San Diego, California

Statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo overlooking San Diego

When I got back to work this week, I had just about completed this reminiscing about San Diego, only to find out that two of my coworkers had ironically JUST returned from visiting there. Sorry that I couldn't have this out sooner for you guys.
There is a whole lot more to San Diego than just great weather and fantastic beaches; this is also a fascinating cultural center as well. Weather it's at the more than a dozen museums in the famed Balboa Park, or the lively music scene, there is a seemingly endless list of activities to take in. Paradoxically, San Diego gives a relaxed, quirky and easy going vibe wherever you go. It's a wonderful place to spend a vacation of any length.

THE SITES

Mission Beach

Mission Beach has everything you could want from a public beach; tons of space (to accommodate the crowds), stellar surfing, beautiful sand, cool beach bars, outdoor concert venue, and even a beachfront amusement park with an awesome wooden roller coaster! Also, Mission Boulevard is a very cool shopping district with tons of quaint little shops and eateries.

Cabrillo Tide Pools

Another beautiful ocean side place to explore is the Cabrillo Tide Pools. We got ourselves a picnic lunch from Point Loma Seafoods and trekked down to the tide pools. Unfortunately, on the day we were able to go, the tide wasn't going to be out until too late for us to see them (I would recommend checking a tide chart before you go), but it really didn't matter much as that the park was lovely all the same. After lunch we walked up to the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, and the Cabrillo Monument (dedicated to the Spanish explorer, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo who first discovered this area in 1542).

Street performers at Balboa Park

Young or old, Balboa Park has something for everybody. The city smartly put all of it's museums and it's world famous San Diego Zoo, all in one convenient area. You could probably spend the better part of a vacation just trying to make it through it all. The zoo is a full day all by itself. Their facilities are state of the art, and the exhibits are well laid out and well kept, it has certainly earned it's reputation as one of the finest zoos in the world.

San Diego Zoo

And while the San Diego Zoo may be it's most well known feature, it is definitely not the end of the attractions at Balboa Park. There are 14 museums, a performing arts center, a Japanese garden, as well as the San Diego Botanical Gardens there to be enjoyed (Personally I loved the Timkin Museum of Art, and the Museum of Man). For the best value to see it all, I recommend purchasing the Passport to Balboa Park which is well worth the money.

Shamu!

You can't make a trip to San Diego without seeing Shamu at Sea World! As fun as the exhibits and shows were, it was just as intriguing to learn about all of the research that Sea World is involved with. I for one am not afraid to admit that I totally nerd out at zoo's and aquariums, and Sea World is the absolute best one that I've been to. I wasn't so keen on the shows, unfortunately; they were of course more family oriented and not really geared toward my interests.
One fun bit that happened to us was trying to get photos of the dolphins jumping out of the water using my old camera. It had a terribly slow shutter delay and I had to try and time the dolphin's jumps (which was damn near impossible). Consequently, all my pictures were of the splash of the dolphin going back into the water after their jump. Without exaggeration I must have taken two dozen pictures of nothing but dolphin tail and splashing water. Ursa of course had her nice SLR camera which took gorgeous photos, and she makes sure to rub it in to this day. Grrrrrr. . .

Chambered Nautilus at Sea World 

One funny story about Ursa and I's visit to Sea World is that I kinda talked her into going on Journey to Atlantis (the roller coaster at the park) by downplaying just how bad it really was and despite knowing how terribly she really HATES roller coasters. I even tricked her into getting into the front seat for that extra bit of awesomeness! To make a long story short, have you ever noticed how in every pair of people who go on roller coasters, one is excited and one is terrified? Well that was pretty much how it was with us as well. . . I'm still in the doghouse over that one.

THE FOOD

Dinner at Old Venice Restaurant

My favorite neighborhood  for eateries in San Diego is in the Point Loma/Shelter Island area. There is a wonderful array of restaurants in this part of town, my personal favs are Old Venice Restaurant, as well as The Brigantine (try the cocktails at The Brigantine, they are fantastic). There is also a lot of wonderful dining to be found in the historic Gaslamp Quarter, try Croce's for lunch (it's also a very cool jazz bar).

Point Loma Seafoods

As I mentioned before, Point Loma Seafoods is a great place to pick out some fresh fish to take home and cook, or to fetch some goodies for lunch. You can either eat it there, at their tables that overlook a marina, or you can do what Ursa and I did which is take it to go for a nice picnic on the beach. Either way it's a lunchtastic place to hit.

Home Cooking

I've had delicious fish tacos in many different places, but like many things in life, your first impression with something is often the most lasting and the first time I ever ate a fish taco was at Taco Surf, a little Mexican take-out place near Pacific Beach. This recipe calls for red snapper, but to tell you the truth, I love red snapper on it's own so much that I usually don't have the heart to cook it in a recipe like this, so I'll typically substitute mahi mahi or some type of white fish.

Fish Tacos

1 1/2 cups shredded green cabbage
2 limes (1 cut into wedges)
1 1/2 Tbs salt (more to taste)
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 12 oz bottle dark beer
1 egg
Canola oil (for frying)
1 lb boneless, skinless, red snapper (cut into strips)
2 tsp chili powder
16 corn tortillas
1/4 red onion (thinly sliced or diced)
4 sprigs cilantro (chopped)
sour cream
Mexican hot sauce

In a bowl, combine cabbage and juice from 1 lime, season with salt (to taste); chill

In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 Tbs salt, 1 1/2 cups flour, cornstarch, beer, and egg to make batter.

Pour oil into 5 quart dutch oven, to a depth of 2 inches. Heat oil until thermometer reads 375 degrees. Sprinkle fish with chili powder and salt. Put remaining flour on a plate and dredge fish in flour; shake off excess. Working in batches, dip fish in batter and fry until crisp (about 3 minutes). Transfer fish to sheet pan (keep warm in 200 degree oven until ready to serve)

To serve: layer 2 tortillas together and fill with fish and cabbage and squeeze with lime wedge. Garnish with onion, cilantro, sour cream, and hot sauce.


THE TUNES

Chris Duarte at Humphrey's Backstage

While in San Diego we had the good fortune to see the incredible Chris Duarte uncork a blistering set of guitar pyrotechnics at  Humphrey's Backstage in Point Loma. Chris was touring with Bluestone, rather than Chris Duarte Group, but still played most of his standards such as "My Way Down". To see such a phenomenal guitarist in such a small (but lovely) venue was a rare privilege.

Belly Up

Another good place to see live music is at the Belly Up in Solana Beach, which Rolling Stone Magazine listed as "one of the hottest clubs on the west coast." We got a chance to see Dinosaur Jr play at the Belly Up and it was great. The venue was well set up with two bars (making drinks easy to come by) and a VIP balcony off to the side of the stage. The show was cool as well, Dinosaur Jr was interviewed on stage by the legendary Henry Rollins before they took the stage.
Also the Gaslamp Quarter is renowned for live music and it's nightlife. And speaking of nightlife, in college I vaguely recall a particularly epic night at Moondoggies while on a road trip to an ultimate frisbee tournament. Great place to tie one on! Just sayin'.

"Stay classy San Diego"
        -Ron Burgundy