San Diego, California

Last year at a charity silent auction our bid won round trip tickets for two to wherever American Airlines flew, to include Mexico and Canada. One would think that Alaska being one of the fifty US States would be included in the "wherever." Wrong! We could choose anywhere in Canada or Mexico, but they would not fly us to Anchorage! So Lee got her little head going and decided on San Diego.

I know, you are probably saying to yourselves, "why San Diego?" Well, a few reasons. One Lee had never been there, and two, San Diego touts one of the largest and best zoos in the world. Recently becoming docents at our local zoo, we figured it would be a great education for us. On the day of our flight we arose early. Have to be at our little po-dunk airport at least an hour and a half before we fly. I guess I really shouldn't dis our little airport, after all it has been renamed as the "Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport." Still, there are only twelve gates, so an hour and a half is a bit unrealistic, but rules are rules. Took all of like fifteen minutes to process in, check our bag, and get through screening. Now we have an hour and fifteen minutes to waste. At that hour the coffee shop and Burger King are the only eating places open. We board and the plane departs on time. Arrive DFW with plenty of time to grab a bite to eat before our flight leaves for San Diego. Our flight is boarded, everyone seated, flight attendants prepared the aircraft for takeoff. Now theres a good statement. From the cockpit the Captain announces, "flight attendants prepare the cabin for takeoff." Kinda gives the visual of flight attendants scurrying about, checking this and checking that; ensuring the aircraft is a-okay to make the flight! In actuality they walk down the aisle telling people to fasten their seal belts; put the seat backs in the upright position; announcing every two rows turn off all electronics, if it has an on/off switch, turn it off; and closing the overhead bins. I just have to add this, why do they give the safety briefing after the cabin is prepared for takeoff? The first part of the briefing is a demonstration of how to fasten your seat belt, you'd think this would be done prior to them telling you to fasten your seat belt! Just an observation. The cabin is secured and we ready to pull away from the gate. At that moment the Captain announces, "folks due to a storm, the airport has shut down ground operations, should be just a few minutes and we'll be on our way." An hour later we are told if there is no other lightening strikes within ten miles of the airport for the next fifteen minutes we'll get the go ahead to go. Damn, a lightening bolt pierces the sky. Another announcement informs us that if we desire to leave the aircraft we can; however, we will not be allowed back on this flight and will have to make arrangements for a later flight. About two hours and we are told we are pulling away from the gate, but there might be sixty to seventy planes ahead of us for take off! "Flight attendants ready the cabin," oops, wait, ground operations have been shut down once again. Yes we are still sitting on the plane at the gate. Finally, end hour three, we are given the go ahead. Kudos to our pilot, this guy is not waiting around. He pulls back from the gate and taxis his plane to the runway, we are in first place!!!! Off the ground and airborne, three hours and seven minutes later we are on the ground in San Diego. Cab to our hotel, the Hotel Solamar, a Kimpton hotel. Excellent staff, super room, perfect location, everything pretty perfect. The hotel is located a block from Petco Park, one and half miles to the USS Midway, and a block from restaurant avenue. We kinda threw our stuff in and headed out. Initially we were to be in SD at noon, however with the three hour delay and a three hour flight we are now approaching the seven o'clock hour. And we're starving!! Remember, not only did the delays mess us up, be we gained two in the process due to time zones. So to us it's like nine at night. The hotel staff tells us to walk one block and we'll find a plethora of restaurants. First stop "The Wine Bank," yes they have Jameson!!!! We are on Fifth Avenue in downtown San Diego. Oh my gosh, so many choices. Italian, Thai, Seafood, Steaks, Irish Pubs, Pizza places, you name it, it's on Fifth! Neat part, all the restaurants have a menu posted outside, so as we walk, we peruse menus. It all sounds and smells soooo good. We happen upon Croce's, a familiar name. This happens to be owned by the late Jim Croce's wife, who is also the Executive Chef. What the heck, we're hungry and the place looks quaint. We are seated. Memorabilia everywhere and music by Jim Croce fill the air. The menu was rather limited, but this is always good as we don't have many choices to ponder over. Our dining staff, Leslie, answered a few questions and we ordered. Lee opted for the Roasted Free Range Chicken while I ordered the Swordfish. Hey the worse that can happen is we stop for pizza on the way back to the hotel. Well, after spending five nights in San Diego, Lee and I both agree that Croce's was the best dinner meal we ate. A satisfying portion cooked to absolute perfection. On the way back to the hotel we had to stop at the Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop! Like after the meal at Croce's we needed something to eat. But it was chocolate, and theres always room for chocolate!!! Spent a day at the San Diego Zoo,

