Last week a picture of a house decorated as a tribute to Tony Gwynn went viral. The house is located in Chula Vista's Christmas Circle, a neighborhood of 55 houses that have a rare and extraordinary amount of Christmas spirit. Jonny and I went down with his family to conduct a walking tour of the circle.
Jonny hadn't been to the location since he was a youth and I had never been. As we approached the start of the circle at Whitney St./Mankato we saw lines of traffic. I highly recommend that you park nearby and walk into the neighborhood instead facing the gridlock. Road rage has been known to dampen your festive mood. We only walked a couple hundred yards to the entrance and from there it was easy going.
All the houses were dressed in holiday style. There weren't as many themes or novelty decorations that you'll see in other neighborhoods. The style here was classic, with C9 bulbs and tinsel. That's not to say they didn't have their fair share of inflatables and lasers, but in general it felt old school. We walked counter clockwise along the long end of the oval without seeing the Gwynn house. I wondered aloud to Jon whether this house was maybe off the circle and we wouldn't be able to find it. I 'twas then that I looked up and saw the illuminated number 19. There it was in all of its glory.
We stood out front and took pictures for about 15 minutes. You can skim through them in the gallery at the top of this post. It was a sight to see. If I sent out Xmas cards these would be them.
If you didn't see the update to our previous post, this is apparently Craig Rassmusen's house a former student-athlete player of Gwynn's at San Diego state. No wonder he has such reverence for his former coach.
I highly recommend taking a trip to Chula Vista to see the neighborhood sometime before Dec.26 between 5 to 10 pm, you won't regret it as long as you are able to avoid the traffic jam.
Merry Christmas!