When my kids were younger we'd have movie nights with popcorn and pizza and sodas and usually about 3 movies. Friday nights in pajamas. When we had a particularly scary or sad movie, something that left you affected, we'd make sure we saw it early in the film festival, just to make sure we could show a fun movie after it to help avoid bad dreams. It never failed. We'd watch "Rear Window" or "Of Mice And Men", and as soon as the credits started rolling, someone said, "I need a Disney Movie". And we'd choose something fluffy to cut the tension. It could have been Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, not necessarily from the Disney Studios, but the idea was the same. Follow "The Color Purple" with "The Apple Dumpling Gang". Follow "The Mission" with "Rat Race"
After going to Mexico, I needed a Disney Movie.
The day started out all right. We traveled to Old Town in San Diego with the intent of picking up the trolley there. This would have worked if we found trolley parking there. We hung out in Old Town and dipped candles and drank dandelion and burdock sodas and had a $2.99 breakfast at O'Hungry's.
From there, we went to Seaport Village. Odd little mall with sock stores and music box stores. Not much going on there but a sad merry-go-around that wished it lived at the zoo. We parked there, validated parking and then boarded the San Diego Trolley to the border.
I had some pretty basic expectations of Avenida Revolucion in Tijuana. I'd been there many times as a kid, and knew it would be kitschy and loud and have leather jackets and poorly built marionettes. We only planned to spend a couple hours buying tchotchkes, and head back. We were going on foot to reduce the time spent in line crossing the border and it would be fun.
So, we show up at the border and walk right in. The guy at the visitors center was great. He really tried to get us to go to the part of town with the museums. It sounded wonderful, but we didn't really plan to spend that kind of time, so off to Avenida Revolucion. On the way, there were shops and dentists and pharmacies, and friendly people saying "Welcome to Tijuana! Please look in my shop." Everyone was friendly and offered great deals. We talked to someone about every 50 yards. This was fun... at first... but that 50 yard space turned into 30 then 20 then 10. By the time we reached Avenida Revolucion it was 2 guys at every store front. By invisible vote, Emily and I decided not to visit a store where someone tried to make us come in. We walked the full length of the shopping street to the Jai Alai arena without going into a single shop. I really wanted to look at earrings and leather jackets and
huaraches, but no go.... We were both tired and stressed, and had to make our way back through this
gauntlet.
There were shops I wanted to see. There used to be an underground bazar that opened up to La Especial restaurant and a classy figurine shop with Lladros and an upscale department store. None of these places were still there. Instead, everything was boarded up. We started back down the street and hit Cesaer's Hotel. Emily, reading the sign posted over the door, said "'Home of the Cesaer Salad', yeah right". I said, "It really is, and we're going in there." The prices were in pesos so I was a bit unnerved with whether the would take our American dollars, and I forgot to look at the exchange rate so I had no idea how much 80 pesos would turn out to be, but, no matter. We were there. I ordered a Cesaer Salad with no croutons and watched carefully as the waiter mixed the anchovies and garlic together with mustard, egg yolk and olive oil. Romaine leaves and cheese and yum. Salad and soda bolstered my courage. Then the bill came and I felt even better. A $20 bill covered lunch and a tidy tip.
Off we went and were able to make it into 2 shops. One with blouses and another with high quality hand made figurines. We spoke to the owner of the figurine shop for about 10 minutes while he wrapped up our packages and he blamed American news for the shops closing up. We told him how we didn't walk into the stores because of the aggressive "invitations". He said that a third of the shops were closed and everyone still in business was desperate. It was very painful to watch this once vibrant, albeit tacky, tourist mecca dry up.
On the way back to the border crossing we paid attention to how many shops and street front stands were shut down. It was amazing and disheartening. We walked in silence. There was plenty to say, but it wasn't the time.
We waited 2 hours in the border crossing line, showed our passport, got on the trolley. Gradually, as the demographic in the trolley got down to just us, we talked about the experience and the general depression of the place. Next time we take a cab to the museums.
On the other side of TJ, our Disney Movie was Seaport Village. This place is totally made up and has nothing but over priced, silly things. It was pleasant, and had twinkle lights, no history, no culture, just mediocre tourist mall. And it was perfect. We saw the sun set there and paid our parking and went back to the hotel.
On the way, we saw Belmont Park's wooden roller coaster, and we begrudgingly decided we really ought to ride it. We parked, walked 50 yards, purchased a ticket, walked right on to the coaster and road it. Best Roller Coaster EVER! Within 10 minutes we were back in the car. Within an hour we were eating shrimp cocktail in the hotel and watching The Voice.
We would be leaving San Diego in the morning.