did not expect so many folks on a week day, found out SD has like six weeks of Spring break! Even though it was busy we had a ball. We were told a couple of hours would be ample enough time, five hours later we still had not seen everything. A good excuse to go back some day. Lee put her big girl panties on and gave in to a tram ride across the zoo grounds. I guess the ride lasted maybe fifteen minutes, Lee got to see a beautiful skyline, while I snapped pictures to get that aerial view effect. She is so afraid of heights! Dinner at "The Field." An Irish pub setting and were told most of the decor was brought over from an old Irish pub in Ireland. The food was well prepared and very healthy portions. Lee had pointed out all the beer they had on draught. On closer inspection, many of the tap handles were inverted Irish Whiskey bottles, mounted on the wall! They were set in a pourer which operated much like a drink dispenser at a fast food place. Basically the whiskey was on draught as well!!!!! On the way back to the hotel we bypassed the Ghirardelli shop; however, we did not make it past Heavenly Cupcake! This was a quaint little shop that specialized in, well, cupcakes. Lee bought two to bring back to the hotel for dessert later. More about Heavenly Cupcake to come. Next day we boarded a ferry for Coronado, about a fifteen minute ferry trip. Lee had read that we had to go to the Hotel Del Coronado, something about it being the oldest hotel and the tradition was to have a drink and render a toast to the hotel. The hotel is located fifteen minutes from the ferry landing. We chose to walk and turned left instead of right off the ferry. Little did we know we were following the bike trail. After walking for about an hour, we finally arrived at trails end. Hmmm, where the hell is this hotel? So we walked a bit more and finally ran into someone that told us the hotel was still like three miles away. Finally we arrived. Had a very nice lunch on the patio at the Sheerwater restaurant, very nice view, nice lunch and a good rest for our feet. After lunch we headed towards the ferry landing. Next ferry left at 3:30, we walked briskly, but decided we weren't going to make it. As the landing came into sight, to our delight the ferry was still there. We had like two minutes to make it. We literally ran the last block, and boarded the ferry right behind the ferry Captain, made it by "that much." I bet Lee and walked seventy-five miles in our five day stay, not counting the zoo or the museums. For dinner we chose the Ocean Room. Not bad at all. And again the portions were very large. Had these been restaurants at home, we could have taken "to go" boxes and would have had enough food for three more meals. Okay, your guess, where do think we stopped on the way back? If you said Heavenly Cupcake you would be correct! This time I got a cupcake as well and enjoyed it the following morning with coffee. As we were paying for our delights, the clerk handed Lee a little flyer, she explained from 4pm to 9pm the second Wednesday of each month they have a tasting. They create three new flavors and bake up mini cupcakes. When you arrive they give you the three mini cupcakes and a ballot. You try each one and rate them one, two, or three. The one that receives the most number one votes, is featured as a full sized cupcake of that flavor for a day. Last month, the Girl Scout Mint Cookie flavor won. The owner contacted a friend that had a daughter in the scouts and asked if he could buy some thin mint cookies. The friend said sure, how many, the cupcake guy says eight hundred dollars worth!!!!! Cool idea. Morning arrives. Big day ahead, USS Midway in the morning and a Padre's game at three-fifteen. The Midway is one and a half miles from the hotel, we walk both ways! The USS Midway was awesome, unbelievable of the role she played during and in US conflicts. After the Midway we headed to The Fish Market just a few blocks from the Midway. It truly is a fish market selling fresh fish daily. They also have two restaurants in the market. We decided to have lunch. All I can say is Yum-O. This was the best lunch we ate in SD. Lee opted for the freshly battered fried clam strips and I bet there must have been a pound of them.

