ATV'ers would go offroading), the road was a dead end. They had to extend the road so it could connect to the new shopping area and also to new housing that was built in the Pits.

Anyhew, I took the scenic route to get to San Ysidro because I wanted to see if I would get lucky again...

Neighbors Supermarket

Before we left this stripmall, I felt compelled to check out this local market...

I'd never heard of Neighbors before and wanted to give it a quick looksee before heading home with our drinks and tostilocos snack...

El Mango Manila

As we traveled down Picador, we hung a right on Del Sol, then another left on Beyer. This was another place I hadn't driven to in decades. The bakery was supposed to be in this strip mall off of Dairy Mart Road...literally across the trolley tracks.

As we drove around the parking lot, we couldn't locate Panaderia Gonzalez, except for an empty storefront where it should have been. Well, that didn't deter us from making the most of our trip. Asides from the Neighbors Supermarket that anchors this lot, we thought we would stop by this juice place...

Wetzel's Pretzels

We were down at the San Ysidro outlets earlier today...

I wanted to "correct" the spelling and grammar on the sign..."Squozen". Really?

Auntie's garden...

These pics were taken the side yard from my auntie's house (my sis's MIL) in San Ysidro. Like most Filipino moms, she has a green thumb. I'm not sure what these were called but I know I've seen these before at the San Diego Zoo. I remember seeing the thorny stem but the flowers were red instead of yellow.

She also had what they call a "money plant". It's a succulent and you can break off pieces and replant them. Having one of these is supposed to bring good luck...

South Bay Food Crawl - San Ysidro: McDonald's Massacre Memorial & the Southwestern College Higher Education Center

Although my post names include "South Bay Food Crawl", we only hit up about 5 places for actual food. The trivia hunter in me also threw in a few non-food places as well. Dennis actually joked about visiting a gun or pawn shop. Hey, if you're serious dude, there's a few of those down south that we can "check out"!

So, after the Wing, we headed south on Dairy Mart Road to San Ysidro Blvd.

For those of you that are native San Diegans, you may remember this tragedy, the San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre...

On July 18, 1984, a crazed gunman, James Huberty opened fire at a San Ysidro McDonald's. He killed 21 people (ranging in age from a baby to young kids, teens and older adults) before he was shot and killed by  S.W.A.T. I remember it was a hot day that summer. My brother and two of his friends had gone bike riding. When they came home, one of the moms said, "Don't go out! There's a crazy guy shooting up a McDonald's!". Sure enough, on the news were vivid helicopter images of the McDonald's (not the one near us on Palm) in San Ysidro. We were not allowed to go out and instead were glued to the TV watching the events unfold.

One of our good friends, Tatonka (who lived in San Ysidro at the time) recently told Bert that he WAS there at McD's that day biking with friends, except he left one hour before it happened. When he arrived home, his father asked him where he and his friends went and did a gruff headcount, saw that everyone was there and calmly went back into the house. I had chills when Bert told me about this.

After the McDonald's tragedy, Joan Kroc, the widow of Ray Kroc ordered the restaurant to be torn down. Nearly a decade later, in 1990, the Southwestern College Higher Education Center was built along with a memorial sculpture dedicated to those whose lives were lost in the tragedy. There are 21 hexagonal columns, each representing a victim. The varying heights represent the different ages of the victims.
It was really a sobering moment to stand here and reflect upon the terribly sad past of this venue. However, it was also uplifting to see a center of higher education especially in this impoverished community. I think it is a fitting tribute to have a satellite campus of SWC at the site.

The center even had some painted utility boxes!

I liked this one with the San Diego Trolley!

Articles about the San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre and it's aftermath:
"20 Years Later, San Ysidro Massacre Remembered" (North County Times)
"Teenage cook shot by Huberty in 1984 now a San Diego Police Officer" (S.D. Union Tribune)
"Slaughter at McDonald's changed how police operate" (CNN)

Articles about the Memorial:
After a Long Wair, Monument is Dedicated at Massacre Site (L.A. Times)
"Bouquets on memorial mark 25th anniversary of massacre" (Signon San Diego)

Wanting to end on a happier note, we headed up  the 5 for our last stop...