San Diego: Our Last Full Day Here

Early in the morning we headed over to nearby La Jolla for a little sea kayaking tour.  Only two other people were signed up for the same tour time.  Our guide, Mike, was an amical fellow with more than a few stories of adventure.  He claimed that he helped a baby whale find its way out of a tough spot just the week before and also said that there was a sea lion in the bay named "Rachel" who made an appearance every time he guided a tour.

I started to feel a a little nauseous while we waited for the other people on our tour to get changed and I began to slightly regret my choice of waffle-bacon eggs Benedict for breakfast at a nearby diner.  The bay was experiencing a King Tide this morning so Mike told us to focus on paddling as hard as we could past the surf and into the open water.  He did a pretty good job of directing us in our tandem kayaks and soon enough we were coasting on the waves.

We encountered a few dolphins and many sea birds.  If the tide had been calmer we may have been able to explore the bay's natural basalt caves but the waters were simply too rough for that.  In fact, when we paddled closer to the cave side of the bay the swells were so high that the man in the other tandem kayak got sick.

According to our guide we were as far as two miles off the coast during our tour.

A sea lion that may have been the mysterious "Rachel"

Kelp!

Next, we drove about 20 minutes over to the community of Mira Mesa, the site of today's operation for Green Flash Brewing Co.  We spent a little over an hour trying many samples of their beer and enjoyed nearly every single one.  I really really miss west coast beer.  After, we made a pilgrimage to In-N-Out so that Hans could have The Experience.

We were kind of looking for things to do at this point so we went back to Balboa Park at Hans' suggestion and went to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum and had fun looking at all of the painstaking detail.  There was one room that was kind of an explosion of noise, color, and pop culture.

Walking through the park later we wandered past the Japanese Friendship Garden, a holdover from San Diego's 1915 Panama-California Exposition 

In the evening Hans and I met up with K again at Border X Brewing in the Barrio Logan neighborhood of the city.  K had told me about their horchata beer and boy did it not disappoint!  We had such a good time drinking in their beer garden and talking under the lunar eclipse overhead that we lost track of time.  Even the employees forgot about us and finally had to kick us out after they had been closed for twenty minutes!

Hans and I hadn't eaten dinner earlier in the evening so we made a quick take-out stop at Lola 55, scurried back to the hotel, and scarfed down some tacos.

That's about when my trouble began.  Unfortunately, our weekend of hedonism caught up to me and I spent the night (and next day) feeling really sick.  It was so bad that the next morning when we drove over to Coronado I could barely function.  I felt a little better after sitting on the beach while Hans went for a walk but soon after I was passed out in the rental car.

K came to my absolute rescue and offered her guest bed for the afternoon so we hung out at her place until it was time to go to the airport.  After I napped for a bit we had such a lovely and low-key visit.

We made it back home without much drama but we were glad for a day of recovery.  It took me a few extra days to feel 100 percent.  San Diego is definitely a city we wouldn't mind revisiting!

Coronado Beach

San Diego skyline

San Diego: A Busy Day with Perfect Weather

This morning the air outside was crystal clear and a little crisp but it quickly warmed up as Hans and I found our way to Little Italy's Saturday Farmer's Market.  K was going to meet us there so we checked out some of the stands while we waited.  I ate some local oysters, both raw and grilled (with garlic and chipotle butter).  All were delicious.  After K joined us I was still hungry so I bought a samosa filled with chicken-tikka (more yum).  We tried a selection of hot sauces at one stand and sampled fancy salt at another.

After, K took me to one of her favorite stores in the area.  My 16-year-old self would have dreamed of being able to shop at this place!  They had cool and macabre home wares but also very naughty ones.  We played around with their collection of boy/girl scents.

Our next stop was Balboa Park and we had a really good time of just walking around and talking.  The old buildings from the 1915 World's Fair really fascinated me.

