Everyone in Southern California has their own story to share about Thursday’s widespread blackout.
Ours involved a trip to Viejas Casino — one of the few places in San Diego that still had power. One quick cellphone charge later (reminder to self: must get a car charger for my iPhone), we went back home and explored a bit of Hillcrest by foot in total darkness. All the streetlights were out and the only structures projecting any light were UCSD Medical Center across the canyon and Donut Star on Washington Street.
Donut Star was doing brisk business. When they say they’re open 24/7, they mean it! It became a place for locals to hang out and chat.
Power went back online shortly before midnight. We lost no food during this blackout — one plus of having a nearly empty refrigerator near the end of the week and life went back to normal.
My Burning Kitchen 
Wow, Donut Star was open!!!!! Did you get a shave ice? 🙂
Unfortunately no shave ice — the ice shaver would require energy. But there was plenty of donuts!
Gotta love Donut Star! We live in the same neighborhood, it was great to walk around the hood and talk to everyone…… and the moon and the stars were fantastic!
I absolutely loved how quiet the neighborhood was that night. I wish we would have nights like that once a month — although a planned outage would be ideal.
Trip to Viejas during the blackout? It took me 2 hrs to get home… so beat just trying to get home. We just grilled some salmon, chicken and sugar snap peas.
Yes! The trip was to charge my iPhone since they were the only place that had electricity in San Diego. A few outlets were available by slot machines so we played a (and won a tiny bit) while my cellphone charged.
Yikes! Two hours to get home is brutal. Hope the rest of the evening was restful.
We were initially worried about the blackout — it was our anniversary and with the baby and all, we were a little stressed.
But, we went to the pool to cool off (baby just got big enough for the swim diapers we bought the weekend prior) and all of our condo complex neighbors were hanging out. It eventually turned into a big party with one neighbor, a professional musician, playing bongos and our other neighbors, who happened to be caterers, bringing out this great pasta dish with Spanish-style chorizo sausage. Of course, much alcohol was consumed by many!
In the end, we got to meet many of our neighbors and enjoyed an impromptu anniversary party.
That’s sounds like a great evening. I loved how a lot of people had similar stories about slowing down despite the blackout to talk to other people and enjoy the night. Glad you had an enjoyable time. Happy Belated Anniversary!
Thanks, Darlene! It was really fun — and the baby slept in his sling the entire time, bongos and all. We couldn’t have had a better time (although my husband paid for it in the morning, like many blackout partiers, I’m sure).
It took us a while to figure out that island of light we could see in the distance from Mt. Soledad was UCSD Medical Center. Everything around it was black. Thought about going down to PB to snap some shots, then decided not to. Love yours. Remind me a bit of Hopper’s “Night Owls.” Very cool.
Do you mean “Nighthawks?” I mix up my birds too and had to look it up especially since I own a small reproduction that my brother gave me. I love that piece and now like the photo now that you mention there’s a resemblance. Thanks, Kelly!
How did they have lights? That’s cool.
The owners had a small battery-operated lantern at the counter to illuminate the store. It was quite a sight in the dark!