Q&A: Who do you count on? Caleb mostly.

soaps, succulents, and scarecrows

I have a step counting app on my phone and it comes with the ability for random people, like a guy named Volcano, to challenge me to get 50,000 steps in seven days. I’m currently in the lead by 12,945.

a Bad Onion and Frankentina

The kindergarten teacher, Tina, invited me to carpool with her and Jorge, my co-worker, to a fall festival in either Escondido or Encinitas (possibly both if she’d had more time) and if Jorge hadn’t been 42 minutes late.

view from brunch

She drove us to The Farm Stand West and I tried some Kyoho grapes, a peach slice, a carrot cake sample, and an ounce of pomegranate orange juice. We walked out to the pumpkin patch, but not for picking, only pictures.

Pumpkin and Spice

Next was the Lexus Dealership of Escondido, but we weren’t there for the shiny cars and cookie smells. We went to Vintana Wine + Dine for their cucumber water and their eggs on toast with sriracha hollandaise and side of asparagus with garlic herb potatoes.

sunset over downtown

I got home at 2:30 and we had leftovers for dinner three hours later so we could go to the South Park Walkabout to play pinball, pet dogs, try Whalebird Kombucha, and sample Fernside trail mix — spicy fried almonds, Chex, gummy bears, and chilli-lime chickpeas.

South Park

We drove through North Park and then to Balboa Park where we wondered to the Spreckels Organ Pavilion to join in the Festival of Lights ceremony and find the many booths selling clothes, jewelry, and food. The line for parathas was the shortest.

Festival of Lights

We had planned on walking one of the trails in the dark but didn’t mind the change of plans and will cross the Cabrillo Bridge before trekking back to the car that has four books inside that I picked up during the walkabout.

free books