As I was driving along University Avenue this evening, on my way home, I noticed 3 helicopters circling in the general direction of my house. My first thought was "Oh no, what has Alex done now?" Just kidding! But I was curious about the attention these helicopters were giving to the neighborhood. According to one local news station there was a hive of African killer bees and a few people had been stung and taken to the hospital. When reading this story, however, it believes some honey bees had interbred with Africanized killer bees. This all happened 2 blocks from our house so we're keeping our doors and windows closed for the time being.

Gio's is the new trendy spot in La Mesa to see and be seen. Tonight, after the farmer's market, we stopped to have a glass of wine and to see what the menu has to offer. Gio's has been open only a short while and they have not yet put up their sign. Looking at the building from across the street it looks very open and light. The front windows in the bar area roll up giving a great view of the street which is especially great on Thursday nights for the La Mesa Village Car Show.



Gio's serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a great wine selection. What's not on the menu is their wine and cheese plates, which is what we had. You can order a flight of wine from a particular region with a selection of cheeses and meats. The regions they cover are Latin America, Europe, France, Australia, and domestic. We had the European selection and asked for all white wines that fit in with our mood that afternoon - light and summery.



The platter was beautifully presented on a bamboo cutting board. There was a great selection of cheeses which were mostly English, some fresh fruit, and a selection of salami (salamis? Bookwomen, what would you say?).

Here's a view of the bar from our table

Today is my last day of vacation for the summer. At the beginning of summer I had so many vacation hours on the books that I decided to take every Friday off so I could enjoy a long weekend. Starting next week, after Labor Day, I go back to my regular schedule. School starts in a few weeks so I need to knuckle down an prepare for my new students.

The day got off to a good start - coffee on the patio, read the newspaper, did a few errands, and a bit of housework. It was a really hot/humid day so spent most of it relaxing and reading.

Around 3:30 we took off for the La Mesa Farmer's Market which is held 3:00 to 7:00pm every Friday. We are trying to buy local fruit and vegetables as much as possible and we really enjoy strolling around the market. Last week we bought some fabulous heirloom tomatoes and we wanted to get some more today. Here are some photos to show you a little of the local scene starting with Alex picking out his peaches for the week and a fiddler keeping us entertained while we shop.



The farmer's market has such a festive feel about it - many of the vendors offer samples of their foods such as tomatoes, olive oils, nuts, and cheeses. It's so much fun taking in all the sights and sounds and the colors of the fruit and vegetables are amazing.



This week we bought peaches, tomatoes, white corn, green beans, a red leaf butter lettuce, and some kind of green squash. This should last us for several days.

Gosh! What a huge disappointment Trophy's was last Friday for our weekly happy hour. Charlie, Alex, and I were out as a family and decided on Trophy's because of it's sports theme - we thought Charlie would enjoy it. Happy hour is Monday thru Friday, 4-7pm and we arrived around 5pm. The place was pretty empty which is odd because it's in the middle of a shopping mall (Grossmont Plaza). Other bars in the mall are quite busy during happy hour.

First off, the happy hour menu was not particularly interesting and the only beers on special were Bud and Bud Lite. Although the online happy hour menu offers 7 items, the actual bar menu only offered 5. We ordered the cheesy fries which I thought were great, the french dip sliders and the mini cheese quesadillas. The filling in the sliders was dry and somewhat chewy and the au jus did not help much. The quesadillas were just boring. Still hungry but with no options that appealed to us on the happy hour menu we moved to the main menu. Charlie and I decided to split the lobster bisque and the Sante Fe quesadilla and Alex went for the soup (mushroom/artichoke) and sandwich (hot pastrami) combo. The bisque was returned after one taste each - not good. The quesadilla was loaded with chicken, green chiles, black beans and jack cheese and was pretty good - very filling. Alex's soup and sandwich were mediocre at best. I'm not into sports and the food was not very good so it's doubtful I'll ever go back.

I would like to point out that our server was very friendly and did not charge us for the bisque.