This morning we arrived at our 1-bedroom flat in San Diego’s Mission Hills neighbourhood, hosted by Kathleen and John (VRBO744061). Right from the moment we got out of our Uber and met Kathleen we were in love.

The neighbourhood is tranquil and beautiful, and the street on which the house itself is located is nestled between two “canyons”, creating one of the many, many hills characteristic of the area.

Access to the flat is down 34 stone steps, leading to an oasis of green.

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Turn the corner from the stairway, and…

Inside, it’s just as bright and beautiful, with a verdant colour scheme that flows throughout – thanks to textiles curated by Kathleen, who owns a business which specializes in them.

And then there’s the kitchen, equipped with everything you could wish for. While we were chatting with Kathleen on arrival, we happened to mention that in all our travels the one thing we repeatedly had to buy were sharp food prep knives. We also talked about the similarities between British Columbia and California’s recycling initiatives, and (related to that) how much we like the concept of Keurig coffee makers, but not the garbage they create – lamenting the fact that we no longer travel with our refillable Keurig-compatible pods. In under an hour, I had a text message that Kathleen had ordered knives and refillable pods from Amazon. They’ll be here tomorrow!

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Notice how the bedroom textiles match the living area, and the gorgeous dresser built into the half wall that overlooks the living area.

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The bathroom with its double vanities, huge shower, massive interior-lit closet with built-ins, and laundry closet are all equally nice. It’s going to be a pleasure to live here!

We’re also very fortunate (well, I did research pretty hard to ensure it would be this way) to be within a couple of blocks of transit, a huge VONS grocery store, lush green parks, and tons of restaurants. That latter feature made it easy for us to find a place for lunch. We ate at what Kathleen recommended as her favourite Mexican restaurant just a couple of blocks away: La Puerta.

After 24 days on board a cruise ship, eating restaurant food (some of it very good) every day, I can honestly say that our lunch today was the first time that I actually said OMG when taking my first bite. La Puerta’s al pastor fries are one of the best things I’ve ever tasted: fresh perfectly cooked skin-on fries, Cotija AND Jack cheeses, grilled onion and poblano, crema, guacamole, pico de gallo, cilantro, adobo pork, and grilled pineapple. Every…single…mouthful was a burst of sweet, spicy, and salty flavours.

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No, we didn’t finish it all. And yes, we did take a nice long walk. The walk led us to Pioneer Park, which will get a blog episode of its own once we’ve returned for a closer look.

After unpacking, hooking up our technology, and just plain lazing for a couple of hours, we headed off to the local VONS grocery store, a huge supermarket. Kathleen thoughtfully provided us with a canvas cart, knowing that we weren’t travelling with by car. (Did I mention she also welcomed us with a bottle of French rosé wine, and allowed us to drop off our luggage hours before regular check-in time? This is a place getting a 5+ star review!) Sadly, but no longer surprisingly, VONS had tons and tons of packaged and prepared foods, but a less than stellar fruit and vegetable section. We’ll have to check out the organic grocer and weekend markets for a better selection of fresh foods.What VONS do have is an excellent loyalty program and mobile app, which discounted today’s total order by just over 30% – a good thing since food prices here are even higher than in British Columbia.

The weather forecast here is for 5 days of rain starting on the day after next, and more of the flooding that San Diego experienced in January, so we may hunker down reading and cooking (and thus not blogging) if those predictions come true.

Tomorrow, though, we’ll get out and explore a bit more, and Ted can get started on taking more wonderful photos of our adventures.