Bao, with Birthday Cake in his face. Who could resist a soft squeaky toy that says Birthday Boy on it? Especially since Bao didn't get to have a proper birthday cake, this year.
Bao "took the cake" at Lucky Dog, an award-winning pet boutique in San Diego's Gaslamp District. It's a fascinating area, and features San Diego's oldest building -- an unprepossessing wooden house that's now a museum, but was closed because it was Monday and museums are always closed on Mondays. The house is all that survived of that first attempt to found a settlement here, which failed so miserably that the area came to be known as Rabbitville, because it was only inhabited by rabbits.
Then along came Andrew Horton, with tons of money. He bought 800 acres of waterfront land (at 27 cents per acre) and built a $50,000 wharf. Then he divided it all into commercial and residential lots, and sold it. Then he founded a bank. You could do this sort of thing back then, if you had tons of money.
Gradually, the commercial district moved north and the prostitutes and gamblers moved in. Wyatt Earp ran three gambling saloons here. Now it's all shops and restaurants, and a great place to browse. (Especially if you have tons of money)
So there it is. We're packing up and heading home. But don't go away -- next week, we're off to Alaska.