A truly special part of visiting San Diego was the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and to meet new friends.

We got to spend quality time with our good friends Gloria and Michael, daughter Jocelyn, and pups Chana and Mila.

Gloria and Michael “met” Island Girl for the first time at Mission Bay RV Park when they joined us for dinner one evening.  It’s always fun to show our friends how comfy Island Girl is, and we had a great evening together.

Reconnecting with them was a wonderful gift; we visited their lovely home and got together around town several times.  It was a special time with special people.

We also met some lovely folks at our RV Park in Mission Bay.   We hung out a couple of times with Doug and Trisha from Alberta, Canada and hope to visit them this summer.

Their buddies, Tim and Becky from Portland, were camping alongside them.  Alas, the day I invited them over for happy hour, they were headed out.  Becky’s quote “for people that don’t have much that they have to do, we all sure are busy” is one for the books.  We also hope to connect with them on our way up the Oregon coast.

Hector and I took some group dancing lessons at Dance for 2.  It was a pretty small group which was nice.  And we loved our instructors.  Jill is a special education teacher by day and a wonderful lady. Serena (not pictured) is a champion Latin dancer.

I also took Zumba lessons at Party Fitness, a studio dedicated to Zumba.  This was my effort to counter eating all of the good ethnic and fattening foods we discovered in the city.  They were super fun classes with different great instructors.  Here I am with one of my favorites, Keila.

More fun times were had with two new friends, Jeanette and Dennis, whom we met when we hired them to help us improve our blog.  We had an awesome brunch together, during which Jeanette prepared the best Bloody Marys we’d ever had.

Later that day, Dennis and Jeanette introduced us to some new areas of Balboa Park and to the Blind Lady Alehouse, a great spot for pizza and beer.  Then at dusk, they drove us around to various intown neighborhoods so Hector could take some photographs of the great neon neighborhood signs.

One morning we also hosted Gloria and another friend, Carmen. who was visiting from Washington D.C.  It was such a lovely reunion for Gloria, Carmen and I, who’d not seen each other for quite awhile.  Since it was brunch time, it was also time for more Bloody Marys, and time to try Jeanette’s “recipe” on our friends.  Success!

The friendships that we rekindle and the new friends that we make are one of the true treasures of our journey.  Lucky us!

~ Brenda