I ordered a cup of New England style clam chowder and the fish tacos. The clam chowder was the best I have ever eaten, being a Massachusetts boy that says a lot; and the fish tacos were OMG good! On a schedule so we couldn't linger. Walked back to the hotel, rested fifteen minutes and it was off to the Padre's game where they were hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks. Luckily Petco Park is a block and a half from the hotel. Entered the park, bought, our now traditional, t-shirt and hat, and we were off to find our seats. Section 107, Row 16, Seats 22 & 23. Perfect seats right on the first base line. Had a traditional hot dog and beer around the seventh inning. Score, Padre's losing one to nothing. I suggest we leave to beat the crowd, not that we had anywhere to go. Lee suggests we wait until the eighth inning is over. Fine. Bottom of the eighth, Padre's put a guy on first, next batter gets up to the plate, first pitch he smacks a four hundred feet home run! Score two to one, Padre's go on to win their only game in the three game series!!!! Dinner tonight is at Ciros Pizza. Not the best pizza in the world, but pretty good and very reasonable price wise. They have a daily special two slices of pizza and a soft drink, $6.95; or two slices and a beer for $8, can't go wrong. After pizza, you guessed it, Heavenly Cupcake. Hey we have a duty tonight, we have to vote for the next featured flavor. The place is busy, well duh, free cupcakes! We make our way to the counter and we are given our three mini cupcakes. Flavors this night were, Banana Split, Neopolitan, and Orange Dreamsicle. Our first choice was the Banana Split. I think Lee would actually move to SD just for Heavenly Cupcake. We turned in our ballots, purchased our dessert and breakfast and headed back to the hotel for a restful night. Our last day. Wow how time flies when you walk a mile! Today we head to Balboa Park to enjoy a few of the museums. Our first stop is the Veterans museum that we find closed due to a broken water main, bummer. So we head to the Museum of Natural History. They have a Titanic exhibit celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the sinking. The Titanic was a bit disappointing, thought there would have been a few more historical accounts of that terrible evening. All in all it was okay for what was on display. Stopped at The Prado at Balboa Park for lunch. Not a bad little lunch. I had the turkey burger, had it not been for the avocado and jalapeño pepper it would not have had much taste. Lee had a chicken salad salad, fresh greens etc with a dollop of chicken salad. She also ordered the Sangria, my gosh, it was served in tumbler sized glass. After lunch it was off to the Museum of Man. Very neat place, many exhibits and very clean. I thought it was better than the Titanic. Overflowing in culture, we catch a cab and head back to the hotel. Need to pack, our flight is at eleven in the morning, but remember that two hour prior to flight time arrival requirement. Figure we can catch our breath a bit before we head to Little Italy for dinner. Dinner plans change, Lee decides she is too tired to trek through Little Italy, so we settle on a restaurant close to the hotel. We choose Lou & Mickey's. Second best dinner in SD. Again I ordered fish along with two half orders of sides, grilled asparagus and creamed corn; Lee ordered a roasted ravioli entree and shared the sides. The servings were more than ample. Lee's ravioli dish could have fed three adults and the half orders of sides would have been plenty to compliment the ravioli. Superb atmosphere, a very nice dinner to say the least. Tonight we skip Heavenly Cupcake:( A note must be made about the folks we met/ran into while in SD. We never encountered a rude person. Everyone was friendly and helpful. While dining at Lou & Mickey's a younger couple with two boys were seated next to us. We were seated in kind of a booth/table combination. So we were fairly close to the young family. Everyone nodded and said hello and exchanged some small talk. They were headed to the ball game after dinner. The usual exchange of "where are you from, do you eat here often etc" take place. They order. When their meal arrives, they display the same reaction we did, oh my goodness, that is a lot of food. The child's order of mac & cheese could have served a small army. I think one of the boys had a burger. The mother ordered something that was covered with a red sauce. I had to ask, chicken parmesan was the answer. First it looked delicious, second there was so much of it. She offered us a taste, we said thank you, but we are like stuffed. Next thing we know, the dad is passing a plate with silverware to us, saying there is plenty, please try it. Glad we did, it was so good. My point of the above, these folks were indicative of everyone we had met. Very few folks in Arkansas would be sharing their dinner with folks they just met. Our trip was wonderful, San Diego is on our list of places we need to return to. The flight back was uneventful and the comfort of our bed was well received! Photos are posted at this link: Click Here