San Diego - Day #1

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack! As always, I'm a busy lady and haven't made the time to blog that I should. Last weekend was very blog-worthy, though, so it deserves a recap.

For Sergej's birthday I surprised him with a trip to San Diego. My friend Laura also surprised her boyfriend with the trip. He and Sergej have birthdays just two weeks apart, so several months ago we booked the trip and started planning. I'm going to recap the trip and all the amazing food we ate in separate posts, because we ate that much food!

We left Denver early Friday morning, November 11th (and I could never thank my grandmother enough for watching Anna while we were gone.) We got to San Diego and retrieved our rental car close to lunch time. Since it was too early to check into our hotel, we headed to Mission Beach to stretch our toes in the sand and seek out some cheap eats. We found Roberto's Taco Shop, a taco shack right at the entrance to Mission Beach. Perfect! I can never eat enough tacos. I could literally eat a taco every day of my life and never be tired of them. Sergej and I both enjoyed fish taco platters and I can't describe how good they were. This is the type of food that's good to recharge in the middle of a day running around, or to end out a night of drinking. You know you crave greasy, hole-in-the-wall goodness after a few drinks! And for about $6, I was impressed. Apparently they are open 24 hours, which means it's a good thing I live nowhere close!

After lunch, we cruised over to La Jolla because I refuse to visit San Diego without seeing the sea lions and harbor seals doing their thing. There is a beach in La Jolla called Children's Pool Beach. A sea wall was built to protect children from strong waves and currents, but sea lions and seals figured out that the sea wall also makes a great wave-free beach to lounge on and catch up on predator-free sleep. There are always people protesting use of the beach by humans and they put up signs that trick tourists into thinking they're not allowed on the beach. You're absolutely allowed on the beach, but it's best to keep a polite distance between yourself and the wildlife, especially during breeding season. I'm an animal lover, but it's my opinion that the sea lions are well aware that humans are around and just don't care. We didn't go down on the beach this visit, opting instead to get our viewing in from the sea wall. However, I have gone down on the beach to respectfully view the sea life and I would do it again any day, protestors or not. I recommend at least walking by and taking in the view. There aren't many places that you can still get up close and personal with such amazing animals. If you wish, there is always someone selling "Save the Whales" and "Save the Beach" shirts as well. Take one home with you! (I didn't.)



One of the lazy seals at Children's Pool Beach.



Coastline just south of Children's Pool Beach, La Jolla

 After we got our critter and beach fix, we wandered around La Jolla for a bit and grabbed a beer at La Jolla Brew House. We arrived at the end of San Diego Beer Week and most of the restaurants and breweries were featuring new and rare beers. To be honest, the service at La Jolla Brew House was terrible. It took us 10 or 15 minutes to get a round of beers, and there were maybe three or four other tables in the entire establishment. Once our waitress finally returned with our beer, she told us that one of the kegs had to be changed. But then it took another 10 minutes or so for her to close out our tab. The women's bathroom was nothing to brag about, with a complete lack of toilet paper and hand towels. Still, the beer was delicious and I got the sense that it would be a great place to hang out in the evenings on the patio near the fire table. I tried the Bear Republic Racer X, a pale ale that comes in a little strong at 9%. Being partial to pale ales, I have to say it was awesome! Ironically, they were featuring a few beers from Colorado's own Avery and Great Divide brewers. The four of us all tried a local brew, though. Duh.

After lunch, the beach, and a brew, we finally headed to our hotel to check in. We stayed at the Travelodge in Mission Valley and it was exactly what I expected it to be. It was a budget hotel without any bells and whistles, but it was comfortable for our weekend away. The few interactions I had with staff were pleasant. Aside from Sergej and I freaking out over some sort of millipede that hitched a ride on our suitcases or shoes into our room on the second day, we enjoyed our stay. We didn't take advantage of the pool, but we used the hot tub once and were glad we took the time to do so. The location may not be on the beach, but it's right off the highway with easy access to anywhere you'd need to go, plus it's a short distance from a Target which Sergej and I ran to twice thanks to some clothing mishaps!

