San Diego - Day 2 - March 14th

I forgot to mention in my last San Diego post that Ben and I have been there before - we went to visit Becca and Joe back in October of 2006 (thank you Gmail search feature for letting me know that since apparently my camera dates were off). While we hit some sites that time, we didn't actually see a ton of San Diego because we flew in and out of the John Wayne airport, and spent a night in LA visiting our friends Maria and Nic. There were a few repeats on this trip, but actually not too many, and there's definitely still more that I didn't do on either trip! The last time I went, I wasn't too enamored with the city, largely due to the rainy weather we encountered (which "never happens!!!" according to Becca ;) during much of the time we were actually in the city of San Diego. After this visit in the sunshine, I think I'd even go back, although 4 visits to southern California in the past 5 years is probably enough for me for a long while.

The next morning, Monday, I heard Lori get up and leave to go running. A little while later I heard Erin's alarm go off a few times, and decided I should probably think about waking up myself. I must have been sleeping pretty hard, because I didn't even hear Nick leave to go golfing at 6am at all! Erin got up and ready and was off to work - sadly, no vacation time for her!

After Lori got back and both of us were showered and ready, we headed out to The Mission SoMa for breakfast per Erin's recommendation. We first stopped at the grocery store so I could get some sunscreen since my sunburn was pretty bad - it ended up peeling even - yikes! We both decided on pancakes - Lori got banana oatmeal, and I got blackberry banana. These were divine! There was a fruit puree around the edges of the plate that was delicious as well. I would HIGHLY recommend this place for breakfast - it was packed even on a Monday morning!

After we ate our fill of the pancakes, I mapped our route up to Balboa Park on my trusty iPhone and we set out. It was a pretty boring walk through downtown, and I was actually feeling hot by the time we finally made it, even just in my tank top. It was probably only 65 but seemed pretty toasty. We finally made it to the park and walked around, checking out the amphitheater and some of the beautiful buildings. We saw a family photo shoot, as well as a random woman doing yoga in the roots of a tree... odd. We were walking around when all the sudden a 20-something woman approached me and asked if we'd take surveys for $5 - I was skeptical but she seemed legit and said it was for school, so I said sure. Both of us doing a survey would help pay for the taxi we wanted to take later anyway! It took us about 5 minutes and was about our understanding of Health Care Attendants - thrilling stuff!

Just checking twitter. Nice sunburn, huh?

We really barely scratched the surface of this huge park (which even has an iPhone app), but by this point it was nearly noon and we had more on our agenda before Jacquelyn was done with school at 3pm. We asked the survey woman for a recommendation on where to find a taxi, she gave us a phone number (444-4444) and then told us which direction to leave for our best luck. While we saw a few while wandering around the streets in downtown San Diego, none were successfully flagged down. Finally I just called the number, and learned that I could just TEXT my address to get a cab! AWESOME. The company is GoFastCab and I can't wait til they come to Minneapolis/St. Paul! Anyway, I texted and a cab came in 5 minutes and we were on our way to Hotel del Coronado! The cab driver was a little dense and didn't KNOW where the hotel was (which is odd since to my knowledge it is the most famous hotel in the city) but we managed to make it.

A lovely shot I got in the cab across the cool bridge to Coronado Island

I wouldn't turn my nose up at this house

We walked to the beach behind the hotel, which is absolutely huge and wide. This was one place I did go briefly on my last visit, but this time the beach seemed even more vast - probably the widest beach I've ever been on for sure! We basically walked around for awhile and then walked through the grounds of Hotel del Coronado to get to a Mexican restaurant that someone recommended to Lori that is across the street.

A pirate ship?!

This water was straight up freezing

These girls were doing a little yoga

There were tons of gardens around the hotel

Thanks, again, to the iPhone, we were able to locate Miguel's and sat out on the patio. We pretty quickly ordered drinks and got what basically amounted to virgin pina coladas which hit the spot. I know from previous experience that any time I try to drink during the day, I just want to go to bed at 5pm. The server also brought out chips and queso, which immediately made this the best restaurant ever to me. We decided to order the appetizer sampler so we didn't have to make any decisions and managed to finish quite a bit of it! I was pretty beat by this point, so requested some relaxation time after checking out the hotel.

We walked back to the hotel and looked at a bunch of the shops because Lori wanted some flip flops - her new shoes had given her blisters. Sadly, all of the shops were a little too fancy for us - the cheapest flip flops were like $20. We then ventured back on to the beach and set out to read our books. It had gotten a bit chilly and was pretty windy at this point, but it was still nice to be in the sun by the ocean, that's for sure! I was surprised to see people prancing around in bikinis - I was practically cold in jeans, tank top and cardigan so I'm not quite sure how they weren't freezing. We heard from Jacquelyn that she was finishing up at school, and soon she was on her way to pick us up.

It was weirdly dark in there - definitely not what I expected at all!

We headed over to Ocean Beach, Jacquelyn's first home in San Diego. We all wanted to get our nails did, but there was a bit of a wait so we ran some errands with Jacquelyn and found Lori some cheap flip flops at a store called Closet that was super cheap and was kind of like H&M only a little less trendy. We then went back to the nail salon - Lori and I got pedicures and Jacquelyn got a manicure. My pedicure was much needed, and I probably should have gotten one earlier so I could have shown it off for longer than one night! We were there for quite awhile, there were a few people getting pedicures at the same time so we all kind of went in stages. I read my book while in the massaging chair so the wait was a-ok by me.

Newport Ave before pedicure

Newport Ave after pedicure

The sun was on it's descent by the time we left, so we headed down to the pier (the longest concrete pier on the west coast) to watch. Surfers were still out, and I got some of my favorite photos from the entire trip. We also went over to the cliffs on the side of the pier to finish off the sunset. It was a beautiful sunset, and I did see a flash right as the sun finally set into the ocean.

Favorite photo from the entire trip! I had to actually use the live view for this one and hold the camera above my head to get the sun to shine through the letters. I love it.

By this point, Erin was finally done with work and was meeting us at South Beach Bar (warning! music on website! argh) for fish tacos, my other San Diego requirement. We found a table in their recently opened upstairs, which had a great view for the last minutes of dusk. It was much more open than the crowded downstairs bar area, where I actually ate on our last trip to San Diego, judging by the similarity of this photo to the meal I ate this time. I got one wahoo taco (grilled), and one baja fish (fried), with beans. I thought it came with rice too, but apparently not this time. These are the best fish tacos I've had (not that I've had many) and it's a fun spot. Cash only, so be prepared! It was a great way to end our trip.

iPhone again - wasn't really into the food photos on this trip I guess

A NOT so great way to end the trip was being forced to watch the season finale of the Bachelor back at Erin's apartment :) ha - just kidding, obviously I didn't care that much since I really just fell asleep on the couch because it was sooo boring. Even I, who watched zero episodes, could tell he was going to pick Emily.

The next morning, we didn't have time to actually go to a real restaurant for breakfast before our flight because it took too long for everyone to get ready, so we just grabbed coffee and pastries at Starbucks before texting for a cab to the airport - our flight left on time with no issues whatsoever, and then we were back in cold snowy Minnesota around 5pm on Tuesday! It was a great time, thanks to Erin for hosting us, Jacquelyn for showing us around and hanging out, and Lori for being an awesome travel partner yet again!

iPhone pic from my window seat