Gettin' Outta Town - San Diego 2k19

The hubs asked me, hey, do you wanna get out of town the weekend of Nov. 16th?  We have nothing on the calendar.  Um.....ok.  And the planning began.  

Criteria:  1.  Warm.   2. Quick.  3. Maybe somewhere we've never been before.

Selection:  San Diego! 

And this song proceeded to play through my brain for the next 2 weeks:

I'm grabbin' my hat and coat.
I'm leavin' the cat a note.
Quick, call me a ferry-boat.
Gettin' out of town.

I'm shinin' my travelin' shoes.
Big scoop in the Daily News.
"Who's sayin' his toodle-oos?"
Gettin' out of town.

We're leavin' the boys in style.
We're linin' 'em up in file,
And givin' them each a smile,
Gettin' out of town.

Cares fly by. We're goin' bye, bye,
And we're shoutin', "Hoorah!"
Wings spredin' 'cause we're headin' for Hotcha
Hotcha-cha-cha

My neighbors are awful nice.
They promised to feed the mice.
Hey, Iceman! Don't need your ice.
Gettin' out of town.

Cares fly by. We're goin' bye, bye,
And we're shoutin', "Hoorah!"
Wings spredin' 'cause we're headin' for Hotcha
Hotcha-cha-cha
Hotcha-cha-cha

A new kind of company,
It's just magnetizin' me.
I'm footloose and fancy free.
Get
Gettin' out
Gettin' out of town!

And off we go!

Thursday:  A full work day. Grab suitcase. Get on the plane. 

Hotel front desk. This place was the cutest. I forgot to take more pictures.  The Rambler in Chula Vista.

DAY 1

So Chris planned himself an adventure to go snorkeling around the sea caves in La Jolla (pronounced "La Hoy-ya").  I was going to go with, not to snorkel (BRR!! and NOPE!!), but to hang in a coffee shop, which is of course one of my favorite activities.  We ended up deciding that the 4am wake-up call might be too much for me to handle, and I decided to sleep in and hang at the coffee shop at our hotel instead.  And Chris would come back to get me and then we would go explore La Jolla more.  This proved to be an excellent plan.  I ate a fantastic avocado toast breakfast and a honey latte at The Rambler.  And then wrote a glowing online review because I enjoyed myself so much.  I was definitely feeling beat-up after Thursday-work-dash-to-airport-fly-to-San-Diego activities.  The honey latte and then laying down in the sun at the hotel pool made me human again.  

Morning relaxation while Chris had an adventure. 

Tea + book + sun = love

Fun pool area 

Fire pit + jenga 

Coffee shop at the hotel. Loved this place. 

Happy place. 

A shot from Chris's Instagram video, adventures swimming with the sea lions.  

Chris arrived back at the hotel and excitedly told me about his adventures and then we hopped back in the car to go back to La Jolla.  I had a lunch spot picked out:  Galaxy Taco.  The tacos were delicious.  The beans and rice were the among the best I've ever had.  We were sitting in the sun AND there was an outdoor heater and my temperature could not have been more perfect.  Also, I noticed online that they do mezcal flights.  Ok, so mezcal has been an obsession of mine for a little bit.  

Mezcal (traditionally spelled mescal) is a Mexican distilled spirit that is made from the agave plant. Tequila is technically a mezcal, however, there are differences in production technique and in the types of agave used. ... It also tends to taste sweeter, or richer, than tequila.

https://acapulcos.net › mezcal-versus-tequila-whats-the-difference

AND, the reason I've been so interested is because in order for tequila to get its name, it only has to be 50% distilled agave plant.  The other 50% can be....whatever.  Fillers.  Additives.  Preservatives.  Junk.  But mezcal is 100% agave goodness.  And I find that very enticing and interesting.

So I asked the waitress if I could get a glass of it, preferably a half pour given that it was 11am and I don't drink very much in the first place anymore.  The bartender picked out a good introductory mezcal and sent it with a grapefruit chaser.  IT WAS SO GOOD.  Mezcal fan here.

Lunch at Galaxy Taco. 

After lunch, we went to the water front.  It was slow going because there were PINK PEOPLE EVERYWHERE.  There was some sort of breast cancer awareness event happening there.  But we walked on the sidewalk along the water and enjoyed the sun and each other's company.  It was divine.  And then we found the sea lions.  

Ok, so there's been an epidemic recently at my workplace, particularly around Halloween of this prank called "Fart Spray".  You can buy it at walmart for like $3.  Students have been spraying it everywhere.  Its super annoying.  And it doesn't even smell like farts.  It smells like sweaty feet and.....something else.   Well, I figured it out.  Sweaty Feet and Sea Lions.

They are sooooooo stinky.  I had read that this would happen.  All the La Jolla tourist sites talk about the unsettling smell of the sea lions.  But they are super cute and fun to look at.  However, Chris found out from his snorkeling buddy that the locals are becoming increasingly upset about the overpopulation of sea lions.  Some official organization has come in and protected the sea lions, helped heal the sick, etc.  Which has caused Darwin to step aside, and now they are overpopulated, unfortunately.  And they stink.  But they are cute.  And Chris loved swimming with them.

Smelly Sea Lions 

Beautiful La Jolla

After La Jolla, we hopped in the car and made our way to the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.  Its home to approximately 3,000 of our nation's rarest pine tree - Pinus Torrevava, which only grows here and on Santa Rosa Island off the coast near Santa Barbara.  The park preserves not only the trees, but also one of the last great salt marshes and waterfowl refuges in Southern California.  We hiked the Guy Fleming Trail, a .7 mile loop, which gave us stunning ocean views.  It was super peaceful and awesome.  It also reminded us of the hiking we did in Crete.

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve:  Guy Fleming Trail. 