Our first night out in San Diego was spent in Ocean Beach and our first stop was South Beach Bar & Grille. Feeling very adventurous, I ordered the table an appetizer of fried baby octopus...and then I didn't eat any of it. Apparently when you order something like fried baby octopus, you have to remember that it's going to come out looking like, well, fried baby octopus. Due to my love of octopi and all things miniature, i just couldn't stomach the thought of eating them. So, Ben and Sergej devoured most of them. (Sergej later divulged to me that he probably wouldn't have eaten them either had he not been drinking!) Our service was great, even though we were sharing the upper level with a wedding party. Our waitress was quite attentive and friendly. For dinner I ordered more tacos! I had a mahi taco and a shark taco. They weren't as good as the ones I had earlier in the day at Roberto's, but they were sufficient and the atmosphere of the restaurant was just what we needed to start the night. Plus, it's right on the beach, so it would be easy to take a sandy stroll after if we wanted. When we asked the waitress (after eating the taco) what kind of shark it was, she told us it was thresher shark. I had expected her to say something like dogfish, not a shark that is on the threatened species list! I don't even know if dogfish are edible or tasty, but I do know that there are plenty out there! Apparently not so much for all three types of thresher sharks. Hopefully, she just gave me incorrect information, but then it appears even mako sharks are listed as vulnerable and those are eaten quite frequently in the US. I will definitely be doing my research to ensure I eat responsibly next time I'm in a seafood town. Sergej had the biggest plate of fried seafood I have ever seen and had no complaints about it other than he could barely finish it. All in all, a good dinner.

After dinner, we walked to Lighthouse Ice Cream & Yogurt where Sergej, Laura and Ben all tried ice cream sandwiches made with fresh waffles! I was far too full to partake in one, but they have four flavors of waffles and seemingly endless ice cream flavors. It smelled wonderful! I dipped into Ocean Beach Sweets across the street to try some quirky chocolates. I had gone in to try a chocolate-dipped jalapeno, but decided on a few smaller things instead and shared. I bought chocolate-covered bacon, chocolate with cayenne chili pepper, and a chocolate square topped with red pepper and sea salt. The store was amazing with giant gummy bears, a HUGE gummy worm, and chocolate-covered everything!

Sergej with his waffle ice cream sandwich.

Our last stop of the night in Ocean Beach was Pizza Port. It was CROWDED! But the atmosphere was fabulous. It's definitely not like anything we have in Denver. From the moment you get within sight of the building your nose fills with the aroma of fresh pizza. We were all so full, but damn that pizza smelled good! The seating is mostly extra long picnic tables with some bar-style seating inside and out. It has a very college/frat-like feel to it, but on that night it was fun! I probably wouldn't want to always go to such a loud, hectic environment, but it suited the night and our moods. We opted to just try the beer and it took me at least ten minutes to decide what to try. There were dozens to choose from and they were featuring sour and rare beers for beer week in addition to their regular offerings. The guy I ordered from gave me a sampler before I had to commit, which was fantastic. I ended up ordering the Sour Wench Blackberry Ale from Ballast Point Brewing Company in San Diego. It isn't one of their regularly brewed beers, but is a special that was done for San Diego Beer Week. Like the name implies, it tasted very much like sour blackberries. It definitely isn't for everyone, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I assume it isn't ordered by too many fellas!

After Pizza Port we caught a cab ride back to our hotel where we enjoyed nightcaps at an onsite piano bar called Albie's Beef Inn (the name alone makes me giggle.) We were born in the wrong decade to really belong in this establishment! The bar was full, it's just that it was full of senior citizens all looking at us as if we were aliens coming off our spaceship. The walls were covered with nude paintings, which makes for excellent conversation (especially after hearing the rumor that the two women featured in all of the paintings were the artist's daughters.) The people watching is even better. The coffee drinks are perfectly blended. My only realy complaint would be that the waitress didn't seem at all amused at our presence in what is clearly a "regulars" driven establishment. She took our orders and delivered our drinks just fine, but without anything resembling pleasantry. Still, we had fun gawking at the paintings and watching the regulars do their thing.

That first night in San Diego was the best sleep I had in weeks. I didn't have to break out my trusty ear plugs either! We were in bed early, ready to rest up for Saturday when we would be spending most of the day at the zoo. I'll post on that later!

EDIT: I found this entry from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Fisheries Service that states that the numbers of Thresher sharks off the coast of California are healthy and overfishing is not occuring. Phew!