San Diego!

 Spring Break! Adam's Birthday! Less Covid! San Diego!

I wanted to plan a secret trip for Adam's birthday on April 2nd, to somewhere warm and pleasant. I have some old friends in San Diego with a new baby, and it wasn't too expensive or too long of a flight, so we went!

 

Wednesday, March 30

Adam didn't know where we were going until we go to the airport on Wednesday morning. We had a short, uneventful flight to San Diego. Got a Lyft to our air bnb in the North Park neighborhood, just North of Balboa Park, and a couple blocks from Yaw and Helene. Yaw and I went to college together. 

We headed out for some lunch- Helene had provided a list of lots of good food within walking distance, so we started with Dunedin, a New Zealand restaurant. It was really cute, the sun was out, and they serve brunch until 2pm! I got a delicious breakfast sandwich croissant. 

We wandered along the shopping area for a bit, and discovered a used bookstore called Verbatim Books. It was amazing! It was so cool inside, and we spent probably 40 minutes in there and left with 3 books. 

We walked back to our place- the neighborhood of North Park is just beautiful. It has lovely homes, amazing plants, the yards are so cool. I stopped to chat with some people on the street and got a picture in front of their gorgeous bougainvillea. 

 

We rested for a while, our air bnb had a great patio to sit out on. In the afternoon, we explored the north end of the park, just walked around the part closest to us.

For dinner, we went back to the shopping area and got some pizza. It was getting chilly by now, and we hustled on home. We discovered that our place had a PlayStation and the game Portal 2, which is a puzzle game I've wanted to play for ages. We started a new game and spent some time solving levels with our helpful and not evil robot guide. 

Thursday, March 31

Today was chilly and cloudy. Yaw and Helene came by our place at 8, with their daughter Lexi on her scooter and Cora strapped to Helene. We walked to a restaurant called Breakfast Republic and had a terrific meal. I had a flight of pancakes- Churro, Lemon Coconut, and Strawberry Cheesecake flavored, and a scrambeled egg, and some of Adam's brussels sprout fried potatoes. He had an omelette and some of my pancakes. 

 

After breakfast, we went to the park with Yaw and fam. Lexi ran around, showing us the different features of the park, like drums you can (but are not supposed to) climb on. We headed back home for a bit, then went to Balboa Park.  

Lexi on drums!

Balboa Park is the coolest place. It's the main thing I wanted to visit while in San Diego. We wandered through the Spanish Village, which is a collection of small artist's studios/shops. We walked through Palm Canyon and the Alcazar garden, and had a snack outside the Japanese Friendship garden. Then we went to the Museum of Photographic Arts, and wandered through the exhibits there, including a juried exhibit from area students. 

 

When we were ready to go, we tried to use some electric scooters to scoot on home, but I was having problems making one work, so we walked. It's not too long of a walk, it's just down a canyon, so you really only want to walk down it, not up. 

We were pretty tired and took naps. In the late afternoon, we headed out to the North Park farmer's market, that our new friend with the bouganvillea had told us about. We got some snacks and then went to a bar called Pretzels and Pints- I had a pretzel and Adam had a pint. 

It was not warm, and I was not looking at the camera, despite being the one taking the photo.

Back home, we played some more Portal 2!

Friday, April 1

Today we slept in a bit, then took an Lyft to Mission Bay and got some breakfast at a coffee shop. We walked along the waterfront for bit, then we met Sara, our guide for a bicycle tour around Mission Bay. In my mind, I call her "eccentric Auntie Sara". She was probably around 65, and instead of saying "on your left!" approaching people, she would ring her bell for about 20 seconds straight and yell, "Good morning!! Thank you! Lovely Day! Have a nice day!" 

She took us along the bike path on the ocean in Pacific Beach and then in to Mission Bay. We biked along there for a while, which was very quiet and peaceful. The weather was great- sunny, a little breeze, not too hot. There was lots to look at on the ride, in the water, and vacation houses built alongside. We had a good time. We also got sunburned.  

