Thursday, December 31, 2009

Imperial Beach Blues

What better place to ring out a dismal decade and ponder on the potential mishaps of the next than isolated Imperial Beach. Situated between the Tijuana estuary to the south and the Silver Strand to Coronado on the north, IB maintains a certain ragtag charm not wholly unlike a few other nostalgic San Diego beach enclaves. During the holiday festivities I accompanied El Guapo (who was a teenage resident here), K, and Swan to Ye Olde Plank Inn (daily 6AM-2AM) located directly across from the expansive playa. The Plank doesn't serve food so we all settled into pints at the "most south-westerly bar in the United States." Built in 1882 as a stable, and operated as a watering hole for the past 50 years, this is a place where we witnessed the barkeep phoning to have a regular (who had a passing resemblance to the late Capt. Lou) get picked up dead pissed shortly after our arrival at noon. Stepping back into the sunshine, we hit the next stop on our itinerary: the celestial and time-warped Stardust Donut Shop. Commanding a busy corner of CA 75 and 7th st. for the past 42 years is a spacewalk when you make the most asombroso (yet donut sized) cinnamon rolls in the known galaxy. The two gruff and gray haired hermanos (who I have dubbed team gemini) that run this stand may look a lot alike but can easily be told apart by a discerning eye. The 'short-order cook' looking gentleman (in this case Pollux) seems to manage the register and the tedious demands of human folk, while the more introverted and 'prog-rock' appearing fellow (in this case Castor) tends to the vats and overall quantum mechanics. As always, muchas gracias for your attention and to find out where we finally had our tasty almuerzo tune in next year to Comida Con Basura....(bzzzt).

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