Trail head

Ocean sparkles

View from the top

View from the top, other way. 

Our beautiful hike stimulated some great conversation.  This included how much we are resisting signing up for Disney+, how Star Wars indirectly ruined Game of Thrones and how I'm struggling to forgive it, various workplace bathroom courtesies, and how I didn't invent the "plop & flush".  Its already a thing.  Its called the courtesy flush.  Darn, I thought I invented it.   We also discussed what else we would be doing on this San Diego weekend adventure.  I started going down my list of options and mentioned that the Top Gun bar is here.  Oh yea, Chris declares we have to go see that.  So off we go!

After the Top Gun bar, we headed to Coronado Island to catch a view of the sunset.   We were also rewarded with a spectacular view of 4 fighter jets landing.   Then I grabbed a nap back at the hotel before dinner.  I picked out a place to eat in North Park, which is supposed to be hipster central and home to several breweries.  We went to a Japanese noodle place called Underbelly and it was totally delicious and hipster.  We had planned to visit a brewery or two, but ended up going back to the hotel.  Tired girl here!

Top Gun bar piano!

Fried pickles and drink

Sunset selfie

The tap handles at Underbelly.  Also, they had self-serve SPARKLING WATER.  WHAT?!?? Love....

🍜 = ❤️

DAY 2

Had a good night's rest and headed to the farmer's market in Little Italy.  Chris got brunch recommendations from my favorite barista at The Rambler's coffee house.  

Little Italy farmers market

Brunch at Breakfast Republic. 

Stuffing Hash. yum yum

After our humongous breakfast, we needed a walk.  So we walked to the San Diego library which has an outstanding building.  We took the elevator to the top and I found my happy place in the reading room.  We also walked by Petco Park, the baseball stadium.  There was (another) big cancer event happening there and we walked right on in and explored.  There was a live band and people on bicycles, and food, and tables set up right on the field.  It was neat.  

San Diego Central Public Library. Very cool architecture. 

library entrance

Top floor

reading room

ceiling of the reading room

Then we headed to the waterfront for the Maritime Museum.  It is a collection of ships and submarines that you can walk through and have been turned into museums.  

-Star of India Merchant Ship

-Foxtrot Soviet Submarine

-Berkley Steamboat

-USS Dolphin Research Submarine (I think this one was closed.  We only went inside one submarine.)

It was here that I started making a list of movies to watch.  Yesterday I added Top Gun to the list.  Today I added K-19: The Widowmaker, about a russian submarine.  Also, Thirteen Days, about JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis.  

I spontaneously became obsessed with the map of the globe.  Specifically, the area of the south pacific.  THERE IS SO MUCH SPACE THERE! (the Star of India sailed thru this part of the world).  ALL THIS WATER, that doesn't appear on the typical world map.  I'm convinced there's a conspiracy here.  Isn't the Bermuda Triangle out there?

Also to add to movie list:  the new Midway battle movie, after exploring the U.S.S. Midway, which was our next activity. (After a much needed coffee break.)

With it being so late in the day, we headed straight for the flight deck and found that a retirement ceremony had just concluded.  So Chris and I inconspicuously walked to the ceremony area and took pictures of Chris in front of the flags and had our own private retirement ceremony.  His last day in the army is Dec. 8th.  (30 years!)

Maritime Museum

Look at all that water!

USS Midway

big chains connected to the anchor

Our private (almost) retirement ceremony 

Ok, so there's that really cool statue of the two people kissing at the conclusion of World War II. We almost missed it. We didn’t even notice it from the Midway flight deck. We were distracted by the odd-looking trees.  I made us go back to go see it!

Time for dinner!  Headed back to Little Italy.  First we went to Ballast Point Brewery for a beer, and then we headed to Filippi's Pizza Grotto.  Unfortunately, there was a line around the block to get in there!  So we headed down the street to the food court instead and had sub-par but still yummy pizza. 

One final thing on our to-do list of actvities:   Tiki adventures!  I found a super secret hidden speakeasy tiki bar on the interwebs.  Earlier today, we drove by the restaurant/bar that it is supposedly hidden in.  So we went there, and looked around.  We tried all kinds of doors in the back restroom area, searching for it.  Then we finally found a little hostess station in a corner and put our name on the waiting list.  45 minutes to get in.  Considering we didn't have the required reservation, I'm grateful we got in at all!  SO EXCITING!  

We enjoyed the atmosphere and ordered drinks in the standing-room-only tiny room.  After awhile, a couple approached us and said they were leaving and would we like their table.  YES!!!  So we ordered another drink and giddily spied out another couple to give our table to when we decided to leave.  It was delightful fun.  To anyone who may not understand why this speakeasy experience was so delightful, here's an article to explain it, haha.

https://www.theonion.com/speakeasy-patrons-apparently-unaware-it-legal-to-go-to-1830496020

waiting to get in to the secret speakeasy tiki bar

Happily sipping my El Presidente drink.  (prohibition era cuban cocktail!)

palm tree with christmas ornaments

Chris had a FLOWER in his drink.

the walls

the bar.  The ceiling was awesome too, but it was too dark to get a good picture of that.

skulls in the entrance.  (occupancy 76)

cheers

Then Heather Slept.
Up and at 'em at the crack of dawn to go home!  We had a totally uneventful trip as far as travel arrangements go, until we arrived in KC.  We realized our bags had gotten left behind in Denver, due to the quick turn around to the next flight.  Somehow we were able to run across the airport, but our bags were not.  And guess who packed the car keys in her checked luggage.  Ooops.  We waited 2 more hours for our bags to show up so we could go home.  (And Screamed NO!!! when the baggage lady offered to ship the bags to our house.  haha....NO!  We need the bags so we can get the car keys.  Thank you.)

Ug.

Super fun weekend!