 

After the bike ride we went to a beach bar and had some cold drinks and quesadilla. Then we took a walk along the beach. 

I had a Mango Margarita

 

Here's a conversation I'm sure happened: 

me: "I can't tell if it's going to stay sunny today. Are you bringing flip flops for after the bike ride? I can't decide if I want to haul mine around or not."

Adam: "no, I'm not bringing mine."

Here's a conversation I'm sure did not happen:

Adam: "Actually I'm bringing my flip flops."

In conclusion, I did not have flip flops for walking along the beach and Adam did. Hopefully he does not read this blog, he thinks both 'conversations' happened. So I went into a little shop near the beach and (Adam) bought (me) some flip flops, and I taught the term "flip flop" to the guy working in the shop who did not speak English but complimented my Spanish and was pretty baffled at "flip flop". 

 

 

The beach was nice! I understand why people like it, I think. We walked for a while, and we also saw several birds enjoying the surf. I wish we had chairs or blankets or towels or something, it was a lovely day to sit out at the beach, and there were not very many people there. But the weather had looked in the low 60s and iffy sunshine, so we just did not plan to spend time at the beach. 

 

 

After taking a Lyft home and taking showers and naps, we headed to the Harbor front area to have a fancier dinner. We went to Fish Market, which disappointing for few reasons. The food was only okay, and we didn't get a seat outside, which we had been hoping for but didn't think to ask for specifically. Dinner could have been better, but now we know. 

We did walk along the Harbor for a while, saw the Midway aircraft carrier which is just HUGE, and yachts and things. We walked to the Gaslamp district which is supposedly full of old buildings and interesting architecture, but on a Friday night there is really only one reason people go there: Alcohol, lots of it. It's now a party area, with tons of bars and clubs. The street was closed to cars, so it was kind of fun to walk along among all the people having fun. But it was very loud and crazy. We did not stay long.

Saturday, April 2

 

Adam's birthday! We thought we were really close to finishing Portal 2 on Friday night, but I fell asleep on the couch, so we didn't finish it. We had most of the day to do whatever we wanted, and so we started by playing Portal 2. Turns out, we were a long way from finishing it. We played for an hour or so, but definitely were not close to finishing. 

It was raining and cool, but we walked to Atypical Waffle Company for breakfast, after dropping our bags off at Yaw and Helene's house. It was fine. By this point we were pretty tired of eating out.

We took a Lyft to Balboa Park. On Saturdays, the international cottages are open- they have a bunch (30+) little cottages, each one run by a country, for example "Friends of Peru" runs the Peru cottage. They have volunteers to talk about their countries and answer questions, and lots of arts, crafts, books, and things on display. They often have food you can try for a donation, or activities to do. This Saturday was Scottish Tartan Day, so the Scotland cottage was extremely busy, and there were dozens of booths set up from different clans and things. We explored most of the cottages. I was still hungry, and wanted something not made of only sugar, so I left Adam to hold a spot for us to watch the bagpipe and dancing show and went back to the Scottish Cottage to buy a meat pie. I also secretly bought a piece of chocolate cake- for later! 

 

At the Wallace tent, they INSISTED we take photos with the sword and shield. So we did!

 

We shared the meat pie, which really hit the spot, and we watched the pipe band. But really, how much bagpiping is enough? For me, it was enough when he said, "our next number is..." and so we left. It was kind of misting, not really raining, and not unpleasant, so we decided to walk down to downtown and go to the Central Library to snag a letterbox there. 

 

 

 

It was kind of a long walk, but all downhill, straight down one street. The library was wonderful. We go our letter box, and sat and rested for a while in the Baseball Research Center. (?) Then we took a Lyft to Yaw and Helene's. 

 

At their house, we sat around the firepit, played with Lexi, and I got out the chocolate cake and birthday candles I had brought from Denver. We sang Happy Birthday to Adam, and between 4 adults and a 3 year old, we had plenty of cake (it was a very rich, quite large, slice). 

 

Laura and Cora

 

We said our goodbyes, and headed to the airport. A late, uneventful flight and we were home! Good trip overall!