My Ongoing Love Affair with Old Town Temecula

I will be so sad when this school year ends and our younger daughter won't be going to school in Old Town Temecula anymore.

It has been so much fun having her enrolled at Kid's World. We live closer to their second location (near Van Avery Prep and Hillcrest on Santiago) but I opted for the Old Town location instead because....well, it's Old Town!

Some of the highlights of being in Old Town several times a week with a preschooler have been:

* strolling down 2nd to MsChevious Boutique to check out what the mannequins are wearing (outfits changed daily)

* sampling old timey candy at the Sweet Shop

* picking her up early from school to have lunch on the patio at Palumbo's or Soro's

* shopping for fun girly home decor and crafty items at Farmer's Wife

I also happen to have a wonderful mechanic at Valley Auto Werkes, which is in...Old Town. He's right near CM School Supply and Campini's, and I just discovered that there is a gun store in the commercial space being Valley Auto Werkes.

No more boring waiting in the "customer lounge" while they are working on my car.

For instance, the other day, my car was making a weird noise (which the mechanic later identified as "metal on metal" in the rear brakes; uh oh! Glad I didn't decide to "fix it" by just turning the radio up louder.)

He needed it for a few hours so I ambled down Old Town Front Street, window shopping along my way to Cafe Bravo, which was hopping! I thought I'd stumbled in during a rush but it never slowed down. I sat there for almost three hours, just people watching. Many Old Town folks consider Cafe Bravo like a second office, and people were having business meetings, signing leases, working with their graphic artists, discussing school fundraisers, having post-yoga lattes, or simply hanging out listening to music (there was a violin/accordion jam session on the outside patio.)

Oh, and a quick Old Town tip: the newfangled, beautiful, brand new City Hall has restrooms. Just in case.