For the third year in a row my friends and I rode our bikes to Old Town San Diego for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. The first year we found it by accident, as we were just on a bike ride and decided to go to Old Town for tacos and found the big street fair. This year we opted to go on Saturday the 4th because the weather was predicted to be warm and sunny and on the 5th they predicted rain.
We wanted to get more biking in for exercise, so we took a roundabout route to Old Town by exploring more of the streets in Mission Hills. There are always some really nice houses to look at with well maintained yards, but this year the house the stuck out was the one pictured above with a huge spider on the garage roof. Not sure if they just forgot to take it town after Halloween last year or if it is up there all year. I don't like spiders so I'm glad I'm not that persons neighbor.
Once in Old Town we locked up our bikes and walked around for a while before looking for beer and food. They had this usual street lined with low-riders, which even though I'm not a big fan of, I admire the work that the owners put into their cars to make them lift up and down and even bounce. Other attractions to see included people playing football (soccer), which I had no interest to watch.
This small, stuffed man was in front of one of the low-riders. After walking around for a while we headed to the "usual" bar and ordered a round of margaritas. They tasted good after the bike ride there. The weather kept changing, going from warm and sunny to cold, cloudy and windy, but it all felt good to me.
Then we went on a search for food and went back to a small stand we found last year that had really good carnitas. I ordered two since they were small, and due to lack of any place to sit and eat along the street we ate our tacos over a trash can along the street. We were hungry and weren't worried about looking like some homeless people. Then more walking, past the stage where this band was playing, but didn't stop to listen.
We then went into another restaurant for a round of beers and to sit down to relax. They wanted the drinkers to go out back to the patio, but we sat at a table inside and service was very slow, but the waiter was also obviously not happy we ordered no food. Oh well. He still got paid and got a tip.
Somehow it was already getting "late", as in 4:00, but we wanted to ride home before it got colder. First we walked around to let the food and beer settle as we had a long, steep hill to ride up. We visited a museum where I took a photo of these "dolls".
Then we found a petting zoo which was really busy. I had to laugh at the "Enter at your own Risk" sign with a small goat below it. I know some of the animals can bite if you don't feed them right, but really?
So the ride home took us up Juan Street, a very long and steep road up to Mission Hills. Once again I made it all the way up without stopping, using the "granny" gear. Once everyone made it to the top we took a more direct route back home and proceeded to relax. I ended the night by watching Ironman 2, so now I can see Ironman 3.
Today is the real Cinco de Mayo, but I plan on staying home (after my trip to the gym) and relaxing.
