Last weekend the girlfriend and I headed down to San Diego. I had tickets to the Patriots-Chargers game and I figured we should make a weekend out of it. I’ve been to San Diego a few times before, but I usually found myself wandering around downtown or driving laps around Coronado. There was also that one time I went to Tijuana, got scared, and taxi’d it back to the border 30 minutes later. This time, base on the recommendation of some friends and some Twitter friends (It’s 2010 so they’re all just friends right?) I decided to stay in Pacific Beach, which turned out to be a great decision.
On our way down to San Diego, I remembered that there was a Five Guys Burgers and Fries in Carson. I had to stop in, mostly because it’s Obama-recommended fast food and he wouldn’t tell me to do anything that would give me a massive heart attack. Kate and I arrived at Five Guys around 10:50am, which is arguably too early for a burger, but we were in the neighborhood. We were apparently 10 minutes too early so we walked through the attached mall. I stopped into Old Navy but did not find anything I liked. I’m still amazed that SoCal clothing stores sell coats and flannel shirts, but hey. We walked the length of the mall and I bought a sweatband at some sporting goods store so I’ll look like Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro when I go out for runs now.
When we got back to Five Guys there was already a line of about 10 or so people. I thought this would prove to be a long unnecessary delay to our southbound trek, but this Five Guys staff was on fire. They flew through the line in what seemed like only a few minutes. I ordered a regular cheeseburger and cajun fries, Kate got the veggie sandwich. The fries were okay (we should have ordered the regular fries but I’m a spicy guy) but the burger was incredible. If I had a heart of steel I would eat that burger for lunch every day. (Note: I may consider eating there every day anyway which in turn will force me to get some sort of steel heart, which would then in turn allow me to eat at Five Guys every day, right?) By the way, remember these guys:
After our early lunch we continued down to Pacific Beach, anxious to see if our hotel would prove to be a good choice. I am pretty consistently let down by hotels that talk a good game online, but the Ocean Park Inn was great. The location was perfect for everything including wave-gazing, people watching, and walking to nearby bars, restaurants, 7/11, CVS, and Ralphs.
Interesting note about the Ocean Park Inn: They are smoking Nazis, and I mean Nazis in the best possible way (Note to self: Consider cutting out the Nazis comment.) They will charge you $250 dollars extra if they see you smoking on or around the premises. They make this very clear with friendly but stern instructions at the front desk, and signs all over the hotel. It’s great for a non-smoker like myself, and great for you too because it’s 2010 and you really shouldn’t be smoking anymore anyway.
The first thing we did after setting our bags down in the room was open our sliding door. I upgraded to the ocean front view because when it comes down to it, the only thing I really want to do is stare at the ocean all day. When I figure out how to make a living from this (besides being a lifeguard) I will pounce on that career path. The upgraded room brought the nightly price up to $239 which is a bit more than my usual highway offramp Holiday Inn Express budget, but pretty reasonable considering the price of other Pacific Beach hotels. When you open the doors at the Ocean Park Inn you hear the waves crashing and your heart rate immediately slows down letting your brain know it’s time to switch to vacation mode. This was our view:
We decided to take a walk down the Strand to get to know the area. There are lots of fun bars and cafes to check out along the way, and everyone seemed friendly enough. Also, everyone is tan in Pacific Beach. Some probably not by choice. I think I got a sunburn walking across the street to 7-11 the other day. Pacific Beach / Mission Beach is interesting because it’s a peninsula, on one side you have the Pacific Ocean, and on the other you have Sail Bay and Mission Bay. You can actually see from one coastline over to the other. It’s pretty great.
For lunch we headed to Joe’s Crab Shack because it’s usually safe to go to a chain restaurant when you don’t know the local places and also because I’m from Rhode Island and I haven’t been to a crab shack in forever. Plus, domestic drafts were $1.25 each during happy hour. When we got there I met a guy who was also from Rhode Island and was also in town to watch the Patriots game. We exchanged info and we told him we’d meet him in the parking lot to show those Chargers fans just how sloppy tailgating can get. After taking advantage of maybe 4 pints each and plate of shrimp we headed back to the hotel to listen to the waves and rest up before heading out later that night.
Later that night we headed over to the Pacific Beach Alehouse for some dinner. I was all ready to order a buffalo chicken salad until I saw one at the table next to us and changed my order to a burger. I ordered it well done and it came out pretty well done. Not the greatest burger I’ve ever had but this place was fun. The rooftop bar looked pretty cool but there was no seating available so we sat inside. We decided to make it an early Friday night so we headed back to the hotel and passed out pretty early.