K dropped us off at Ballast Point Brewing so that Hans and I could make the pilgrimage.  Despite having a cavernous tap room with both indoor and outdoor space, all seating was occupied.  It made carrying my sampler flight a little difficult but after having to stand for a little bit the crowds started to disperse.  This is when my longing for west coast beer really hit me.  We've got a decent brewing scene in Maryland (and it's still growing) but the west is ground zero for the US microbrew explosion, and it shows.  My favorite sampling was their peach kolsch.  Hans enjoyed their Mocha Marlin Porter.

One of my favorite things was all of the art by Paul Elder on display.

Paul does most of Ballast Point's label art.

We would have liked to check out Cabrillo National Monument at the end of the day but the wonderful shutdown meant that it was closed.  Instead, we drove through Fort Rosencrans and stopped along the main road to take in the view from the cemetery, which sits across Point Loma's peninsula.  On the eastern side we could see San Diego.  The western side overlooks the Pacific Ocean.  I can't think of a more peaceful resting place.

Along the way back to downtown is Sunset Cliffs park.  We weren't going to be totally denied some beach access!  The sun was rapidly setting and the tide was starting to come in but there was enough time to scurry down the metal staircase and play around in the tide pools with our camera.  We watched the sunset from back on top of the cliffs and then departed for some ramen.

San Diego: Ships, Tacos, and Catching Up Over Brews

We landed in San Diego early in the morning and went straight from the rental car compound to the USS Midway right before they opened.  There was a bit of a line at the ticket booth so while we waited I purchased two passes, which actually saved us a couple of dollars!  As soon as the museum began to accept visitors we ducked out of the ticket line and went inside.  Like a boss.

I can't believe we spent three whole hours there!  The Midway is definitely a fascinating carrier and a fun step back in time for us 80's kids who remember watching the Gulf War unfold on the news when we were in grade school.

Hans' favorite WWII aircraft (F4U Corsair)

The hangar deck has one of the big elevators lowered 

so that you can see under the flight deck

You can explore fairly extensively below deck but my favorite part was the galley!

The five little shapes on this [replica] navy helicopter are for 

each of the Apollo capsule recoveries it made!

Up in the island.  This is the part of the ship that requires a docent.

It was impressive watching our guide, a skinny guy in his 80's, 

scurrying up and down the ladders ahead of us.

The War Room and other strategic centers 

Tactical deck sweeper

From the deck of Midway you can see another aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt.  The most exciting moment, however, was when a brand-spankin' new (relatively speaking) guided missile destroyer sailed into the bay and right along our position!  The USS Michael Monsoor is the second of three of its kind and hadn't even been commissioned when we saw it (the ceremony happened later on Jan 26th).

We think this was a retirement ceremony

After eating a light lunch we walked around in order to keep the creeping jet lag at bay.  After checking in at our hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter we walked to the next neighborhood over and met up with my friend, K!  I hadn't seen her in a really long time, which was the main reason Hans and I booked a weekend getaway in San Diego.  We met up at the taproom for Duck Foot Brewing Co. and I have to say they had some really creative beers.  My favorite was their coconut IPA.  It was the perfect mix of delicious coconut flavor without being sweet, aided by the clean IPA finish.  Oh, man, I wish I could have brought some home!  Next, K took us to one of her favorite taco places in town, Lola 55.  We were in taco nirvana!  Hans and I had to leave at around 7 pm because we had reservations at a popular bar.  I was so glad that we had to be there earlier on a Friday night because by this point our poor tired brains were running on fumes since we had a 6 am flight on the east coast.

San Diego is a definitely a haven for beer lovers but it also has a thriving cocktail bar scene.  I like me a good craft cocktail!  One of the fun types of establishments in the city are throwbacks to old speakeasies and I opted for a place with an entrance that's so hidden Hans thought I had lost my mind when I took him through a restaurant and into the back by the bathrooms.  Heh heh.  The Noble Experiment definitely has one of the coolest atmospheres I've ever seen and their drinks were legit.  Was it all absurdly expensive?  Definitely.  As an experience though it was totally fun.

I ordered their "dealer's choice" drink.

Our server only had two questions for me:

What poison?

Refreshing or direct?

I asked for the bartender to serve me gin, directly,

and he presented me with a delicious martini.