Saturday morning we got up early, took advantage of the free continental breakfast (Includes: bagels, cereal, waffles, muffins, toast, coffee, and juices) and headed out to the San Diego Zoo. I’d been to the zoo once before but it’s easy to forget how huge it is. We spent 4 hours wandering around and somehow escaped without giving in to the zoo’s ridiculous beer stand prices ($9 for a bottle of Corona from what I remember.) Here’s a Polar Bear getting ready to eat a family of onlookers at the Polar Bear Plunge:
Kate and had I forgotten our Patriots jerseys at home which wasn’t a big deal until I saw Patriots fans EVERYWHERE in San Diego. I made it my mission to locate a Patriots or Red Sox hat before the game so I could represent my homeland at least a little. We headed into downtown San Diego to see if we could find any shops that would sell us any New England gear. We decided to stop off for lunch at Fred’s Mexican Cafe because 4 hours of walking around a zoo talking to animals without beer really takes its toll.
Black Bean Burrito and Mahi Mahi Tacos
After poking around all the shops near Petco Park, we headed to the Horton Plaza Mall and found a couple sporting goods stores. New Englanders had apparently already swarmed and taken some of the better hats so I added a 4th Red Sox hat to my collection. Why not. We were pretty tired at this point and I wanted to catch the UFC fight later that night so we headed back to the hotel to hang out for a bit.
After chillaxing (we’re not saying this anymore? Okay.) in the hotel I called a few local bars to find out who was showing the UFC fights. I made a list and then did some research online in an attempt to find the best drink deals. Some bars didn’t charge a cover but had crazy beer prices, others had decent beer prices and a cover. We decided on Miller’s Field which had a $5 cover and $5 beers served in 32 ounce Mason Jars. We had to wrestle our way upstairs through a mob of Phillies and Giants fans, and it was impossible to get the bartender’s attention (why there was only one bartender working during an insanely packed Saturday night I have no idea) but we waited it out because I knew it would start to clear out once the Giants finished off the Phillies (which they did.) As soon as the NLCS ended we were able to find a table in time to watch Brock Lesnar take on Cain Velasquez. If you caught that fight, you know how unbelievable it was. It ended so quickly Kate and I were left staring at our appetizers. I’d like to thank Cain Velasquez for making it an early night and saving us money and a hangover.
As I mentioned recently, Kate and I signed up for the 2011 LA Marathon. We’re following this training schedule which called for an 8 mile run Sunday morning. We headed out around 7:15am and started our run down the strand. Immediate Kate’s Nike+ crapped out on us leaving us with no idea how far we were running. My Nike+ died months ago and we’ve been using her’s ever since. We kept running figuring we could run for an hour and a half and that’d probably cover it. Then, Kate’s iPod locked up and we couldn’t tell what time it was. We asked a few people for the time and either they rounded off a little too much or their watches were fast because we ended up only doing 6.75. It was a really great run that included all of Pacific Beach and some of Balboa Park but thanks to Nike and our iPod issues we were under mileage. We’ll just tack that on to our next run, but come on Nike+, that is some poor quality.
When we got back to the hotel we packed up and got ready to head to Qualcomm Stadium to see the Patriots and Chargers. I read online that traffic can be bad so we left 2 hours before game time. Traffic was fine until we got to Friars Road which was backed up like crazy because San Diego drivers love blocking intersections after running yellow lights and because Qualcomm Stadium apparently doesn’t have enough parking spots to cover everyone that buys tickets. We had to drive around the neighborhood and attempt to find street parking which was insane. We finally found a spot at the Firehouse Brewing Company and they charged us $20 ($5 less than Qualcomm Stadium.)
Qualcomm Stadium kinda sucks. It’s a big, old, concrete slab located only a few inches from the sun. While it’s usually fun to drink a lot of beer and get really surly at football games, we had to drink waters in order to stay alive. How could I ever cheer for a team that tries to cook me for dinner, won’t allow me to park at their stadium, charges me $9 for a Miller Light, doesn’t have any TV monitors to look at when you’re in line for drinks or the Men’s room, and can barely get a mobile signal? Sure, Fenway Park is an old stadium but at least they had the sense to do some upgrades.
The Patriots won (of course) ((though just barely)) and we were able to get back onto the highway without experiencing too much traffic. Once we got around Long Beach we started to experience a little more traffic and an insane downpour of rain, which told us that we were almost back home in LA. (Well not the rain part, I don’t know what that was about.)
So yeah, Pacific Beach is awesome and I would like to move there immediately. If you’d like to donate to my PB Snark fund I will gladly snap photos of bouncy rollerblading ladies and share them with you. I will even treat you to $1.25 happy hour drafts at Joe’s. Thanks to the Ocean Park Inn, San Diego Zoo, Miller’s Field, that nice lady at CVS, and the people of Pacific Beach for making our weekend getaway a time to remember.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Glad your trip to SD was great, but just an FYI… whenever it comes to large crowds down there (baseball, football, Comic Con) I always take the trolley! You could have probably parked at Fashion Valley or in Old Town for free and taken the event trolley for peanuts! http://www.sdmts.com/trolley/trolley.asp
Oh nice, I will definitely try that next time. Thanks for the insider tip!
Patriots? Seioursly? I should have known ;)
I’ve never been to a five guys, but my mom loves the one by her in Connecticut.